Jensen started laughing and then had a coughing fit. “I didn’t send Foster to do that. I may not have given a shit that he did it but I didn’t tell him to do it. That’s not something I’d do, Willie. You should know that. I do have limits, although I didn’t lose any sleep over Sample getting killed. What is it you always used to say? One less asshole in the world.”
“But you did know that Foster did it, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I knew.”
“Then tell me this, Mike. Why did you let Foster out of jail? I know you did because your signature is on the release papers. The case was a solid burglary. Why did you let him out if it wasn’t because of what he told you about Stack?”
“It was because of what he told me about Stack. That and the fact that he was talking about telling people that he lied when he testified about Harker. So, I let him out. It was a two-bit burglary, Willie. It wasn’t worth my whole career. I didn’t know he’d kill Sample. But when he did, I was in the same boat so I let it go. Sample was a lowlife. If he killed Lisa, then he got what he deserved and if he didn’t, then who was going to miss him? I couldn’t change any of it. If Foster talked, all the shit was going to fall on me. It didn’t make any sense for me to let that happen.”
“You could have changed things for Harker. He was in prison.”
“As far as I’m concerned Harker was a murdering son of a bitch and the rest of this is just garbage. Nothing I did would change any of that. Guilty is guilty. How you get there is just lawyer bullshit. Jamison won the case on that habeas corpus hearing. That should be the end of it. Why’s Jamison still pushing this?”
“You know why.”
“His father? Is that it?”
“Blood runs deep.”
“Does Jamison have any idea how deep?”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning Tommy Sample—or don’t you know about that, yet?”
Ernie interjected. “We know that Dolores Sample isn’t his grandmother, she’s his mother.”
“You know who the father is?”
“Do you?”
Jensen choked out a laugh and began coughing again. “Roger Jamison tried to live with that secret, but after I looked at the birth certificate I put two and two together. He thought he was careful but there were rumors. It was a much smaller town then and you know how cops gossip, especially about defense lawyers. I heard about it and sniffed around. Besides, have you ever seen that kid? Looks just like Roger. He didn’t deny it when I confronted him about it. I’ll give him some credit. He didn’t admit it either.”
“And you used that to get what you wanted.”
“Hell yes, I used it. We needed something from Roger and I had him by the balls. Hell yes, I used it.”
“Who is ‘we’?”
“You after them, Willie, or you after me?”
“We’re not after anybody. We want the truth. We’ll sort the rest of it out later.”
“Well, I guess it doesn’t make that much difference now. It was Cleary—now Justice Cleary. He needed Foster to testify and he needed him to be cooperative, so he needed a cooperative lawyer. He also needed to keep out that bullshit alibi of Sample’s. That just made the water murky. We were convinced Harker did it and Cleary wanted to make sure that nothing interfered with convicting that son of a bitch. Foster said he did it and so did the victim’s kid. All that would have happened with those tapes is create doubt, and Cleary didn’t want that. Those tapes were just Foster sniveling and trying to avoid admitting what he did. So, Roger was perfect. Big-time lawyer represents Foster and makes the deal for his testimony. We keep our mouths shut about where those tickets came from and Roger Jamison’s little mistake keeps running around on the QT. Everybody’s happy. Cleary’s a hero to his boss. Harker gets convicted and Roger gets to go on as Mr. family man. And now Cleary goes to Washington and Gage gets to be attorney general and then governor and I get this.” Jensen held up his glass and drained it. “You going to pull the pin on me, Willie? It’s a house of cards and nobody is going to come out a winner, but I guarantee Jamison is going to come out a loser for sure.”
Jensen’s hand slid down inside the cushion of his chair. It was a careful movement. O’Hara’s eyes caught the subtle gesture, sensing his own nine-millimeter automatic nesting in his hip holster. He also felt the weight of the Walther that was against his ankle. “Don’t be foolish, Mike.”
“You going to arrest me?”
“No. At least I have no plan to.”
“Who else does?”
“The kid possibly. After all, you did lie. But I’ll talk him out of it.”
Jensen pulled his hand back into open view. “Yeah, so did Clinton about the blue dress. Like I said, it wasn’t the first time. But there’s a lot of lying that went on in this case. You know how that works. If all you got is Jimmy Stack you don’t have shit. I used to be a homicide detective. Willie. I helped train you. You didn’t come in here because you had anything. You were fishing and you’re still fishing. I get it. At least you treated me with some fucking respect and didn’t try to mess with me like some perp. Wouldn’t have worked anyway.
“Let it go, Willie. You and Ernie need to let this case die and so does Jamison or all the shit in the system is going to come down on his head—and yours. Let it go. It won’t be the first time”—Jensen looked sharply at O’Hara—“and you and I both know it. The right result isn’t all black-and-white. Some things just need to be overlooked.” Jensen began violently coughing again. “Now you need to leave me alone. I got a busy day planned.”
O’Hara and Ernie let themselves out of Jensen’s house and walked across the street to O’Hara’s car. Ernie turned to O’Hara. “If I ever get like that just do me a favor and shoot me.”
