Legal Assassin (eBook)

Chapter 1

Carson’s break - at least he thought of it like that at the time – came from an attempted murder case. It was a case that came to him more accidentally than on purpose. And he’d discover it would have not only short-term importance, but long-term significance as well.

*****

The liquor store on the corner of a street at the fringes of downtown San Diego was moderately busy. Men mostly, walking hurriedly into the store and walking out more relaxed with a paper bag holding something their faces suggested they were looking forward to sampling.

The check-out stand near the door was manned by a comfortably dressed, middle-aged man with graying hair and a stomach that flopped out over a wide belt. His face held a slight smile for his customers. It was like he very well knew that what they were going to sample when they got it home was something he was also going to enjoy, even if only vicariously.

He was finishing with one customer as a tall thin man walked nervously past and continued into racks filled with bottles of libations like he’d been there before and knew where the thing he wanted was located. His name was Harmon Scott.

Scott paused near the rear of the store and stared down at a rack of bourbon bottles, touching first one, then another as if trying to make a decision.

Seconds behind Scott came a man with an Oriental cast to his skin, short and wiry with dark hair. He wore a brown coat over a white shirt and tan pants. His name was Charlie Wu.

When Charlie Wu was a step or so away from the man, he glanced over his shoulder. Apparently seeing nothing threatening, he pulled a gun from inside his coat and began firing at Scott in front of the rack of whiskey bottles trying to make a selection.

After his second shot, Wu heard loud and exciting talking behind him and turned to see the store manager on the phone, apparently calling the police so he stopped shooting and ran out of the store, leaving the victim bleeding and writhing in pain on the floor.

The shooter ripped off the woven gloves he was wearing as he exited the store and threw them into a garbage barrel adjacent a street light pole. He did that without a pause, but when he rounded the corner and saw a uniformed policeman writing down his tag number pursuant to giving him a ticket for parking in a red zone, he paused long enough to throw the gun into the drain. It rattled down the drain out of sight.

The policeman turned when he heard the running steps of the man behind him. At the same time, he also heard the approaching sirens of police cars and immediately assumed the running man was somehow involved. The sirens covered the sound of the gun rattling out of sight.

He pulled his weapon, pointed it at Wu and ordered him to stop and hold up his hands.

Wu uttered an expletive but it was in Chinese and not understood. Nevertheless, he raised his arms and stood still.

When the police arrived on the scene and were told what had happened by the liquor store manager, the man was arrested and charged. He identified himself as Charlie Wu but otherwise said nothing.

Though badly injured, the man shot in the liquor store had survived.

*****

On the day set for the trial, Charlie Wu’s attorney, Walter Johnston, a big hitter from one of the larger firms in San Diego, had to have an emergency operation for a burst appendix and could not defend Wu.

The DA, ready for trial, didn’t want a postponement and pressed Charlie to go forward with a new attorney. None of the other attorneys in the firm were available so as a last resort, Legal Aid was asked if one of their attorneys was available to appear for Charlie. Carson Adams was available and immediately asked the court for a postponement.

Ordinarily the DA might have given the case against Wu to one of the attorneys on his staff but now and then, he wanted the public to see him in action. When he did, he was careful to pick a case he could easily win, as he considered the current case to be. And, with the better-known attorney out of the picture, he felt the publicity would be all his.

The DA was in his fifties with gray hair and a look on his face he’d cultivated to project a “would I lie to you” image. That’s how he got elected to the office. That honest look sat well with the voters and did likewise with jurors. Not only that, he had that slow, gentle talking trial presentation that put jurors at ease.

The other attorneys knew it and always dreaded having to try a case against him. Well, most did. Carson didn’t. He barely knew the guy. Carson looked at the DA as just another challenge to overcome.

Wu, not being that familiar with the California judicial system, had agreed to be represented by the Legal Aid attorney after he’d met Carson. Wu felt Carson had an eagerness about him that was convincing.

The DA asked Carson to proceed to trial without a postponement. After all, it looked like a “slam dunk” case. One day, even with a jury, was all The DA figured it’d take.

“All you have to do, Adams,” he told Carson with an air of pedantry, “is make an opening statement and closing argument. Tell the jury during your opening statement that you know Wu is innocent. They expect that. Do the same when you close. The defendant doesn’t have any witnesses to call according to Walt. I won’t show you up.” That last remark half way pissed Carson off, but he doubted the DA said it to belittle him so much as to address the inequities of their respective positions in the legal community. But he’d remember both the words and the thought behind it. Don’t show the other guy up unless it’s part of your case.

Walt was how the DA, familiarly, addressed the attorney who had appeared for Wu at the arraignment but who had ended up in the hospital on the day of the trial relaxing with the aid of painkillers.

The DA tried to act like he was everybody’s friend, kind of like he was always on the campaign trail.

Carson, aware that the defendant was Chinese asked about an interpreter and was told that one had been brought in to translate for him. He was granted thirty minutes by the judge to interview his client with the aid of the interpreter.

Carson noted that the “defendant” appeared somewhat bewildered by the legal maneuvering but reluctantly, it seemed, agreed to the legal substitution.

“He says he just wants to get it over with,” the interpreter said.

Carson figured he’d reconsider that if and when he was facing execution but had no doubt, he could defend the man as well as anybody, even old “Walt.” Through the interpreter, Wu did ask Carson if he could negotiate a deal with the DA to avoid jail time. He practically admitted having tried to kill the man in the liquor store but figured since he was a Chinese citizen, he should get favorable treatment.

Carson wasn’t so sure about that, but told him he’d get into that possibility after the trial had begun and he knew more of the facts. He figured he’d find out more about the DA’s case as he called witnesses. Assuming he saw weaknesses in the DA’s case, he’d be in a better position to negotiate a deal. Wu agreed with a shrug.

From what he’d learned during his interview with the defendant, Carson believed that the only certain witness against his client was the store manager. Wu wasn’t sure if the shooting victim had seen him or not. He said he didn’t care at first if the man had seen him since he figured the man would be dead.

Wu hadn’t seen any other customers in the store but wasn’t sure there weren’t any. He was too concerned with shooting the man to check for any. He figured he’d get away before anybody could show up.

He also assumed he’d be in and out of the store before anybody, like the traffic policeman, would notice his illegally parked car. That turned out to be his big mistake. If he hadn’t been parked in the red zone, he could have escaped before the other police car arrived.

Wu didn’t know and didn’t care why he was hired to kill the man. He’d had a call with information about who he was to kill and where the man was. He followed the man from his apartment for two days before tracking him into the liquor store.

Carson was told by Wu how he’d thrown away the gun when he saw he was getting a ticket and heard the police sirens coming closer.

Fortunately, Carson thought, Charlie didn’t tell the DA any of that.

He knew his client was guilty but he also knew his duty was to make sure the DA proved him guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. And, that was what he would try to plant in the minds of the jurors during his pre-trial questioning of them, especially in the minds of the ladies who smiled back at him when he looked them in the eyes with a slight smile. He could only hope for the best with the male jurors. He figured they might be harder to convince.

*****

Before he began questioning the jurors, his voir dire of the jury panel, Carson decided how he would attack what he assumed would be the DA’s case. He would try to convince the jury that no one actually saw his...