I nod. 'And I hope Your Honor has a wonderful time.'
Dylan revisits the issue of bail, as I knew he would. I'm very concerned that Hatchet might revoke the bail and put Laurie in jail.
'I would not have ruled as Judge Timmerman did,' Hatchet says. 'It is a decision that makes me uncomfortable.'
'The decision is wrong,' Dylan agrees. 'Almost without precedent in this county.'
I won't get anywhere by arguing with Hatchet; all I can do is give him another point of view to consider. 'I'm not going to defend Judge Timmerman's ruling, though it obviously is one I was pleased with. But there are new circumstances to consider.'
He peers at me from behind his glasses. 'And they are?'
'Her order has been followed, and there have been no negative consequences. Ms. Collins is safely contained, electronically monitored, and guarded by the police. The community is safe, and will remain so, and there is no risk of flight. Respectfully, sir, altering Judge Timmerman's order provides no benefit to anyone, while hampering Ms. Collins's considerable ability to aid in her own defense.'
Dylan starts to argue some more, but Hatchet isn't listening. He is turning the issue over in his mind. My heart is pounding so hard I'm afraid Hatchet won't be able to hear over it.
Finally, after what seems like a couple of months, he nods. 'Without a change in circumstances, I'm inclined to let Judge Timmerman's ruling stand.' Then he looks at me. 'Make sure there is no change in circumstances.'
Hatchet dismisses us, and I permit myself a condescending smile at Dylan as I leave. I'm on a winning streak which won't last, but I might as well let Dylan know that I'm enjoying it.
As we had planned, Kevin is waiting for me at the bottom of the courthouse steps. He takes me over to a nearby coffee shop, where I am to meet Marcus Clark. I had asked Laurie and Kevin to each come up with a list of investigators to join our team for this case, and Marcus's name was the only one on both lists.
Marcus is late arriving, so Kevin uses the time to brief me on his background. Soon after Marcus had become an investigator, Kevin represented him on an assault charge: Marcus had broken a guy's nose in a bar fight. Kevin won the case with a claim of self-defense, which he has always considered one of his greatest victories. He tells me that I'll understand why when I see Marcus.
Marcus comes in moments later, and it's immediately obvious what Kevin was talking about. It is hard to imagine that Marcus could have acted in self-defense, because it's hard to imagine anyone being dumb enough to have attacked him.
Marcus is a thirty-year-old African-American, about five foot ten, with a bald head so shiny you could guide planes to a runway with it. His body is so sculpted, his muscles so perfectly formed, that the clothes he is wearing don't seem to impede a view of his body.
But Marcus's most distinguishing physical feature is his menacing facial expression. Fighters like Mike Tyson and Marvin Hagler were noted for cowing their opponents during the pre-fight instructions with the power and anger in their stares. Marcus makes Tyson and Hagler look like Kermit and Miss Piggy.
Marcus nods a couple of times as Kevin makes the introductions, but it's a few minutes before he says his momentous first words.
'Rye toast.'
The waitress says, 'Yes, sir,' which seems to be the appropriate response to Marcus, no matter what he requests. My guess is that if the coffee shop didn't have any, the waitress would have gone outside, captured a rye, and slaughtered it herself.
I explain Laurie's basic situation to him, and when I finish, he simply says, 'She is a good person.'
I nod vigorously in agreement, which I would have done had he said the earth was an isosceles triangle. 'Yes, she is. A really good person.'
'I'll take the job,' he says, despite my not having offered it. 'A hundred an hour, plus expenses.'
'Great,' I say. 'But just so we're on the same page, tell me how you operate.'
He doesn't seem to know what I mean. 'My style?' he asks.
'Right, that's right. Your style.'
Marcus turns to Kevin. 'He serious?'
Kevin, who hasn't said two words during this entire meeting, is surprised to be called in at this point. Marcus and I have to wait until Kevin chews the pound and a half of hamburger in his mouth. I think Kevin actually stores food in his mouth, just in case he should get hungry.
'I suppose,' Kevin says with a shrug, a stunning statement clearly worth waiting for.
Marcus matches the shrug and turns back to me. 'My style is, you tell me what you want to know, and I find out.'
'How?' His stare gets a little meaner, so I soften the question. 'I mean, generally …'
'I ask people questions,' he says, 'and they answer them. I'm real easy to talk to.'
I accept his explanation, even though I personally would rather be questioned by the SS. I decide to hire him, but I don't have to announce it, since he did so earlier. I have reservations, but Kevin and Laurie recommended him highly, and they know as much about this stuff as I do, in Laurie's case even more.
We bid Marcus a warm and poignant goodbye, then Kevin and I drive to my house. We pull up in front, and Edna comes rushing out to meet us.
'Have you noticed Edna is a little high-energy these days?' I ask.
Before Kevin can answer, Edna reaches the car. 'Come inside, quick.'
The look on her face says that she's not calling us in for calisthenics, that something is wrong.
'What is it?' I ask, already on my way inside.
'Laurie should be the one to tell you.'
Kevin and I break into a run, and Laurie is at the front door when we open it. Her cell phone is in her hand, which seems to be shaking.
'I just got a phone call,' she says in a nervous voice.
'From who?'
'Alex Dorsey.'
I try not to overreact to this announcement, and Kevin and I take Laurie into the den to talk. There are no rules for situations like this, but I instinctively feel that phone calls from headless murder victims should be viewed calmly and rationally.
Laurie explains that she had answered her cell phone and immediately heard a voice she recognized as Dorsey's say, 'Hello, Laurie, it's Alex.'
Laurie says she was momentarily too stunned to respond, and Dorsey went on to say that it was payback time, that she'd be sorry for what she did to him, and now was the time.
'Can you tell us his exact words?' I ask.
She shakes her head. 'No, I don't know what his exact words were. I was pretty shocked that he was calling. But that's definitely close to what he said.'
'What did you say?'
'That it wouldn't work, that somebody would find him, that he should give it up now.'
'And his response?'
'All he said was, 'So long, rookie,' and hung up.'
'But you're positive it was him?' I ask.
She nods. 'As positive as I can be. It sounded just like him, and he used to call me 'rookie' because he knew it irritated me. Andy, I don't understand this. They said they ran a DNA test. The body was definitely Dorsey.'
We spend the next hour kicking around how we should handle this. Laurie's testimony as to the facts would have no practical significance. For the accused to announce that she and she alone knows that the victim is really alive would obviously be recognized as self-serving and suspect. Nor does she have an obligation to report what has happened; it is not up to the defense to provide the prosecution with information of any kind.
But it is obviously in our interest to bring this to the attention of the authorities. The phone call opens up questions that must be investigated. For example, can the call be traced? How could the DNA test have gone wrong? Whose body was burned in that warehouse? Where is Dorsey, and how can we get the police to try to find someone they believe to be dead?
Kevin believes that we should call Dylan immediately and make the judge aware of the development as well.
