Eyes of a Child (54 page)

‘He was disgusted and sick at heart. What was worse, Elena's mother had left him with no money for a lawyer, or to get a psychologist to help her own daughter.' Sonia gave the jury another look of pride. ‘So
I
sent Ricardo a thousand dollars to hire one or the other. He was
so
appreciative and relieved.'

Next to him, Paget saw Caroline look puzzled and then make a note. ‘To your knowledge,' Salinas asked, ‘did he intend to fight for permanent custody of Elena?'

Sonia gave an emphatic nod. ‘To the bitter end, and I was going to help him. He didn't want that woman,
or
her boyfriend or his son, to make a mess of Elena's life.' She paused for emphasis. ‘Nothing – and I mean
nothing
– was going to keep Ricardo Arias from having his daughter.'

Once more, Paget thought, it was difficult to separate mother from son. He leaned closer to Caroline. ‘Remember when Lee Harvey Oswald's mother decided to write a book about him? She was going to call it “A Mother's Place in History.”'

Caroline gave a soft laugh, all the while studying Sonia Arias with an air of intense reflection. But Salinas was utterly still now, drawing the jury to him.

‘When,' he asked quietly, ‘did you last speak to Ricardo?'

For a moment, Sonia Arias looked down. ‘That Friday. The last day anyone saw my son alive.'

‘And what did you talk about?'

‘That Elena's mother was going to Italy with her boyfriend, despite all the worries about Elena and his son. Richie said it was the final proof that he needed to fight for Elena, any way he could.'

Abruptly, the atmosphere in the room had changed. The jury leaned forward to listen. Marian Celler, who had been wiping her reading glasses, stared at Sonia with the glasses still in her hand. ‘Did you respond to that?' Salinas asked.

‘Yes,' Sonia still looked down. ‘I told him I'd come to help – that day if he wanted me. But he said he could take care of Elena, and said what would really help was if I could send him the money I would have spent on airfare. I told him I'd think about it and we could talk the next time he called.' There was a wounded undertone in her voice, as if she was reluctant to believe that her nearness to Richie could be of less value than money. ‘He had powerful friends now, he told me. Other people who could help.'

The last two sentences, Paget saw at once, were unrehearsed. For a split second, Salinas looked unsettled. ‘Colt's people,' Caroline whispered.

Quickly Salinas asked, ‘Did you talk to Ricardo often?'

The question seemed to revive Sonia's pride. Looking directly at the jury, she said, ‘Every Saturday and Wednesday, since college. Ricardo always called
me,
and he never forgot. Not once in twelve years.'

Salinas gave her a melancholy look. ‘But he didn't call on Saturday, did he? Or ever again.'

Sonia looked down again. ‘No.'

‘Did you try to call him?'

‘I wanted
him
to call
me
.' Her mouth twisted. ‘I thought he might be upset about the money.'

‘Did you
ever
call?'

Sonia folded her arms. ‘I was very angry with him,' she said, and suddenly the tears welled in her eyes. ‘You see, I'd forgotten who Richie was.'

What Caroline needed to do, she knew, would not be easy.

Rising, she regarded Sonia Arias with a look of puzzlement. ‘When you said that Teresa Peralta didn't support your son Ricardo, what precisely did you mean?'

Sonia gave her a knowing smile. ‘I meant emotionally. She never appreciated how special he was – how imaginative, how attractive, how
different
he was than most men. I mean, how many fathers have that kind of commitment to their daughter?'

Caroline's gaze was a polite blank. ‘So when you said that Ms Peralta never supported Richie, you weren't referring to financial support?'

Sonia's face seemed to tighten. ‘No.'

‘And in fact, she supported him through six years of marriage, did she not?'

‘Only after he quit the law. And just so he could start his business.'

‘How many law jobs did Richie “quit”?'

‘Three.' Sonia looked angry. ‘But one was to go to business school. Richie wanted to become more entrepreneurial, he told me.'

‘And Teresa also
sent
him to graduate school, correct? For an M.B.A.'

A curt nod. ‘She did that.'

‘And then gave him money to start his business.'

