by Dan Decker
They had a clear motive for Barbara and even a request to meet Gordon at the scene of the crime prior to his death but they had a difficult time putting her there at the time of the murder.
She did not have a good alibi unless Ron was going to say something, all this might have been enough to convict her alone but Frank’s decision to leave Timothy on the indictment complicated matters. They had to make a logical connection not only between Ron and Barbara, but also between Ron, Barbara, and Timothy.
If I had been Frank, I would’ve dropped the charges against Timothy and only gone after Barbara and Ron.
It would have made the case simpler.
But this was the preliminary hearing and Frank was gambling that one of the defendants would turn on the others. It was a risky play if the judge decided to dismiss the case against anybody.
“Are there any other messages from Barbara to Gordon?” Frank Ward asked.
“There is only one.” The screen changed. “This was an email. ‘Gordon, I’m coming to see you tonight at your place. You had better be prepared to give me what you have.’”
“When was this message sent?”
“Two days before the victim was murdered on May 27.”
Frank flipped through the pages of his binder slowly, giving this a chance to settle with the judge who was still looking between Timothy and Barbara, I could tell he was having a hard time finding a connection.
Frank looked up. “Let’s now move on to the messages between Barbara and Ron.”
Keith stood up. “If I may have a moment, I just want to put it on record that I continue to object to the inclusion of this information. These are confidential client communications and as such should be treated with the deference normally required in such matters. They should not be brought into court.”
“We’ve already dealt with this matter at length,” Judge Anderson said, “I am satisfied that these are not client communications so I’m going to allow the disclosure of these emails.”
“Your Honor—”
“My decision is final, counselor. Mister Ward, please continue. Also, keep in mind that I’m trying to streamline things today.”
“Can we go to the message where Barbara informs Ron that Gordon knows?” Frank asked.
“Yes.” A few clicks later and it was up on the screen. “This was sent after the first email from Gordon on March 11. ‘Ron, I need you to call me ASAP, we have a major problem.’ Ron did not respond to the text message but he did call her. Our records show that the call lasted for approximately five minutes. The call also took place on the evening of March 11.”
“Let’s move onto the next message.”
“Here it is. Barbara to Ron on May 23. ‘He is not responding. He refuses to listen to all reason. I even offered him what we talked about and he said no. I am at my wits end here. I don’t know what to do.’”
“Before we move on to Ron’s reply, can you tell me what the words, ‘offered him what we talked about’ was in reference to?”
Harry shook his head. “I believe this is about a conversation that took place in person because we have no idea about what this could mean.”
“Please show us Ron’s response.”
“The next morning on May 24, Ron replied with this message. ‘I’m afraid we might have to go with the contingency we spoke about.’”
“Were there any other messages between Ron and Barbara on this matter?”
“No, not that we have a record of. On the night of the murder they arranged to meet at Monteverde for dinner. I have that exchange as well.” A moment later it appeared on screen. “Shall I read it?”
Frank shook his head. “No.” He looked at Judge Anderson. “Thank you, your Honor, I have no further questions for this witness.”
The technician must have been instructed to leave the final text messages up, they had been arranged in such a way that both were displayed side-by-side. The judge studied them before looking at me.
“Your witness.”
I went to the lectern, trying to keep the cauldron of emotion I felt bubbling inside of me from showing. I was tempted to still go through all the questions I had prepared for this witness, but in light of Winston’s discovery, I decided to keep this simple.
I wanted the judge to notice the total shift in my approach.
“Mister Jones, thank you for being here. On the night in question, did you check for any email messages my client may have sent, say from about 9:00 in the evening to 4:00 in the morning?”
“I did. There were not any.”
“Were there any text messages sent between the same time frame?”
“There were just a couple. You already know about those, this was when he contacted you.”
“Those are confidential client communications. Did you read them?”
Harry hesitated for just a moment. “I did until I realized the nature of the communications. I did not include them in any of my reports once I realized who he was communicating with because I made the assumption they were confidential.” He looked at Frank Ward. “I was informed by the prosecution to not disseminate any of that information and I have not done so.”
I studied him for a moment as if I didn’t believe him. “Thank you. Did you check for social media activity during this timeframe?”
“I did, there was none.”
“Did you check for internet activity on his computer or phone during this same time?”
“I did, there was none.” He hesitated and looked like he was going to say more, but he did not.
I experienced a brief moment of panic, but it made sense there was nothing. If there had been a record of what Timothy was doing, he might never have been charged.
Think this through.
I’d read the report on Timothy’s computer but there had been nothing interesting.
It suddenly occurred to me why. I also suspected I knew why Harry Jones had hesitated.
“Why did you hesitate?”
