The primary aim of the "Novel Excerpts" blog category is to showcase my creative writing, specifically from the novels I've written. Hopefully, these posts will provide a glimpse into my storytelling style, themes, and narrative skills. It's an opportunity to share my artistic expressions and the worlds I've created through my novels.
The Boaz Scorekeeper, written in 2017, is my second novel. I'll post it a chapter a day over the next few weeks.
The Federal trial for Wade, James, and the three Boaz Police officers began on Monday, October 8, 2018. The first three days were consumed with jury selection. Over the next nine days Greg Gambol examined Fred Billingsley, Dale Watson, Marshall County Detective Darden Clarke, Etowah County Detective Pete Morrow, thirteen other law enforcement officers, four State Forensic technicians, and two medical examiners. Greg was methodical in his attempt to build a bullet-proof case. The most the five defense attorneys could do is attempt to react with cross-examination questions that, in the bigger picture, didn’t come within a hundred miles of creating any type of doubt, much less reasonable doubt in the guilt of the five accused.
It was now Friday afternoon, October 19, 2018. We had just returned from the noon break. Greg had saved me, who he called his star witness, until the last. It was now near the end of the second week of trial and Greg wanted to end his case presentation and the week with my testimony. Trial attorneys have long believed that the words from the last witness to appear on a Friday afternoon linger in the minds of jurors all weekend, rooting around and almost assuredly finding a little truth crevice to burrow into.
I was sworn in at 1:30 p.m., and sat down for a long afternoon as the center of attention. After the standard introductory and contextual questions, Greg asked me about my relationship with Gina Tillman. He had determined that we might as well get it on the table first, preventing the Defense from making it look like Greg and the prosecution were hiding the key motive for me to kill Gina. I described how in 1973 she had lied about my involvement in the disappearance and death of Wendi and Cindi Murray. Greg continued his questioning and I revealed how forty plus years later she came to hire me to represent her in a divorce action against her husband, Wade Tillman. And, how she started snooping around looking for evidence that could help her improve her chances of obtaining a healthy divorce settlement.
It took over an hour but I started with how Gina, after the bodies of Bill and Nellie Murray were found right before their wrongful death case began. I described how Wade had told her how John, Randall, and James had killed Wendi and Cindi and how all five of their fathers had helped dispose of the bodies and conceal the truth.
I described how she found a file labeled ‘Mission Money,’ and copies of several bank statements showing that he was directing the embezzlement of monies from the First Baptist Church of Christ’s Cooperative Missions Program. Finally, I described how Wade and the other members of Club Eden, along with key insiders in exchange for kickbacks, were involved in stealing money from the City of Boaz, Boaz Utilities, Quintard Pharmacy, and EagleMart.
Greg continued this line of questioning. I knew what he was doing. He simply was setting the stage for his most damning evidence. So far, all my testimony, incriminating as it will eventually be in establishing a clear and powerful motive for Wade and James to abduct and murder Gina, was merely building a framework to hang a thick coat of guilt across the faces of the men sitting in the dock. Before Greg’s paint came out, he had me relay to the jury that Gina had continued periodic-snooping in Wade’s study, and how in late September 2017, she had found a deposit receipt for $100,000 to the Club Eden bank account. It was from a Moscow, Russia bank. This discovery had led Gina to purchase a high-tech audio recording system. I described for the jury how Gina had hidden it in a semi-secret meeting room behind bookshelves in Wade’s church office.
“Let me show you Prosecution’s Exhibit 18. Do you recognize this document? If so, describe it for the jury.” Greg asked me.
“Yes. Gina gave it to me. It is the written version of an audio-recording made by Gina in Wade’s secret study.”
“Are you saying that a tape recorder created this written transcript?”
“Objection, your Honor, no foundation.” Defense attorney Tommy Brunner said not even standing up.
“Side bar please your Honor.” Greg said.
All five defense attorneys and Greg walked to the side of Judge Chambliss’ bench and spent nearly five minutes whispering back and forth with the Judge. Later, during the next recess, Greg described to me the deal he and the defense attorneys made. Greg would not object when they questioned me on cross about the disappearance of John Ericson, Randall Radford, or Fred Billingsley. Greg no doubt thought he had no risk at all by allowing the Defense team to question me about this issue.
When Greg returned to the podium he asked me, “if you know, tell the jury how the hidden recorder worked.”
“I don’t know the technical details but it was a device made by Sony that Gina found on eBay. It was voice-activated, when it detected a voice it would begin recording. Thirty minutes after the last voice sounded it would email a written transcript of the conversation to an email address, as long at the device was connected to Wi-Fi.” I responded.
“This email account, Gina had to enter her specific email address. Correct?”
“Yes, she set up a special account and activated notification alarms be sent to her cell phone after each email was sent.”
“Did you receive these emails?”
“No, not at first. The system was set up to send them to only one address.”
“What do you mean by ‘not at first’? Greg asked.
I picked up the transcript that Greg had given me, Prosecutor’s Exhibit 18. “At the top here, is the address Gina used. After Gina was murdered I was rereading this transcript and happened to notice this address. I knew that Gina’s recorder would still be working unless it had been discovered. I decided I had to try and access her email account.”
Greg then asked me a series of questions that led me through the process I used to discover both her Google account and her recorder-email account ID and password.
“Let me show you what’s been marked as Prosecutor’s Exhibit 19. Do you recognize this document?” Greg asked.
“It is the second transcript Gina received from the audio-recorder.”
“Now, here is Prosecutor’s 20. Can you identify it?”
“It is the third transcript she received.” I responded.
Were there any more emails sent to Gina’s email address from the audio-recorder?”
“There was one more. It was sent on November 5th, one day after Gina was murdered.”
