Meserve came through the front doors of the courtroom. He wore a cheap plaid sport jacket, a starched shirt, and a wide blue tie. His pants were shiny and so were his shoes. His ponytail had been hacked off—an amateur job, as if he had done it himself.
The lieutenant in charge of Crimes Against Persons looked pissed off as he was sworn in. He took his seat in the witness box and John Kinsela, appearing fresh and invigorated in a light gray suit and yellow tie, came toward him.
Yuki thought Kinsela definitely had something up his sleeve, but she couldn’t fathom what kind of something it could be.
Chapter 70
JOHN KINSELA GREETED his witness, Lieutenant Meserve, then asked him, “Are you familiar with Lynnette Lagrande?”
Meserve sat back in his chair and looked genuinely puzzled before he said, “I don’t understand what you mean by ‘familiar.’”
“Let me put it this way. Do you know Lynnette Lagrande?”
“Yes, I know her,” said the former undercover cop.
“How would you characterize your relationship with her?”
“Social. I go out with her. Dinner and such.”
Yuki felt a chill at the back of her neck. What the hell was this?
“That’s what we call in this country dating, isn’t that right?”
“Your generation calls it dating.”
“Well, humor me and the jury and let’s both call it dating, okay? So how long have you been dating Ms. Lagrande?”
“I really don’t remember.”
“Long enough to become familiar with her?”
Kinsela snorted at his own joke. Someone in the gallery let out a high-pitched giggle, which caught on and became a wave of tentative laughter.
Yuki stood up and said, “Your Honor, I object in the strongest possible terms to the way Mr. Kinsela is fooling around at the expense of this court and the jury’s time. And in the process, he’s taking liberties with Ms. Lagrande’s reputation.”
Nussbaum said, “Sustained. Mr. Kinsela, this is a murder trial. Don’t do that again. This is your last warning.”
Yuki sat down hard in her seat and tried to comprehend the bombshell that had just landed in Judge Nussbaum’s courtroom.
Had she heard it right?
Floyd Meserve was currently a lieutenant in the police force. A year ago, he had been an undercover cop. He had put a video setup inside his vehicle and interviewed Keith Herman, a thug of a lawyer with a reputation for child abuse and jury tampering and maybe far worse. Herman had sought out Meserve, thinking he was a hit man, a contract killer. And Herman had said he wanted to have his family killed.
Now this good lieutenant was telling the court that he was dating Lynnette Lagrande, Keith Herman’s former girlfriend.
How had he met Lynnette?
And why was John Kinsela asking Meserve about dating Lynnette, anyway? What could that have to do with the case against Keith Herman?
There was more to come, Yuki could feel it.
Something big was about to blow.
Chapter 71
KINSELA STOOD SIX FEET from the witness box with his hands clasped behind his back.
“I’m sorry, Your Honor,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make light of the proceedings.”