In Self Defense, Susan Sloan [best classic romance novels txt] 📗

***

It was the third day of the third week of trial.  The courtroom was packed, and there was a nervous tension in the air.  Everyone knew what evidence had been presented -- now they were waiting to hear how it would all be explained away.

There had, of course, been a great deal of speculation in the media, with everyone from legal pundits to the neighborhood gardener jumping in to provide his take or her spin.  The Durants’ trusted caterer had already gotten rich providing juicy tidbits, having nothing at all to do with food, to the smear magazines.

“If she knew it was her husband,” everyone agreed, “then she can’t claim self-defense.”  And the general consensus was that the prosecution had pretty much established that.  So everybody waited to hear what evidence the defense could possibly produce that would change anyone’s mind.

***

“The defense calls Elaine Haskell to the stand,” David said.

Clare’s sister-in-law walked directly down the aisle, avoiding eye contact with her brother and her parents who were now allowed to sit in the courtroom.  With her dark hair and flashing eyes, she, more than anyone else in the family, resembled Richard.

“How well do you know your sister-in-law?” David asked, once he had established her identity for the jury.

“I couldn’t know her any better or love her any more if we were blood relatives,” Elaine replied without hesitation.

“It’s been put forward by the prosecution that your brother thought his wife was having an affair,” David suggested.  “Do you have an opinion about that?”

Elaine chuckled.  “That’s nothing but poppycock,” she said.  “Even if she’d wanted to, when would she have found the time?  If she wasn’t at work, she was at home with the children.  If she wasn’t at home with the children, she was out at some charitable meeting or event.  Her life was an open book for anyone who wanted to look.  If you ask me, that was nothing more than Richard trying to justify his own affairs.”

“How would you assess the marriage?”

“Clare was madly in love with Richard, right from the start.  As far as she was concerned, he walked on water.  Or maybe more to the point, she enabled him to walk on water.”

“And your brother?”

At that, Elaine shrugged.  “My brother was madly in love with Nicolaidis Industries,” she told the jury.

“Did it come as a surprise to you to learn that your sister-in-law was seeking a divorce?”

“No, it didn’t, because she wasn’t doing anything of the kind,” Elaine declared.  “Like the affair, that was another fabrication of Richard’s.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I asked her right out about it.  She was very upset that Richard would even think she would do such a thing.”

“But she had to know about his numerous affairs, didn’t she?”

“Oh yes, she knew,” Elaine confirmed.  “And it hurt her deeply.  But she also knew he would never leave her for any of them.”

“Why was that?”

“Because leaving her could well have meant losing his position at Nicolaidis Industries,” Elaine explained, “and Richard would never have done that.”

“But how can you be so sure of that when that’s exactly what some witnesses here have testified he was going to do -- divorce his wife?” David wondered aloud.

“He could have talked to all the divorce attorneys in the world, and it wouldn’t have mattered,” Elaine asserted.  “Look, I knew my brother.  Apparently, I knew him better than anyone else in my family.  If divorcing Clare meant giving up his position at Nicolaidis Industries, he just plain wouldn’t have done it.”

“Not even for Stephanie Burdick?”

“Well, I have to admit, that was the first one that stuck.  The rest of them were pretty much here today and gone tomorrow.  But to tell you the truth, I don’t think even she would have been enough to pry him out of the marriage.”

“Then how do you explain his telling Ms. Burdick, on the night he was killed, that he was going to marry her?”

“I can’t explain it,” Elaine said.  “Except to say she was either deluding herself or Richard was deluding her, or maybe he had something else in mind.”

“What sort of something else?”

“I don’t know, maybe he thought there was another way he could get out of the marriage.”

David nodded slowly.  “Thank you,” he said.  “I have no more questions.”

***

“Mrs. Haskell, you didn’t live with Clare and Richard Durant in Laurelhurst, did you?” Mark Sundstrom asked on cross.

“No, I didn’t,” Elaine said.

“You live in Ravenna, some fifteen minutes away, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Then how can you be so positive about how and where Clare Durant spent her time before her husband’s death?”

“Because we talked on the telephone almost every day, sometimes more than once,” Elaine explained.  “We still do.  We’re very close.  But you don’t have to take my word for it.  You can ask Doreen.  She did live with Clare.  She still does.”

“You didn’t like your brother very much, did you?” Sundstrom tried.

“I loved my brother,” Elaine assured him.  “But that doesn’t mean I was blind to his shortcomings.”

The prosecutor gave up.  “Nothing further,” he said.

***

Henry Hartstone took the stand next.

“Clare may not have been part of the day-to-day operations of the company during Richard’s tenure, but she always knew exactly what was going on,” he said.  “I know that for a fact because she’d been having me send her monthly reports for years.  Of course, I can’t say whether Richard knew that or not.”

“Was she happy with the way Richard was running her father’s company?” David inquired..

“Perfectly happy,” Hartstone confirmed.  “As she should have been.  As everyone was.  With all due respect to our new CEO, Richard will be very hard to replace.  He had a brilliant mind for the business.  Gus Nicolaidis knew it.  That’s why he put him in charge.”

“What about the marriage?” David queried.  “Was it a good one?”

“That’s not exactly my area of expertise,” the chief financial officer replied.  “But I have no reason to think otherwise.  As far as Clare was concerned, all I can say is it was obvious she was