Sonia stared at her. ‘She may have. But so did
I
.'

‘Do you know what happened to the money? Terri's
or
yours?'

‘No.' A slight pause. ‘Richie had some bad luck.'

Caroline kept her face and voice bland, civility without warmth. ‘Before Teresa married him,' she asked, ‘who supported Richie?'

Sonia Arias hesitated. This part of the trial, Caroline thought, could be entitled ‘Who Was the Real Ricardo Arias?' At the corner of her eye, Victor Salinas showed signs of restiveness. ‘We supported him,' Sonia said finally. ‘And let me set the record straight again. I helped them get through the law school years, when Teresa had the baby. By getting a job.'

Caroline angled her head. ‘Did
Richie
ever work?'

‘Objection,' Salinas called out. ‘Mr Arias's employment record is totally irrelevant.'

‘Really,' Caroline shot back. ‘It was you who introduced the question of whether Mrs Arias believed her son to be suicidal. That places his personal circumstances squarely on the table.'

Lerner nodded. ‘Agreed, Counselor. At least within limits. Move on.'

Caroline turned to Sonia Arias. Frowning, the witness said, ‘I can't remember what jobs Richie maybe had.'

As if thinking of another question, Caroline paused. ‘What about when he lived at home?' she asked casually. ‘During high school. Did he ever work then?'

For what seemed too long, Sonia did not answer.

For Caroline, the scene had a certain horrible fascination: Sonia stared at her, trying to see into her mind before deciding on an answer. ‘That was a long time ago,' she said at last.

‘Let me help you,' Caroline said pleasantly. ‘When he was seventeen, didn't Richie have a summer job clerking at a sporting goods store near your neighborhood in the Bronx? Called Bernhard's?'

Sonia's face turned to stone. Salinas half rose to his feet. ‘Yes,' Sonia said coldly. ‘I remember that now.'

‘And didn't Mr Bernhard call your husband and demand reimbursement? Because he'd caught Richie skimming from the cash register?'

‘Your Honor,' Salinas called out. ‘The prosecution requests a bench conference.'

‘Of course,' Lerner said, and motioned Caroline to the bench.

She and Salinas stood face-to-face, with Lerner peering down at them. ‘What is this?' Salinas demanded in a taut undertone. ‘I called this witness to make two simple points. One, that Ricardo Arias showed
no
sign of any suicidal impulse. Two, that his failure to call on Saturday, as anticipated, suggests time of death. Whether he stole the milk money in fifth grade is petty character assassination, completely irrelevant to any issue in this case.'

It was here, Caroline knew, that she needed Jared Lerner to rule as she had hoped for since the moment when she planted the trial in his mind. She spoke to him directly. ‘As Mr Salinas will concede, he is attempting to show that Ricardo Arias was an emotionally stable man with no thought of suicide and, for that matter, no enemies in the world beyond my client and Richie's former wife. That's enough to justify these questions. But what Victor has
also
been trying to do, right from his opening statement, is to paint Ricardo Arias as the compendium of virtue.' She turned on Salinas. ‘You've asked for this, Victor.
My
Ricardo Arias is a cheat, a liar, unable to hold an honest job, and, quite possibly, a textbook sociopath humbly disguised as a second-rate con man. Not only does that suggest emotional instability, but people like
my
Richie make other people mad – lots of them.' She faced Lerner again. ‘This is a murder trial, Your Honor, not a memorial service for Richie's family and friends, assuming that he had any beyond the unfortunate Ms Warner. Chris Paget is entitled to have me show
anything
suggestive of mental problems on behalf of Mr Arias. And, I will represent to you right now, we believe there's plenty.'

‘That's an excuse.' Salinas looked up at Lerner with new intensity. ‘Petty theft, if that's what we have, doesn't translate to suicide. Suicide's the loophole through which Ms Masters intends to squeeze every piece of innuendo she can find, until the jury forgets this trial isn't about Ricardo Arias but about the man who killed him.'

‘There's
a new thought,' Lerner interjected. ‘But it's a little late, Victor. Next time you nominate someone for altar boy, you may want to screen him first.' He looked down at Caroline. ‘I'm going to give you considerable latitude, Caroline. See that you don't abuse it.'