“Same for me.” O’Hara cocked his thumb and squeezed his trigger finger. “He was a righteous cop once. But he isn’t the first old cop I’ve seen that burned himself out and stopped thinking about the right way to do things. They get so they just think about the result and justify everything else.”
“Are we that much different?” Ernie said quietly.
“Partner, I know you are. I hope I am. Because if we’re not, then for us looking at Mike Jensen is like looking in a mirror and seeing the future.”
Chapter 52
O’Hara walked back to the crime lab and stood silently for a minute watching as Andy stared into a microscope. He had the message on his answering machine. Andy had found something. Finally, he cleared his throat and Andy’s head popped up. The forensic analyst pushed back the mop of blond hair hanging over his forehead and grinned. “Well, I want you to tell me that I’m the king of forensics.”
“And that would be because why?” O’Hara wasn’t in a patient mood but he needed Andy, and if he had found something he was entitled to crow a little bit.
“Because not one in ten guys could have done it, but you have me.”
“Right, we have you, king of forensics. Okay, tell me what you got.”
“I found blood on that stuffed rabbit. Not much. Whoever touched it picked it up around the neck. There was blood down in the fold. I’m guessing the rest of it was rubbed off, but I found it. King of forensics.”
“Is there enough there that you can identify who it came from?”
“The toy was filthy. The kid who had this must have dragged it everywhere but there was enough blood to do a DNA test. It was very degraded, but I was able to retrieve mitochondrial DNA.”
“What’s that?”
“As blood or other tissue deteriorates and degrades because it’s biological in nature, bacteria attack it, destroying some of its distinctive characteristics. Typically, the last part of human remains are bones and hair, sometimes just degraded bits of blood, but if you are very good, which I am by the way, you can retrieve mitochondrial DNA. It is the mother of DNA.”
“The mother?”
“Yes, because it’s carried by the mother and passed on through her. In degraded blood samples, which
this is, the most likely DNA trace that will be found is mitochondrial, which is one portion of the total DNA that would be found in a properly preserved biological sample. We can get it from old bones found years after the person dies, for example. We compare the mitochondrial DNA known to come from the mother or someone linked to the mother and see if it compares to the person we are testing in order to see if they are related. I could compare the mother to the remains of a suspected missing child or I could compare a child’s to what are believed to be the remains of a mother or a sister or brother. That’s one of the reasons we take DNA samples from soldiers and if they are missing we can link them if they are found years later. That is if you can give me maternal DNA samples to test against. Either get me a whole sample of the blood of persons you suspect or get me a sample of a person maternally linked. In other words, from their mother or a sister or brother. And of course, being king of forensics I can do this from a saliva swab if you can only get that.”
“So, if we get the child’s DNA sample you could tell if the blood came from someone she was related to, such as her mother, if her mother was the victim?”
“That’s right. But the blood sample I found was mixed. Whoever picked up that stuffed toy had the blood of other people on their hand. I can’t tell whose blood until I get samples to test against, but I can tell you it was from three different people.”
O’Hara’s immediate reaction was consistent with the surprise in his voice. “Three? What do you mean? You found blood traces from three different people?”
“That’s right. Whoever picked up that toy had blood from several people on their hands, not a lot, but enough. I can guess that since it’s a murder scene, some of the blood is from the victim but whoever had the victim’s blood on their hands also touched the blood of somebody else or maybe were bleeding themselves. So, whatever happened, at least three people bled and that blood was on the hands of the person who picked up the toy. I have to do some more tests. First you get me the samples. I take it the little girl’s mother was the victim?” Andy hesitated, then asked what he suspected. “This is the Harker case, isn’t it?” O’Hara didn’t respond. Andy pressed the issue. “I thought that case was closed.”
“Like I said, this is a personal favor between us and nobody else. Nobody. Agreed?”
Andy was silent, his eyes focusing on O’Hara, squinting before answering. “Agreed. But if there are any questions I say you asked, okay? Then you explain why you asked—and you owe me.”
“Is there anything else?”
“Well, I can’t be absolutely positive, but I would say there’s a high probability that one person was black.”
O’Hara’s jaw tightened. It was like a dark cloud crossed over him. “What do you mean black?”
“I mean black—African American. The genetic markers have patterns and those patterns show up in higher percentages in different ethnic or racial groups. That’s how they do genealogical tracing. I mean very few Americans are just one ethnic or racial group. We’re mutts. Well, you’re a mutt. Nothing personal but I’m not a mutt. I’m a Russian.”
Andy saw the scowl building on O’Hara’s face. He made an immediate concession to avoid O’Hara’s well-known intolerance for humor at his expense, sensing that there was something he wasn’t seeing. “Well, maybe a little bit of a mutt. I’m probably related somewhere to Genghis Khan. I’m sure it would be somebody famous.” Andy laughed and pushed the hair off his forehead. “But if the parents had mixed ethnicity, you can kind of backtrack and tell the probabilities of ethnic and racial history or you can tell that the genetic history is very specific to a region. It would be better if I had the father’s but so far, I’m sure one of the people was African American or at least part. Was one of the suspects black?”
