“Let me guess,” David begins. “The news of my philanthropic ways has His Honor out of sorts.”
I want to rip David a new one for this latest ploy. Tell him he’ll never get away with it, at least not in the long run. But, of course, for David there will be no long run unless he beats the murder charge. Almost any risk is worth taking. So I limit myself to a question of tactics: “Why wait? Why rot in prison for three weeks before springing the news?”
“I wanted the prosecution to commit itself at trial. I wanted them to stake their credibility on it.”
“But the jury’s sequestered,” I say. “They’re not going to know about your humanitarian efforts.”
David laughs. “Come on, Mick, you can’t be serious. Do you really believe that the jurors aren’t going to get wind of the story? That they won’t spy the headlines at the newsstands between here and their hotel? That they won’t channel surf in their rooms, looking for what the six or ten or eleven o’clock news is saying about the trial? That their family members won’t text them a heads-up? Really?”
David is right, of course. One would have to be insanely naive to think that the news of HWI’s humanitarian program won’t make its way to the jury.
“And once the judge tells the jury to disregard the prosecution’s evidence regarding my supposed plan to flee before trial, the jury will think the prosecution has been caught trying to pull one over on them. It will taint Devlin Walker’s entire case.” David smiles, and I see behind his blue eyes the same coal-black intelligence that flares inside Marcie’s.
“I told you the judge was thinking of a limiting instruction or a mistrial.”
“No mistrial,” David says instantly. “I won’t go through this again.” Then he smiles, sits back, and switches gears with ease. “Thank you for taking care of Marcie,” he says. “For explaining everything to her, letting her explain things to you. I know I’ve told you this before, but my wife has proven to be a tremendous asset.”
31
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15
Nine a.m. and we’re all back in the judge’s chambers. His Honor has decided to postpone his decision between granting a mistrial and giving the jury a limiting instruction to disregard the evidence regarding David’s cash-gathering flights. The judge did this at my request. On the one hand, like David, I do not want a mistrial; this odyssey has to end quickly for my plan to come to fruition. On the other hand, I’m afraid that a jury instruction will give David and Marcie too much confidence. I need them afraid.
For his part, Devlin has fought mightily against either a mistrial or a limiting instruction. Now, with the judge’s decision to put the issue on hold, Devlin is fit to be tied. He’s clutching the armrests of his chair so hard his knuckles are white.
“All right, then,” the judge says. “I’ll see everyone in court at 9:30. And from here on out, I want things to run fast—and smoothly.”
Thirty minutes later, the trial resumes and Devlin calls Matthew Stone, the lead investigator for the Crime Scene Unit. Stone is the polar opposite of John Tredesco. He’s pushing forty but looks ten years younger. He has large eyes, short-but-stylish blond hair, and an open face. Self-deprecating and quick to smile, Stone is someone most people find instantly likable. I know from experience that he’s also a completely honest cop.
After some preliminary questions about Stone’s background, Devlin gets down to business.
Stone explains what was done to secure the premises and preserve the integrity of the crime scene. Then, with the court’s permission, he steps down from the witness stand, positions himself next to the big screen, and addresses the jury.
I have stipulated to the admissibility of diagrams of the house, so Devlin has Stone pull them up on the screen. The first diagram depicts the first floor—the kitchen and living room and the short hallway between them containing the door to the powder room and the doorway to the basement behind the curtain of glass beads. The second diagram shows the basement, including the steps.
Then comes the emotional evidence. At Devlin’s request, Stone pulls up the first picture, showing Jennifer’s body lying on the steps. It is an overhead picture, taken from the top of the steps. As they did during Devlin’s opening, some of the jurors look away. They take a few seconds to steel themselves, then look directly at the photo as Matthew Stone tells them what they’re seeing.
Stone describes what the photo depicts, then pulls up another shot, a close-up taken just inches below Jennifer’s battered head. Dried blood is caked all over her matted hair. The jurors stare at the image, some of their faces turning gray.
Devlin has Stone describe the hair and bloodstains on the fifth and sixth stairs, which are consistent with having been stricken by the back of Jennifer’s head when she fell. Then he pulls up a photograph of Jennifer’s knees, and Stone describes the fresh scrape injuries.
“Did you form any conclusions as to how she sustained the injuries to her knees, given that she fell backward down the stairs?”
Stone nods and pulls up a photograph of the basement floor. “When we began to study the basement, I saw what I thought may have been blood traces on the concrete floor. The floor also smelled of household cleanser. So we sprayed luminol to see if there was more latent blood on the floor than could be seen with the naked eye. Sure enough, there was a trail of blood along the floor, starting at the bottom of the stairs and continuing for about five feet. The injuries to the victim’s knees were consistent with her having crawled along the rough cement of the floor.”
Devlin pauses to let the testimony sink in with the jurors. Then he asks Stone to tie it all together. “Please explain to the jury what this physical evidence led you to conclude about the nature of the crime and how it was committed.”
Stone inhales, then looks at the jurors. “The victim was pushed through the beaded curtain. She fell backward. The back of her head struck the fifth step with great force, and it struck the sixth step as well. The steps were old wooden steps with rough, splintered edges, and we found remnants of hair, skin, and bone on each of these two steps. The victim lay there for some indeterminate minutes, then managed to get off the steps and crawl along the basement floor, trailing blood the whole way.”
Here, Devlin stops Stone. “But the victim was found on the steps, her head lying on the concrete floor at the bottom of the steps, feet toward the top. Having left the stairs, why would she have gone back?”