‘Thank you, Your Honor.' And thank you, Johnny Moore, she added silently.

Salinas merely shrugged. On the way back to the prosecution table, he shot Caroline a sideways look, as if to remind her that the trial would be long and hard.

Turning to face Sonia Arias, Caroline saw a brittle woman, tensely guarding her image of her own son. Caroline felt a moment's pity, and then it was gone. Quietly, she said, ‘Do you remember the question?'

Sonia Arias sat straighter. ‘This man Bernhard never caught Richie stealing anything. We paid him five hundred dollars because he threatened to call the police.'

‘Wasn't there another reason you didn't want trouble? A problem at Bronx Science, about three months earlier?'

It was curious, Caroline thought; Sonia Arias seemed smaller now. ‘There was a misunderstanding,' she said.

‘There was a
suspension,
wasn't there? Because Ricardo was accused of stealing a math test from his teacher's desk?'

‘So another student said. But
he
was the one who stole the test and then blamed it on Richie out of spite.' Sonia Arias turned to the jury. ‘Ricardo was innocent. But he was a beautiful, talented boy, and people were always jealous of him. Going to the senior prom, in his tuxedo, he looked so handsome. Any girl would want to be with him –'

‘Did there come a time in college,' Caroline cut in quietly, ‘when Richie moved out of the dorm?'

‘Yes.' Sonia gave her a wary, wounded look and then frowned. ‘It was when he decided to live with Teresa. Of all the girls he could have had.'

Caroline moved a few steps closer. ‘Did Richie tell you that the dorm committee had
asked
him to move out? Because he'd been accused of stealing from people's rooms?'

‘No
.' Sonia gripped both arms of the witness chair. ‘
She
must have said that. Richie never told me anything like that.'

At the corner of his eye, Paget saw Salinas rising to object and then stop himself. Paget could read his thoughts: Caroline must have witnesses for her charges against Richie, and to object might make them part of the trial.

‘No?' Caroline went on. ‘You mentioned that after law school Richie worked for three firms, correct?'

‘Yes.'

‘Did he ever tell you that he'd been fired from two of them?'

‘No.'

‘And that one of the firms fired him for misrepresenting his grades?'

‘No.' Sonia's arms were rigid now, and her eyes darted from place to place. ‘And it's not true, either.'

‘How do you know that?'

Sonia mustered a superior smile. ‘Because I know my son.'

I doubt anyone did, Caroline thought – except, perhaps, his wife. But she was satisfied for the moment: she was morally certain that Joseph Duarte, climbing his own ladder, had not stolen from employers or cheated on tests. ‘Did you know,' Caroline asked Sonia, ‘that your son was seeing a therapist?'

Salinas, Paget saw to his surprise, made no movement to object.

‘Of course.' Sonia smiled, as if she had bested Caroline. ‘Richie told me all about it. He was very concerned about Elena and needed advice. So I helped him pay for it.'

‘How much did it cost?'

‘It was expensive – one hundred dollars an hour. But Richie was worth it.'

Caroline gave her a curious look. ‘Did you send the money to the therapist,' she asked, ‘or directly to Richie?'

‘To Richie, of course. I didn't want to embarrass him.'

That
, Caroline thought, would be impossible. ‘Tell me, Mrs Arias, why wasn't
Richie
paying for a therapist?'

‘She
didn't send him enough money. So as usual,
I
stepped in to help.'

‘By “she,” I assume you're referring to Ms Peralta, and the spousal and child support she was sending Richie.'

‘Of course.' Sonia shot a defensive glance at the jury. ‘Richie told me she was making over eighty thousand a year, while he struggled to support his daughter and start a business. You'd think the courts would be fairer.'

‘Indeed. Did Richie happen to mention that
Ms Peralta
had wanted custody and that he not only fought for custody but refused to get an outside job. And that he demanded – and received – the
maximum
support the law required Ms Peralta to pay?'

Sonia waved a hand. ‘Whatever, it wasn't enough to live on.'