An Eye For Justice Page 21
‘Well why didn’t you say so,’ he said, guarded tone instantly falling away. ‘Forgive the caution, Lucy, but we’ve had some competitors snooping around. Dirty tricks - I’m sure you know the score if your in the industry, but to answer your question. You bet. I’d be delighted to talk to you guys at the review mag. We all read it here as do most folks in the industry.’
‘That’s great, John. Exactly what I wanted to hear, and thanks for the plug. We love to hear it when folks give us a vote of confidence. Look, John, we’ve got a deadline on this one, so how you fixed in terms of your diary?’
‘Just let me put you on hold for a minute, Lucy. I’ll check with my secretary, see if we can’t juggle some appointments, bring my next New York trip forward.’
The phone went dead for a short while. Pascal watched the entrance to Oskars and finished the sugary dregs of her almost cold coffee, then Fossey was back on, full of enthusiasm. ‘I could see you Wednesday, if that would suit? I’ll be staying at the Marriott,’ he said.
‘That’s great, John. How about the evening, unless you got a date,’ she giggled coquettishly. ‘I’m sure you’ll want to keep your day free for scheduled appointments, and I wouldn’t want to infringe on that.’
‘How about 7 in the hotel bar, or,’ he said, hesitating as if thinking about the propriety of it, ‘you come up to my room? Be a bit cosier, and relaxed and I can talk more freely?’
‘You got it, John. Looking forward to seeing you. Great to speak with you today,’ she said, terminating the call. As she looked up Christoff was just emerging from Oskars with a satisfied smile on his face.
* * * *
Southern District Court
Day 8
‘Now we are all back with miss Fedler in place,’ Judge Friedman said, ‘perhaps we can get this trial back on track.’ He turned to Hannah. ‘When we broke you indicated you would re-start your testimony with your discovery by the Germans in the attic. Please proceed.’
Hannah seemed fired up and ready to go. She nodded at the jury with a half smile. ‘You may not believe it but it was almost a relief to get discovered in the attic. Life there was a terrible strain. Awful fear mixed in with stultifying boredom and the frustration of being locked away all day, stifling when it was hot and freezing when it was cold, tiptoeing around and whispering.
‘In the end, like so many others, we were betrayed. The German’s came at 3 am in the morning in a truck, lead by an SS officer. There were lots of soldiers this time with guns and dogs. They knew exactly where to go and no searching was necessary. When Mrs. Van Der Valk answered the door, they pushed past her and made their way up the stairs to stand directly underneath the concealed attic trapdoor. Willem De Grout, the handyman, our betrayer was with them, translating for the SS officer. They said that unless we all came down within one minute, the soldiers would start shooting up through the ceiling and any survivors found would be shot immediately.
‘I remember looking down from the attic trap-door. The SS officer was looking up at me, and he was tall and handsome. He said, in English, which I understood, and I remember his words to this day, “good morning, my fine Jewess. If there are more of your rabble up there, you must come down immediately or I will shoot all of you. You may bring a small bag of belongings each.”
‘Of course we climbed down. When I got onto the landing Willem De Grout was still there, with a smile on his face. I couldn’t help it. I spat full in his face and the German officer laughed. De Grout started to tell the officer we had valuables. He’d obviously searched our belongings and found the Pendant, but the officer wasn’t interested. In fact he dismissed De Grout with contempt.
‘Then Mrs. Van Der Valk ran up crying, and saying sorry. I begged the officer to spare her telling him that it wasn’t her fault, and he surprised me by agreeing. He said the Van Der Valk’s were important members of the community and it would not serve German interests to punish them.
‘I asked him what was to happen to us. Maybe he was impressed by my lack of fear because he answered me seriously. He told us we would be taken to the Dutch Theatre for processing and then on by train to the transit camp at Westerbork. He said we had nothing to fear. That the facilities at the camp were good. From there, later on it was likely we would be sent on to work in the east.
