“I really thought I’d lost her,” Carla told Yuki from the witness stand. “Lindsay’s one of our best.”
After Mason’s tepid cross, Yuki put on our next witness, Mike Hart from Ballistics, who confirmed that the slugs removed from my body were a match to Sara’s gun and that the slugs taken from Jacobi had been fired by the gun found beside Sam Cabot.
Broyles had no questions for Mike, so Yuki called Jacobi to the stand.
Tears brimmed in my eyes as my old friend and partner walked to the front of the room. Jacobi’s walk was heavy even though he’d lost a lot of weight. He struggled as he heaved himself up to the witness stand.
Yuki gave him time to pour himself a full glass of water. Then she asked him some routine questions about how long he’d been with the force, how long with Homicide.
Then, “Inspector Jacobi, how long have you known Lieutenant Boxer?”
“About seven years.”
“Have you had an occasion to work with her before the night in question?”
“Yep. We were partners for three years.”
“Have you been in other situations with her where she had to use her gun?”
“Yes. A coupla times.”
“And how would you say she reacts under pressure?”
“She’s great under pressure. And you know, every time you go out on the street you’re under pressure, because nothing suddenly turns into something without any warning at all.”
“Inspector, when you hooked up with Lieutenant Boxer on the night of May tenth, did you smell alcohol on her breath?”
“No.”
“Did you know that she had been drinking?”
“Yes. Because she mentioned it to me.”
“Well, why did she mention it to you?”
“Because she wanted me to know, so that I could kick her out of the car if I wanted to.”
“In your opinion, having worked with her for so many years, did she have all her faculties?”
“Of course. She was sharp, just like she always is.”
“If she was in any way impaired would you have gone on this assignment with her?”
“Absolutely not.”
Yuki took Warren through the night of the tenth, from the moment he picked me up at Susie’s to the last thing he remembered.
“I was glad we got those kids out of that car. I was worried that the gas tank was leaking and the whole thing could’ve gone kaboom. I was on with our dispatcher, Carla Reyes over there, telling her that Sam Cabot had a broken nose from the air bag blowing up in his face and that those kids coulda had internal injuries. Little did I know.”
“I beg your pardon, Inspector?”
“Little did I know that while I was calling for paramedics, that little prick was going to shoot me.”
Mason Broyles blew his cork, of course, and the judge admonished Jacobi. I was ecstatic that Jacobi had had the balls to call Sam Cabot a prick. When order was restored, Yuki had a last question for my old partner.
“Inspector, are you familiar with Lieutenant Boxer’s reputation in the police community, and if so, what is that reputation?”
“In a word? She’s