Law of Attraction by Allison Leotta Read Free Book Online Page B

writing something on his legal pad.
    “Well . . . we had plans for Valentine’s Day, the night before. He was gonna take me out, but he never came around. I thought he was outwith another woman. So when he came by my house the next morning, I was angry. We got to fighting. I grabbed a butcher knife and I said I was gonna kill him. He ran out the house and I chased after him with the knife. I caught up to him in the front yard and I tried to stab him. That’s when he hit me, to stop me from stabbing him. I fell down and scraped my face on the ground.”
    Anna stood there, stunned. Although she hadn’t expected happy cooperation, she hadn’t expected Laprea to lie. Anna stared at Laprea. The young woman couldn’t meet her eyes.
    Anna looked around the courtroom, gauging everyone else’s reaction. D’marco sat back in his chair, trying to conceal his glee. The judge looked unsurprised; this sort of thing happened in the DV courtroom all the time. Grace grimaced and shook her head. Nick continued writing.
    Anna cleared her throat. Maybe she could still save the case. She would have to impeach her own witness. “Ms. Johnson, didn’t you tell me and Officer Bradley Green, right after that incident, that you had not raised a hand to D’marco?”
    “I made up that story because I was mad at D’marco. I was trying to get back at him because I thought he been with another woman. I lied to you.”
    Anna inhaled sharply. That answer wouldn’t just tank this case, it would forever taint Laprea’s credibility. If she were ever a victim again, a good defense attorney would obtain a copy of this testimony to show that she was an admitted liar.
    Anna switched tacks. She wouldn’t ask about the assault anymore, because Laprea would just continue lying. But Anna could still get D’marco on the contempt charge.
    “Has the defendant been in touch with you since he went to jail in this case?”
    Laprea looked at Anna, considering the question for a moment. There were some facts Laprea knew she couldn’t avoid. D’marco’s calls from jail were taped.
    “Yes.”
    “And has he tried to get back together with you?”
    “It’s not just him. We both interested in working things out. For our kids.”
    “So, you want to continue your relationship with the defendant?”
    “Yes.”
    “You love him.”
    Laprea looked at D’marco and smiled. “Yes, I do.”
    “You don’t want to see him go to jail, right?”
    “That’s right.”
    “And you’d do whatever you could to help get him out of these charges?”
    “I wouldn’t lie.”
    Grace shook her head; Anna had gone one question too far.
    “Ms. Johnson, the defendant called you from jail about a month ago, correct?” Anna was asking leading questions, which were usually prohibited during direct examination, but Nick wasn’t objecting. Things were going too well for the defense.
    “That’s right.”
    “And you spoke to him for several minutes that day, isn’t that right?”
    “Yes.”
    Anna opened the case jacket and rummaged through the papers until she found the envelope containing the recording of the jail call. Her hands shook as she inserted the cassette into the tape recorder and hit Play.
    D’marco looked amused as his voice saying, “Hey, baby,” came out of the machine. The judge glared at him as his recorded voice tried to wheedle his way back into Laprea’s heart. On the tape, Laprea was ambivalent. From the witness stand, she looked at her boyfriend tenderly, as his promises of love and devotion purred from the tape recorder.
    Anna switched off the tape before it got to the part where Rose chewed him out. That wasn’t relevant. “Ms. Johnson, at your request, there was a restraining order against the defendant, right?” Anna held a copy of the order up, so Laprea could see there was no getting out of this one.
    “Yeah, that’s true.”
    Anna read from the papers. “And that order said that he couldn’t contact you ‘in any way,’