Chapter Sixteen
The complete brief of the charges facing Jessica Vandermeer arrived by mail to Matthew’s office a few weeks later. It was worse than he had anticipated.
The first civilian witness was Angelina Smythe-Baker. The twenty-two-year-old aspiring actress had breast implants inserted by Cornelius Vandermeer some twelve months prior to his demise, and her statement told of a passionate affair that had culminated in the promise of a future marriage as soon as a divorce could be arranged. More telling was her evidence that Matthew’s client not only knew of the affair, but that she had also agreed to the divorce. When Matthew had raised the affair with Jessica Vandermeer at their initial conference, she had flatly denied any knowledge of it, claiming her deceased husband was always l
