Splitsville, page 21
“Yes. Exactly. Thank you, sir. No more questions.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Much as Kenzi hated to let Michael’s testimony end on such a dramatic note, she couldn’t think of a good reason to keep him any longer. He wasn’t going to admit he was lying and she wasn’t likely to get a sudden confession. Best to get that man off the stand as quickly as possible.
“Your honor,” Harrington announced, “we need to make a change to the schedule we submitted earlier. We want to call someone different for our final witness.”
Kenzi stood, already concerned. “I haven’t heard anything about this.”
“This witness is on our list and the defense has had full access to her and all our documents concerning her. We were not planning to call her. But now, due to recent developments…we’ve changed our plan.”
Her? Who was he talking about?
“As long as she’s on the witness list, I see no problem,” Judge Foreman replied. “Please proceed.”
Harrington nodded. “The State calls Candy Trussell.”
Maya looked shellshocked. Her lips parted but no sounds emerged.
Kenzi and Emma exchanged a worried look. They had both heard Candy pledge her undying support to Maya. And now the prosecution was calling her to the witness stand?
This could not be good news…
Despite the circumstances, Candy looked good. She sported a new straight-locks hairstyle. Her outfit looked new. And rather expensive, for a yoga instructor.
“Ms. Trussell, the jury has already heard about the defendant’s membership in the organization called Hexitel. Have you been a member of that group?”
“Yes.”
“Are you still?”
“No.”
Maya’s eyes bulged. Kenzi nudged her. No reaction, remember?
“We’ve heard talk about Hexitel assigning the defendant a wife. Do you know anything about that?”
“Of course. I was her wife.”
That got the jury’s attention. As Hailee would say, this thing just got real.
“What is entailed in…being another member’s wife?”
“Let me make one thing clear up front. It’s not about sex. I’m not a lesbian, and so far as I know, neither is Maya. But we could all use a good friend, right?”
“Hexitel didn’t call you her friend. They called you her wife.”
“Right. Not the word I would’ve chosen. But they want to make the point that this isn’t just another come-and-go friendship. This is supposed to be permanent. Something that endures.”
Okay, Kenzi thought, so far I can live with this. She’s being reasonable. Not trashing Maya. We’ll survive this, if it doesn’t get any worse.
But of course, it did.
“What did you do in your capacity as the defendant’s wife?”
“We went out for coffee. Got dinner. Maya was busy with her work, so there wasn’t all that much time for socializing.”
“Her husband said you came by the home to see the defendant and their daughter.”
“That’s true. But I wasn’t proselytizing. Brittany was the one who initiated the conversation. She’d heard her father denouncing Mommy’s religion so she understandably wanted to know more about it. At no time did Maya or I suggest that Brittany should join the group. She’s much too young to make decisions of that nature. Michael barged in and created a scene, but his description of what happened was wildly exaggerated.”
“At the time that you met the child, were you a fully-fledged member of Hexitel?”
“Yes. Hexitel was providing what I needed. A support group. A faith worth believing in. And genuine executive training. Under Patricia Clare’s guidance, they’re building the next generation of leaders, a generation dominated by women. You know, they have over 6,000 members nationwide. They dramatically improved my business and communication skills. I’m planning to build my own business, and believe me, before Hexitel that would have been completely impossible.”
“Were you concerned about the financial aspects of membership?”
“Frankly, yes. I couldn’t afford the fees. I thought it should get less expensive with time, but instead, it gets worse and worse until you transition from servant to master—if you do.”
“That must have raised some concerns.”
“I was grateful to be included. I think they recruit the best and the brightest for a good reason. They needed people able to pay the fees. But it’s an investment. You need to have some skin in the game before you start taking it seriously.”
“Were you able to pay the fees?”
“Not at first. It’s kind of a pyramid scheme, I suppose. Like Amway on steroids. I told them I had money issues and they made accommodations. That’s how I got the wife assignment, actually. I took on additional duties instead of paying additional money. But I started to feel pressure. What I’ve heard people call coercive control. When I couldn’t keep up with the payments, they expected me to do more to compensate.”
“Sexual favors?”
“Never.”
“Witchcraft?”
Candy sighed. “I suspected you’d want to hear about that. Yes, there is talk in Hexitel about witchcraft. Sexual magic. But that too is another form of female empowerment.”
“So you weren’t…” Harrington waved his hands in the air. “Casting spells. Raising demons from hell.”
“No, of course not.” She giggled a little.
“We’ve heard a witness talk about orgies. Spanking.”
“I never saw any orgies, and given that the organization’s membership is all female, I think that rather unlikely. The NXIVM cult went down because of sex trafficking charges. I think Hexitel has made a point of staying away from any activitites that could be considered sexual in nature.”
“And the spanking?”
“The spanking is real. I’ve participated in that.”
The discomfort in the jury box was evident.
“Yes, we took a few on the bottom, but it wasn’t because it was a turn-on. It’s about submission. Accepting that you’re an entry-level servant. You submit to your mentor. That’s how you learn. And that’s how you gain the knowledge and strength that, one day, will allow you to rise in the ranks. The servant becomes the master.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we had neither servants nor masters?”