“I believe Timothy had a habit of deleting his internet history.”
“What makes you say that?”
“There was no internet history on his computer at all and that just does not make sense. He is a student, I assume he used his computer to look up things all the time, I can’t imagine him not having an active internet history.”
The knot in my stomach loosened. It was all lining up.
“A lot of search engines keep that stuff online now, did you find anything there?”
“I checked, but it had limited access and what I found had also been deleted. Timothy was thorough.”
“Why do you believe this was?”
“I suppose there are a number of different reasons, but the most likely explanation is that he was gambling.”
“And how did you learn about the gambling if his Internet history was deleted?” I asked knowing the answer but wanting to emphasize my point.
“We learned about it from his financial records as I previously mentioned.”
“And did you discover he had been gambling on the day of the murder?”
“Yes, he had. He lost about a hundred dollars.”
I glanced over at Frank who appeared to think I was just making the case against Timothy stronger.
“Were you able to determine when he lost his money?”
“Not to a sufficient level of certainty.”
“Did you reach out to the place where he was gambling to see if they had a record of his transactions?”
“No. We did not. It did not appear relevant.”
I nodded as if agreeing. “During the course of your investigation, were you able to determine if the client made any video calls during this same timeframe?”
“I found no evidence of such a call made from Timothy’s computer or his phone.”
“Did you find evidence if he took any online quizzes or tests for school?”
“No.”
“This does not mean he did not take one, correct?”
“If he
deleted the history right after he submitted a quiz or more likely after he did some gambling, it would all have been zapped.”
Judge Anderson was studying me and I could tell that he probably expected me to ask other questions, particularly about the correspondence between the other defendants and the victim.
I had a different direction in mind.
I looked at the judge. “In the interest of saving the court’s time, if it pleases the court, I would like to call a rebuttal witness after we are done with Mister Jones.”
Frank Ward stirred in my peripheral vision and I resisted the urge to flash him a smile.
“What is the nature of the proposed testimony?”
“My investigator has discovered information relevant to Timothy’s activities on the morning of the murder.”
“Can this information be substantiated beyond the word of your investigator?”
“Yes, it can.”
“I will take your request under consideration. Do you have any further questions for this witness?”
“No, I am done.” As I sat, the judge considered me for a brief moment and I thought he was going to say that I could call up my investigator, but then he looked at Keith.
“Your witness.”
I zoned out as Keith got into his questions. For a moment there I had thought I had a problem on my hands when the detective had testified he had not found any internet history. He had probably known that this could potentially become a weak point in the case and might have even thought he should volunteer the deleted history, but had held it back. I might have skipped over his hesitation if I had not known what Winston had discovered.
Timothy leaned over to me. “Who is your rebuttal witness?” He frowned. “You didn’t get my mom involved in this did you? I told you not to bring her into this.”
I didn’t answer. I wanted him to sweat about it.
Cynthia Cooper.
Every time I thought about her there was something that nagged at me from my subconscious.
Was it the cold reception of her son on the day of his arraignment? Or her calculating exchanges with me?
I pulled open my computer while Keith continued his questions and begin reviewing my case files, turning my screen so Timothy did not have a clear view.
Were you really sleeping while your husband was away, Cynthia? I wondered.
A few clicks later and I was looking at the pictures of Cynthia and Ron’s home that Winston had taken for me. It was a mini-mansion, with several different exits. As I flicked through the photos, I noticed that one of these did not have a security camera.
What are the chances?
I leaned over to Timothy. “When you called your mother after you took that quiz, do you remember where she was?”
Timothy didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to.
He turned pale, like he was deathly afraid of something.
Bingo.
I found Cynthia Cooper in the crowd. She glared when she saw me looking at her. Timothy almost fainted when he saw who I had singled out.
54
July 25 – 4:37 PM
When Detective Harry Jones was excused, Judge Anderson looked at me. “Do you still want to call your rebuttal witness?”
I stood. “Yes, your honor and after that I might want to call one more witness too, if the court is willing.”
“You may proceed with this witness. I’ll make a decision on the other later. I should warn you that I will give everybody an opportunity to examine your witness.”
“I would not expect anything less.”
I called Winston to the stand. I gave him a big smile after he was sworn in.
“Winston, have you been able to identify what Timothy Cooper was doing between the hours of 9:00 PM and 4:00 AM on the night of the murder?”
“I have. In fact, I have a detailed record. At approximately 9:15 PM Timothy entered into the law school, we have him on camera. We do not have him on camera leaving. The reason for this is that there is an exit from the law library that does not have a camera because it is locked from the outside. Most of the students use this when leaving because it is a more direct route to the parking lot.”
“So we have him going into the law library. At what point in time can you prove he was still there?”