It is funny because despite everything, I did believe him. Then they loaded us onto the trucks, and that was the last time I ever saw Mrs. Van Der Valk.
Chapter 23
People v Calver - Manhattan Supreme Court
Day 7
‘Your honour,’ I addressed judge Gonzalez. ‘I intend to give evidence myself, and then of course Mr. Stahl may cross examine me in the usual way.
Gonzalez nodded. ‘Proceed,’ she said.
I rose, walked over to the witness box and took my seat. In most major trials early evidence is usually elicited to build up an attractive portrait of the defendant by covering their background and explaining who they are. So that’s what I did. I told the jury about myself, how I graduated in law, then qualified as a lawyer in the UK, my early years of practice and then my marriage. I then spent a little time dealing with the tape of Carmen’s call to the police.
‘Now, you heard my wife, Carmen, on the tape Mr. Stahl played for you,’ I said. ‘On that night we had both consumed a significant amount of alcohol, but when we went to bed there was no animosity between us. I woke from a dream with my hands around her throat and it took me a few moments, given my intake of alcohol and the effects of just coming out of sleep, to realize what I was doing, and when I did, I immediately stopped.
‘And for the record I am not into sadomasochistic sexual practices involving the infliction of pain, or strangling or any other type of perversion. And nor did I have any reason to want to try to strangle my wife,’ I said, stopping for a moment to draw breath. ‘In fact,’ I added as an afterthought, ‘although we’re currently separated, I love her, and have every intention of trying to win her back, when I’m finished here.’
I took a sip of water from my glass and then moved on. ‘So, the next question you may want answered is, why am I in the USA? Well, I did touch on that briefly in my opening. I came to America in July to deal with a case for my client, Hannah Palmer, who is the mother of the victim, Helena Palmer. Hannah is a UK citizen but her claim is against US citizens and so the proceedings are brought here in the USA. This case—’
‘Your honour,’ Stahl interrupted, rising to his feet. ‘Relevance? I’m sure this civil case of Mr. Calver’s is fascinating, but what relevance does it have to these proceedings? He is merely attempting to muddy the waters, and should be asked to deal solely with the facts raised in this case.’
‘Your honour,’ I replied. ‘With all due respect to Mr. Stahl, Hannah Palmer’s claim is highly relevant to these proceedings. Mr. Stahl’s case, if I have it right, is that my motive for killing Helena Palmer was sexual lust - I apparently get off on strangling women. Motive in a murder trial is central, especially this murder trial. He’s raised it, and I am fully entitled to deal with it and point the jurors to others, who I say had a far better motive for killing Helena Palmer than I did.’
‘I’ll allow it,’ Gonzalez said, grudgingly, ‘but do move along please, Mr. Calver.’
‘Thank you, your honour. Hannah Palmer is currently giving evidence in your Southern District Court. She is 88 years old. On its face hers is a simple claim for return of some jewellery, taken from her in 1943. That jewellery, it is alleged, is now in the possession of K Corporation and its officers, Angel, David and Kendra Milken and the proceedings are against these individuals. It has to be said that their current legal stance is that the jewellery was acquired completely legitimately by purchase, and of course the purpose of those proceedings is to decide on just those issues. However in the investigation of the history of the events surrounding that case, some disturbing evidence is becoming apparent. Damaging and prejudicial evidence that some of New York’s most powerful and prominent ci
tizens will do whatever it takes to stop coming out.
‘Helena Palmer came out here from UK to meet me and talk to the defendants about her mother’s case. She came out because her brother John who was dealing with it here, died, some months ago in what can only be described as suspicious circumstances. He was found in his car in the river with excess alcohol in his blood even though he pathologically disliked alcohol.
‘Hannah Palmer is Jewish. She grew up in Nazi occupied Holland, and although she is currently testifying, and I do not wish to pre-empt or interfere with those proceedings, it is clear that some violence was perpetrated on her. And her family’s jewellery was not given up voluntarily. K Corporation and the Milken family, whether they have any involvement with what happened to Hannah or not - and I make no judgment about that, which is for others to decide - clearly do not want to be associated with such a story, and I say will go to some lengths, possibly extreme lengths, to kill the story Hannah is currently trying to tell.
