shiftiness. He had clearly called late in the day and left an
innocuous message, betting I wouldn't call back. It always sounds
better when the media can say that someone didn't return calls.
'Duncan, if I had known, I would've returned his call. He didn't say
anything about this angle. You can listen to the message if you want
to. I saved it.'
'Oh, that's great, Sam. That's really going to save my neck here.
'Hey, Oregonian, I want a retraction. Yes, my deputy's banging this
rogue detective, and yes, your reporter tried to call her about it
ahead of time, but it's really unfair that he wasn't clearer about his
angle.' '
I guess it did sound a little whiny.
'Is there any way to deny the story, Sam?' he asked. He had calmed
down considerably and asked the question in a way that suggested he'd
already come to accept the answer.
'No, it's accurate,' I said, still failing to comprehend how my
personal life had wound up on the front page of the paper and inside
Duncan Griffith's office.
Duncan walked around his desk and took a seat behind it. Maybe he
thought I'd blame the desk and not him for what he was about to do.
Maybe he just wanted a shield in front of him in case I became
hysterical.
'I'm taking you off the Derringer case. O'Donnell already notified the
defense and Judge Lesh this morning that the office was looking into
the information published in this morning's paper and that some changes
might be forthcoming. I'm going to put O'Donnell on the case. I
expect he'll be able to get an adjournment while we figure out what the
hell's going on. O'Donnell may need to consult with you on the file,
but you are officially off any case involving MCT. Do you have any
others?'
I wanted to walk out. No, I wanted to throw stuff at him, break a few
valuables in his impeccable office, and then walk out. Unfortunately,
I also wanted to keep my job. The reality was that I could still do
more good in this rotten office without the Derringer case than I'd do
at some private law firm fighting over money for energy and tobacco
companies.
'The Derringer case is my only MCT file,' I said.
If someone had asked me the night before, I would've said I'd do just
about anything to rid myself of the case: I was going down in flames
and about to grovel for a plea. Now I wanted nothing more than to keep
my hand in the mix, at least in some small way.
'Duncan, I think it would be a good idea if O'Donnell and I met with
defense counsel together to cut a plea. If the defense thinks I'm
totally out of the picture, they'll think they've won. They won't want
to deal.'
'Can't do it, Sam. You're out. And I'm going to make it damn clear to
O'Donnell not even to attempt to pressure a plea until IA tells us
where we are with this guy's letter. We got lucky that the Oregonian
withheld the specifics. That letter includes extremely detailed
descriptions of those murders. If IA verifies it, we've got a major
wing nut on our hands. 'The Long Hauler.' Jesus Christ, what a
fucking nightmare.'
It's frustrating when people don't listen to you, but it's downright
infuriating when you know you're right.
'Why's IA involved?' I asked. 'I thought Walker and Johnson were
leads on this.'
Griffith shook his head. 'No. Too much at stake now. The first
letter, anyone who read up on the Zimmerman case could've written it.
Looked like it wouldn't lead to anything, so the bureau thought it was
good enough to keep Forbes off it. If it turns out Landry and Taylor
are actually innocent, your boyfriend's in deep doo doo. Starts to
look like Landry was finally telling the truth when she said Forbes was
feeding her the details.'
'But go back to what O'Donnell told the jury. Why would Chuck do that?
The governor's son can get through the ranks without framing people.'
'See what I meant about bias, Kincaid? You're smart enough to see that
the whole governor's son angle cuts both ways. You could also say it
puts pressure on him to be a star, to stand out as his own man, make it
big in a way that no one could say it was because of the old man. And
hey, he probably thought she really did do it. He wouldn't be the
first cop to bend some rules to make a case stronger to get the bad
guys.'
It did look different from that angle. Given what I'd seen good cops
do to help convict the guilty, why couldn't I believe that Chuck might
occasionally do the same? Even in high school, Chuck had resented the
inherent unspoken separation from his peers that came with being the
governor's son. If that pressure had been bad as a teenager surrounded
by the offspring of lawyers and doctors, what had it been like with
rookie patrol officers? If Chuck felt in his gut that Lan-dry had been
guilty and wanted to bring down a freak like Taylor, might he help her
along with a few details to shore up her story?
