“So, what did you find?” Avery asked. “When you looked back through the Cameron Young file.”
“I was able to get the case file and I’ve spent the last couple of days reviewing it. It’s been quite a stroll down memory lane. I have to tell you, as I go back through the case and remember it more clearly, the evidence was overwhelming. Just being straight with you.”
“That’s all I’m asking for, Walt. I came to New York to learn more about the story of the medical examiner’s office discovering the remains of a 9/11 victim at the monumental moment of the twentieth anniversary. But I found something else entirely when I spoke with Victoria Ford’s sister. Emma Kind, as we discussed the other night, believes her sister is innocent. But it’s more than unconditional love and a sisterly bond that hardens her resolve. Victoria Ford called her sister on the morning of 9/11 and left a series of messages on her answering machine. Emma played them for me. The messages are harrowing, and were placed soon after the first plane struck the North Tower and trapped Victoria inside.”
Walt shook his head. “I can only imagine. Each year I relive some part of that day. Everyone does. But to have a loved one so closely tied to the tragedy, and to have a recording from that morning . . .”
“It’s more than that, though. On the recording Victoria tells her sister that she’s innocent and asks her to find a way to clear her name. Victoria swore that the evidence against her was tainted and couldn’t be accurate. She understood she would die that day, and her last words—at least the last ones recorded—were of Victoria Ford begging her sister to make her legacy something other than an accused murderess.”
“Her sister has all this on a recording?”
“Yes. Two messages. They’re heartbreaking. They’re also convincing as hell. So despite the evidence so clearly pointing to Victoria Ford’s guilt, she died clinging to her innocence. I at least owe it to Emma to review the case against her sister.”
Walt’s mind reached back across twenty years to when he was a young, inexperienced detective handpicked to run a high-profile homicide investigation. Things had bothered him back then about that promotion, and he was realizing that they still bothered him today.
“I’m not out to prove Victoria’s innocence to the world,” Avery said. “This many years later, I’m not sure that would be possible even if it were true. I have no plans to paint you or the BCI in a poor light. You conducted your investigation and everything you found pointed to Victoria Ford. Those are the facts. I’m simply asking to review all the evidence and hear about the investigation from start to finish. It will play a crucial role in the exposé I’m planning.”
“We can do that,” Walt said. “What do you have in mind?”
“My goal is to tell America the story of Victoria Ford. Her life, her flaws, and the tragic day she died along with three thousand other souls. And now, twenty years later, her remains have finally been identified. That she was involved in a sensational murder investigation is simply part of her life’s story. That she claimed, until the final moments of her life, to be innocent, is also one of the facts of the case. The recordings are there for everyone to hear, and they form an arc in this story—from the beginning to the very sad and tragic ending—that I want to share with my audience. You and your investigation are part of the story, so even if what you tell me contradicts what Emma Kind believes, I’m okay with that. Yours is a crucial part of the story and I need to hear and understand it all.”
“I can see why your show is so popular,” Walt said. “You take that approach with all your stories?”
“I do.”
“Okay. Let me walk through the case for you, start to finish.”
Throughout dinner, Walt covered his role in the Cameron Young investigation—from the moment he stepped foot onto the property of the Catskills mansion, to each bombshell he discovered during his investigation. He discussed the crime scene and finding Cameron Young hanging from the balcony. He covered the blood and urine recovered from the scene, and the fingerprints lifted from the wineglass—all of which matched Victoria Ford. He explained how a thumb drive found in the desk drawer of the office contained a homemade sex video that led him to Victoria Ford. He reviewed the autopsy findings that painted a vivid image of Cameron Young’s final moments. He discussed the grand jury that had been convened, the prosecution’s argument that Victoria Ford was a jilted lover who’d been coerced into having an abortion that left her unable to bear children, and the imminent indictment that was to come before the morning of September 11 brought a crashing end to the case.
He watched Avery while he spoke, as her fingers jotted notes onto page after page of a yellow legal pad. There was something elegant yet powerful about the way she scrawled her notes, and Walt found himself attracted to her in a way he hadn’t allowed himself to be for some time. The situation he found himself in tonight—dining with an intelligent, talented, and attractive woman—made him wonder if he had wasted the last three years on heartache when they might have been better conquered by facing life head-on and allowing the natural progression of time to wash his pain away.
The dinner plates were cleared. They turned down dessert, but each ordered a glass of port as they continued their discussion. Avery paged through her notes and asked follow-up questions until Walt sensed that she was satisfied with the information he had provided.