“Almost as if it were meant to attract attention in the way it was positioned?”
Dylan objects that Clayton could not possibly know the intent of the person who left the car there. Harrison sustains, but I’m starting to make my point.
“Would you say there was a significant amount of blood,” I ask, “or just some small specks?”
“I would say a decent amount, certainly not just specks.”
I nod. “And you testified you saw it immediately and that as soon as you saw it, you were positive what it was?”
“Yes.”
“Were there wipe marks? As if somebody had tried to clean it up?”
“I didn’t see any,” he says.
“Patrolman, let me ask you a hypothetical question. If that were your car, and you had murdered someone, would you have done a better job hiding it? Would you have cleaned up the blood?”
Dylan objects, but Harrison lets Clayton answer. “I guess I would have, sir. But I wouldn’t murder anyone.”
I accept that and move on. I get Clayton to describe where the car was on the highway, then ask, “And where was the taxi stand?”
“Taxi stand?”
“Right. Because if the defendant left his car there, he couldn’t walk home, could he?”
“Well…”
“Are you aware of any theory of an accomplice, someone who drove Mr. Schilling home after he carefully hid the car?”
Dylan objects that this is out of the witness’s area, and I don’t push it. Clayton responds to another question by saying that there is a rest area with a telephone a half mile away. I don’t ask if there is any record of that phone calling a taxi company, because Dylan would object again. I know from the discovery that two such calls were made during the days when the car might have been left, but they were both by women, so Kenny is in the clear on that.
I let Clayton off the stand, satisfied that I’ve done as much damage as I could, but I’m all too aware that Dylan’s big guns are still loaded and ready to fire.
Next up for Dylan is Dr. Janet Sheridan, the lab director who did the DNA tests on the blood in Kenny’s car. I know from the reports that the results are conclusive, that it is without question Preston’s blood.
Dylan takes three hours to get Janet to say this in as many ways as she knows how. Her conclusion is that the chance of its not being Preston’s blood is one in two point five quadrillion, or something like that.
My cross-examination is quick and to the point. “Dr. Sheridan, how did Mr. Preston’s blood get in the car?”
“I’m afraid I have no idea. That’s not within the scope of my work.”
I nod. “Sorry. Who was driving the car when it was left where it was found?”
Dylan objects, but Harrison lets her say she doesn’t know this either.
“So if I were to say that someone other than Mr. Schilling took his car, murdered Mr. Preston, and then left the car with the blood in it, is there anything in your test results that would prove me wrong?”
“Not in these results, no.”
“Thank you.”
Kevin and I go back to the office. Adam is there working, and I realize that he wasn’t in court today, though he had said he would be. Maybe the studio is pressing him for what he calls a first draft, but that’s the furthest thing from my mind at the moment.
Adam stops what he’s doing to listen to Kevin and me dissect the day in court. Kevin is a very good barometer of the trends in a trial, and he thinks we did okay, but not great. He’s quick to say that there was no way we could have done great, but it’s not necessary because I wasn’t insulted. He’s absolutely right: Dylan had the upper hand.
After about a half hour of this, Adam rather tentatively asks a question. “Let me ask you guys something. Forgetting people you’ve met while practicing criminal law… I’m talking about in your personal lives… how many people your age… friends… do you know that have died in the last ten years?”
“One” is my answer, thinking of Susan Goodman, a girl I went to high school with who was hit by a car about two years ago.
“Two,” says Kevin. “Why?”
“I’ve checked out maybe a hundred and twenty people identified as friends or acquaintances of Kenny’s. Eight—all males—have died in the last seven years. None were over twenty-five years old.”