“At approximately 1:35 in the morning Timothy submitted an online quiz for a civil procedure class. We have information from the professor as to the time the document was submitted as well as an IP address that puts him at the law school.”
“Is that the last time we have a record of his activity?”
“No. The law school keeps a record of all activity. Internet activity, that is. For the next two hours and fifteen minutes, Timothy gambled.”
“Let me be clear, this means we can prove that Timothy was in the law school at 3:30 AM, correct?”
“Yes. With certainty.”
“Your Honor,” Frank Ward interjected, “this is highly irregular. We had no knowledge of this beforehand.”
“This only came to our attention during the last couple hours,” I said. “I didn’t want to waste court time and resources so I brought it forth immediately.”
“Mister Ward,” Judge Anderson said, “when you learned that the defendant had deleted his internet history, wasn’t that an indication that further research was required?”
Frank Ward sat as I suppressed a smile.
“Your Honor,” I said, “may I approach the stand? I have copies of logs printed out by the IT staff from the law school to present as evidence.”
“You may indeed.”
It was difficult to not strut but somehow I managed as I approached the bench and gave the judge the papers. “We are happy to call in the IT manager from the law school if we need to verify their accuracy.”
Judge Anderson looked at Frank. “That is your call, Mister Ward.” He motioned for me to take the papers over to Frank, which I did.
Frank scowled, but he reviewed them.
“Calling another witness in this matter won’t be necessary, your honor. We will have Detective Gray verify this information is accurate. No need to waste the Court’s time.”
“Very good. You may continue your questions, Mister Turner.”
“I have no further questions, Your Honor.” I paused but only for a moment. “I move that all charges against my client be dropped. The prosecution will no doubt confirm the evidence and there is no reason for my client to spend another night in jail.”
Frank was on his feet again. “Your Honor, I request we have twenty-four hours to review the information provided by Mister Turner before you make your decision. We also request Timothy Cooper be held during that time.”
The judge started to say no, but then shook his head. “I don’t think that’s necessary. It appears this has been a near miscarriage of justice. I am releasing Timothy Cooper now without bond and expect the charges will be dropped by this time tomorrow assuming you can confirm the evidence.”
There was an audible gasp in the courtroom and even I was surprised. This was the former defense attorney in the judge coming out again.
Frank’s request was not unreasonable and my client could spend one more night in jail, it would not have been a problem.
Frank tried to speak but the judge spoke over him.
“My decision is final, counselor.”
I gave Timothy a huge smile. In response, he growled.
He was white as a sheet.
And I knew why.
55
July 25 – 5:48 PM
My phone buzzed. It was Ellie.
“Cynthia Cooper is here to see you,” she said. “Should I send her in?” I thought about it. The last person I had expected to see was her. She probably suspected that I had figured it out and had come to confirm this was accurate. My guess was she might try to hire me to have attorney-client confidentiality attach. She had mentioned retaining my services before but had not told me the matter.
Curiosity overcame me.
“Sure, I’ll see her.”
A moment later my door opened and Ellie showed in Cynthia Cooper. Ellie waited for just a moment, wondering if she wanted me to have her stay, but I shook my head. Cynthia did not look as angry as she had earlier in the day.
“I wanted to personally thank you for what you did for my son.”
“If you really want to thank me, just make sure you pay the bill I will send you tomorrow.”
“It will be paid.”
Cynthia studied my face.
I had done my job and got my client off. It still boggled my mind that Timothy had been angry at the dismissal. When reporters had tried to interview him, he’d almost knocked one out.
I had grabbed his arm and whispered in his ear. “I’m done representing you for good. If you send one of these reporters to the hospital, you have to find a new attorney.”
That didn’t calm him down, but it made him think twice. A few minutes later he had walked down the stairs of the court and disappeared into the street.
Cynthia stared at me.
I waited.
“I would like to hire you, Mister Turner.”
“For what matter?”
“I will tell you after we sign the paperwork.”
A smile broke onto my lips. “No. I have a policy of not representing clients for the same matter.”
Hard edges formed on her face and I wondered if she was going to make a threat.
I laughed, but even as I did, I quietly opened my desk drawer where I kept my Glock 19. It was hidden from her view. I doubted she would make such a desperate move, but it did not hurt to be prepared when you were in the presence of a murderer.
“I ask you reconsider.”
“I’ll make you deal. You tell me where you were when you answered Timothy’s call and I’ll take your case.” I leaned forward. “Or better yet, tell me why you waited until today to come forward? I don’t buy that you didn’t know the time of the murder. If you were aiming to frame Ron and his floozie, you could have at least found a way to keep Timothy out of the crossfire.”
