Bury the Lead - By David Rosenfelt Page 0,64

at his house. When I get to my house, it’s almost midnight and Laurie is already in bed.

“Hi,” she says sleepily. “How did it go?”

“He said he’ll do the best he can.”

She smiles. “Good. Come to bed.”

I start to get undressed. “I forgot to tell you. Cindy’s getting married.”

“That’s nice,” she says, though I think she’s more intent on falling back to sleep than hearing what I’m saying.

“She says that when you know, you know.”

“Mmmm” is all she can muster, now almost completely out of it.

“I think she’s right about that. Don’t you?”

“Mmmm.”

I’ll take that as a yes.

• • • • •

CAPTAIN TERRY MILLEN is Tucker’s final witness and the one that ties his case up quite nicely. Millen was in charge of the murder investigation from the early point in which the state police were called in, and he had the most connection to Daniel of anyone in law enforcement.

The physical evidence has already been powerfully introduced, so Tucker will undoubtedly let Millen’s testimony focus on Daniel’s unique knowledge of the murders. His contention is that Daniel knew these things only because he was the killer, while our defense is that the killer was simply communicating the information to Daniel.

Before Millen takes the stand, I lose a heated argument during which I again oppose the introduction of testimony concerning the three other victims and especially photographs of them. This defeat makes it official: We have received no benefit at all from Tucker’s decision to limit the charges to the Padilla murder.

Tucker starts off Millen’s testimony by showing all of those photographs and letting the full impact of their gruesomeness inflame the jury. Daniel tries to obey my instructions to remain as impassive as possible, but I can tell from the look on his face that he is having an emotional reaction to them. I’m sure part of that reaction must be that he is aware the world thinks he is responsible for this carnage.

During a break, Daniel leans over to me. “Can I have copies of your files on the other victims besides Padilla?”

Until now, Daniel has been studying up on the Padilla murder but hasn’t come up with any helpful insights. He hasn’t looked at the other files because he hasn’t been charged with those murders. “Why?” I ask.

“I don’t know, maybe it will jog something in my mind. Some way to prove I couldn’t have been at one of the murders.” He shakes his head. “It’s not like I’ve got a lot of other things to do, you know?”

I agree to get him the copies, though I have little hope he’ll come up with anything at this late date.

The break ends, and Tucker again starts to question Millen. “When did you become involved in this case, Captain?”

“After the second murder, Mrs. Simonson. We were called in to consult. It was after the third murder—all we have for her name is Rosalie—that we took over, and I was officially placed in charge.”

“What did the defendant tell you about that murder?”

“He told us that she was murdered in her own apartment, that her hands were cut off, and that her body was left behind a particular Dumpster,” Millen says.

“Did the defendant say how he knew all of this?”

Millen nods. “Yes, he said that the killer phoned him and bragged about it.”

“Did the information turn out to be correct?”

Again Millen nods. “Every word of it.”

“By the way,” Tucker asks, “have there been any more murders of this exact type since the defendant’s arrest?”

“No.”

Tucker takes the next three hours getting Millen to recount every communication he had with Daniel, emphasizing the many facts that Daniel knew about the murders that turned out to be true. By the time he turns Millen over to me, the words “the defendant” and “the killer” seem to be interchangeable.

“Captain Millen,” I begin, “during all these conversations with Mr. Cummings, when he was giving you all this information, did you believe he was communicating with the killer?”

“I wasn’t sure,” he says. “I had my doubts.”

“When you say you had your doubts, do you mean you thought he might have been lying?”

“It certainly crossed my mind.”

“And if you thought he might be lying, but he had all this accurate information, then you must have thought he might have been the killer?”

“That’s correct.”

“Maybe you can help me, Captain. The prosecution turned over copies of their evidence in discovery, but they seem to have left out the surveillance report. Do you have a copy?”

He looks puzzled. “What surveillance is