'What exactly are you telling me to do, sir?' I asked.
'Don't make this adversarial, Sam. All I'm telling you to do is allow
this defense attorney to have her say. You might need to do some
rebuttal, let the jury see that the two cases are unrelated. Tim, you
can get her up to speed on the Taylor file, right?'
Tim nodded. 'We've already gone over it, sir.'
'Good,' Griffith said. When I didn't stand up at his sign that we were
dismissed, he continued. 'No one's telling you to play dead here, Sam.
You know my rule of thumb in trials is to always stay above the fray.
If the defense attacks the police, let 'em do it. Never helps your
case if you look like you've got a personal stake in the outcome. Trust
me, your jury's going to have more faith in you this way. And, in the
long run, this office benefits.'
'The greater good,' I said.
'Exactly.'
I felt neither great nor good after I called Lopez and Lesh to tell
them I wouldn't be filing a motion to exclude Derringer's defense. I
felt depressed.
Lesh's response had been simple. 'Hey, it's your case. Thanks for
letting me know.'
Lopez, on the other hand, couldn't just accept the gift for what it
was. She was convinced I was somehow tricking her. As a result, what
should have been a thirty-second courtesy call turned into a
fifteen-minute inquisition about my intentions. Hell, if I was lucky,
maybe she'd at least lose a little sleep that night wondering what I
had in store for her in the morning. Truth was, I was seriously
considering cutting whatever plea I could get if things didn't turn
around.
I called MCT to see if they'd had any luck tracking down Kendra's
purse, but no one answered. I tried Chuck's pager and entered my cell
phone number in case he didn't call right away.
I was burnt out and dying to leave, but I checked my voice mail before
heading out. Among the usual junk was a message from Dan Manning.
'Samantha, it's Dan Manning from the Oregonian. I was calling to see
if you had any response to today's events at trial and the alleged
connection between your case and Jamie Zimmerman. Also, I'd like to
talk to you about whatever role you might have in the Zimmerman
investigation. Give me a call.'
I wrote down the numbers that he rattled off and hit the button to save
the message as a reminder, but I couldn't summon the energy to call him
back. Besides, what was I going to say? I'm getting my ass handed to
me in trial and am going to have to cut a deal, but I think he's guilty
anyway? Not exactly spectacular spin.
The Jetta and I were crossing the Willamette River over the Morrison
Bridge when my cell phone rang. I recognized the number as Kendra's
and answered.
'You rang?' It was Chuck.
'You're at Kendra's?' I asked.
'Just pulled up. I guess you called Ray, trying to track down where
Kendra's purse came from?' he said.
'Yeah. Did he tell you why?'
'Not really,' he said.
I struggled to think of the quickest way to describe what had been a
draining day in court. It's not easy to explain how the momentum of a
case can shift with just a few hours in trial. I had to jerk the
steering wheel back into line as I realized I'd been zoning out on the
lights reflecting off the river. I waited until I was over the bridge
and had merged onto the 1-5 to launch into it.
'The case fell apart today,' I said. 'Lopez brought in a guy from the
Collision Clinic. Turns out Derringer arranged to have the car work
done before the attack and the shop couldn't get it done until that
Sunday, so our theory about doing it to get rid of the physical
evidence is gone.'
Chuck tried to assuage my concerns. 'I don't think that part of the
evidence was that important, Sam. It made a nice icing to the cake,
but you should be alright without it.'
'You're right that it wasn't the heart of the case. The problem is
that putting a theory out there and having it torn apart by the defense
is a lot worse than if we'd never floated it in the first place. It
gives the defense the momentum. And losing that piece of
circumstantial evidence makes the fingerprint even more important,' I
said.
'I still don't know what the problem is there,' he said.
I filled him in on Derringer's temp job doing inventory at Dress You
Up. 'Without the print, all we've got is Kendra's ID and Renshaw's
