"After he talked to Tara, he armed himself with a deadly weapon-and as you've heard from the evidence, those brass knuckles are a deadly weapon-and he went to Ron Nolan's place for the express purpose of beating him. Does that sound to you like someone who had given up hard feelings, someone who had forgiven his enemy, someone who did not still want revenge and to inflict pain? Of course not. That's just nonsense." She stopped by the window. "Is that enough on that?"

Felice nodded. "I think so. You don't want to beat it to death. Just move along."

Pacing again, Mills continued. "While I'm discussing motive, let me just say that motive alone is not…"

"No," Felice said. "The weight of motive evidence will be in the jury instructions. You don't have to go there."

With a nod, Mills started in again. "The defense would also have you believe that the second equally compelling motive-that Defendant wanted to stop Mr. Nolan from producing more evidence to connect him to the Khalil slayings-was moot because Mr. Nolan had already produced such evidence. This is a spurious argument." She stopped. "Is spurious okay?"

Felice considered for a second. "Maybe a little fancy."

"How about specious?"

"Maybe a lot fancy." The paralegal rolled her eyes. "How about going for the blue-collar vote and using phony."

"Fake."

"False."

Mills snapped her fingers. "That's it. False." She went back to her formal voice. "This is a false argument because first, Defendant may well have believed that Mr. Nolan had more evidence. But more to the point, none of what Mr. Nolan had told the FBI about the Khalil evidence could be used against Mr. Scholler if Mr. Nolan was dead. If there's one thing you've learned in this trial, it's that we need to produce live witnesses to give testimony. I suggest to you that the defendant had an even greater motive to kill Mr. Nolan once it was clear that Nolan had turned him in and was prepared to cooperate as a witness against him.

"If the defendant did kill the Khalils, adding one more murder to the list to protect him from being caught wouldn't have been a big deal."

"Whoa up," Felice said. "You better be ready. Washburn's gonna light up on that one."

"I know. But I'm allowed to argue, and I want the jury to hear it."

"The judge won't let it in."

"No, probably not. But I'll talk fast and get as much of it in as I can before they shut me down."

"So long as you know."

"I know. Okay, moving on." Mills consulted her notes briefly. "So let's get down to what actually happened, what the undisputed evidence proves happened. Arming himself with brass knuckles, and admitting to Tara Wheatley that he was going to quote put an end to this unquote, Defendant drove to Mr. Nolan's house and attacked him. A fight ensued, and both men were injured. Three days later, a gun bearing Defendant's fingerprints was found on the bed in Mr. Nolan's bedroom, near to where Mr. Nolan lay on the floor with a fatal gunshot wound to the head from the same caliber weapon.

"Exactly what happened on the night of that fight? The only person in this courtroom who could tell us that claims that he has no memory of that time. No memory at all. And this in spite of his own doctor's testimony that blackouts last no more than ten minutes. That leaves a lot of conscious time for which Defendant has no explanation, and no memory. The evidence you've heard, and from his own witness, does not support his testimony.

"So with a lack of absolute certainty, we are left with the task of asking ourselves what is the most reasonable explanation for the facts in evidence. Is it more reasonable to assume that Defendant finished his fight with Mr. Nolan and then, inebriated and with a concussion, drove himself to his apartment, where he continued to drink for the next two days, while some unidentified third party, for some inexplicable reason-"

"Maybe unexplained."

"-for some unexplained reason, entered Mr. Nolan's home, beat him with a fireplace poker, and then shot him?

"Or is it more reasonable to assume that, armed with his set of brass knuckles, Defendant got the better of Mr. Nolan in their fight and, when he had finished that exercise, simply shot him in the head with a handgun he found at the scene? Then, ladies and gentlemen, and only then, after he had murdered Mr. Nolan in cold blood, did he drive himself home and proceed to drink himself into an alcoholic stupor." Mills stopped, locked eyes with Felice, and shook her head. "I hate this guy," she said.

"It's not coming across," her paralegal answered. "It's very clean and objective. I buy it completely."

"Not too short?"

"Not for me."

Mills glanced up at the wall clock. "Almost showtime. Imagine if I actually pull off beating Washburn."

"Don't get ahead of yourself. Just take it a sentence at a time." Felice stood up and gave her boss a quick hug. "You feel ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Okay," Felice said. "Go get 'em."

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