'Another late one,' I said.
'A late one where? I've been leaving you messages all night.'
'Sorry. I got busy. I would've called you tomorrow.'
'So, again, where have you been?'
Shoot. He'd learned something about interrogations over the years.
'Working. Griffith told me I had to dismiss the case against
Derringer, so I went out to Rockwood to break the news to Kendra.'
'You were at Kendra's until two in the morning?' He sounded
appropriately skeptical.
'I had some follow-up. I'll tell you about it later. Right now I'm
exhausted.' I headed toward the front door.
He grabbed my arm as I was walking up the steps to the porch. 'Dammit,
Sam. What kind of follow-up? Where the hell have you been?'
I pulled my arm from his grip. 'Jesus, Chuck. The stalking routine
really isn't becoming. Is this jealousy? Do you actually think I was
with someone else?'
He shook his head.
'What?' I asked.
'You scared the shit out of me. I thought something happened to
you.'
'Well, nothing happened to me. With Derringer's charges dismissed, he
doesn't have any reason to try to scare me off anymore, so stop
worrying. I told you, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Please respect
that.'
'Don't do this, Sam. You were distant last night, you blew off my
calls all day, and now you're out till whenever and won't tell me where
you were. I know you. The only thing I have to compete with is your
job, so something must be happening on the case. What's going on? My
guys tell me the governor's cutting Landry and Taylor loose. You tell
me you've dismissed the case against Derringer. So why were you out so
late?'
I looked at him but didn't say anything.
'You don't trust me, do you, Sam?'
I knew I should say something, but I didn't. I couldn't get my mouth
to work.
I finally spoke up when he started walking toward his car. 'Explain it
to me, Chuck. How did Landry know so much about Jamie's murder if she
wasn't a part of it? And if she was a part of it, how come she passed
a polygraph while some guy tells the Oregonian where the police can
find Jamie's purse? Explain it to me. Come inside and talk to me
about it.'
He turned his head just long enough to say, 'You're really
unbelievable, Kincaid. You don't know me at all.'
I stopped myself from pulling out my cell phone as I watched him drive
away. Part of me wanted to apologize; another part wanted to scream at
him.
Instead, I decided to get to sleep so I could wake up and work on what
I'd learned from Haley.
Two days later, my ducks were finally in a row.
Sneaking around hadn't been easy. Once the charges against Derringer
had been dropped and the news had been broken to Kendra, my role in the
matter was officially over. I was taking a big risk by jumping back
into it again without notifying Duncan and O'Donnell.
I had reserved a block of time in front of the grand jury without
indicating a specific case name. Anyone looking at the schedule would
just assume I was presenting several drug cases together. Actually, I
was trying to indict Derrick Derringer.
Getting an indictment's much easier than getting a conviction. The
grand jury's only role is to decide if there's enough evidence against
the defendant to warrant a trial, and in practice grand jurors 'true
bill' almost every case presented to them. Because the grand jury
doesn't actually determine the defendant's guilt, the proceedings are
considerably less formal than at trial. No judge, no defense attorney.
Just the prosecutor and seven trusting grand jurors. We rarely even
kept a record of grand jury testimony in state court, but I'd gotten a
court reporter for this particular session. At least if I got fired,
I'd have a transcript to show for my hard work. It wouldn't be a great
trade, but it was better than nothing.
'Members of the grand jury, today's proceedings will not be typical of
the hearings you have experienced so far as grand jurors. By now, you
have figured out that most criminal cases are cut-and-dry. The
prosecutor says hello, calls in a police officer or two, and asks for
an indictment. No one gives you the other side of the story, the
