Bury the Lead - By David Rosenfelt Page 0,75
knows that all this information is due to us in discovery anyway, so he is merely giving us a couple hours head start.
“It’s the same killer,” Pete says.
“No chance it’s a copycat?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Not according to Janet. She said the angle of the strangulation and the way he cut are identical. She said it’s the same guy; she told Millen while I was there.”
“What did he say?”
“That she shouldn’t jump to conclusions, and should go back and examine the body more carefully.”
“Which she’s doing now?” Laurie asks.
“Yeah. But she told me her opinion won’t change, that there’s no doubt.”
“Anything else we need to know?” I ask.
He nods. “The killer left a note. I think I remember the exact words . . . ‘Only fools kill the messenger.’”
This is another bombshell in a night full of them. “He’s talking about Daniel,” I say. “He had said that Daniel would reveal him to the world. Daniel was his messenger, and he’s telling the cops they are killing the wrong guy.”
Pete leaves, and Kevin and I immediately start to focus on the most effective way to use this information in court. We are both confident that it will be admissible, and we discuss strategy in case Tucker resists. More likely, he’ll see it as a futile effort; he knows as well as I do that every juror must already know about tonight’s events by now.
Laurie and I aren’t in bed until almost three A.M., and we spend some more time reflecting on the amazing turn of events. Today was a true disaster in court, but now I don’t see how we can lose.
“Too bad Denise Banks had to lose,” she says.
This comment jolts me; it’s pathetic how little attention I’ve paid to Denise Banks. I’ve been so caught up in my own situation that a victim of a vicious murder became a piece of a strategic struggle.
Also absent from my thinking has been the fact that the killer is still out there, probably preparing to strike again. Once again his actions defy understanding: Why go to all the trouble of framing Daniel only to commit an act that could get him off the hook days before his certain conviction?
I fully believe that Lassiter is the murderer, but these are not the actions of a dispassionate contract killer. It seems like more of a game, or an ego trip, a taunting way to embarrass the police. A more deadly version of his paint-ball game with me on the Manhattan street.
I’m up at six, refreshed despite getting less than three hours’ sleep. I watch the news as I prepare to go to court, but though it’s far and away the dominant story, there is less-current information than I got from Pete.
At seven I get a call from the court clerk: Calvin is summoning us to his chambers for an early meeting. Laurie takes Tara for her walk, and I pick up Kevin so that we can strategize before our meeting. The way Calvin handles this will decide Daniel’s fate.
“Well, gentlemen, we’ve got some issues to deal with” is how Calvin begins. He invites Tucker to update all of us on the events of last night, and Tucker quickly does so. His version has Janet Carlson less confident that the killer is the same, and neglects to mention the note.
“Did the killer contact anyone?” I ask innocently. “Or maybe leave any kind of message?”
Tucker nods and grudgingly tells us about the note. “You leave anything else out, Mr. Zachry?” Calvin asks with obvious annoyance.
Tucker says that he has not, and goes on to argue that this latest murder should not be presented to the jury, that it could be a copycat and does not change the facts concerning the previous murders.
We are prepared for this argument, but any first-year law student could win it. Kevin gives me a copy of the transcript of Tucker’s direct examination of Captain Millen. I read back to Calvin the exchange during which Tucker asked if any further murders have been committed since Daniel’s arrest.
When I’m finished reading, I drive the point home, though it’s already been made. “Clearly, if the question was proper when the prosecution asked it, it will be proper when I call Millen back to the stand and ask it again.”
Tucker has no answer for this, at least none that Calvin finds remotely persuasive. He asks me whom I plan to call, and I tell him just Millen and Janet Carlson. He decides