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but only so we can be certain we have an accurate account of
your testimony today. Please speak into the microphone,
make certain that you answer verbally, a shrug or gesture
cannot be transcribed into the record, speak clearly and think
about my questions for a moment before you answer them.
We want your best possible answers. If you don't know the
answer to something, it's okay to ask me to repeat a question
or say you don't know. Do you understand all this?"
"Yes."
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"Okay. Good." Stevenson walked from behind counsel
table. "Let's get something right out into the open for the
grand jury. You're here on a deal with the DA's office, is that
correct?"
Caesar nodded and then remembered he had to speak.
Leaning into the microphone, "Yes, it is."
"And what is that deal?"
"In exchange for my cooperation," Caesar paused thinking
about how to state it, "testifying here and at trial, I won't be
prosecuted for burglary ... this time. And I've pled no-lo to
four other charges, they've put me on probation and I have to
make restitution of about twenty grand."
"By no-lo, you mean no-lo contendre, or rather that you
pled neither guilty nor innocent, but that you declined to
dispute those charges."
"That's right." Caesar wished he could be as self-assured
as the man questioning him.
"Besides those you have prior convictions for burglary,
trespass, theft?"
"Yep, I mean yes." They'd gone over that this would come
up, but it still was hard to admit it in front of all these
strangers. "It's pretty much all in that nice little piece of
paper you have there." Caesar pointed to the rap sheet held
by the attorney. "I've never been a very good boy."
"Tell me why they gave you that deal."
This was it, what he was here for. A deep breath didn't
calm Caesar's nerves at all. In fact, it made him realize just
how anxious he really was. Shaking slightly, Caesar began.
"Because on the morning of June 15, this year, I broke into a
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house I'd been casing for a while. And I'd pretty much gone
through the whole house and gotten up to the master
bedroom and in the closet I found one of those little hidey-
holes that people think no one will ever discover."
"And was there something in that hidey-hole?"
"Yeah, pictures." Caesar closed his eyes, remembering the
nastiness he'd found. He needed to picture it in his mind so
he could make sure these people understood how awful it
was. "Really fu ... um, I mean, disturbing pictures."
"What was disturbing about the pictures?"
Caesar took a deep breath. He swallowed and then he told
them. He described, with as much detail as he could
remember, what he'd seen, how he'd covered his tracks and
run to Nate for help. From time to time one of the jurors
would break in and ask for clarification of a point. At first
Caesar wasn't sure if he should respond to them, but
Stevenson nodded and told him to go ahead. When he
finished, and neither the DA nor the Jurors had any further
questions for him, the foreman stood.
The foreman had one last duty to perform before Caesar
was released. "Before you leave, please listen carefully to
what I'm going to say: you are admonished not to reveal to
any other person, except as ordered by the court, what
questions were asked of you and what responses were given.
In addition, you are not to reveal any other matters
concerning the nature or subject of the investigation which
you learned during your appearance here, unless and until
such a time as the transcript of these proceedings is made
public. I will advise you also that a violation of this order can
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be the basis of a contempt charge against you. Do you
understand?"
"Yes, I do."
"Thank you then. You are hereby excused."
Stevenson followed him to the door. As he opened it, the
DA leaned in and whispered, "You did good."
Hesitating, searching for Nate in the hall, Caesar
whispered back, "You think?" He felt Nate's hand on his arm
and it startled him. He must have been standing just to the
left of the door. Caesar leaned into the touch, drawing as
much strength as he could from it.
With a warmer smile, the DA nodded. "Yeah, we're going
to nail this son-of-a-bitch."
From inside, the foreman's voice echoed, "District Attorney
Stevenson, do you have another witness for us?"
The attorney turned back toward the room, "Yes, Officer
Nathan Reilly is right here."
"Good, let's get going."
Nate squeezed Caesar's arm before releasing it. Then he
and the DA disappeared behind the wood paneled doors.
Caesar found his place on the bench and settled in to wait for
Nate.
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Chapter 24
"Hi!" A tall, Asian woman, all business, stood before an
unremarkable metal door set into an unremarkable concrete
box of a building. Except for the gate guard at the front, the
place looked like a warehouse lot. Caesar shouldered the four
shirts he brought with them. Nate stuck his hands in his
pockets and drifted along behind, trying not to be obvious
about drooling over Caesar's ass. The nice thing about
unofficial-official bodyguard duties was a good deal of Caesar
time.
She smiled and held out her hand to Caesar. "You must be
Caesar?"
"Yeah." Matching her grip and her smile, Caesar asked,
"You're June? Carol said I was supposed to meet June."
"That's me." She held open the door. A brightly lit chaos of
lights, wires and monitors was visible just beyond her. With a
clipboard clutched to her chest, June moved to let them pass.
A short hallway opened onto a two story room with walkways
along the perimeter. Above the trio, various windowed offices
and booths looked down upon a quiet frenzy. Men and women
studied monitors or read through reports. The clack of
keyboards drowned out almost all other sounds. "This is the
actual newsroom. We're using their set up for today. It gets
used for a lot of commercials and the like."
"Cool." Caesar glanced back at Nate. He was nervous and
had been on edge for hours. Nate tried to calm him down
earlier with a good blowjob. That strategy succeeded for all of
ten minutes. Nate offered a grin and tried to be supportive.
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June looked at Caesar, then at Nate and back again to the
thief. "Ah, I forgot to introduce you. This is my buddy, Nate.
He made sure I actually found the place ... didn't go all loco
and freak."
"Nice to meet you, Nate." Her heels clicked on the bare
concrete. "You're welcome to hang around." June stepped
over a mass of cables strung across their path before leaning
against a set of double doors. One swung wide from the
pressure of her hip. "Now, this is the studio." Caesar's brown
eyes went wide and he swallowed. Catching the vibes from
his case of nerves, she smiled warmly. "Remember, this is
just a screen test to see how well you work with the camera.
We don't expect to see Matt Damon, just whether or not you
have a presence on screen. Some people just wash out and
come off flat." Another smile flashed. "I doubt that will
happen here. Jeff and Millie have good instincts."
Both men leaned in to look at the dimly lit room. Flat black
walls and a ceiling made of pipes and gantries didn't make for
great scenery. On a raised dais to the left a long, red news
desk sported the local station's logo in silver. Cameras of
various sizes stood like sleeping sentinels around it. "The
news studio takes up most of the room, but we're going to
shoot you over against the far wall with the neutral black
background." She used the clipboard as a pointer. "If we were
doing a TV spot or commercial or the weather, that's where
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Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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