'Now, Sheriff, a week or so before Justice Griffen was killed did you investigate a complaint by the defendant that she had been attacked by an intruder in her cabin?'
'I did.'
'Can you tell the jury what the defendant told you about the alleged attack?'
'Early Saturday morning, August thirteenth, I interviewed Mrs. Griffen at a neighbor's house. She claimed that a man broke into her cabin close to midnight on the twelfth and she escaped by jumping from her second-story deck. According to Mrs. Griffen, the man chased her and she hid in the woods until she thought he was gone. About three-thirty A. M., she woke up the neighbor, Mrs. Wallace, by pounding on the door.'
'Did the defendant see the face of this alleged intruder?'
'Mrs. Griffen said the man wore something over his face.'
'I see. Now, Sheriff, did the defendant tell you about another alleged attack that occurred two weeks before this alleged attack at the coast?'
'Yes, sir. She said she thought the same person tried to break into her house in Portland.'
'Did she report this alleged break-in to the police?'
'Mrs. Griffen said she didn't.'
'Did she see who attempted this alleged break-in in Portland?'
'She told me that the man also wore a mask in Portland, so she didn't see his face.'
'Now, Sheriff, despite the fact that Mrs. Griffen never saw this person's face, did she suggest a person for investigation?'
'Yes. She said she thought her attacker might be a man she put on death row a year or so ago, who just got out of prison.'
'Charlie Deems?'
'Right, but it wasn't much of an ID. More like a guess.'
'She was the one who brought up the name?'
'Yes.'
'Sheriff Dillard, did you find anything at the crime scene linking Charlie Deems to the alleged attack?'
No.
'What did your investigation turn up?'
Dillard weighed his answer carefully. Then he told the jurors, 'Truthfully, we haven't found much of anything.'
'I don't follow you.'
'We don't have any evidence that anyone besides Mrs. Griffen was there.
We did not find Mr. Deems's prints in the cabin. There was no sign of forced entry and nothing was taken. Mrs. Griffen says that she and the intruder jumped from the deck. Well, someone did jump from the deck, but the ground was so churned up we can't say if it was one person or two. When it got light I walked the trail along the bluff where she said she was chased by this fella and I searched the woods. I didn't find anything to support her story. Neither did my men.'
'Thank you, Sheriff. No further questions.'
Matthew Reynolds reviewed his notes. The jurors shifted in their seats.
A spectator coughed. Reynolds looked up at the sheriff.
'How did Mrs. Griffen seem to you when you questioned her?' Matthew asked.
'She was shaken up.'
'Would you say her behavior was similar to other assault victims you've interviewed?'
'Oh, yeah. She definitely acted like someone who'd been through an ordeal. Of course, I wasn't looking for deception.
After all, she's a district attorney. I naturally assumed she'd be telling the truth and she didn't do anything that raised my antennas.
'You've testified that you haven't found any evidence to corroborate Mrs. Griffen's story. If the intruder wore gloves, you wouldn't find fingerprints, would you?'
'That's right. And I don't want to be misunderstood here. I'm not saying Mrs. Griffen wasn't attacked. I'm just saying we haven't found any evidence that there was an intruder. There could have been. She sure seemed like someone who'd been attacked. I just can't prove it.'
'One thing further, Sheriff. About a week or so after Justice Griffen was killed, did you receive a call from Mr. Geddes's investigator, Neil Christenson?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Did he ask you to go to the Griffen cabin and check in a shed behind it to see if there was a box of dynamite in the shed?'
'Yes, ' ' sir.
'Did you find any dynamite?'
'Well, there was a cleared space on the floor of the shed big enough for the kind of box that holds it, but there wasn't any dynamite there.'
'Nothing further.'
'I have a few questions on redirect, Your Honor.'
'Go ahead, Mr. Geddes,' Judge Baldwin said.
'Did you or your men look in the shed on the day Mrs. Griffen reported the attack?'
'No sir. There wasn't any reason to.'
'Did you post a guard at the Griffen cabin?'
'No reason to do that either.'
'So there was plenty of time and plenty of opportunity between the day of the alleged attack and the day you searched the shed for someone to remove the dynamite, if there was some in the shed on the day of the attack?'
'Yes, sir.'
Barry Frame was waiting in the courtroom when Matthew Reynolds returned from lunch. As soon as Reynolds walked through the door, Frame broke into a grin.
'Bingo,' he said, handing Reynolds a thick manila envelope.
'What's this?'
'Charlie Deems's bank records.'
'You found an account?' Reynolds asked excitedly.
'Washington Mutual. The branch across from Pioneer Square.'
'Have you reviewed the records?'
'You bet.'
'And?'
'See for yourself.'
Geddes's next witness was the neighbor who called 911 to report the explosion that killed Justice Griffen. He was followed by the first officers at the crime scene. Then Geddes called Paul Torino to the stand.
'Officer Torino, how long have you been a Portland police officer?'
'Twenty years.'
'Do you have a special job on the force?'
'Yes, sir. I'm assigned to the bomb squad.'
'What is your official title?'
'Explosive Disposal Unit Team Leader.'
'Officer Torino, will you tell the jury about your background and training in police work with an emphasis on your training in dealing with explosive devices?'
'Yes,' Torino said, turning toward the jury. 'I enlisted in the Army immediately after high school and was assigned to an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit. I received training in dealing with explosive devices at the United States Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal training center at Indian Head, Maryland. Then,' Torino said with a grin, 'I served four years in Vietnam and received more practical experience in dealing with explosive devices than I really wanted.'
Two male jurors chuckled. Tracy noted that they were both veterans.
