included in your discovery. I' d wait a few hours after you eat to read it.
By the way, the medical examiner's preliminary finding is that our John Doe committed suicide by chewing through the veins in his wrist. When you read the journal entry you'll see why he killed himself. Can you imagine how desperate and how terrified a person has to be to kill themselves like that?
The blood drained from Amanda's face.
Did anything else at the crime scene connect Dr. Castle to the murder? she asked quietly.
You'll get our reports when they're ready.
Dr. Castle believes that she's been set up.
Does she have a suspect in mind? Greene asked skeptically.
Actually, we both do. You told Justine that the cops came to the farmhouse in response to an anonymous nine-one-one call. The farmhouse is a quarter mile from the road, isn't it? How did this anonymous caller get close enough to hear screams?
Good question. I' m sure you'll ask the jury to consider it.
Come on, Mike. Doesn't this sound like a setup to you? The police just happen to get a call that sends them to a murder scene at the precise moment that the killer rushes out.
You can argue that, too.
Amanda hesitated before plunging in.
You've found more victims at the farm, haven't you?
DeVore had been half listening, but the question got his attention. Mike's eyebrows went up.
Did you get that from your client?
So I' m right.
How did you know?
I'll tell you that if you'll tell me whether you arrested Justine Castle because you found items with her fingerprints in the house.
The detective and the DA exchanged looks again.
Yes, Greene answered.
What items?
A scalpel with the victim's blood and a mug half filled with coffee.
Amanda controlled her excitement. Was the mug found in the kitchen?
How did you know that? DeVore asked.
She ignored the question. Was there anything else with trace evidence on it?
We found a surgical gown, cap and booties in a closet in the bedroom. They're at the lab and the technicians are going over them for hair and fibers. Now it's your turn to answer a few questions. How did you know about the other bodies and where we found the mug?
Amanda took a sip of her coffee while she thought about the best way to answer Greene's question.
Do you know anything about the Cardoni case?
Mike Greene looked blank.
The guy in Milton County with the hand, DeVore said.
Amanda nodded. This was about four and a half years ago, Mike, before you moved up here. Dr. Vincent Cardoni was a surgeon at St. Francis, and he was married to Justine Castle.
That's right! DeVore exclaimed.
A Portland vice cop named Bobby Vasquez got an anonymous tip that Cardoni was storing cocaine in a home in the mountains in Milton County. He couldn't corroborate the tip, so he broke into the house. Guess what he found?
DeVore was sitting up, and Amanda could see that he was remembering more and more about the Cardoni case.
What are you getting at? the homicide detective asked.
There was a graveyard in the woods near the house with nine victims. Most of them had been tortured. There was an operating room in the basement and a bloody scalpel with Cardoni's prints on it. Cardoni's prints were also found in the kitchen on a coffee mug. A videotape that showed one of the victims being tortured was found in Cardoni's house. Is this starting to sound familiar?
Are you suggesting that Cardoni killed the people at the farmhouse? Greene asked.
Before she could answer, DeVore said, He couldn' t. Cardoni is dead.
We don't know that, Amanda said to the detective before turning back to Greene. Not for sure.
You guys are going too fast for me, Greene said.
My father represented Dr. Cardoni. There was a motion to suppress. Vasquez lied under oath to cover up his illegal entry, and Dad proved that he perjured himself. The state lost all its evidence, and Cardoni was released from jail. A week or so later Cardoni called me at home, at night, and said that he had to meet me at the house in Milton County.
I remember now, DeVore said. You found it!
Found what? Greene asked.
Cardoni's right hand. It was on the operating table. Someone cut it off.
Who? Greene asked.
No one knows.
So it's an unsolved murder?
Maybe, maybe not, Amanda said. Cardoni's body was never found. If he cut off his own hand, it wouldn't be a murder, would it?
Chapter 38
By the time Amanda staggered home to her loft it was almost five in the morning. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her head felt as though it were stuffed with cotton. Amanda would have given anything to dive under the covers, but there was too much to do, so she tried to fool her body into believing that she had slept by following her morning routine. She doubted that she would have been able to sleep, anyway. Her head was spinning with ideas for Justine's defense, and the possibility that Vincent Cardoni was back made her skin crawl.
After twenty minutes of calisthenics and an ice-cold shower, Amanda donned one of her dark blue court suits and walked two blocks to a hole-in-the-wall cafT that had been in the neighborhood since the fifties. It was still pitch black outside, and the raw, biting wind helped her stay awake. So did the flapjack breakfast she ate hunkered down in one of the cafT's red vinyl booths. As a swimmer, Amanda always stoked up on carbohydrates the night before a big race. Swimming distance and trying cases were a lot alike. You stored up as much energy as you could, then you dove in and kept driving.
During breakfast, Amanda could not stop thinking about Cardoni. What if he was alive? What if he was lurking in the dark, killing again? The idea terrified her, but it also thrilled her. If Cardoni was back from the dead if Justine was an innocent woman, falsely accused this case would make her reputation and bring her out of her father's shadow.
The moment that thought intruded Amanda felt guilty. She focused on the torment Cardoni's victims had to have experienced and forced herself to remember what she' d seen on the Mary Sandowski tape, but she could not suppress the excitement she felt when a secret part of her whispered about a future in which she would be as acclaimed and sought after as Frank Jaffe.
Amanda fought down these thoughts. She told herself that she was ambitious but that she also cared more for her clients than she did for success. Saving Justine Castle was her first, and only, priority. Fame might follow, but she knew that it was wrong to take a case for the notoriety it would bring. Still, the idea of her name in headlines was tough to ignore.
Then a disturbing thought occurred to her. Her father would be back from his vacation in a week. What would she do if he tried to grab her case? Could she stop Frank from moving her aside? She was only an associate at Jaffe, Katz, Lehane and Brindisi. Frank was a senior partner. If Frank wanted the Castle case, Amanda could not stop him from taking over. Maybe Justine would insist on Frank's being lead counsel. When Justine phoned from the Justice Center she had asked for Frank Jaffe, not his daughter.
Amanda chastised herself for thinking this way. She was putting her needs ahead of her client' s. If Justine wanted her father to represent her, she would step aside. Right now she shouldn't even be thinking about anything but getting Justine out of jail.