‘I say they calculated that a good way of doing that was to eliminate Helena, Hannah’s daughter and spokesperson, and at the same time frame her lawyer - me - for the killing - two birds with one stone you might say. I believe they may have thought it would force Hannah to settle the claim on confidential terms with no publicity or admissions of guilt, but it hasn’t; its just made her real mad,’ I said with my first genuine grin of the day.
‘Also,’ I added almost as an afterthought, ‘having a fortune of billions of dollars, as K Corp and Milken have, makes doing what I have just sketched out relatively easy and risk free.’
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Let’s move on to the night of the murder.’
* * * *
Southern District Court
Day 8
‘Now,’ Morganna said, standing and addressing Hannah in the witness box, ‘you left off testifying at the point where you and your family had been arrested at the Van Der Valk’s house and loaded onto trucks. Please go on.’
Hannah nodded. ‘The truck took us to the Dutch Theatre, a famous building in Amsterdam that the Nazi’s were then using as a processing centre, and we spent the night there with hundreds of others. It was chaos. The next day they marched us around two miles in columns through the streets to Muiderpoort railway station where a train was waiting for us.’
Hannah paused there to take a sip of water. It was becoming noticeable that the gaps, pauses and silences, which had been so absent early on in her testimony, were now becoming more and more frequent as she struggled to recall events from so long ago. She sat now in the witness box, hunched over, seemingly deep in thought, her story temporarily suspended as her mind wandered back and forth, searching out the memories. It seemed to be getting harder and harder for her to tell her story the closer she got to whatever it was - what terrible revelation - that was so scaring her.
She sipped some more water, then looked down at her hands as she composed herself again, trying to remember, desperate to be truthful, so the jury would know what had happened. Then, as her mind picked up the thread again, she slowly began to speak.
‘That train took us to the Westerbork transit camp in Northern Holland. It didn’t take long to get to there, and when we arrived registration took place. Again,’ she said, smiling grimly at the jury, ‘I was strangely comforted by the fact that Westerbork was not a really terrible place, nothing like what I had been expecting anyway. To some extent the SS officer who had arrested us seemed to have told the truth about the place.
‘What can I say?’ Hannah said, a look of surprise on her face as she regarded the Jury. ‘The place looked normal. People walked around freely, there didn’t seem to be any work going on and there were many children running and playing. No one looked to be at the edge of starvation either. The camp was quite small, about 500 metres by 500 metres, surrounded by a moat and a single wire fence about six feet high, with a few watchtowers dotted around the perimeter. Barracks were single sex, so Mama, Helena and I were allocated to barracks 41 and Papa and Grandpa, barracks 68.
‘At the end of the barracks were doors that led through to a bathing area with showers, and there was also an area with tables and chairs laid out for people to sit and talk, play cards, read and eat. Food, although simple and monotonous, was plentiful, provided from a fully functional kitchen. What made it easier I suppose was that there were many people there we knew from Jodenhoek and I know that helped my mother to relax a little.
‘We soon settled into a calm and rather boring routine but I kept wondering what the catch was, what was the purpose of the Nazi’s in having such a camp. I soon found out when I witnessed a train leaving the camp, packed full, on a Tuesday morning. When I asked about it, a man said simply, “train comes in empty Monday, train leaves full Tuesday morning. If you’re on the list. You go.”
‘The following Monday all our names, Mama, Papa, Grandpa, Helena and mine were on the list for deportation the next day. We were told to assemble first thing Tuesday morning for roll call. It was April 5th 1943.’
* * * *
People v Calver - Manhattan Supreme Court
Day 7
I asked Judge Gonzalez if I might stand and move about the court, because sitting in the witness box was cramping my style. She looked at Stahl for comment, but he just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “whatever”. So I stood and walked around the court as I spoke, all the time focusing on the jury.
