the impression this was all the prosecutor’s show, that he wasn’t a player. He would remind them the defense existed, if nothing else. Best to give them their money’s worth.
Ben walked to the podium. “Deputy Wagner, my name is Ben Kincaid. I’m a lawyer, and I represent the defendant George Zakin in this trial. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Okay,” Wagner gamely replied.
“The whole time you were testifying, Deputy, I kept wondering-who called you?”
Wagner’s head dipped. “Uh-what?”
“The call. In the middle of the night. Telling you about the explosion. Who called?”
“Oh. That was an anonymous tip.”
“And you don’t know who called?”
“No.”
“Weren’t you curious?”
“Anonymous tips aren’t that uncommon.”
“Deputy Wagner, how many people do you suppose were wandering around that forest at one in the morning?”
Wagner shrugged. “I don’t know. Not many.”
“But there are two people we know for certain were out there, right?”
Wagner shook his head. “Huh?”
“The victim. And the murderer.”
“Oh, right. Right.” His trembling intensified.
“So it’s just possible your call came from the murderer.”
“Well-”
“And that would give you a pretty good reason to find out who made the call, don’t you think?”
“Well, by the next morning, we already knew that Zakin-”
“Excuse me. Did you see my client at the scene of the crime?”
“No.”
“So all you know is that by the next morning the sheriff’s office suspected George Zakin, right?”
“Yes.”
“And since they already had an easy, convenient suspect, there was no reason to look for another one.”
“Well, I hardly think-”
“Once you had your obvious suspect, the search for other suspects came to a halt.”
“Objection, your honor.” Granny jumped to her feet, looking extremely indignant. “He’s not giving the witness a chance to answer. And he’s not really asking questions anyway. He’s making a speech.”
“Sustained,” Judge Pickens said. “The jury is instructed to disregard defense counsel’s speechifying. And counsel”-he pointed his gavel-”if you don’t behave yourself, I’ll shut you down like a clam.”
Yes, yes, Ben thought. Scold me all you want. The more the judge threatened, the more likely the jury was to remember what Ben had said. “Deputy Wagner, did you in fact make any effort to find out who made the anonymous phone call?”
“As a matter of fact, we did.”
Ben drew back. Darn.
“We traced the call through phone company records. Turned out the call came from a phone booth not far from Bunyan’s-uh, that’s a bar here in town. It would still be open that time of night. We asked around inside the bar, but no one knew anything. There was no way to determine who made the call.”
“Do you remember anything distinctive about the call?”
“Distinctive?”
“Anything unusual about the voice? Anything that caught your attention?”
“Well … of course, I can’t be sure, but”-he glanced quickly at Granny-“I thought it was a woman.”
“A woman?”
“Right. I could tell whoever it was was trying to disguise her voice, but still and all, I thought it was female.”
A woman, Ben thought. A woman who witnessed the explosion. Hmm …
“Deputy Wagner, what was your reaction when you saw the … remains of Dwayne Gardiner?”
“My reaction? I don’t know what you mean.”
“Well, if it had been me, I would’ve been pretty shaken up. Were you?”
His trembling hands almost answered for him. “I guess you could say that, yeah.”
“Did you run?”
Wagner’s brow creased. “What do you mean? I’m not a coward.”
“I’m sure you’re not. But we all have a flight reflex. If I’d seen that horrible corpse, I would have instinctively run away.”
“Well … maybe I did. At first. But I came back.”
“So you ran away, then came back a second time. Must’ve left a lot of footprints around the corpse.”
Out the corner of his eye, Ben could see Granny rising to her feet, trying to think of an objection. As luck would have it, Wagner answered first. “Sure, I suppose.”
“And what size shoe do you wear?”
“Size ten. Why?”
“Just curious. Thank you, Deputy.” Ben exchanged a quick glance with Christina. That bit of information would be filed away for later use. And while he was at it …
“One last thing, deputy. After you called for backup, how long did it take for Sheriff Allen and the rest of the team to arrive?”
He shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know exactly. Not long.”
“How long. An hour? Maybe two?”
“I told you, it wasn’t long.”
“It takes half an hour just to get to the clearing from the sheriff’s office. And most of these people were probably at home in bed.”
Wagner ground his teeth together. “I’d guess it was an hour before the team arrived. Maybe an hour and fifteen minutes.”
“And so, for that entire waiting period, you were alone at the crime scene. Is that correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“Did you stand still the whole time?”
Wagner’s face crinkled up. “Did I stand still?”
“Right. Or did you move around periodically?”
Wagner’s expression suggested that these were the dumbest questions he’d heard in his entire life. Which was fine with Ben. It was better if the witness didn’t understand the significance of the question. Until it was too late.
“I suppose I must have moved around.”
“I thought so, Deputy. Thank-”
“I don’t think you understand. When I saw that-thing-that used to be a human being, it was just, it was-” He shook his head. “It was horrible. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before.” He paused. “But I’ve seen it a lot since.”
“What do you mean?”
His face fell, and his eyes began to well up. “I see it every morning when I go to work. Every time I hear the man’s name. Every time I close my eyes. It … haunts me. Hard as I try to forget it, I can’t. That image is always with me.”
His head lowered, and his eyes turned watery. “And the worst of it is, I think it always will be.”
Chapter 41
