The Perfect Alibi Read online

  “You testified under oath that you saw them go in, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did she scream in the hall?”

  “No.”

  “Did Blaine drag her inside?”

  “No.”

  “After they were inside, the door closed, didn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, you couldn’t see what happened in the bedroom, could you?”

  “No.”

  “For all you know, Randi Stark was a willing partner?”

  “She screamed.”

  “You can’t tell this jury from what you know personally whether she screamed after having consensual sex, can you?”

  “I … No.”

  “No further questions.”

  Robin didn’t think that Doug had scored many points on cross. She wasn’t surprised. She’d met Doug a few times and thought he was a nice guy, but he had a reputation as an unspectacular litigator. Nothing she’d seen during the trial changed Robin’s opinion.

  * * *

  Randi was scheduled to testify in the morning. She was not allowed to be in court while the witnesses were testifying. When court adjourned, Robin returned to her office and called her to give her moral support for her upcoming ordeal.

  “Annie was great,” Robin said. “Hastings’s attorney tried to trip her up, but he didn’t do a thing.”

  “Is he any good? Is he, you know, gonna make me look bad?”

  “Not if you tell the truth. I’ll be in court and so will your mom, and the DA will object if Armstrong tries anything that’s improper. Stay strong.”

  “I’ll try, but I’m scared.”

  “It would be weird if you weren’t scared, but Hastings will be in prison where he belongs if you just tell the jurors what he did to you, and you won’t have to worry about him anymore.”

  They talked for a while longer. As soon as Robin hung up, her receptionist told her that Portland detective Carrie Anders was calling.

  “What’s up?” Robin asked.

  “Nothing you’re going to like.”

  “Oh?”

  “I drove down to Eugene and tried to talk to Marlon Guest.”

  “And?”

  “I’m not going to arrest him,” the detective said.

  “Why?”

  “Guest refused to talk to me, and he lawyered up right away. This morning, Guest’s lawyer sent me statements from three witnesses who swear they were with him in Eugene when Randi was assaulted in Portland.”

  “That’s bullshit. Randi and I will swear he was there.”

  “Randi admits she was drunk and terrified. A good defense attorney would be able to make mincemeat of her on the stand.”

  “I wasn’t drunk.”

  “True, but you told me that there’s no light in the back of the gas station, Randi’s assailant was at the end of the building farthest from you, and his face was in shadow.”

  “I didn’t see his face, but how many people are the size of a T. rex, Carrie?”

  “Every offensive lineman on a Division One football squad.”

  “So, you’re just going to let him go?”

  “For now. And Marlon Guest isn’t my main interest, anyway. I want Blaine Hastings Jr. in the state penitentiary. As long as Randi stays strong, that’s where that asshole is going.”

  “She’s scared to death, Carrie.”

  “Yeah, I would be, too. Look, I’ll call her and tell her that I let Guest know that I was watching him. I doubt he’ll try anything again.”

  “Thanks, Carrie. I’ve tried to get her to calm down, but it will mean more coming from you.”

  When Robin hung up, she thought about going to the gym, but she was too tired, so she bought some sushi to go at a Japanese restaurant around the corner from her office and headed home.

  Robin finished her dinner and picked up a book she had been reading, but she gave up after a chapter because she was too tired to read. There was a Trail Blazer game on TV. It wasn’t going to start for twenty minutes. Robin remembered that she hadn’t talked to her mother in a while.

  Talking to her mother could be a trial. Before Robin’s dad passed away, he had been her biggest supporter. When the school board of her high school district had tried to keep Robin from wrestling on the boys’ team, her father had hired a lawyer who forced the board to let her participate. When she decided that she wanted to be the first person in her family to go to college and then law school, he’d been her champion. That was not always the case with her mother.

  Robin’s mom wanted Robin to stay in their small town, get married, and give her grandchildren. She’d never liked the idea of a girl going to law school—especially one that was on the liberal East Coast—and she had been upset when Robin chose to practice law in Oregon instead of coming back to the state where she had been born.

  Her mom had gradually come to accept Robin’s life choices, but her doubts about them surfaced on occasion during their phone calls. Robin phoned her anyway.

  “Nice of you to call,” her mother said.

  “How are things at home?” Robin said, ignoring the icy tone her mother used when there were too many days between calls.

  “The boys were over for dinner this weekend. It would have been nice if the whole family was together.”

  “I’m definitely coming home for Thanksgiving,” Robin assured her.

  “That will be good. Are you still enjoying your job?”

  Robin knew that her mother would be thrilled if she said no, but the truth was that she loved her practice and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

  “It’s going very well.”

  “You’re able to handle your cases without Miss Barrister there to help?”

  “Yes. In fact, I have two new cases that are very interesting. The court appointed me to represent a defendant in a death penalty case.”

  “What did he do?” asked her mother, who had a hard time accepting the fact that her daughter tried to help guilty criminals escape punishment.

  “Nothing, as far as I’ve been able to determine. He killed an off-duty policeman, but the policeman was out of uniform and drunk. He attacked my client from behind with a broken bottle. My client shouldn’t be in jail, and I think I have a good chance of winning his case.”

