Sudden Death - By David Rosenfelt Page 0,69
no doubt prepped by Dylan for a full-blown cross-examination covering everything. He’s not going to get it; I’ve made whatever points I’ve had to make with previous witnesses. Instead, I’m going to use this cross to start presenting the defense’s case.
“Captain Dessens, you testified that Mr. Schilling became the focus of your investigation early on. I believe you said that within twelve hours he was your prime suspect.”
He nods. “That’s correct.”
“Who were your less-than-prime suspects?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Let me try to be even clearer. Who were on your list of suspects; who were the people you crossed off that list when you decided Mr. Schilling was your man?”
“There were no specific names; it was early in the process, and we hadn’t had a chance to go deep into our investigation.”
“So Mr. Schilling was your only suspect as well as your prime one?”
“Yes.”
“Generally, in a murder investigation, when the prime suspect doesn’t jump out at you so fast, is it fair to say you have a large list of suspects and then you pare them down?”
“Generally, but every case is different.”
“But you never prepared such a list for this case? You stopped looking after Mr. Schilling was arrested?”
He shakes his head. “We continued our thorough investigation, but we had our man.”
“Did your ‘thorough’ investigation uncover the fact that the victim was dealing drugs?”
Dylan jumps out of his chair to object that this is not within the scope of his direct examination, but I argue that it is, since Dylan had Dessens talking about his investigation. Harrison agrees with me and allows Dessens to answer.
“We had indications of that, yes. Nothing that has been proven.”
“In the same way that Mr. Schilling’s guilt in this case hasn’t been proven, since the jury has not yet returned a verdict?”
Dylan objects that this is argumentative, and Harrison sustains.
I push on. “Did you learn where Mr. Preston got the drugs he was selling?” I ask.
“Not with enough certainty that I can name anyone here today.”
I nod. “Fair enough. I’ll name some people, and you tell me if they were possible drug suppliers to Mr. Preston. Here goes… Albert Schweitzer? Pope John Paul? The queen of England?”
Dylan objects again, calling my questions “frivolous,” which is not exactly a news event. Again Harrison sustains.
“Captain Dessens,” I ask, “is it your experience that drug suppliers are dangerous people, who often employ other dangerous people?”
He agrees to that but little else. I let him off the stand having basically made my point: Troy Preston associated with people who seem a lot more credible in the role of killer than does Kenny Schilling.
As Dylan rests the prosecution’s case, I believe I have a slight but real chance of convincing the jury that Kenny doesn’t fit the bill as the killer of Troy Preston.
That’s because they don’t know what I know.
SAM LAYS OUT THE information he has learned in a straightforward, serious way. He doesn’t even song-talk, such is his understanding of the implications of this material. Sam is a numbers guy, and he understands the laws of probability. These facts do not obey those laws.
The question is what to do now. I do not see how we can ever bring any of this before Judge Harrison. If we determine the best, that Kenny has no culpability, then that is the end of it. If we determine the worst, that Kenny has committed a series of bizarre murders, we are prohibited from revealing it. Anything in between, if there can be anything in between, would likewise be privileged.
All this work we are doing is essentially to satisfy our own curiosity, and our energies could be better spent in helping defend our client against the charge he faces, not what he might have done besides that. The only legally ethical justification for our actions is to claim that we are preparing for the remote possibility that Dylan will learn what we are learning, and we will have to defend against his use of that knowledge against Kenny. Having said that, I certainly won’t be charging Kenny for any of the hours we spend on this end of the investigation.
I ask Laurie to devote herself full-time to learning about these mysterious deaths. I want her to investigate each one individually, much as I did Darryl Anderson’s drowning in the ocean off Asbury Park. Maybe she can clear each case as definitely not a murder, but I doubt it.
Marcus is going to continue to guard me, since our concerns about Quintana are absolutely