Candy shrugged. “The Christian Bible uses the same kind of language. The ancient Jews were slaves in Egypt, and then after they took Canaan, they kept slaves. Jesus is the King of Kings. And we are His subjects.”
Harrington gave the jury some side-eye. “You’re suggesting that Christianity is just like Hexitel?”
“Religion is about faith. Nothing can be proved, so religious beliefs are easy to ridicule. The world would be a better place if we stopped fighting and let everyone else be who they want to be. Stop expecting everyone in the world to be a mirror of ourselves.”
Harrington paused a moment. “Ms. Trussell, I must compliment you. You’re doing a fine job of defending Hexitel, something I would’ve thought impossible. But didn’t you say you recently quit the organization?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Kenzi braced herself. Here it came.
“I visited Maya once. I mean, since she’s been incarcerated.”
Kenzi felt the short hairs rise on the back of her neck.
“I just wanted to check on her,” Candy continued. “Make sure she was okay. I wasn’t trying to get information. I had no reason to do that. But after I heard what she said…I had to contact the district attorney.” She reached out toward Maya. “I don’t want to hurt you, honey. I still—” She stopped short. “But I couldn’t keep this secret. It isn’t right.”
Kenzi divided her attention between the witness, the jury, and her client. She didn’t like what she saw in any of those faces.
“We thank you for your honesty,” Harrington said, “and your sense of duty. What is it the defendant said to you?”
“At first we just chatted. She seemed glad to see me. She asked if I had any news about Brittany, which unfortunately, I did not.”
“And then?”
“Eventually I got around to the charges that landed her in jail. I wasn’t trying to pry a confession out of her. But I was curious, of course. I mean, we were supposed to be bonded for life. I needed to know whether she’d done anything I should be worried about. And that’s when she told me about the quest.”
Harrington arched an eyebrow. “Like her husband Michael testified. Hexitel gave her an…assignment.”
“She had an assignment but it wasn’t from Hexitel. Hexitel preaches a message of love and empowerment. It would never do anything like this.”
“Then why quit?”
She seemed to struggle for an answer. “I just decided I needed a break from religion for a while. But somebody else got to Maya. Maybe another religious group. She didn’t give me their name, but they pushed her to steal some kind of research. She didn’t specify what it was and I probably wouldn’t have understood it if she did. Maya tried to steal it and she got caught. Then fired. According to her, it was a holy battle. She said, ‘I could not let my sisters down.’”
“Did she say anything else?”
“Yes. She said the sinners would be purged by fire. And the offenses they committed would be avenged.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes. I looked her in the eye and said, ‘Maya. This is your wife talking. Your eternity partner. I want to know the truth. Did you kill your boss?’”
“And what was her reply?”
“She stared at me, and this creepy thin smile spread across her face. She said, ‘It was a holy deed. It was an act of righteousness.’ So I kept pushing. ‘Maya, what does that mean?’”
“And her answer?”
Candy shuddered. “She whispered, ‘I have loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword.’ I pleaded with her. ‘Maya, did you murder Maggie Price?’
“And Maya replied, ‘It wasn’t a murder. It was a ritual sacrifice.’”
Faith in a Bottle
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Kenzi felt as if she’d been sleepwalking since she left the courtroom. At one point she remembered Emma taking her by the elbow and steering her in the right direction. She recalled Maya being hauled away by the marshals, a stricken expression on her face, as if she knew she would never see her child again.
Because Kenzi blew it. Because in her arrogance and overconfidence, she bungled a case that was way out of her league. And the prosecution buried her. Maya told Kenzi everything Candy said about her jailhouse confession was untrue, but the jury had heard it. And she had no way to refute it.
Emma came back to the apartment with her and chatted with Hailee. Kenzi didn’t absorb much of what was being said. She kept hearing her father’s voice. I told you to dump that case. I gave you a chance to plead it out. But you wouldn’t listen. And now your stupidity has ruined people’s lives. He would never let it rest. Soon it would be an indictment of her entire life. There’s more to practicing law than smiling and streaming. Small wonder I made Gabriel the managing partner. He’s got more sense in—
“Did you hear me, Kenzi?”
She tried to shake herself out of her stupor. “Uh…what?”
Emma frowned. “Hailee has done something truly impressive here.”
What were they…? “Of course. That’s right.”
Hailee peered at her mother with squinted eyes. “Do you even know what we’re talking about?”
She quickly considered whether she had enough information to bluff. They were in Hailee’s room. They were staring at a wall. The wall had…yarn thumbtacked to it. And photos and news clippings and…
She took a step closer. “Is all this about Maya’s case?”
Hailee shot Emma some side-eye. “She does not know what we’re talking about.”
Emma nodded. “I don’t think she’s heard a word since we left the courthouse. Actually, I don’t think she’s heard a word since Candy uttered the phrase ‘ritual sacrifice.’”
