No Extration Treaty

                                      No Extradition Treaty

“How’d it go?”

She cocked her head to one side and got a slight sneer on her face. “How do you think it went? Older man, younger woman, body much better than his wife has. Also, I did manage to brush my ‘bigger than your step-mama’s’ boobs against his arm a couple of times. Dropped a couple of subtle hints, and he was all over me.”

“On the couch in his den, right?”

“Sure. Just like you planned it.”

“Great I’ll get tape over to Jeff’s and get a few still prints off of it.  He’s got all the equipment to do it.”

“You know, all this is just fantastic. Paul, with my past and all you can still love me and understand who I am,” she said.

“The past is the past, baby. We’re here, and it’s now.”

“I can’t wait to get out of here.”

“All in due time, Lacy. All in due time. It’ll take a few months to liquidate everything before we can head out.”

“South Pacific here we come,” Lacy squealed.

“You got that right, babe.”

The following Tuesday, Paul was sitting at the kitchen table when his step-mother came back from her nightly jog.

“Hi, Paul. What’s up?”

“We’ve got a problem, Mom.”

She laughed. ”Wow, this must really be serious. I’m Mom now, not Marie.” She was swiping her sweaty face with a towel.

Paul unclasped an eight by twelve inch envelop that was on the table in front of him. 

His step-mother picked one up. “:What the hell?” She slowly sat in a chair, almost sliding to the floor before she caught herself. 

“Yeah, what the hell is right,” Paul said.

“I’m gonna kill the son-of-a-bitch.”

“Well, I feel about the same way. My dad making out with my fiancée.”

“Does Lacy know about this?”

“No, I don’t want her to know I know, yet.”

“Why?”

“Look at your own situation. Did you sign a prenup?”

“No.”

“Do you know for sure that your name is on all the business assets?”

“No, I really don’t. I always took your father’s word for it.”

Paul reached across the table and held his step-mother’s hand. “Neither one of them needs to know we know what they’re up to. We need to protect ourselves.”

Marie patted his hand. “I’m surprised you’re helping me in this, but thank you.”

“We’ve both been taken by these two. Now let’s get our revenge.”

“Let me ask you another question, Paul. Why did you take these pictures in the first place?”

“I suspected something had been going on while you were jogging, and I was taking that stupid anger management class the judge mandated I take in order to stay out of jail. I put a wireless video recorder in that fake plant on his file cabinet.”

“Well, this is all a shock, but at least now we know.”

The trial was being held in the courtroom of Judge Elizabeth Crane. Marie Finch was on trial for the murder of her husband, David Finch. Marie’s attorney was taking a chance and putting her on the stand to testify on her own behalf.

“Would you please state your full name?”

“Marie Susan Finch.”

“And what is your occupation, Mrs. Finch?”

“I’m on the police force for the City of San Francisco. I’m a beat cop.”

‘And how long have you held this position?”

“Six years and seven months.”

“During that time have there been any complaints against you?”

“Three or four, but all cops get those from someone who didn’t think they deserved a traffic ticket or some other minor violation.”

“Would you please describe for the jury how you learned of your husband’s death?”

“Unfortunately in a very disturbing way. I had just come back from my evening jog and ..”

“Let me interrupt you, please. Do you run every evening at about the same time?”

“Yes. As police we need to keep in shape. Many people try to out run us on foot.”

“Okay, please continue. You just came back from your evening run. Then what happened?”

“I knew my husband was working in his den. He did every evening. He had a very good real estate business, and it took up a lot of his time. I went in to tell him I was back. He was slumped over on his desk with a large pool of blood covering the papers he had been working on.” She paused and looked at the floor. “There was a hole in the back of his head.” She dug a tissue from her purse and dabbed her eyes.

“Mrs. Finch, did your husband have any enemies that you know of?”

“No.”

“But anyone could have come into your house while you were jogging, correct?”

The assistant district attorney, Mickey Otis, who had been taking copious notes stood. “Objection. Leading the witness.”

“Sustained,” Judge Crane said.

