Show of Evil

'Darby's hanging tough,' Vail said. 'He doesn't have any choice.'

'You think Rainey really believes him?'

'I have no doubt he believes Darby's innocent. We haven't given him anything to change that. He knows we don't have a case.'

'Darby killed her in cold blood,' Shana Parver said. 'I know it, we all know it.'

'Let me tell you a little story,' Vail said, as they started back to the fourth floor. 'A few years ago an elderly man named Shuman was found in a northside apartment dead of a gunshot wound to the head. The windows and doors were all locked, but there was no weapon anywhere on the premises. The last man to see him alive was a friend of his named Turk Loudon, a junkie who had served time for robbery and assault. He had the victim's ring and fifty-seven dollars and a key to the apartment. And no alibi. He claimed the old man had told him he was sick of living and had given him the money and the ring earlier in the day. He had the key because he was homeless and Shuman let him sleep on the floor at night. He was arrested and charged with murder one.

'His pro bono lawyer wanted to go for a deal. Problem was, the gunshot wound to the head was a contact shot, which suggested extreme malice. A bigger problem was Loudon. He absolutely refused to plea. He claimed he was innocent, period. Nobody believed him, particularly his own lawyer.

'Then about two weeks after Loudon was arrested, some painters went to redo the apartment. They found an army .45 calibre pistol lodged behind the radiator. Shuman's prints were all over it and the bullets. Ballistics matched the gun and the bullet in Shuman's head. Shuman had shot himself, and when he did, his arm jerked out, the gun flew out of his hand and dropped behind the radiator. The cops missed it when they searched the place because they didn't think a gun would fit behind it and it was hot. So they looked under the radiator, but not behind it.'

'Were you the prosecutor?'

'No, I was the lawyer. I didn't believe my client - and I was wrong. I damn near plea-bargained him into Joliet for the rest of his life.'

'So you're saying give Darby the benefit of the doubt?'

'I'm saying if you're going to defend someone, particularly for first-degree murder, you can't afford to doubt their innocence. Paul Rainey believes Darby's innocent because he doesn't have any choice. If we can crack Darby's story, if Paul begins to doubt him? It'll gnaw on him until he finds out what the truth is. The trouble is, we can't make a dent in Darby's version of what happened.'

'So Darby sticks to his guns…'

'And we're out of luck,' Vail answered. 'He got lucky. Usually amateurs like that, some little thing trips them up. Something they overlooked, a witness pops out of the cake, a fingerprint shows up where they least expect it. We've been working on this guy for a month and right now we don't have a case.'

'Let me go back to Sandytown,' she said. 'Take one more crack at it, just to make sure we haven't missed something.'

Vail sighed. He knew the frustration Shana Parver was feeling - they all were feeling - but he also had seen more than one felon walk for lack of evidence and he had to balance the time of his prosecutors and investigators against the odds of breaking Darby. The odds were in Darby's favour.

'You know, maybe it happened the way he says it did, Shana. Maybe we all dislike this guy so much we want him to be guilty.'

'No!' she snapped back. 'He planned it and he did her.'

'Are you ready to go up against Rainey in the courtroom?' Vail asked her.

'I can hardly wait,' she answered confidently.

'With this case?'

She thought about his question for several moments. Then her shoulders sagged. 'No,' she said finally, but her momentary depression was gone a second later. 'That's why I want to go over all the ground once more, and question Poppy Palmer again, before we shut it down,' she pleaded.

'Okay.' Vail sighed. 'One more day. Take Abel with you. But unless you come up with something significant by tomorrow night, this case is dead.'

Five

Harvey St Claire was on to something.

Vail could tell the minute he and Parver got off the lift. The heavyset man was sitting on the edge of a chair beside the main