“I’m not ready to answer that yet. I owe you. Now explain to me how I get the samples.” It had already been a long day. He needed to get back. Jamison was waiting for answers and he didn’t have any good ones to give. He had to get those samples and he didn’t want to deal with that explanation. But he also had to have answers from a man he’d talked to already and who had misled him multiple times. That wasn’t something you did with O’Hara. Not if you were hoping for a good outcome.
Ernie had waited until O’Hara finished with Andy before going in to talk to Jamison. He had decided to wait on the issue of who Tommy Sample’s father was until his options ran out. It was a family matter that he not only respected, he knew it would probably stagger Jamison.
The two detectives went over Jensen’s statements with Jamison, and then O’Hara dropped the bombshell that the blood on the rabbit included the blood of a black man. That could only mean one person, Clarence Foster.
Jamison’s reaction was more subdued than either investigator expected. All that had happened was that more questions had been created. Until they got back the DNA comparisons there was nothing to which they could definitely point. Jamison was very familiar with the use of mitochondrial DNA, having attended multiple courses on it as well as used it in a murder case several years before where the body was discovered in a highly decomposed state.
He turned to O’Hara. “We need a sample of Harker’s blood and I’m guessing that the coroner will probably have that or a tissue sample of some kind. Okay, Ernie, you go get a swab from the inside of Christine’s cheek. Check with Andy on the proper way to do it but I know it isn’t very technical. Just make sure you do it carefully. We can compare that to the blood on that stuffed toy for her mother’s blood.” That leaves Foster and either Dolores or Tommy Sample. See if Dolores will cooperate but if not, then let’s get it from her grandson, Tommy. That should work.” Both investigators glanced at each other but said nothing while Jamison continued. “As for Foster, before we go back and requestion that son of a bitch, I want you to check in the Department of Justice files to see if they’ve already done a DNA analysis of him.”
O’Hara waited until Jamison was finished before asking, “What do we do about Mike Jensen? He might call Gage or even Cleary. We can’t keep this whole thing quiet much longer.”
“I don’t think Jensen is going to call anybody. If he does, he does and I’ll deal with it. But we know he covered up a murder and we know he concealed those tapes. Going to Gage isn’t going to help him because they’ll just blame him. You check back with him and remind him to keep his mouth shut if he has any plans of making this work out. I’m not sure yet what we do with him but for right now we remind him that you’re his best friend. We’re going to need him if this gets any uglier and he’s going to need us.”
Ernie asked, “Anything else?”
“I’m going to go talk to Paul Carter.”
“Foster’s lawyer?” O’Hara exclaimed. “Why would you want to do that?”
“Because he’s the one who tipped me off about there being other interrogations with Foster and I want to know if there’s anything else.”
“Boss, you do realize he’ll just tell Foster to stop talking to us.”
“Bill, I saw Carter in court this morning. He already knows about you talking to Foster and he knows you didn’t read him his rights. We don’t need anything from Foster to nail him on killing Sample. He isn’t going to admit it anyway. We need him on the rest of this. I need to know what’s in my father’s file on Foster and Carter has that.”
Chapter 53
Carter sat in a dark booth at the back of the Cosmo. He waved Jamison over. There was a beer in front of Carter and a second one already on the table. Jamison nodded toward the second beer. Carter said, “I ordered for you. It’s still cold. The waitress just brought it.” Carter tapped his fingers on the table, waiting for Jamison to open the discussion. It was almost part of the lawyer DNA. If the other lawyer wants something from you, wait until they get around to telling you what it is before you offer anything.
“Thanks for seeing me,” Jamison said. “I hear you did a good job on that Rodriquez rape case.”
“I still lost.”
“Yeah, I had to take a shower after the verdict. Son of a bitch creeped me out every time I sat next to him.”
“But you’ll still argue for a new trial and a lesser sentence, right?”
Carter grinned. “That’s my job. I don’t have to like them, just defend them.” Carter resumed tapping his fingers on the table, waiting.
Jamison deliberated before speaking. “Paul, off the record. I know that your client gave a statement to Gage and Cleary that he didn’t know who killed Lisa Farrow because he was so drunk. And I know that interview disappeared. Alton Grady never saw it. Nobody saw it. But there’s more here. I know your client killed Richard Sample and I’m guessing that’s what he admitted to you. I’m not asking for any big reveal. I’m telling you right now that we can prove that, just so you know where you stand. How much do you know about the Harker case?”
“I read the file, the police reports. And now I know for sure that Harker didn’t get a fair trial. Pretty serious stuff. Deliberate suppression of evidence in a capital case.”
Jamison wasn’t going to be baited. He left out disclosing any information about Sample. “The little girl had a stuffed toy, a rabbit. There’s blood on it that our forensic guy recovered. We don’t have the match yet but we do know that it includes the blood of a black man. My guess is that it’s going to be your client’s blood.”
Carter’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want, Matt? My client didn’t kill Lisa Farrow. I’m convinced he was so drunk he didn’t remember what happened but he’s not a murderer. I’ve defended plenty of those guys.”
Shades of Truth Page 34