“I can see where that might induce some trauma.” Hailee turned her iPhone around so Emma could see the screen. “That tidbit has gone viral. It’s all over the internet. Including the KenziKlan. Expect it to be in every headline tomorrow. Probably alrady a meme.”
Emma nodded. “It did not sound good.”
“You think the jury bought it?”
She nodded. “Candy provided the essential plot details for a story that finally made sense. And was sexy. Why believe in a rando arsonist when you could believe a hotblooded tale involving religious cults and mind control and…ritual sacrifice. Kenzi, have you rejoined the real world yet?”
She tried to grasp the thread of the conversation. “This is about Maya’s case. Hailee has created a…diorama about the case.”
“It’s not a diorama.” Hailee sounded miffed. “It’s a murder board.”
“Okay, you lost me there.”
“Like on television. Don’t you ever watch cop shows? They post photos and articles on the wall with yarn showing the connections between them.”
“And what exactly is the point?”
“Frankly, I never understood that. Seems like a good loose-leaf notebook would accomplish the same thing. And these days you could put all this in a digital file and arrange it any way you want. But it does look cool.”
She had to smile. Her daughter was one of a kind. “Very cool.” She took a step closer. “I get the yarn connecting Candy to Maya and Patricia Clare. But why Hannibal Holt?”
“Candy said Maya got her quest from some religious group. And for that matter, someone is calling Candy’s shots. I don’t believe she had a sudden rush of conscience that caused her to turn on Maya. Someone is pulling her strings. Or yarn, in this case.”
Kenzi stepped closer. “You’ve got yarn connecting Michael to…the woods?”
“He’s living in a settlement with that guy. Adrien Messie. The Jesus wannabe. Maybe they’re the relisious group Candy was talking about.”
“Maya said Candy’s story was a complete lie. There is no quest.”
“Still. We have a lot of churches running through this story.” Hailee smiled a little. “And the wall looks cooler with more yarn.”
“True.” Kenzi spotted a corner of the board that held, not a photo, but a sketch. “Is this the medical examiner?”
“Yeah. Dr. Chang.”
Of course. Hailee used a courtroom sketch from a newspaer.“Why is she on the board? Surely you don’t think she did it.”
“I’m not ruling anything out.”
“In those Golden Age murder mysteries,” Emma noted, “the butler did it. Or the least likely suspect. The suspect you didn’t know was a suspect.”
“I’m not saying Chang committed the murder. But I didn’t buy her testimony. I thought she looked kinda…sketch.”
“Ha ha. But seriously…”
“She was way too helpful to the DA. She assumed murder based upon insufficient evidence.”
“May I remind you that you’re fourteen and, unlike Doogie Howser, haven’t been admitted to medical school yet?”
“I read medical books and articles all the time. I don’t think her testimony holds up.”
“Maybe you should focus more on—”
Emma intervened. “If Hailee wants to poke holes in the medical examiner’s testimony, let her. If we could undercut her testimony, it would help in a big way.”
Kenzi shrugged. “Fine, fine. Keep working on it.”
Hailee beamed. “So I have an assignment? An official, honest-to-God assignment?”
“I guess.”
“What’s my consulting fee?”
“I’ll continue to feed you.” The doorbell rang. “Excuse me.” She skittered around the corner and opened the front door. “Sharon?”
Her assistant strode in. “Thought you were returning to the office.”
“Did we not go back to the office?”
“No. I have about a thousand phone messages for you and almost as many suggestions. So I dropped by.” She followed Kenzi back to Hailee’s bedroom. “Is this some kind of sad postmortem?”
“The trial isn’t over yet,” Kenzi insisted.
“Everyone on the internet thinks it is.”
“They’re wrong.”
“Did you know Candy had another wife? Before Maya was her wife. In the cult, I mean.”
“No. Is that relevant?”
Hailee wheeled herself forward. “Of course it is, Mom. Get with the program. Sharon, how did you find out about this?”
“Buzzfeed.”
“Do you know anything about the other wife?”
“Not yet. But give the trolls another half hour or so and I will. Someone needs to keep an eye on Candy. And dig into her background.”
“Why bother?” Kenzi asked. “She’s done testifying.”
“Can’t you call her back during the defense case?”
“I suppose I could. If I asked questions that weren’t redundant.”
“What if you have newly discovered evidence?”
“That would work.”
“Then that’s what I’ll bring you.” All four migrated to the kitchen and took seats around the table. Sharon continued. “You won’t be in the office much for the next few days anyway. I can do more than fielding phone calls.”
“What do you expect to learn?”
“I have no idea. But if you don’t do something to bury that ritual sacrifice testimony, Maya isn’t going to see the light of day till she’s old and wrinkly. And her daughter won’t remember who she is.”
Emma cut in. “I think Maya has to testify.”
“That would be a disaster.”
“Michael was lying!”
“But he did a good job of it. Maya will be a poor witness. Defensive. She’ll start thinking about Brittany and she’ll fall apart. Even if she holds it together—cross-examination will be endless questions about the cult and the spanking and the wives and the orgies. Harrington will tear her apart.”
