“She was disbarred for suppressing evidence, so it was more than a little trouble.”
Walt nodded. “One of her biggest convictions got overturned when new DNA evidence was found. The defendant had served years in prison. And it wasn’t just new evidence that surfaced. It was evidence that had been there from the beginning. Greenwald suppressed it. The only reason the truth came out was because her ADA grew a conscience and blew the whistle on her.”
“She withheld evidence?”
“Yes.”
“How could she live with herself knowing that she put an innocent man in prison?”
“Prosecutors, some of them, believe the deck is and always has been stacked against them. They see guilty defendants getting off on technicalities. They see rock-solid cases go the other way because of reasonable doubt, despite how unreasonable it sounds to them. So, some of them try to even the playing field.”
“By lying? Or hiding evidence?”
“Sometimes. And Maggie Greenwald was determined to make a name for herself. Since the whistleblower came forward, some of her biggest cases have been overturned after evidence was found that had been suppressed. The US Attorney’s Office from the Southern District of New York got involved and began a formal investigation. They subpoenaed all her cases and all her records. They found four other cases where she tried to make evidence disappear, or where she withheld evidence during discovery. It was enough to get her disbarred and end her career, legal and political. The Innocence Project and other wrongful conviction advocacy groups have taken up all of her convictions and are taking a hard look at them.”
“Victoria Ford wasn’t one of them?”
“No,” Walt said. “First, Victoria was never formally convicted, so there’s nothing to overturn. And second, sadly, without a conviction no one really cares about it.”
“I care.”
“I know you do.”
“And Emma Kind cares.”
“I know that, too. And she’s lucky to have you digging through the case. I just wanted to give you the full picture as to why the files I showed you yesterday didn’t tell the whole story. This box”—Walt pointed at the table—“had been in the DA’s possession until the US Attorney’s Office subpoenaed all of Greenwald’s files. They took a hard look at each of them, but passed on digging into the case against Victoria Ford. The Southern District of New York shipped this box back to the BCI, where it has sat for years. And now, as I root back through the details, I can’t help thinking that for such a high-profile homicide, I was tapped early on to run the investigation. Maggie Greenwald requested me. At the time, I was honored. I thought I’d made such an impression that she picked me for my talent. But a little time and perspective tells me that maybe she picked me because I was young and green, and because she could manipulate me in ways another, more experienced detective would not have allowed.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Walt. You followed the evidence, and no one can fault you for that. You didn’t plant evidence. And you certainly didn’t suppress it. The crime scene you found led to Victoria Ford. Not by hunch, not by speculation, but by forensically backed evidence. You didn’t make any mistakes. You didn’t manipulate the evidence.”
“No. But I’m wondering if I was manipulated. This case went up in smoke after 9/11, and when the dust settled, everyone had moved on. Soon after, I was recruited into the FBI and I never really put much thought into it after that. But now, twenty years later, with the things you and I have uncovered, I’m starting to wonder if a dead woman was branded a killer when, in fact, she was innocent.”
The narrative that twenty years earlier an aggressive district attorney had focused on the wrong woman in the death of Cameron Young was starting to play out in Avery’s mind. She had no way to prove who had killed Cameron Young, only that there was a very realistic possibility it was not Victoria Ford. Avery knew her viewing audience would salivate over every detail. And things were about to get even juicier.
Walt gathered the files and the photos and returned them to the box.
“There’s one more thing I came across in this box of lost evidence,” Walt said, holding up a plastic evidence bag. It held a thumb drive.
“What is it?”
“The sex video of Cameron Young and Victoria Ford.”
CHAPTER 47
Manhattan, NY Sunday, July 4, 2021
“IT’S BEEN TWENTY YEARS,” WALT SAID, HOLDING UP THE EVIDENCE bag. “But I still remember it vividly.”
“I’ve got to see it,” Avery said.
“You sure?”
“I’m sure. I need to see if any of it can be aired in prime time.”
“From what I remember, you’ll need to blur most of it out.”
“I’ve got a really good technical crew and an even better producer.”
“Grab your laptop.”
Avery retrieved her laptop from the desk where she had positioned it earlier in the day for her meeting with Christine. She rested it on the coffee table in front of where they both sat on the sofa. Walt placed the drive into the port and clicked open the file. The video started.
“Oh, God,” Avery said as Cameron Young’s naked backside materialized on the screen.
“I told you you’d have to blur most of it out.”
Avery continued to watch until Victoria Ford appeared on the screen. Avery pinched her eyebrows together when she saw the dominatrix outfit, complete with a dangerous-looking spiked necklace and wristbands. Victoria’s naked breasts poked through the holes of the leather suit she wore.
“How many times have you seen this?”
“Just once,” Walt said. “And only part of it. Once we identified Victoria Ford, I left to interview her.”
Avery sat in stunned silence as she watched Victoria Ford pace back and forth next to her vulnerable prey. Avery had trouble reconciling the woman Emma Kind had described, and the one whom Avery had heard on the answering machine recordings, with the woman she saw in the video. Her breath caught when she saw Victoria bring up the tasseled object in her right hand.