Marie’s attorney looked at the judge. “I have no further questions that this time, your honor, but I might want to recall this witness in the future.”

“Any problem with that, Mr. Otis?” the judge said.

“No, your honor, but I do have several questions for Mrs. Finch at this time.”

The judge smiled. “I’m sure you do. Your witness, Mr. Otis.”

Assistant District Attorney Mickey Otis stood and flipped through a few pages on his yellow legal pad. “I’d like to start with the murder weapon, Mrs. Finch. Was the weapon ever found?”

“Yes.”

“Would you please tell the jury where it was found?”

“It was in my gun safe.”

“Was the safe locked at the time?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of lock does it have on it?”

“It’s an electric combination lock. A person has to punch in a series of five numbers to open it.”

“I see. And how many people know that series of numbers?”

Maria looked at the floor. “Just me.

“You are the only person who knew the combination?”

“Yes,” she said in a low voice.

“Would you please repeat your answer? I want everyone to be sure of what it was.”

“I was the only person who knew the combination.”

Paul was now sitting in the spectator part of the court room. His mind was racing. Those little video recorders are really handy new little gadgets. That special collection of books she kept in her room was perfect. 

She never noticed a new book stuck in there. The one I hid the recxorder in. It took two nights before she stood far enough to one side that I could get the numbers down correctly.

And firing that gun was fantastic. All the physical and verbal crap that man put me through. It was like a huge boulder was lifted off my shoulders when the smoke cleared. I never felt that good at any time in my life.

“Even your husband didn’t know?”

“No. I never revealed it to him. There was no reason for him to know. The only thing it was used for was to keep my police weapon safe when I wasn’t working.”

“But didn’t the police prove that the weapon used to kill your husband was that gun?”

“Yes.”

“Even down to the ballistics that showed the bullet that killed him came from that gun?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have any explanation for that?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so.  With your husband dead, you stood to inherit a large sum of money, isn’t that correct?”

“Yes.” 

“Do you know how much money?”

“Not exactly.”

Otis picked up another piece of paper from the state’s table. “The exact amount is 5, 759, 241.36. That’s a lot of motive, isn’t it?”

Maria said nothing.

“That’s okay,” Otis said. “We’ll move on. Didn’t you confess to your stepson that you wanted to kill your husband?”

“That was in the heat of …”

“Just a simple yes or no is required, Mrs. Finch.”

“Yes, but …”

“Isn’t it also true that you complained to one of your coworkers that your husband spent too much time working on his business and not enough time with you?”

“No. I don’t ever remember saying someone like that.”

“Thank you. Now your stepson also testified you were having an affair with one of your coworkers. Would you tell us about that?”

“There was no affair. He lied.”

“He lied while under oath? Sort of like what you’re doing now?”

Maria’s attorney was on his feet in a microsecond. “Objection, your honor.”

“Question withdrawn,” Otis said. “No more questions for this witness.”

Paul thought back to the night Lacy came up with the idea of accusing Maria of having an affair. The girl is good at making up crap like that. It was also good when she testified we were together at Fisherman’s Wharf when dear old Dad bought the ranch.

And that money number is fantastic. That’s gonna make me wealthier when I land on some small island somewhere. 

Probably in the Marshall Islands. They have no extradition treaty with the United States.

A few more witnesses were called, but everything pointed to Maria as being the person who shot her husband. 

The jury deliberated for only three hours before bringing a guilty verdict against Maria. They met the following week and brought back a sentencing suggestion of death since this was a premeditated murder.

It took six months for Paul to get all the money available into overseas accounts. The real estate business was sold to two of the senior members of the firm.

He and Lacy continued their romance until the seventh month when she was found dead in an alley near a street where prostitutes were known to sell their wares. She had been strangled. Dead prostitutes were low priority to the police. It was almost considered an occupational hazard, and besides, she had a long record from the past. It was theorized she had taken some time off or maybe moved to another city for awhile. Her death quickly became a cold case and was never solved. 

After eleven years of appeals, Maria lost her battle and was put to death for a crime she didn’t commit.

Paul died from a heart attack in the Marshall Islands when he was eighty-nine.