in bringing it up now? I understood from Townsend that you had a
mountain of evidence against this Jackson guy.'
'We do,' I said, 'but we still need to cover our bases. I don't want
the defense springing something on us down the road because we were
afraid to ask the tough questions.'
'Well, you've asked them, and my answer hasn't changed. Clarissa
wasn't like that, and I hope you'll leave it at that. If the police go
to Townsend with this, it could send him right over the edge.'
Tara had expressed the same concern. Townsend might be the one in
charge at the hospital, but apparently, in other areas of his life,
those closest to him felt the need to be strong on his behalf.
'I know you're worried about Townsend,' I said, 'but I hope you're not
holding back information you think would hurt him. Tara already told
me that's why she initially didn't say anything about this.'
'I am most definitely not holding back with you. If anything, I feel a
little guilty for mentioning Townsend's irrational behavior. But I
don't want to hear anything else about Tara's little suspicions. This
son of a bitch Jackson killed my best friend. You just told me a
second ago that it was basically a sure thing. But instead of anyone
asking me about her life or what she was like or how wonderful she was,
you just want to make sure she was a good wife.'
I did my best to explain how important the questions were to the case,
and she did her best to say she understood. But I nevertheless hung up
feeling like the worst kind of bottom feeder.
I probably should have waited before calling Roger, but I didn't.
'Roger Kirkpatrick.' I could picture him in an office high above the
Willamette, feet on his desk, answering the phone on speaker to avoid
wasting his valuable time on extraneous hand movements.
'Roger, it's Samantha.'
'I assume you're calling about Easterbrook?' He still hadn't picked up
the receiver.
'Good guess, since I've never called you about anything else in the
last three years. Now unless you've once again got your hands where
they don't belong, pick up the damn phone and get me off speaker.'
I heard a click and then his voice was directly in my ear. Perhaps I
should have left well enough alone. 'I had hoped you'd either squelch
the hostilities, Samantha, or remove yourself from the case.'
He had no idea how much I had squelched. There was a time when I
wanted to rip his guts out in public if not literally, then at least
through well-placed billboards announcing that Mister Communitarian was
a cheat and a liar. He liked to think his charitable donations and
board memberships made him a good person, but Roger Kirkpatrick was a
thief of the worst kind, no better than a con man. His grift began
with the hours he spent with Nike's newest spokesperson, the
aforementioned volleyball pro. It was only after weeks of inner debate
that I had finally asked him if I needed to worry. Surely, he had
noticed that she was seventy-two inches of legs, breasts, muscle, and
tan. Negotiations, he assured me.
And, with that, I had given him my trust, not just in the general way a
wife trusts her husband, and not even just in the way I trusted Roger.
I had given him the trust I have in myself, in my own ability to judge
a man who looks me in the eye and tells me he's for real.
Yes, Roger had gotten off easy. If I seemed a little brusque, he was
going to have to deal.
'I wanted to make sure you knew that Jackson requested a prelim,' I
said. 'It's Friday morning. I'll need Townsend there at eight-thirty,
just in case.'
'I know,' he said. 'I sent a paralegal over this morning for the
arraignment. I told Townsend to expect to be there. If you don't
mind, I'll be with him.'
'Suit yourself. Easy billables, I suppose.' Eventually, Town-sends
retention of a defense attorney would look terrible in front of a jury,
but it would be irrelevant to the judge who handled the prelim. 'We
also would like him to meet with us before we make a final decision
about whether to seek the death penalty.'
He assured me they'd both be at the meeting the next day.
'Is that everything?' he asked.
'Johnson needs to talk to Townsend. Some evidence might come out at
the prelim that could be disturbing.' I told Roger about the
nonoxynol-9, my conversation with Tara, and Clarissa's phone records.
'That's a hell of a lot to dump on a guy, Samantha. Your cops didn't
think to mention any of this to him earlier?'
'Don't blow this out of proportion. This is the usual way it's done.
We guard the information, but in the end the family hears it first from
us. The only thing that's making this hard is having to go through you
to get to our victim's husband.'
