"GOOD MORNING, MR. MCLAUGHLIN," Abeau Chaney cleared his throat and glanced at a notepad on his desk.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFizfgGj7Om
"Mr. McLaughlin." Because Abeau was speaking in English, Benito removed his headphones.
"You testified you were never on the yacht, the Inner Peace, on the night or early morning in question."
"That's right."
"You're aware that one of your fingerprints was located on the doorknob of a bedroom door on that yacht."
"Yes, I am," said Benito. "And as I told the investigators, I've been on Bill Macarenas's yacht many times. Just not that night."
"The bedroom door I reference---you are aware that this is the very bedroom that my client says was the location of your----intimate relations?"
"I wasn't," he said. "I am now."
"A coincidence, you think?"
"Apparently so."
"So I will assume-----you also are not aware that Mischa, my client, identified this particular bedroom to the authorities before she knew that your fingerprint was on the doorknob of that bedroom?"
Benito, of course, didn't know that. Abeau referenced the various pages of the dossier, establishing the date of Mischa's statement to the police and the later report of the fingerprint results.
"So of the five bedrooms on this yacht, Mischa just happened to pick the one where a fingerprint of yours would later be found? She just got lucky in her guess?" Abeau asked, wagging a pencil in his hand.
Benito bowed his head ever so slightly. "Mr. Chaney, I doubt she would consider herself lucky at this time."
A murmur of laughter rippled through the courtroom. Abeau acknowledged the moment.
"A poor question," he said. "A better one: Mr. McLaughlin, knowing that you are alive and well, and perfectly able to ----rebut what she said----knowing all of this, yes?----can you think of a reason why Mischa would make up this story about you? Knowing that you would immediately deny it and----expose her as a liar?"
Benito, who had been wearing the trace of a smug smile, lost a bit of color.
"This woman," Abeau went on, waving an arm with a flourish, "whom the prosecution claims to be a criminal mastermind----she would have to be quite----how you say----stupid, yes? To make up such a silly alibi?"
The prosecutor rose, presumably to object, but the presiding judge was already admonishing Abeau to avoid speeches at this point. Abeau bowed slightly to the presiding judge and moved on.
"The murders occurred on nineteen June, Mr. McLaughlin. Yet you were not questioned until twenty-four June. Five days later. Do you recall this, as I do?"
Benito's eyes danced a bit before he nodded. "I think that's right."
"They came to you," he said. "Not you to them."
"That's also correct."
"You hadn't heard this news of President Diderot's death before twenty-four June?"
"Of course I had. I believe I heard about it when everyone else did."
"And you knew it had taken place in Monte Carlo."
"Yes," Benito said,, the answer coming more slowly, as he grew warier of his adversary.
"And the news of the arrests." Abeau gestured to the four of them in the defense cage. "These four women. Their names and faces were splashed everywhere. Almost immediately. Were you not immediately aware that they had been arrested?"
Benito coughed, obviously stalling for time. "Mr. Chaney, the sequence of events is not something I remember particularly well. At some point, yes, I heard their names. And---yes, to answer your next question, I recognized them as the actresses I'd met at the nightclub."
"But you did not initiate contact with the French authorities, did you, sir?"
"No, I didn't. I didn't think the fact that I had met them at the nightclub made any difference. What could I tell the French authorities? These women were fun to party with?"328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYBLmxU62gh
More laughter in the courtroom, but subdued this time. This wasn't the time for levity.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8sIDGDk7Q6
Aubrey was closing in on Benito, and everyone sensed it.328Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD5hV2TubwF
