know, you'll be the talented young attorney who was never the same
after that shooting.'
The entire time I'd worked here, I'd always caved when it came down to
the last shove. If I was going to stick around, it was time to set
some boundaries. I couldn't spend the rest of my career being lectured
on a daily basis.
'I guess what it comes down to is how bad you want me to apologize. I
refuse to suck up to Dennis Coakley.'
'You are so off base. This is not about Coakley, it's about your
respect for me and the authority of this office. I asked Dennis what
time you hauled him over for the pissing match. You went straight from
here to Lesh's. You didn't listen to me at all yesterday.'
'You're forgetting the part where I went off on my detective about the
polygraph request and then called you to make sure everything was
fine.'
'See, only you could turn that phone call into something that helps you
here. You didn't mention anything about Coakley, did you? It's always
bits and pieces of information from you, Sam, and it's getting old.'
'OK, so maybe I could have mentioned it to you then while we were
talking,' I conceded, 'but I won't apologize for what I did to get
those files. It was important, and Coakley was being an ass.'
'Well, at least you recognize that it wasn't exactly masterfully
executed internally.' We were finding just enough common ground for
our egos to cling to as we brought the conversation down to a calmer
level. 'I don't know, Sam, maybe I put you into this a little too
quickly. I called Lesh. He did his best to cover for you, but I could
tell he was worried about you too. And we haven't even talked about
this press conference. Wasn't that your ex-husband?'
I nodded. Duncan's memory ran deep.
'I think I should pull you off,' he said. 'Maybe out of MCU entirely,
but definitely off this case.'
'I can't believe I'm saying this, Duncan, but if you do either of those
things, I won't want to work here anymore. And I won't go quietly.'
Whether it was because he valued my work or feared what I could do to
him in the media, the threat actually worked.
'Then here's the deal. This is the last time we have one of these
talks. You start thinking about the ramifications of what you do, or
you're going to have to go your own way.'
'Deal,' I said, with a salute. It was as much as either of us could
hope for right now, but at least we were talking instead of yelling.
'Christ, your ex-husband? There's stubborn, Sam, and then there's just
plain masochistic.'
'Think of it this way. I guarantee you: No way does Roger Kirkpatrick
call you to complain about this case. It would take all the fun out of
torturing me.'
'I'll take some comfort in that, then. All right, if you're staying on
this thing, we'll need to schedule a conference with the death penalty
committee to talk about what sentence to seek.'
That's right. We've got a death penalty committee. It's not as bad as
it sounds. When Duncan ran for district attorney in this liberal
county, he acknowledged that he was personally opposed to the death
penalty but nevertheless promised to administer it since it was Oregon
law. The purpose of the committee is to have the same group of
attorneys all experienced career prosecutors evaluate every aggravated
murder case in comparison to previous ones and try to achieve the
impossible: the even-handed application of the death penalty.
'I'll send out an e-mail looking for times,' I said.
'They usually take about ninety minutes. And invite the family to come
an hour after we start. I guess we'll need to go through the husband's
lawyers now that he's represented. And, remember, I don't care what
your ex did to piss you off. Be civil.'
I worked like a fiend all morning so I could run off some of my
resentment at noon. I changed into my workout clothes in the
eighth-floor locker room and was warmed up by the time I got to the
river. I decided to bump it up from my usual flat three-mile loop
along the Willamette and did a five-miler around the west hills
instead.
I slowed to a jog after a brutal half mile up a steep incline. I was
out of breath and wishing I'd brought a water bottle when I realized I
was just a couple of miles from Susan Kerr s house. I decided I had
time for a short detour.
I recognized the Expedition in the driveway with the OHSU parking
permit. My immediate reaction was to wonder what Townsend was doing at
Susan Kerr's in the middle of a workday. Then I realized he wouldn't
be back to work this soon after his wife's murder. So how suspicious
was it for him to be here? The two of them did, after all, have a
friendship through Clarissa and were both stomaching the same loss.
