First Victim by First Victim (retail) (epub)

Author:First Victim (retail) (epub)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Epub3
Publisher: Penzler Publishers

THIRTY-SIX

Her court attorney never takes her eyes from her as Alice rises from the bench.

Shavonne starts to get to her feet as well, as if to stop her before she does something she’ll regret.

It’s too late.

Alice leaves the courtroom through the door behind the bench and goes into the hallway that leads to chambers.

As she passes the holding cell where Young is seated on a bench, Luiz standing guard over him, Alice feels a sense of déjà vu. It’s the same tableau she saw the day she called everyone into chambers after Young acted out during his cross-examination of Dr. Liu.

The difference is that she didn’t have a gun in the top drawer of her desk, where she placed it a short while earlier after making a pit stop at home.

She was glad Alexis was away. Spending a few nights with a friend, her note had said. Otherwise, her daughter might really think her mother had lost her mind.

It’s very likely that she has.

When Alice checked on him, even Charles looked at her with a worried frown. As if he knew what she was about to do.

Her initial instinct had been to conceal the gun in her robe pocket. But walking into her courtroom with a loaded weapon for the brief time it would take to put her plan into action would have made her feel too much like a criminal. Even a deranged one. Not having it on her physical person will make her feel less guilty and be easier on her conscience when she tells the story of how the defendant overpowered her in her chambers. That was when she opened her desk drawer—where, as she’ll explain, she kept a licensed firearm for years—and shot William Henry Young in self-defense.

After telling Luiz that the prosecutor will be along in a few minutes, Alice instructs him to bring the defendant into chambers. As she walks down the hall, she can hear them behind her. When she reaches the door, Alice tells Luiz to wait outside.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t come any farther. You can’t be a witness to what I have to say in camera.”

Luiz’s dark eyes narrow as a frown crosses his face. “But—” He gestures toward Young. “He’s the defendant.”

Alice was prepared for this. “And as you know he elected to represent himself. That’s his right under the law.” And the critical component of her plan.

Defendants aren’t allowed in chambers.

But their attorneys are.

“Your Honor.” Luiz is struggling to come up with an argument. “The defendant may be acting as his own lawyer, but he’s still my responsibility.”

In court, a judge’s power is absolute. Everything that goes on there is under her control. Except for the physical bodies. They’re under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections, which is responsible for transporting defendants between Rikers, the Tombs, and the courthouse. Once a defendant enters the courtroom, the correction officers cede their power to the court officers, who are employed by the New York City courts. Which is under the aegis of the NYPD.

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