Time of Departure Read Free Page B

one, and held it up for the judge to see.
    â€œThe witness will be tendering this surveillance footage of the defendant, showing her working in her backyard, mowing her lawn, moving garden furniture, and weeding her flower beds. This footage was shot over a forty-eight-hour period—” I paused for effect. “—last weekend.”
    I heard a general intake of breath and a few muttered expletives from the gallery rows directly behind me, where a number of the defendant’s former employees had been hanging on every word. For several years prior to her arrest, their employer had been embezzling from their pension plan contributions. Some had lost thousands of dollars.
    I glanced over at Stirling McCandless. His face had gone pale under his health-spa tan, and he looked genuinely stunned. I realized that he had been completely taken in by his client. I shifted my gaze to the woman in the wheelchair. She was glowering at me, obviously torn between maintaining her tragic pose and leaping out of her chair to go for my throat. I placed the second DVD on the corner of my counsel table. “I have a copy of the exhibit for Mr. McCandless.”
    At my comment, McCandless seemed to recover. He came out fighting. “Your Honor, these tactics are an outrage! My client—!”
    â€œâ€”had already entered her guilty pleas when this surveillance took place. Her status before the Court had changed. Ms. Talbot’s conduct would be open to criticism only if it were unlawful. Tell me how it was unlawful.”
    â€œShe’s had this evidence for a week! We have had no notice—none!—and therefore we have had no opportunity to study it, or to obtain medical evidence to … to assist the Court.”
    I waited quietly. I knew the judge would come back to me.
    He did.
    â€œMs. Talbot, Counsel does have a point. Am I to understand that you arranged for your investigator to place the defendant under intrusive surveillance in her own backyard, that you obtained the proffered evidence one week ago, and that you have been sitting on it until today?”
    â€œNo, Your Honor.”
    â€œNo to what?
    â€œNo to each of your questions.”
    Judge O’Connor leaned forward. “Ms. Talbot, please don’t play word games with the Court.”
    â€œPermit me to explain, Your Honor. Our office did not arrange for this surveillance. We first learned it had taken place at six o’clock last evening, when an insurance adjuster attended at our offices and briefed Mr. Carlyle. The surveillance on this DVD was conducted by a private investigator retained by the insurer of the other driver involved in the defendant’s automobile accident. The attorney representing Mrs. Hauser in that action—not Mr. McCandless—has submitted a very substantial claim. The surveillance was conducted from a neighbor’s property. The neighbor, we have been told, was only too ready to assist. Therefore, as a result of Mrs. Hauser’s own actions in separate proceedings, the State is today in a position to refute her claim that her ‘disability’ should exempt her from a prison sentence.”
    McCandless interjected. “Your Honor, the prosecutor told us she wants to call Mr. Carlyle to the stand. In light of what we just heard, clearly he is not a proper witness to place the DVD into evidence. For all we know, this footage is a year old and entirely unrelated to my client’s civil claim! Only the investigator who recorded the footage could prove otherwise. Why isn’t he here?”
    The judge looked at me.
    â€œThe investigator is currently working on a foreign assignment. We understand he is in Germany. His firm expects him back by the end of the month.” I held up the DVD. “The identity of the subject of this footage is self-evident, and every frame is date stamped.”
    McCandless protested. “Date stamping can be faked, Your Honor!”
    â€œI think