“He’s going to claim I took some evidence out of Bradshaw’s apartment and managed to ditch it somewhere in the building. He’ll claim I sent you to get it.”
Tracy’s face fell. “Shit. It’s all my fault.”
To a certain extent it was. And Steve had uncharitably been thinking that very thing. But faced with Tracy’s distress, he wasn’t about to say so. And she had clammed up on Dirkson.
“Don’t be silly,” he said. “That’s what he’s going to
“Oh.”
Steve pushed back his coffee cup. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Tracy looked at him. “Where?”
Steve looked at his watch. “I’m putting you in a cab. It’s nearly two, and I need you to open up the office tomorrow morning.” He smiled. “After all, I still have twelve days left of your services.”
18
Mark Taylor, showing the ill effects of a sleepless night, slouched in Steve Winslow’s clients’ chair and folded open his notebook.
“O.K., Steve, here’s the pitch. The police are still holding Marilyn Harding. She won’t talk, but her lawyer’s talking plenty. He’s filing a writ of habeas corpus, and demanding they either charge her or release her. So far they haven’t done either, but talk is they’ll charge her by this afternoon. Rumor has it the only reason Dirkson’s hanging back is he can’t decide which case he’d rather try her on first.”
“It’ll be the Bradshaw case,” Steve said.
“How do you know that?”
“Because that way he can drag in the Harding murder to prove motive. If he tried her on the Harding murder first, he’d have a devil of a time trying to tie the Bradshaw murder in with it. The minute he mentioned Bradshaw, Fitzpatrick would start screaming prejudicial misconduct, and Dirkson would find himself in a nasty predicament. Fitzpatrick might even get a mistrial out of it. But by trying her for the Bradshaw murder, Dirkson can prejudice the jury by dragging in the Harding business. And to top it off, he doesn’t even have to get a second-degree murder verdict. If he can convict her of anything at all, even manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, he’s home free. ’Cause then he’ll turn around and try her for the murder of her father, and when he does, he can impeach her testimony by showing she’s been convicted of a felony. After that she won’t stand a chance. The jury will decide she’s a habitual killer, and they’ll return a guilty verdict without even thinking. Dirkson’s smart enough to realize that, so that’s what he’ll do.”
Taylor shrugged. “Well, either way the case sure looks black for her. The money they found on Bradshaw’s body turned out to be hers.”
“You sure?”
“Got it from the horse’s mouth.”
“Shit. That doesn’t look too good, does it?”
“You don’t know the half of it. Miltner’s men have spilled everything. I don’t know what they said, and I don’t know what time Marilyn called on Bradshaw last night, but from the way the cops are acting, you can bet it was right around 5:30.”
Steve frowned. “Did the autopsy surgeon fix the time of death?”
“Sure. Between 5:15 and 5:45.”
Steve whistled. “That’s sticking his neck out.”
“Sure is. Fitzpatrick should have a field day getting him to admit that he’s basing his testimony on non- medical factors.”
“Sure,” Steve said. “That’ll make Fitzpatrick look good, but in the long run all it will serve to do is to point up to the jury how conclusive those non-medical factors are.”
Mark shrugged. “Well, that’s your department.”
“Wrong. That’s Mr. Fitzpatrick’s department. I have nothing to do with the case.”
“I wish you’d told me that before I stayed up all night getting you this information.”
“It’s good practice for you, Mark. Keeps you on your toes. So what else? What about the murder weapon?”
“Apparently it was Bradshaw’s. It’s a large carving knife from a set of six. The other five are in a drawer in Bradshaw’s kitchen. Dirkson isn’t too happy about that.”
“Why not?”
“The way I get it, he figures it’ll be hard to prove premeditation if Marilyn killed him with his own knife.”
Steve frowned. He thought that over. “No, that’s not right. If she killed him in cold blood, it doesn’t matter when she decided to do it. See, most people think premeditation means the crime was thought out and planned well in advance. It doesn’t. All it means is that the crime was committed deliberately and not in the heat of passion. If Marilyn went into the kitchen to make a drink, opened the drawer, saw those knives, and couldn’t resist the temptation to use one, that’s still premeditated murder, and Dirkson can get her on it.”
“In that case, I can’t see what Dirkson is so worried about.”
“Neither can I. Especially since all he really needs to do is convict her of manslaughter.”
“Then how do you account for it?”
Steve thought a moment. He smiled. “I have one theory that you probably won’t care for.”
“What’s that?”
“That Dirkson isn’t worried at all. That he deduced from our finding Tracy Garvin in his office last night that there must be a leak at headquarters, and therefore he’s handing out this crock of shit so your man won’t find out what he’s really up to.”
Taylor made a face. “You’re right.”
“About my theory?”
“About my not caring for it. I’ve been up all night listening to this crock of shit.” Taylor’s eyes widened. “Jesus, Steve, do you suppose the bit about the bills being traced to Marilyn is phony too?”
“I would tend to doubt it,” Steve said. “Since it’s on the front page of the
Taylor shook his head. “Aw, fuck. Not only do I stay up all night listening to the shit put out by the D.A.’s office, but the only real information I come up with I could have got by buying the morning paper.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t pay you overtime to buy the morning paper.”
“Hell, I’m not doing this for the money. I’m doing this so you’ll keep me out of jail.”
“You’re not in there yet.”
“Right. Thanks to my lucky stars and ten serial numbers that conveniently failed to match. You didn’t by any chance switch those numbers around, did you Steve?”
“If I had, would you want to know?”
“Fuck no!” Taylor said. “Never mind. I withdraw the question.”
Steve grinned. “It’s all right. Just for your peace of mind, I didn’t tamper with the list.”
“You didn’t?”
“Of course not. You saw the list yourself.”
“Sure. Just like a volunteer from the audience sees the magician’s ordinary deck of cards.”
“The bank teller can vouch for the list, Mark. By now even the cops will have to admit it’s genuine. What Dirkson’s going to accuse me of is switching the money.”
“You mean taking ten thousand dollars of Marilyn Harding’s money and planting it on the corpse in place of Bradshaw’s ten grand?”
“That’s right.”
“Shit, Steve, what the hell could you expect to gain by that?”
“Fortunately, I don’t have to answer that question. Dirkson does, and that undoubtedly is one of the things he’s really worried about.”