  “What’s the other case?”

  “I’m going to sue a rapist on behalf of the woman he raped. I’ve been sitting through the criminal case, and I’m pretty sure that the rapist will be convicted. My client is a nice young woman. The money won’t stop her suffering, but she’s poor and it can give her a better life.”

  “Well, that’s good. I’ll pray for her.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  Robin and her mother talked until they ran out of things to say. Robin was glad she had called. Her mother had been lonely since Robin’s dad passed and Robin did feel a little guilty because she wasn’t there to help her. But Robin’s three brothers lived nearby, and her mother kept busy sitting for her grandkids and working with her church groups, so Robin didn’t feel too bad.

  The game started shortly after Robin hung up. She watched a half, but was too tired to finish, so she went to bed early so she would be sharp when the Hastings case started up in the morning.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Doug Armstrong was failing so badly that he couldn’t sleep, so he was exhausted when court started. Rex Kellerman called Randi Stark to the stand. Randi broke down twice during her direct testimony. Doug chanced a glance at the jurors. What he saw on their faces was not encouraging.

  “Miss Stark,” Kellerman asked as he continued his direct examination, “did you tell the defendant that you did not want to have sexual intercourse with him?”

  Randi nodded.

  “You have to answer the question so the court reporter can record it,” Kellerman said gently.

  “Sorry. Yes. I told him to stop.”

  “And did he stop?”

  “No … no, sir.”

  “What di
d he do when you told him to stop?”

  “He ripped my panties off. Then he slapped me and told me to be a good girl. Then … then he forced himself inside me.”

  “What were you feeling when he penetrated you?”

  Randi started to cry. “It hurt. I told him but he wouldn’t stop.”

  “Did the defendant ejaculate inside you?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happened then?”

  “I yell ‘Get off me,’ and Annie came into the room.”

  “Did he leave then?”

  “Only after Annie threatened to scream.”

  “What did you do after the defendant left?”

  “Annie took me to the hospital.”

  “Thank you, Randi. I have no further questions.”

  “Mr. Armstrong,” Judge Mary Redding said.

  “Thank you, Your Honor. Miss Stark, you don’t like Blaine, do you?”

  Randi looked stunned by the question. “He raped me. No, I don’t like him.”

  “What about before the party? Isn’t it true that you hated him because in high school, your boyfriend, Ryan, attacked Blaine and was sent to jail?”

  Randi glared at Armstrong. “Blaine baited Ryan. He was much bigger and stronger, and he beat him up. Then he reported Ryan to the police and lied about what happened. Ryan was never the same after he got out of juvie,” Randi said.

  “You claim Blaine lied,” Doug said, “but Ryan had his day in court and he was convicted, wasn’t he?”

  “That’s because he got his friends to lie at the trial.”

  Blaine leaned over to his lawyer. “Object,” he said. “Ask the judge to strike the answer.”

  Before Armstrong could say anything, Randi pointed at Blaine. “Because of him, Ryan killed himself. So, yeah, I hate him.”

  “Objection!” Doug shouted.

  “Sustained. Miss Stark, you must not volunteer that type of statement. Confine yourself to answering the questions Mr. Armstrong asks.”

  The judge turned to the jury. “I am instructing you to ignore Miss Stark’s last two statements about what Mr. Hastings’s friends and Ryan may have done. They are inadmissible guesses, and you may not use them in any way in deciding Mr. Hastings’s case.”

  “A lot of good that’s going to do me,” Blaine whispered. “You’re letting that little bitch say anything she wants.”

  “Mr. Armstrong,” the judge asked, “do you have any more questions?”

  “Yes, Your Honor. Miss Stark, I see Robin Lockwood in the spectator section. Is she an attorney?”

  “Yes.”

  “Have you hired her?”

  “Yes.”

  “And that’s because you plan to sue Blaine if he is convicted, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “And isn’t your motive for accusing my client of rape the money you hope to get in a civil suit?”

  “No. I called the police because he raped me against my will. He’s an animal, and I want to protect any other woman he can rape if he’s not behind bars.”

  “Move to strike that answer, Your Honor?” Doug said.

  “You asked the question, Mr. Armstrong, and you’re stuck with the answer.”

  * * *

  “The State rests,” Rex Kellerman told the Court as soon as Randi was excused.

  “All right. Let’s recess and be back in twenty minutes,” the judge said.

  “Let’s talk outside,” Blaine said.

  “Sure,” Doug said.

  Blaine and Doug passed Senior on their way up the aisle. He looked furious, but Junior waved him down. Blaine led Doug into a deserted stairwell at the back of the fifth-floor corridor.

  “Do I go on next?” Blaine asked.

  “I don’t think you should testify.”

  “Oh yeah? Why is that?”

  “Are you going to say that you never penetrated Stark?”

  “That’s the truth.”

  “Kellerman will crucify you. He’ll ask you how your sperm got into Stark, and you won’t have an answer.”

  “You should have given the jury an answer. I told you to hire a DNA expert who would tell the jury that isn’t my DNA.”

  “I did hire an expert. I told you, he conducted his own test, but he agreed that the DNA in the rape kit was a match for your DNA.”

