“But if the tape wasn’t in the box . . .”
Stanley shook her head. “That’s a hell of a risk—that you might look for the tape and not find it—and we don’t have any information to confirm that was the case.” Stanley readjusted her monitor back to its initial position. “NCIS spoke with the janitor. He doesn’t recall any videocassette on your desk or on the floor, and he said he wouldn’t have touched anything even if it was there.”
Battles nodded. “So where do we go from here?”
Stanley shrugged. “Trejo has asked for new counsel. I’ve assigned Kevin Cipoletti.” Cipoletti used the office across the hall from Battles. “It’s for the best, Leah, under the circumstances. If they reconvene the Article 32 hearing, you can’t very well be Trejo’s counsel, not to mention the ethics investigation is going to keep you busy.”
“Do they intend to reconvene the hearing?”
“I don’t know, but I understand Cho is going to argue that he can use other evidence to at least establish probable cause. He might be right, but that decision will be for the preliminary hearing officer to decide. I’m scheduled to have a conference call with Lopresti and senior trial counsel later this morning. I don’t know what the outcome will be, or if they’ve even had time to make that decision.”
“You mean regarding the ethics investigation?”
“Among other things,” she said. “But I’m not sure they’ll stop there, Leah. If they get that far, and there’s no better explanation for the tape having gone missing, they could seek to court-martial you for dereliction of duty and obstruction.”
And in one fell swoop wipe away all the reasons Battles had joined the Navy, to make some money, to try cases, and to serve her country and earn a pension. She exhaled. “And until then, what am I supposed to do?”
“Until that decision has been made, you can either work desk duty or take an accrued leave of absence. Given the climate around here, the latter might be worth considering. You don’t need to tell me your decision now.”
“That’s not a problem,” Battles said, thinking again of her mother’s admonition about not being present, and what it signified. “I have no intention of taking a leave of absence. If I have to twiddle my thumbs at my desk, then so be it. But I intend to show up here every day, until someone tells me not to.”
When he arrived at work, Del ran Jack Welch through the system. Welch had turned eighteen years old during the school year, an adult. He had no prior arrests. Faz had looked him up on Google and found a Facebook page. Welch played guitar in a band called CHAOS. In his posted pictures, he looked a lot like the drug addict in the pictures in Allie’s text messages—so rail thin it was a mystery how he was still alive.
“Listen to this crap,” Del said to Faz. Noise burst from his computer speakers. It sounded like cats walking over guitar strings. “Apparently that’s music.” He shut it down. “And here I thought Stevie and Mark were making it up when they said the band was bad. Hell, they sounded better than the band.”
Del also determined that Welch lived at an address not far from Allie’s home. He wanted to pick him up outside of the high school and bring him downtown for questioning.
“You’re inviting unnecessary problems,” Faz said, rocking his chair away from his desk. “Let’s pick him up at his home. Maybe he’s willing to talk. Maybe his parents will talk.”
Del paced the workspace in the center of the A Team’s four cubicles. Tracy was not yet in, and Kins was out on medical leave, finally having his hip replaced. “He’s over eighteen. We don’t have to go through his parents.”
“If he asks for a lawyer, or his parents get him a lawyer, we won’t get squat out of him,” Faz said. “Let’s hope he’s scared. Wouldn’t you have been at eighteen? Look, a lot of these parents know each other. They knew Allie. I say we use his parents rather than fight them. He’s not the guy you’re after, Del. You want his dealer, and whoever his dealer is buying from.”
“And if the parents won’t cooperate?” Del asked.
“Then we take your approach, assuming we can prove he supplied the drugs. We have enough to at least bring him in and question him.”
“Fine, but if he provided Allie with the heroin that killed her, I’m going to see that Celia McDaniel charges him with a controlled substance homicide.”
“One step at a time,” Faz said. “First, let’s see if he talks.”
“See if who talks?” Tracy dropped her backpack on her chair.
“The kid who supplied Del’s niece with the heroin,” Faz said.
Tracy looked to Del. “You found her dealer?”
“I found the guy who knows her dealer.”
Faz looked like he’d been struck by a thought. “Wait, what are you doing here? Did you finish the Article 32 hearing in one day?” He sounded skeptical.
“You could say that,” Tracy said. “You remember that videotape Kins and I got from the convenience store?”
“The one that showed Trejo buying the energy drinks?” Faz asked.
“It’s missing.”
“What do you mean, ‘missing’?” Del said.
“I mean the Navy prosecutor can’t find it. Neither can the court reporter who is responsible for keeping all the evidence.”
“Someone stole it?” Del said.
They both started to interrupt but Tracy cut them off. “It gets better. The defense attorney was the last person to have the evidence. And no one has a copy.”
“We don’t have a copy?” Faz asked.
Tracy shook her head. “We never got that chance, not after the Navy asserted jurisdiction so quickly. We turned over what we had. The prosecutor said he was going to make a copy after the hearing.”
“So what happens now?” Faz asked.
“Good question. The preliminary hearing officer gave the prosecutor until end of today to find the tape.”
“Then what?”
“Don’t know.”
“You think Trejo could walk?” Faz said.
“I don’t know, but that tape is a key piece of evidence. Without it, I’m not sure the prosecution can place Trejo in Seattle at the time of the accident. If they can’t, I don’t see how they can prove he was driving the car.”
“The defense attorney . . . what was her name?” Faz asked.
“Battles. Leah Battles,” Tracy said.
“What does she say?”
“She doesn’t deny she had the evidence brought to her the night before the hearing, but she can’t say for certain that the tape was or was not in the box. It might have been, but she said she didn’t take it out of the box that night. She says she put the box on the court reporter’s chair late the night before the hearing, long after he’d gone home.”
“Sounds like bullshit,” Faz said.
Tracy shrugged. “Maybe, but given the potential consequences, why would she do it?”