Jaywalker at home that evening to let him know that the detective would be unavailable, and that as a result Burke would be reshuffling the order of his witnesses.
'Thanks for letting me know,' said Jaywalker, who was genuinely appreciative. He'd long had mixed feelings about what sort of prosecutor he liked going up against at trial. There were the sneaky ones, and there were the open ones, of which Burke was a perfect example. But the thing was, with the sneaky ones, Jaywalker could feel free to fight fire with fire. With someone like Burke, he was com pelled to return decency with decency. Not as much fun sometimes, but in the long run, probably better for every one. 'By the way,' he asked Burke, 'how'd you get my home number?' It was unlisted, and although Jaywalker gave it out freely enough, he didn't remember Burke's ever having asked for it.
'Ve haff our vays,' said Burke.
They shared a laugh, and said they'd see each other in the morning. Jaywalker poured himself a cup of coffee, his third of the evening, all sans Kahlua, and retrieved the files he now knew he would have to review for Friday, thanks to Burke's sense of fair play.
A week or so before the trial had begun, Burke had confided to Jaywalker that he was putting in an applica tion for a Criminal Court judgeship and might ask Jay walker for a written letter of recommendation.
'I'd be delighted,' Jaywalker had said. 'But me? I mean, you do know what they think of me, don't you? I could be the kiss of death.'
'Nonsense. Just because they can't figure out how to control you, it doesn't stop them from knowing you're the best there is.'
'Cut the bullshit. I said I'd write the letter. You want it now?'
'No,' Burke had said. 'Wait till after the trial. You may hate my guts by then.'
'I'm sure I'll hate your guts by then. But you can still count on the letter.'
'Thanks,' said Burke. 'And when you write it, make sure you use my middle name, Francis. I understand there's an A.D.A. on Staten Island named Tom Burke who's thinking of putting his name in, too. Guy's supposed to be a total loser.'
'Right, like you're not?'
Jaywalker smiled now, remembering the exchange. Robert Morgenthau, the octogenarian Manhattan D.A., had long enjoyed enough clout to get just about any of his assistants onto the bench, and he'd used that clout often, with generally good results. Contrary to popular wisdom, former prosecutors didn't always turn out to be tough judges, any more than former defense lawyers turned out to be lenient ones. Defense lawyers, after all, knew that their clients lied. Prosecutors, on the other hand, knew that cops lied, and a few prosecutors even had the balls to say so. Tom Burke was such a prosecutor, and he would make a terrific judge someday. The problem was that Bob Morgenthau, whether he knew it or not, couldn't afford to lose the Burkes in his office; there was a whole new generation of non-Burkes working their way up the ladder.
As he'd told Jaywalker he would, Burke led off Friday with the second of the two police officers who'd responded to Barry Tannenbaum's apartment and found him mur dered. Burke's purpose was a limited one, to show that the body in the apartment was the same one the officer had seen the following day at the morgue, waiting to be autop sied. The officer confirmed that it was, and Jaywalker had no reason to question him.
Next Burke called Charles Hirsch, the Chief Medical Examiner. Jaywalker knew Dr. Hirsch well from having cross-examined him on two previous murder cases. Thin and just slightly gawky-looking, Hirsch was an extraordi nary witness. He had a resume that ran to fifteen pages of advanced degrees, hands-on research, teaching fellow ships, academic positions and awards. He'd been qualified as an expert in forensic pathology in more courts than most lawyers set foot in during a lifetime. Jaywalker quickly rose and offered to stipulate to that expertise. This time, Burke accepted the offer, but he still spent a solid five minutes having Hirsch summarize his credentials. Without the stipulation, he could have gone on for hours.
MR. BURKE: Would you explain to the jury what you mean by the term 'fo rensic pathologist.'
DR. HIRSCH: Certainly. In its most basic mean ing, a pathologist is a physician who specializes in learning the cause or causes of death. A forensic pa thologist is a pathologist who brings that training and knowledge to the courtroom, where the disci plines of medicine and the law intersect.
Already, the jurors were ready to take this guy home and make him part of their families.
MR. BURKE: What is the primary tool em ployed by the forensic patholo gist?
DR. HIRSCH: That would be the autopsy.
MR. BURKE: And what is an autopsy?
DR. HIRSCH: An autopsy is a full postmortem examination of a body, both external and internal, aided by microscopic and other types of studies of various organs, chiefly the blood, brain and liver.
MR. BURKE: Over the course of your career, how many autopsies have you conducted?
DR. HIRSCH: I would say that I've personally conducted upwards of ten thousand, and been pres ent at and observed another five thousand.
MR. BURKE: I offer the witness as an expert in forensic pathology.
THE COURT: I believe Mr. Jaywalker has already stipulated that he is.
MR. BURKE: Did there come a time, Doctor, when you were called upon to perform an autopsy on the body of one Barrington Tannenbaum, also known as Barry Tannenbaum?
DR. HIRSCH: Yes, there did.
Burke had the witness recount the date, time, and con dition in which he'd first seen the body. It had been fully clothed, the upper half covered by a white cashmere sweater with a large dark-red stain covering the chest and upper ab dominal area. Removal of the sweater had revealed a camel colored cotton turtleneck pullover, with a corresponding stain even larger than that on the sweater. Beneath the pullover, Dr. Hirsch had observed a large amount of what appeared to be dried blood, covering the chest area. He'd proceeded to wash the blood away with a saline solution and had observed a wound. He described the location of the wound, first in reference to the midline of the body, then in terms of its distance from the soles of the body's feet.
MR. BURKE: Would you describe the wound itself for us.
DR. HIRSCH: Yes. It was a laceration, specifi cally
MR. BURKE: Let me stop you. What's a laceration?
DR. HIRSCH: A laceration is a cut in or through the skin, as opposed to an abrasion, which is a rub bing away of the skin, or a contusion, which is a bruising of the skin.
MR. BURKE: Thank you. I believe I inter rupted you midsentence.
DR. HIRSCH: There are several types of lacera tions. There are elongated lacerations, in which the skin has been sliced open. There are punctures, in which the skin has been torn by an object coming into contact with it at more or less a right angle, in other words perpendicular. And there are combinations of the two, where the angle is significantly shallower. In this particular case, I was able to determine that the wound was a puncture, just about perpendicular to the surface of the chest.
MR. BURKE: How large was the wound?
DR. HIRSCH: Superficially, that is, on the sur face, it was about three quarters of an inch in length, from left to right, by about one sixteenth of an inch in width. In terms of penetration, it was approxi mately five inches deep.
MR. BURKE: Were you able to determine where it led to?
DR. HIRSCH: Yes. By inserting a metal probe and following the path of least resistance, I was able to track the wound from its point of entry at the skin, and from there through the various layers of fat and muscle tissue. Whether by luck or design, it passed between two of the victim's ribs. From there it en tered the chest cavity and proceeded through the wall of the pericardium. The pericardium is a sac that sur rounds and contains the heart. Once inside the peri cardium, the track continued and entered the left ventricle of the heart, rupturing it.
MR. BURKE: What happens when the left ven tricle of the heart is ruptured?
DR. HIRSCH: Unless there's immediate medi cal intervention, massive bleeding occurs. That bleeding can be into the chest cavity, into the lungs, or out of the entrance wound itself.
