Silent Witness

Table of Contents

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Epub ISBN: 9781407058795

Version 1.0

  

Published in the United Kingdom in 1997 by

Arrow Books

21

Copyright © Richard North Patterson, 1996

The right of Richard North Patterson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

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First published in Great Britain in 1997 by

Hutchinson

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ISBN 9780099164623

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Richard North Patterson has been a San Francisco trial lawyer and a partner in the firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Emerson. He is now a full-time writer. His first novel,
The Lasko Tangent
, won an Edgar Allan Poe award and his most recent books,
Degree of Guilt, Eyes of a Child, The Final Judgement
and
No Safe Place
have been top five
New York Times
bestsellers.

Praise for SILENT WITNESS

‘SILENT WITNESS is an electrifying novel of suspense' –
Publishing News

‘Gripping courtroom scenes . . . a fascinating and horrifying portrayal of the legal system' –
Empire

‘Grips like a salesman's handshake: the courtroom scenes reverberate with tension, and apprehension . . . effective, engaging' –
Crime Time

ALSO BY RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON

Silent Witness
could not have been written this way without the help of others. In San Francisco, I received advice from those experts I've begun to think of as my criminal law board of directors: Medical Examiner Dr. Boyd Stephens; Homicide Inspector Napoleon Hendrix; Detective Hal Lipset; and defense attorneys Hugh Levine and Jim Collins. As usual, Assistant District Attorney Al Giannini gave me critical advice before I wrote the novel, and then reviewed the manuscript for atmosphere and authenticity.

Because the starting points for Lake City and Steelton were the suburb of Bay Village and the city of Cleveland, the locations where I lived more or less continuously from ages ten to twenty-four, I should reemphasize what I hope is already obvious – that this is a work of fiction and that the places and events are imagined. Fairness also impels me to add that Bay Village and Cleveland are considerably nicer than Lake City, which I envision as more rural and isolated, and Steelton, a rust-belt amalgam whose grimness owes much to other models. But revisiting both locales helped me create the milieu I wanted for this novel, and a number of people helped as well. Carmen Marino, chief of the Criminal Division of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor, laid out possible prosecutorial tactics in a fascinating way. Defense lawyer Jerry Gold provided good advice, fine company, and some great suggestions for cross-examination. And County Coroner Dr. Elizabeth Balraj, forensic expert Linda Luke, former assistant county prosecutor Jack Hudson, and my friend and law school classmate Jerry Weiss all assisted my research. (An addendum: those familiar with procedures in Cuyahoga County will be aware that, unlike many jurisdictions, the coroner's office grants relatively liberal access to coroner's reports. The restrictions reflected in my story are those commonly used elsewhere.)

Similarly, a number of people reacquainted me with various aspects of life in a smaller midwestern community, including Fred Drenkhan, Jim Tomkins, Eric Eakin, Mary Slama, Joe Loomis, and George Serb. Special thanks go to my oldest friend, Dick Penton, who helped me relive the time in which Tony Lord grew up.

The psychology of a character like Sam Robb is quite complex. Psychiatrists Dr. Rodney Shapiro and Dr. Ken Gottlieb explored with me the possible components of Sam's pathology, and helped to put it in a fictional context. Nor was the life of Tony Lord uncomplicated: my friend Mike Robe helped me re-create the role of a star athlete in a small town; and Father Tony Sauer graciously outlined the possible differences in the relationship of Tony Lord to the Catholic Church between the 1960s and the present, a time during which the evolution of the Church might enable Tony to reexamine his disaffection.

Several important people supported me throughout the writing of
Silent Witness
. My literary agent and friend, Fred Hill, and my dramatic rights agent, Richard Green, lent their usual fine assistance. My wife, Laurie; our dear friend Anna Chavez; and my wonderful assistant, Alison Thomas – who gets better with each book – gave me painstaking feedback on every section of this novel. My friends Philip Rotner and Thelton Henderson kindly commented on various aspects of the manuscript. And my publishers at Knopf, including Sonny Mehta and Jane Friedman, encouraged me as always.

Finally, there are Linda Grey and Clare Ferraro. As president of the Ballantine Publishing Group, Linda inherited me a few books back. In the process of helping me reach millions of readers, she has become my friend and good-humored guide to the sometimes arcane world of paperback publishing. Clare Ferraro, publisher of Ballantine, is – however inartful the phrase – my oldest friend in publishing, and her splendid company and consistent support have been one of the real blessings of my career. With the help of George Fisher, Kim Hovey, Woody Tracey, Jean Fenton, and many others, including the dedicated Ballantine sales force, they have helped bring me the writer's ultimate reward: thanks to them, even my kids know who I am.

  

Gina Belfante murdered her husband at one-fifteen on a Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon she had lied to the police; by Thursday, the police and the medical examiner had concluded that Donald Belfante, who had been shot to death while sleeping in his own bed, had not been killed by an intruder. The police did not find the prenuptial agreement – giving Gina a pittance should the Belfantes ever divorce – until Monday. The next day, after they charged Gina Belfante with murder, the lawyer she had consulted about a divorce posted bail and referred her to Anthony Lord.

Although San Francisco was a small city, and the wealthy society in which the Belfantes moved was smaller yet, Tony Lord did not know her. But, inevitably, Gina knew Tony Lord; she had seen him at the Oscars, she told him brightly, on the night that his exquisite wife, Stacey Tarrant, won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Sitting behind his desk, Tony let Gina chatter nervously, without appearing to watch her as closely as he did. Finally, he asked a few questions; it was several hours later – well after Gina Belfante had tearfully admitted putting a bullet through her husband's brain – that Tony learned she was a battered wife and had doctors' records to prove it. That, he decided, would be his defense.

It was not simple. Given that Donald Belfante had died without waking, it was hard to argue that Gina had felt in imminent danger of violence. The prenuptial agreement made matters worse yet – in terms of money, it rewarded murder and punished divorce. There were almost no witnesses: like many abusive husbands, Donald Belfante had usually beaten his wife's body, often in ways both sadistic and intimate, while leaving her face unmarred; like many abused wives, Gina Belfante had lied to everyone save her doctor. And a society woman who stood to inherit twenty-five million dollars would not strike most jurors as so helpless that she had shot her sleeping husband in fear and desperation. His only choice, Tony knew, was to put her late husband on trial.