Cataldo nodded.
'I'm still working at the garage and I'm doing a little investigating for the guy who's trying the case.'
'No shit? You know, that Harmon kid was in here.
the night that girl was killed. Sat right here at the bar. I served him myself.'
Is Harmon a regular?'
'Not really. I mean, he's stopped in once or twice.'
'Then why do you remember him?'
'He was picked up the next day for the murder. It was on the news. His picture was in the paper.'
'You don't happen to remember what time he came in, do you?'
'Actually, I do. It was around eleven fifty-five.'
'How do you remember that?'
'There was a Mariners game on and the damn thing wasstillgoingafterseventeen' rungs-Then Griffeyhits In this shot and the game's over. I glanced at my watch. It was eleven fifty-three, eleven fifty-four. Something like that, but not exactly midnight. That's when the Harmon kid sat down and asked for coffee. I didn't hear him, because I turned away to switch the channel. I told him to hang on. I remember that clear as day.'
'How'd he look?'
'A little rocky.' Cataldo shrugged. 'He was quiet.
He had the coffee and something to eat. Then, he had a few drinks.When he left, he was weaving, but I thought he'd make it home okay.'
'What did he eat?'
'Some biscuits and gravy.'
'Biscuits and gravy?' Pullen repeated, while thinking that this wouldn't be his dish of choice if he'd just slaughtered a woman.
'Did you notice anything unusual about Harmon's clothes?'
The bartender considered the question for a moment, then shook his head.
'No blood?' Pullen asked.
Cataldo thought about that. 'You see how the lighting is in here. There coulda been something I didn't see.
But I didn't notice blood.'
Chapter SEVENTEEN.
Carmen Polinsky was a forty-six-year-old mother of two who was married to an accountant. For twenty years, she had been a housewife. Before that she worked in a bookstore. Nothing in her past had prepared her for a job interview for the position of assassin for the state of Oregon. This job interview was technically called 'voir dire' and it denoted the process by which a jury was selected in Gary Harmon's trial.
judge Kuffel had denied the motion to suppress Gary's statements, but he had granted Peter's motion for individual voir dire ecau o the unusua nature of a death case. None of the of jurors were in the courtroom to witness Carmen Polinsky's distress when Becky O'Shay asked her if she had an attitude concerning the death penalty that would make it impossible for her to vote for a death sentence if Gary Harmon was convicted of aggravated murder. Whenever anyone mentioned the death n pe alty, Mrs. Polinsky gripped her purse so tightly that her knuckles turned white. It was obvious that she would rather be in Zaire during an Ebola outbreak than in this courtroom in Whitaker. It was equally obvious that Mrs. Polinsky would never, ever condemn anyone to death.
'To tell the truth Mrs. Polinsky started.
O'Shay leaned forward, praying that Polinsky would confess her inability to kill for the state. Normally, O'Shay would have gotten rid of her with a peremptory challenge, which can be used to excuse a juror without stating a reason, but it was near the end of the second week of jury selection and the prosecutor had used all of her peremptories. , Now, she could get rid of Mrs. Polinsky only by convincing the judge that she could not be fair to the state. 'I honestly don't know,' Polinsky shook her head.
she concluded.
O'Shay went at Mrs. Polinsky from a different angle.
Her job was to manipulate the woman into saying that she could never condemn someone to death. If O'Shay succeeded, it would be Peter's job to rehabilitate the woman by convincing her that she could vote to kill n, because that was the only way he would Gary Harmo be able to keep her on the jury. The absurdity of the position in which he found himself was not lost on Peter.
Mrs. Polinsky vacillated again. judge Kuffel glanced at the clock and said, 'It's almost five. I'm going to stop for the day. Mrs. Polinsky, I want you to think about Ms. O'Shay's question. When we reconvene tomorrow morning, I'll expect a decisive answer from you. A 'yes' or 'no' answer. Understood?'
Mrs. Polinsky sped out of the courtroom.
'I'll see you two in chambers,' the judge commanded as he left the bench. Peter gave a few words of encouragement to Gary as the guards cuffed him and led him away. While he was gathering up his paperwork, Peter noticed Becky in an animated discussion with Dennis Downes at the rear of the courtroom. Downes was nodding his head vigorously in response to something O'Shay had asked and Becky was grinning broadly.
The court reporter was not present when Peter and dge Kuffel w O'Shay walked into chambers, and Ju as puffing on a smelly cigar in violation of a no-smoking ordinance he stubbornly chose to ignore, so Peter knew the conference was off the record.
'For Christ's sake, Peter,' the judge said, 'let that woman off the jury.'
'It's up to Becky to lay a foundation if she wants to kick her off,' Peter answered stubbornly, dropping onto an overstuffed couch that stretched along a wall covered with diplomas, certificates of appreciation from community organizations and pictures of Kuffel holding up fish of various sizes.
'Be reasonable, Peter,' O'Shay said. 'Even if she gets on, she won't last a day. She's already a wreck and she hasn't even seen the autopsy pictures.'
'You might be right,' Peter answered with a condescending smile 'but there's still no legal basis for excusing her. Being'nervous doesn't do it. Everyone on that jury is going to be nervous.'
judge Kuffel shook his head disgust. Hale was right to fight O'Shay on this. Gary Harmon would be better off with Polinsky on the jury and O'Shay would have to give him a legal basis for kicking her off or the reluctant housewife would become one of Gary Harmon's judges.
'I have something I wanted to mention,' O'Shay said. 'Several weeks ago, we interviewed an inmate at the jail who claimed that the defendant confessed to him.'
'Did you notify the defense?' the judge asked.
'Oh yes. Mr. Booth is awaiting trial on a serious drug charge and has a reason to try to ingratiate himself with our office, so I asked him for some corroboration for his story. We just got it.'
O'Shay handed Peter and the judge a copy of a document.
'What the hell is this?' Peter asked, as soon as he scanned it.
'It's a report from the FBI laboratory in Washington, D.C. We sent them a hatchet we found in a storm drain on thewhitaker campus. It was right where Mr. Harmon told Kevin Booth he threw it after he hacked Sandra Whiley to death. The handle was wiped clean of fingerprints, but Sandra Whiley's blood and hair are on the blade.' When Peter found his voice, he said, 'I move to have this evidence suppressed. This is a clear violation of the discovery statutes. This should have been revealed to the defense as soon as it was discovered so we could have our own experts test the blood and hair.'
O'Shay smiled sweetly atpeter. 'I don't think we violated the discovery statutes. They only require the prosecution to reveal the existence of evidence we intend to introduce at trial. I had no intention of introducing this hatchet until I was certain it had some connection with this case and I did not become convinced until I read the FBI report. After all, Peter, Kevin Booth is a criminal.
We weren't sure he was telling the truth about your client's confession. Until now, that is.'
'Move it, Booth,' the guard commanded as Kevin Booth lathered up for the second time. 'This ain't a resort.' Booth thought of some choice retorts5 but he didn't dare make them to the six-fives two-hundred-and-fiftypound corrections officer who was lounging just outside the bars next to the shower. Inmates in the security block of the jail in Stark were allowed only two showers a week and these were precious moments for Booth.
rd cut off Booth's hot water A minute later, the guard doubled over laughing and and he screamed. The gua
