Mike's beefy hands looked awkward opening a tiny snack pack of
chocolate pudding that I imagined his wife packed in his lunch every
day. I tried to ignore the fumbling and focus on what he was saying.
'I say they're taking a big risk putting the brother up there. They
can't possibly think anyone's gonna buy this alibi deal. I mean, what
about the fucking print on the purse, for Christ's sake? I mean, don't
you think I'm right on this, Samantha?'
'All the way. Like I said, Lisa'd be better off arguing reasonable
doubt on the legal elements of the most serious charges, instead of
going with this alibi defense. I still can't figure out why she's
doing it. It's got to be coming from Derringer. Probably figures
that, with the prior attempted sod, the judge will tee up on him even
if he beats the attempted murder and the accomplice charges. Figures
if he's going down for the count anyway, he may as well roll the dice
and try to beat the whole thing.'
Chuck pushed his palms against the edge of his desk, rolled his chair
back a couple of feet, and crossed his arms. 'He must have some loaded
fucking dice, because I don't see him beating a damn thing with this
weak-ass witness list.'
It's a fundamental truth that the number and density of cuss words
increases exponentially as the number of cops and DAs in a room goes
up.
'I'm glad you're so confident,' I said. 'I recognized the big brother,
and I knew Lisa'd be calling Jake Fenninger. He's the cop who popped
Kendra on Christmas. But I don't have a clue on the other three.
Enlighten me?'
'Well, let's start with Geraldine Maher and Kerry Richardson. Know
what they have in common?' Chuck raised his eyebrows, daring me to
guess. When I continued to stare at him, he said, 'They work at Lloyd
Center.'
I felt my eyes widen. 'The shopping center? What does a fucking mall
have to do with my attempted murder case?'
'I wouldn't have put it together except for the last name on the list,
Timothy Monrad. Rad was a new recruit for the bureau last summer.
Works northeast neighborhood patrol, including you guessed it Lloyd
Center.'
'Nice of Lisa to let me know that one of her witnesses is a cop,' I
said.
'Don't freak out. It's not a big deal,' Chuck said with confidence.
'See, Kerry Richardson comes up in PPDS as a complainant over and over
up at Lloyd Center. Turns out he's what they call a 'loss prevention
officer' at Dress You Up, that discount department store down at the
end by the movie theater?'
I nodded to let him know I recognized the name.
Chuck continued. 'OK, so when I saw Rad's name on the list too, I was
psyched. I figured there might be some connection through Lloyd
Center. So I ran all of Rad's arrests at Lloyd Center and
cross-referenced them with Richardson's PPDS records. I found a report
from January where Rad was the arresting officer on a trespass that
Richardson called in. The trespasser was Andrea Martin.'
'That's right. I remember. I ran Andrea's record in February as
background. She had no convictions, but I did see a real recent arrest
for trespass somewhere.' I didn't pursue it, because even if I called
Andrea to the stand, misdemeanor trespass is not the kind of crime that
can be admitted into evidence against a witness. And her case hadn't
even been issued; it was just an arrest.
Chuck continued. 'The somewhere was Lloyd Center. I pulled the arrest
report. Back in November, Kerry Richardson thought he saw Andrea
shoplifting in the store. He went and got the manager, Geraldine
Maher, and the two of them stopped Andrea outside in the mall. She had
receipts for the things in her bags, but Richardson insisted he'd seen
her sneak something. They figured she must have stashed whatever she
stole somewhere right outside of the store. They didn't call police,
but they did eighty-six her from the store. Richardson must have some
memory, because when Andrea came back into the store in January, he
recognized her and called police. Rad made the arrest. Andrea told
Rad she just assumed that the eighty-six from the store had ended by
then.'
'I'm not surprised we didn't issue that. Sounds like she never
should've been excluded in the first place.'
Ray Johnson was laughing. 'So that's it? The whole defense is that
the vica whore, her mom's a trespasser, and Derringer's scum brother
says they were watching TV?'
I was just as bewildered. 'I don't know what the hell Lisa's thinking.
The jury's going to hear about Kendra's background from me. I'll go
over it during voir dire, opening, and Kendra's direct, so Lisa doesn't
get any mileage by calling Fenninger. She can't get in those Lloyd
Center witnesses to impeach Andrea. And even if she did, who would
care?'
Mike Calabrese gave me a thumbs-up. 'Lock and load, baby. That's what
I say.'