‘On the day of the murder, Helena and I met with the defendants in Hannah Palmer’s civil trial, at their registered offices in Manhattan. They were represented by their general counsel, Charles Browder, and later, David Milken, son of Angel, joined us. The meeting was stressful and quite difficult. No settlement was reached with them and we got a shock, not having realized the case was due to start the following Monday if no settlement was reached. So when we left we were feeling, shall we say, a might overwrought. I hardly knew Helena, had only just met her and we were both in a strange new country, so we decided to have dinner in my room and go on talking.
‘We ordered up some steaks and wine and we relaxed and talked. I think its fair to say we got on very well and I ordered up some more wine from room service at about 9.35 pm, and you’ve heard from the waiter who brought that wine up to us.
‘We were two people thrown together in a stressful situation a long way from home, in intimate circumstances with wine as well, and it is perhaps not so surprising that we ended up in bed. It was fully consensual and there was no element of strangulation or throttling or anything else.
‘Later, at about 1 am, Helena awoke and said she would return to her room and she did so. I was restless after she had left; its a different time zone here and I am still not used to it. I got up and went down to the hotel bar at around 1.40 am. The CCTV shows, and I don’t dispute it, that I was wearing my green silk tie when I went down to the bar. In the bar I had a few more drinks and spoke briefly to the head of security, John O’Leary. I was then told at around 2.15 am that there had been a phone call down from Helena asking me to go up to her room. I have seen no evidence, other than John O’Leary’s testimony, that there was such a phone call and I believe it was fabricated to get me back up to her room.
‘At the time I had no reason to doubt the phone call so I did go to Helena’s room, arriving there at around 2.45 am, and I buzzed her. What corroborates my theory that there was no phone call is that it took Helena around 2 minutes to get out of bed and answer the door. If she had called down, I would have expected her to be waiting to answer as soon as I arrived. She also denied making the call when she let me in. We had both been drinking and were sleepy and just assumed there had been a mix up. We chatted for a while, I put on the TV and watched some news, and then I left her at 2.45 am. She was alive when I left the room and that was the last time I saw her. I went back to my room to sleep, until I was woken by Detective Daly knocking on my door sometime after 11 am, and shortly after he arrested me
‘And there’s one other thing that hasn’t come
out, and that’s that I had all Hannah’s case papers, depositions, tapes, witness statements and photographs in my room. These were brought over from the UK for her case against K Corp. When I was woken up by Daly that morning, all those case papers had gone - stolen,’ I said.
I walked back to the defense table and checked my notes. Then I walked back towards the jury and stopped about six feet away from them. ‘I didn’t kill Helena Palmer,’ I told them as strongly and firmly as I could. ‘I had no reason to kill her, but someone else certainly did. Right now I am at a loss to explain the presence of my green silk tie or the CCTV, but I’m working on it. I believe my tie was planted and that the CCTV was fabricated in a very sophisticated way, and that could only have been done by persons with access to significant resources, financial and otherwise.’
I walked back to the defense table and told judge Gonzalez I had nothing further. She looked at the clock and then at the prosecutor. ‘Cross examination, Mr Stahl, will have to wait for morning, as I propose to adjourn now. Thank you,’ she said.
I felt relief that I wouldn’t have to face Stahl straightaway. I thought I’d done alright with my testimony, but unless we could figure out the CCTV, I was just whistling in the wind. The other point was that as soon as Stahl finished cross examining me, which wouldn’t take long, the case would essentially be over. I’d given up on calling any other witnesses, even the CCTV expert, as we still didn’t know how they’d faked it. Fact is I’d just about run out of time.
Chapter 24
Pascal and Christoff sat in the kitchen poring over plans spread out across the table. It was around 10.30 am and they were drinking coffee.
‘Courtesy of New York’s Department of Buildings,’ Christoff said, smoothing down a corner and placing a coffee cup on it to keep the paper flat. ‘They’ve got blue-prints going back years for almost every structure in the city.’