An Insignificant Case

Chapter Nine

CHAPTER NINE

After she was arrested, and as soon as she was given access to a phone, Gretchen Hall called Anita Bishop, her attorney at Prentice, Newberry, and Scott. Before joining Prentice, Newberry, and Scott, Anita had spent four years in the Multnomah County district attorney’s office and had prosecuted property theft crimes in the same unit as Bridget Fournier. Fournier had agreed to let Gretchen out on bail if she waived extradition to Portland to face her charges. Gretchen Hall had arrived in Portland the day after Bishop flew to LA.

Bishop was conferring with her client in the hall outside the courtroom in Portland, where Gretchen was going to be arraigned. Leon Golden and Yuri Makarov, Golden’s bodyguard, were conferring with their legal team at the other end of the corridor from Hall and Bishop.

When Bridget Fournier saw that Golden, Makarov, and their legal team weren’t paying attention to her, Hall, or Bishop, she walked next to Hall’s lawyer.

“Call me after court if you want Hall to get first dibs on a favorable deal,” she whispered before turning her back on Bishop and walking into the courtroom.

For many years, the Multnomah County district attorney’s office had been located in the upper floors of the old Multnomah County Courthouse, an eight-story, gray concrete building that occupied a block in the middle of downtown Portland. The courthouse had been constructed between 1909 and 1914, and it had been abandoned in 2020 after a new, modern, seismically safer building was constructed near the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge. The new location gave visitors and the courthouse staff a view of boats cruising the Willamette River and the magnificent snow-covered slopes of the Cascade Mountain Range. The district attorneys now shared the view.

At eight in the morning on the day after the arraignment, Gretchen Hall and Anita Bishop sat on one side of a long conference table in the Multnomah County district attorney’s office. On the other side were Bridget Fournier and Timothy Chang, another senior DA. There were floor-to-ceiling windows behind the deputy DAs, but neither Gretchen nor her attorney paid any attention to the view.

Bridget looked directly at Gretchen. “I’ll give your lawyer a package with the discovery in our case when our meeting is over, Miss Hall. Now, I’m going to lay out our case so you’ll have an idea of what you’re facing if you decide to go to trial.

“Several women have testified in a grand jury that you lured them to Leon Golden’s estate with promises that he would give them roles in one of his films. Some of these women were un derage. The estate is isolated, and there were guards with dogs patrolling the grounds.

“The women will testify that they were shown to a bedroom by a very large man, who we have identified as Yuri Makarov, Mr. Golden’s assistant and bodyguard. Makarov told the girls that they had to have sex with the men who were financing the movie in order to get the part. When they refused, Makarov showed them a film in which a masked man raped and killed a young girl. He told the girls that they would not be allowed to leave if they didn’t submit to his demands. When Makarov left them, he locked them in.

“The girls testified that they were very frightened and had sex with several men because they believed that they would be killed if they didn’t. After they had sex with the men, they were paid off and allowed to leave. Mr. Makarov told them that they would be killed if they revealed what happened at the estate. They were also told that no one would believe them, because Golden had judges and police on his payroll.

“Two of these girls met up by accident afterward and decided to go to the police. We’ve been investigating their claims and have found other witnesses.”

“Who are these girls?” Anita asked.

“Right now, they are all Jane Does. We have a court order protecting their identities because of the threats that were made, but you won’t need to know their identities if Miss Hall agrees to testify for the State. I’m offering her this chance for a lighter sentence. I’d like the testimony of an insider to bolster our case against Leon Golden, and I am particularly interested in a list of the men who had sex with these women and a copy of the snuff film.”

“What does Miss Hall get in exchange for her testimony?” Anita asked.

“I’ll need a proffer before I can decide. Why don’t you read the discovery, talk to your client, and get back to me. But don’t wait too long.”

Hall and Bishop left the conference room.

“Let’s go to our office and review the discovery,” Anita said.

“Can it wait?” Gretchen asked. “I’m physically and mentally exhausted. I don’t think I can concentrate. Can you have a copy of the discovery sent to my house? I’ll call you when I’ve read it.”

“Okay,” Anita said. “But get back to me as soon as you can.”

Gretchen wasn’t lying about being exhausted, but there was something she had to do before heading home. The ride to La Bella Roma was short, and she arrived at the restaurant before it opened. The front door was locked, and Gretchen opened it with her key. She was halfway to her office when Salvatore Borelli walked out of the kitchen.

“Jesus, Gretchen! I saw the whole thing on TV. How are you doing?”

“I’m hanging on by my fingertips, Sal.”

“You didn’t do that stuff they say you did—grooming underage girls?”

“I’m completely innocent, and I’ve got great lawyers. You’ll see. I’ll be just fine when the smoke clears. Now, I’ve got to get something from my office.”

“About your office. I didn’t want to bother you while you were in LA, but something happened while you were away.”

Gretchen stopped. “What do you mean?”

“You know the nutcase with the pictures?”

“Sabatini?”

“Yeah. He broke in a few days after you bought the Venice painting and stole it.”

“What?!”

“The cops arrested him. His lawyer—a guy named Charlie Webb—called. He said you should call him so you can get the picture back. I have his number. The cops say Sabatini does this all the time—selling a painting to a restaurant, then stealing it back if he doesn’t like where the owner’s hanging it. He got really mad when he didn’t see your painting in the dining room.

“Also, you should check your safe. It was open when I saw that the painting was gone. There’s money and papers still in it, but the cops want to know if Sabatini stole anything besides the painting.”

Gretchen only heard half of what Borelli said because she was on her way to her office before he finished. She flung open the door and stared at the safe, which was no longer concealed from view by a scene of a canal in Venice. Borelli followed her into her office.

Gretchen’s heart was beating furiously, and she had started to perspire. She punched in the combination, swung the door of the safe open, and stared inside. Then she reached into the safe and moved objects around.

“Hey, are you okay?” Borelli asked when he saw how pale his boss was.

Gretchen turned and walked away from the safe without shutting it.

“Miss Hall…” Borelli started, but Gretchen waved him off.

“I need a few minutes, Sal,” she said as she sat at her desk and booted up her computer. “And get me that lawyer’s number.”

“Sure thing,” Borelli said as he backed out of the office and shut the door.

Gretchen typed “Guido Sabatini” into Google. It didn’t take long to find out that he was a painter who lived during the Renaissance, but it took a little longer to find a cross-reference to Lawrence Weiss. Minutes after she read the article, Gretchen ran out of the restaurant and drove to Leon Golden’s estate.