Part 44 (1/2)
He arrived at Blumberg's office and was shown in and given coffee, while Marc finished a meeting in his conference room. Shortly, the lawyer came into his office and sat down at his desk.
”So,” said Stone, ”what's your plan? Who are we going to call?”
”n.o.body,” Marc replied. ”That's my plan.”
”Come again?”
”My plan is to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses to within an inch of their lives. After all, it's they who have to make a case, not we.”
”You don't think we ought to try?” Stone asked doubtfully.
”Let me ask you something, Stone: Can we prove Arrington didn't shoot Vance?”
”Maybe not.”
”If we could prove she didn't do it, we'd be home free, but we can't. So we're going to have to cast so much doubt on the prosecution's case that the judge will throw it out.”
”And how are we going to do that?” Stone asked.
”I know Beverly Walters better than you,” Marc replied.
”How well, Marc?”
”Well enough, trust me.”
”All right, I'll trust you.”
”Have you got any other ideas about how we might proceed?”
Stone took a deep breath. ”I think we ought to call Felipe Cordova.”
”I thought he was lost in darkest Mexico.”
”He was, but he's back in L.A. Brandy Garcia gave me a heads up.”
”Doesn't it bother you that the prosecution would call Cordova, if they knew what we knew about his actions that night?”
”No.”
”Stone, we're going to have Beverly Walters on the stand saying she saw Arrington shoot Vance, while Arrington doesn't remember what what she did or didn't do. Cordova is just going to back up Beverly's story, isn't he?” she did or didn't do. Cordova is just going to back up Beverly's story, isn't he?”
”I don't think so,” Stone said.
”And why not?”
”A couple of reasons. First, Vanessa Pike told me she drove Beverly to the Calder house, and that Beverly saw what happened from the rear of the house, at the doors to the pool.”
”Wait a minute. What Vanessa told you was that she drove somebody somebody to Vance's; she didn't say who.” to Vance's; she didn't say who.”
”But we know it was Beverly.”
”How do we know that?”
”Because Charlene Joiner says that the two of them left her house together that evening, after a day lying around the pool.”
”At what time?”
”At just about the time it would have taken for them to drive to the Calder house and arrive at the time Vance was being shot.”
”Will Charlene testify to that?”
”Yes, to that and more.”
”What else?”
”She'll testify that Beverly was wearing a terrycloth robe over a bathing suit when she left her house.”
”So?”
”Cordova says he saw a woman next to Vance's body, and she was wearing a terrycloth robe.”
”Did he see her face?”
”No.”
”Then it could have been Arrington.”
”Arrington doesn't wear terrycloth robes. She likes plain cotton or silk.”
”Can we prove that?”
”We can call her maid, who would know her wardrobe intimately, and who got her out of the tub and into a robe.”
”I like it,” Blumberg said. ”But how are we going to put Beverly in the house?”
”I think she'll admit being outside, and it's a short step from the back door into the hallway where Vance died. And there's this, Marc: I'd be willing to bet that Cordova is not mentioned in Beverly's story, because she didn't see him.”
”Yeah, but can Cordova prove he was there?”
”The police can; they've got a photograph of his shoeprint.”
”But you have the shoe.”
”Yes, it's in the trunk of my car. I bought the shoes from Cordova in Mexico.”