  Hastings’s face flushed with anger and a pulse started throbbing in his temple. “Then you should have hired another expert, you fucking incompetent.” Blaine’s low growl was more frightening than if he had screamed in Doug’s face. “I never fucked that half-wit. She lied on the stand, and you didn’t do a goddamn thing.”

  They were alone in the stairwell, and Doug thought Blaine might attack him.

  “I am not going to prison,” Hastings said. “Do you understand me?”

  “Calm down, Blaine—”

  “I’ll calm down when I hear ‘not guilty.’ And you better make sure that’s what I hear, or you are going to be very sorry.”

  Armstrong’s stomach turned. “What are you talking about?”

  “Do your job,” Hastings answered. Then he walked away.

  * * *

  “Do you have any witnesses, Mr. Armstrong?” the judge asked.

  “Mr. Hastings is going to testify.”

  Doug spent the first part of his direct examination asking his client about his academic and athletic accomplishments.

  “And are you planning to attend medical school?”

  “Yes, sir, if I’m not drafted by an NFL team. But medical school is definitely in my plans for the future after a career in the NFL.” Blaine turned to the jurors. “I want to work with children in some capacity.”

  “Let’s talk about the night of the party after the Portland State–Oregon game. Did you see Miss Stark at the party?”

  “Yes, sir. She came up to me and started talking.”

  “Had you been drinking when Miss Stark approached you?”

  “Yes, sir. I was tired from the game and I had a little more alcohol than I should have.”

  “How were you feeling?”

  “A little tipsy.”

  “Did you dance with Miss Stark?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happened while you were dancing?”

  “She came on to me. She started kissing me and she started stroking my crotch.”

  “What happened next?”

  “She led me down the hall to a bedroom.”

  “So, going to the bedroom was her idea?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Mr. Hastings, please tell the jury what happened inside the bedroom.”

  “We started making out on the bed. And right away, she unzipped my fly and began stroking me. I was pretty excited and I came right away.”

  “Inside Miss Stark?”

  “No, sir. In her hand.”

  “What happened next?”

  “She screamed, ‘Get off me.’”

  “Did that startle you?”

  “Yes, because she’d been really willing up until she screamed.”

  “She never said she didn’t want to continue making out?”

  “No.”

  “What happened next?”

  “The door flew open and Annie Roche came in and started yelling at me.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I was confused. Stark was hitting me on my chest and Roche was yelling at me. I was embarrassed, so I left.”

  “Did you force Miss Stark to have sex of any kind with you?”

  “No, sir. She initiated everything, and she never said she didn’t want to make out.”

  “No further questions,” Doug said, relieved that his direct examination was over.

  “Do you have any questions, Mr. Kellerman?” the judge asked when Doug returned to the defense counsel’s table.

  “Just a few,” Kellerman said. “If you are convicted of rape, will that affect your ability to get into medical school?” Rex Kellerman asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  �
��How about your draft status with NFL teams?”

  “I probably wouldn’t get drafted.”

  “So, you have a lot to lose if this jury believes Miss Stark?”

  “Yes.”

  “Which gives you a lot of reasons to lie about what you did to Miss Stark in that bedroom, doesn’t it?”

  Hastings’s face flushed with anger just as it had in the stairwell. “I’m not lying—she is. She’s made this whole thing up to get my money. She and her crowd always resented me, and now she wants to bring me down to her level.”

  “What level is that?”

  “Stark always ran with losers. I worked hard to get good grades. I want to make something of myself. She can’t stand that I’m rich. She wants my money. That’s why she’s lying.”

  Rex Kellerman smiled at Hastings. “You just accused Miss Stark of being a liar. Is she also a magician?”

  Hastings looked confused. “What do you mean?”

  “If what you say is true, you never penetrated Miss Stark.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, then, in addition to crying and screaming at you to get off her, did Miss Stark say ‘abracadabra’ and make your sperm magically appear inside her?”

  Hastings’s mouth opened, and he stared at the DA. Then he stammered, “I … I didn’t rape her.”

  “No further questions,” Kellerman said.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Madam Foreperson, have you reached a verdict?” Multnomah County Circuit Court judge Mary Ann Redding asked after telling Blaine Hastings to stand.

  “We have, Your Honor,” answered Juror Number Four, a fifty-year-old CPA.

  “Is your verdict unanimous?”

  “It is.”

  “How do you find the defendant on count one in the indictment, which charges that Mr. Hastings raped Randi Stark?”

  “We find the defendant guilty.”

  Doug watched his client out of the corner of his eye as he learned that the jurors had found him guilty on all counts. He looked stunned. As soon as the verdicts were read, the judge dismissed the jury. When they were out of the room, Rex Kellerman asked the judge to revoke Blaine’s bail.

  “Mr. Armstrong?” the judge said when the DA finished.

  “Yes, Your Honor,” Armstrong said as he stood. “I would ask the Court to let Mr. Hastings remain on bail pending sentencing. Mr. Hastings has no criminal record and has always been a law-abiding citizen. He is an honor student studying to be a doctor. Mr. Hastings has surrendered his passport and has made all of his court appearances, and I have every reason to believe he will continue to do so.”