“Mr. Tanner, I am handing you Prosecutor’s Exhibit 21. Can you identify this document?”
“Yes, it is the email she never lived to see.” I responded.
“To clarify, Exhibit 21 is a transcript of a conversation that took place on Sunday, November 5, 2017 in Wade’s semi-secret study that was automatically emailed to Gina from the hidden recorder. Correct?” Greg asked.
“That is exactly right.”
“Please read the text highlighted in yellow.” Greg said.
Defense counsel immediately objected. This time he stood. “Your honor, this is hearsay upon hearsay and is outside the scope of what Mr. Gambol agreed.”
Once again Judge Chambliss ordered all five attorneys to the Bench. It was nearly 3:00 p.m., a good time for his afternoon break. He instructed all parties to return to the courtroom at 3:15.
I stepped down from the witness stand and walked outside the Courthouse. I saw Matt lighting a cigarette and standing under a Maple tree still covered in glowing red leaves.
“I think I have seen you smoke one cigarette in the past, what, 50 years? That time I was in the Marshall County Courthouse sitting in ‘Holding’ with two deputies. You didn’t know it but I saw you sitting on a bench during a recess in my first trial. This must be serious. What’s going on?” I said.
“That day, 1973, dead of winter. I did smoke one cigarette that day. It was the second one I had smoked in my life. Since 1973 I’ve smoked two others, until this one. What’s that? Five, total? Five times now in my legal career, I’ve been compelled to seek a high dose of nicotine. This desire is triggered by a feeling I get, one ominous and deadening. It’s like I know something horrible is coming but I have no way of knowing what it is. Remind me on our way home to tell you about each of these incidents. Well, other than this fifth one. Hopefully, it’s a false alarm.”
I didn’t respond. I returned to the Courtroom leaving Matt answering a call on his cell phone. I avoided the elevator and took the three flights of stairs wondering what, if anything, was coming my way. I figured if Matt was worrying about something horrible happening, it had to involve me.
I returned to the witness stand not knowing how Judge Chambliss had ruled on the defense’s hearsay objection until Greg asked me his first question.
“Micaden, tell me if you recognize the two voices on this audio-recording.”
Greg had Trevor go to the Courtroom’s Exhibit table where a laptop computer was set up. He clicked the attached mouse a couple of times and the recording started playing. It was a voice file attached to the emailed transcript. This was standard with Gina’s high-tech recorder. It would create the voice file, then a written transcript, and finally, email it to the address that had been entered when the system was activated.
Voice One. “What’s so important for us to meet so early, and why here?” Voice Two. “Dad, James and I have done something without Club approval. It was horrible.” Voice One.” Tell me.” Voice Two. “I have been suspicious of Gina for a while. Periodically finding signs someone had been snooping around in my home study. It had to be her, so I hid a camera. Yesterday morning it showed me that the night before she was in my desk with my ‘Missions Money’ folder.” Voice One. “You’re telling me you left confidential information where she could just go pull it out of a file?” Voice Two. “Yes.” Voice One. “What do you suspect she learned from reviewing your folder?” Voice Two. “About the disappearance of the Castenada family and the receipt of the $100,000.” Voice One. “What have you done that is so horrible? You said you and James did something horrible.” Voice Two. “We murdered and buried Gina.”
“Stop.” Greg instructed Trevor.
Greg then asked me, “do you recognize the two voices on this recording? If so, please identify them.”
“Voice one is Walter Tillman. Voice two is Wade Tillman.”
I was surprised that defense counsel did not object after Greg’s question. Clearly, during the break Judge Chambliss had clarified how this part of my testimony would play out. He had a reputation for anticipating objections and dealing with them in advance, either in his chambers or during sidebar at the bench.
Greg, standing two feet from the rail in front of the jury, “Please read from page two the text highlighted in pink, again using Walter and Wade’s names instead of Voice One and Voice Two.”
“Walter. How do you know that Gina connected the $100,000 deposit with the Castenada family? Wade. From my smart ass remark I scribbled across the deposit slip. I wrote, sale of golden goose. Walter. You were aware that Gina knew that Club members referred to Alma as Mateo’s golden goose? Wade. In frustration, I may have let it slip when she would bring up at night she had spoken with Alma. You know they were close. Alma was her father’s golden goose. Without her involvement with the Hispanic community I don’t think Mateo’s church would have done anything like as well as it did. Nor, would it have caused so many Hispanics to attend our church. Walter. Do you think she shared this with her attorney, Micaden? Wade. I really don’t know.”
For the next half-hour Greg continued asking me to read from the transcript and following up each reading with additional questions. During this time, the jury learned that the Club, in late May 2017, had abducted Alma and her friend Esmarelda Andres, and Mateo and his wife, and how Boaz Police Officers Chris Anderson and Edward Hall had transported Esmarelda to Muscle Shoals Airport where Gustav Nilsson and sons met them for the exchange. The jury also learned about Esmerelda’s tragic death. Three days after Gustav’s plane had landed in Stockholm, Sweden, she jumped to her death from the Västerbron, an arch bridge in central Stockholm, during a botched attempt by a competing gang to steal Esmerelda and two other girls. The gang got caught up in a traffic jam on the bridge and while stopped, someway Esmerelda exited the vehicle and jumped to her death 300 feet below. She would have probably lived if she hadn’t landed on a passing barge.
The final question Greg asked me late Friday afternoon to end his direct examination was, “Micaden, did you have anything at all to do with the abduction and murder of Gina Tillman?”
I answered no. Twenty minutes later Matt and I were traveling Interstate 59 North through Trussville headed home. It had been a long day and would likely be an even longer Monday. As we rode in silence I wondered if the ominous feeling Matt experienced had anything to do with what would come during my cross-examination.
The Pencil-Driven Life 