'When Johnson asked him the other night about barrier methods, Townsend
assumed there must have been a sexual assault.'
'We still don't know,' I said. 'Maybe the nonoxynol's Jackson's.
Either way, Tara seems to think Clarissa was seeing someone else. Think
what you want about the phone calls.'
'I'll tell him myself,' he said.
'I want to send someone over, Roger. You can pick whomever you're most
comfortable with, and you can be there. But I want a cop to tell him.'
It was the first step to bridging the gap between Townsend and PPB, an
accomplishment that would help the rest of the case run smoothly.
Roger wasn't having it. 'I'm not trying to be an ass, Samantha, but
don't tell yourself you're doing this for Townsend. There's not a man
in the world who'd choose to hear something like that from a cop
instead of someone he at least knows is on his side. You want the cop
there to see his reaction, and it's totally unnecessary. Townsend's
cleared. I'll tell him myself.'
I had to admit it with Townsend's alibi and poly, there was no
compelling justification for having a detective present when he heard
the news. 'Fine,' I said, 'but some words of advice?' He was silent
during the pause. 'When you break the news to Townsend, try to be a
little more subtle than you were with me.'
I hung up, angry at myself for losing my cool. I wrote a memo for the
file about my conversation with Tara and sent a duplicate and the phone
records to the discovery desk. Now that Townsend would be getting the
news, I could make the disclosure to Slip.
I needed a pick-me-up. Fortunately, I had saved the best call for
last. Chuck answered at MCT.
'I was wondering when I'd hear from you,' he said. 'You find my note
last night?'
'Pretty cute. I'm not sure Vinnie enjoyed being the messenger, though.
Looked like he tried to chew it off of his collar.'
'He was probably trying to eat the damn thing. Greedy mutt snarfs down
anything within a three-foot radius.'
'Takes after his mommy that way. Now, as much as I'm enjoying
deconstructing my little man's eating habits, can you please share the
good news? I didn't appreciate the cliff-hanger.'
'I am pleased to announce that Heidi Chung, famed PPB crime lab
specialist, will testify that blood on the hammer Johnson took from
Jackson's apartment belonged to Clarissa Easterbrook. The ME says it's
consistent with her injuries.'
'Yes! I knew we'd get it.' Even so, I felt relieved to have the news
officially in. Establishing probable cause against Jackson would be a
breeze.
'Ah, but there's more,' he said. 'A little surprise to end your day
with.'
I kicked my door shut with my foot and dropped my voice low. 'It's not
exactly a surprise if you tell me about it ahead of time.'
'Get your mind out of the gutter, Kincaid. This surprise is from
Chung. She got Jackson's prints from his booking. Matched his right
index and middle to two of the unidentified latents on the
Easterbrooks' door knocker.'
I let out a small scream. It always felt good when a case came
together, but it was particularly satisfying to have my first murder
case wrapped up with a tidy little bow on top. I told him to ask the
crime lab to get the reports to me ASAP so I could include them in
Slip's discovery package.
'Now,' he said, 'if you want to get back to that conversation you
started a second ago, I'm up for it. But I charge two ninety-nine for
the first minute and one ninety-nine thereafter.'
'As tempting as that sounds,' I said, 'I think I'm in the mood for
something a little more personal.'
'I could probably handle that. Maybe come up with a surprise or two of
my own.'
'You're on. Seven o'clock, my house. Bring your toothbrush. This one
might be an overnight.'
Eight.
With the evidence in against Jackson and the charges formally filed, I
finally got a taste of a regular MCU morning on Thursday. It was just
like a morning in DVD, but instead of grinding out morning drug
custodies, I was churning through the night's assault arrests.
As required, I finished the misdemeanor screening cases first. I held
back only one to issue as a felony. Robert Jenkins, a
thirty-seven-year-old man with a prior trespass conviction at an
elementary school, was tackled by the father of a four-year-old girl
