The 17th Suspect (Women's Murder Club #17)(32)

“What more can I say? I think you’re a nice girl, but you’re a loser.”

Briana Hill came out of the ladies’ room into the corridor. She called out to Giftos and he called back, “I’m coming.” To Yuki he said, “You should really go back to that pro bono law firm. What is it called? The Defense League?”

Yuki stopped walking and Giftos stopped, too. He towered above her.

She stared up at him and said, “Sounds to me like my opening really freaked you out, James. You’re showing your own underbelly, you know. And I will run the sword through.”

“Sure you will. Be careful not to cut yourself.”

James Giftos was laughing as he turned and walked back to his client.





CHAPTER 47


ARTHUR BARON QUESTIONED the prosecution’s next witness, Frank Pilotte, the SFPD’s IT specialist who testified that the video recording had not been altered.

James Giftos had no questions for Pilotte, and he also had no challenges for the prosecution’s next witness, a seasoned psychologist and author who had well-established credentials in the emotional effects of rape on the victim.

And then Yuki called Paul Yates to the stand. From the first moment Yates twitched, sweat, and was pretty much a steaming-hot mess.

Responding to Yuki’s questions, Yates replied that he worked at the Ad Shop as a copywriter, that when his creative group shot a commercial, Briana Hill, as head of production, was in charge.

Yuki asked, “Did you ever have a social relationship with the defendant?”

“I wouldn’t call it a relationship. We went out once.”

“Please tell the court about that date, Mr. Yates.”

He sighed, then said, “I took Briana to a Chinese restaurant after work. It wasn’t a fancy place. She seemed to like me. We weren’t far from my apartment. I asked her, ‘Do you want to come back to my place and hang out for a while?’ I thought she’d say, ‘No way.’ She said, ‘Sure.’”

“Please go on.”

Yates said, “We started making out on my couch, but I felt like it was all happening too fast. I didn’t know her very well. I started thinking what it would mean to have sex with her and how I would handle that at the office. I was in my head too much. I didn’t think I could do it if I tried. So I kind of patted her back and told her, ‘Sorry, no offense or anything, I have an early morning meeting.’”

“How did she take that?”

“She got mad. She leapt off the couch in a huff, and when I looked up, she had pulled her gun out of her purse. She dropped her purse and showed me her other hand. It was clenched, like this.”

Giftos shouted, “Sidebar, Your Honor.”

“Approach,” said Rathburn, waving them in toward the bench.

When both legal teams were standing before him, Giftos said in a voice thrumming with barely controlled anger, “Judge Rathburn. Evidence of an uncharged crime is prejudicial and should not be allowed.”

“Ms. Castellano?”

“Your Honor, Mr. Yates didn’t go to the police out of fear of retribution by the defendant. But his testimony about the gun shows her pattern of abuse. The jurors have a right to hear what the witness has to say.”

Rathburn asked, “You deposed the witness, Mr. Giftos?”

“He wasn’t forthcoming.”

“Well, I think this is a question of weight versus admissibility. I’m going to allow the testimony, Mr. Giftos. It’s admissible and you can cross-examine as to its weight.”

When James Giftos returned to his counsel table, his face was stormy.

Yuki remained standing near the witness box, keeping her elation under wraps. She’d won the very valuable point, the admission of Paul Yates’s testimony. But she’d also seen that Yates was high strung. Even now he looked ready to bolt for the exit. She asked him if he needed to take a short break.

“No. I’m okay.”

Yuki nodded and asked, “Do you remember what you were feeling when the defendant pointed her gun at you?”

“Terror,” said Yates. “Stark terror. It was the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced. I froze. I could hardly hear what she was saying. My mind was jumping all over the place. The phone. The door. Pop her in the face with my fist. Was she jerking my chain or was she totally psycho? Fuck. I didn’t know what to do. She told me to take off my pants. At the moment that seemed like the best thing to do.”

“Did you take off your pants, Mr. Yates?”

“I dropped them to the floor.”

“What did the defendant say to you, Mr. Yates?”

“She said something like ‘We’re going to, you know, fuck.’ And then she opened her hand and showed me the two blue pills. It was Viagra. She told me to take the pills. I said, ‘Sure,’ and as she held them out, I took a chance and batted her gun away. When she went after it, I pulled up my pants and ran out the door.”

“And what happened after that?” Yuki asked.

“I went down to the basement, where I stayed until I thought it was safe to come out.”

“Paul. Is the woman who assaulted you in this courtroom?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Please point her out for the jury.”