The Defendants: Crime Fiction & Legal Thriller (Thaddeus Murfee Legal Thriller Series Book 1)

by John Ellsworth

  “Did it occur to you to ask whether she shot Vic Harrow with that gun?”

  “Never occurred to me. Ermeline’s not like that.”

  “But you didn’t rule her out as a suspect?”

  “Didn’t rule her out. Didn’t rule her in, neither.”

  SAAG Barre could see this was going to be difficult. She decided to change course. “Whose fingerprints have been identified on the gun?”

  “The officer that found it and Ermeline Ransom’s.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “I’m just repeating what the crime lab report says. You should have that in your file.”

  “And I do, Sheriff. But the jury doesn’t. Do you know the cause of Victor Harrow’s death.”

  “From what I saw at the scene, gunshot to the head.”

  “Have you seen the coroner’s report?”

  “Yes. It said Victor Harrow died of a gunshot wound to the head.”

  “Did it say whether the gunshot might have been self-inflicted?”

  “No, but I know it wasn’t.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “Here’s where my detective work really paid off.” He looked at the jury again. “The gun that shot him was found at Ermeline’s house. I deduced that it wasn’t self-inflicted based on that.”

  The jury snickered and several smiled. The Sheriff clearly didn’t have any use for Rulanda Barre and he wasn’t going to help her. Thaddeus smiled inside but managed to keep his head down, busily studying his notes. He decided to just sit back and let Sheriff Altiman have his way with her.

  “Was there anything about powder burns on the victim?”

  “No powder burns were found on Victor Harrow’s skin. Which indicates the gun muzzle was more than three feet from him when the shot was fired.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Any closer and the gunpowder blast would have left microscopic fragments of burned powder on Vic’s skin. There wasn’t any found.”

  “That’s in the crime lab report?”

  “It is.”

  “Your Honor, the State moves into evidence State’s Exhibit 77, the ISP Crime Lab report.”

  The judge looked at Thaddeus. “No objection. We have been willing to stipulate all along that Victor Harrow died of a gunshot wound. Just to speed things up. But Special Assistant Attorney General Barre wanted to take the long way around. I’m just glad we’re about done with it.”

  “Counsel, that’s unnecessary,” said Judge Prelate evenly. “The State must prove all elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Including cause of death. Please proceed Ms. Barre.”

  “Your Honor, I have nothing further,” Barre said.

  She proceeded to call two more incidental witnesses—fingerprint examiner and gunshot residue expert, and then she rested the State’s case. Walking with his cane back to his office, Thaddeus knew she had proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt. He stopped just outside his sidewalk door and looked right and left. Looking for unknown faces had become habit now. He wished it weren’t so, but he felt hunted anymore and he was always on edge. Nobody around, so his hand relaxed on the cane. He took a deep breath of fresh April air. Soon it would be deep spring and the robins would return and the apple trees bloom. That would all be wonderful and he was looking forward to respite from the winter and its ice and storms. But first he had to raise reasonable doubt. Plus he had to survive the next gunshot. He winced. He had to raise enough reasonable doubt to walk Ermeline Ransom out of the courthouse a free woman. How he was going to do that, exactly, had never been less clear to him than it was right then.

  32

  They were in Skokie at the far wall of the anonymous office. Bang Bang was so furious he was sputtering. Johnny had to admit he had never seen Bang Bang go off like this before and Johnny, who really was sociopathic so that not much scared him, realized that his own hand was shaking and that his armpits were staining his white-on-white shirt.

  “—and you let me down. Shot the guy in the leg! What the hey!”

  “I’ll go back,” Johnny said. “Just let me finish.”

  “Now they got your name. Whattaya mean, ‘go back’?”

  “Let me finish what I started. I’m gonna make sure ain’t no other lawyer want nothin’ to do with this case.”

  “You think you can, Blades? You think you can make the Bangman happy?”

  Johnny’s back stiffened. “I know I can. This time I’ll get right up in the guy’s face. Won’t be no missed shot. He’s dead right now.”

  “You talk good. The cops catch you, you gonna give anybody up?” Bang Bang asked angrily. “Or is it safe to send you down?”

  “Lips are sealed. You know I don’t talk. Don’t even ask me that.”

  “Hey, I’ll ask you anything I want. And you’ll do what I tell you. All right. You finish this guy off. And I don’t wanna hear about no more mess!”

  “You’ve got it, Bang Bang. You’ll hear back soon. And—will I get the ten grand then?”

  “Get outta here. Yes. Deal’s a deal.”

  “Then I’m already gone.”

  33

  Christine had prepared, filed, and issued the subpoena for Pauline Pepper, Chicago FBI. She was to appear on a grey Thursday morning when court was called to order with a loud rainstorm pattering the twenty foot windows in the ancient courtroom. The place had a musty smell and Thaddeus realized the radiators had kicked back on. The temperature was down twenty degrees from yesterday and the jurors were showing up back in their winter wear and scarves. Not again, he thought, as he stared out at the late, late wintry weather. Please let spring and summer get here. And please let me prove something with this witness that wins this terrible prosecution.

  What he had to prove—rather, what he could prove through Agent Pepper, was unclear to him. He had tried the two previous days to speak to her by phone, to get a feel for her testimony, but she had refused to speak with him. Her stock response had been, “This is an ongoing investigation. It is the policy of the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation never to discuss ongoing investigations. This includes with defense lawyers, Mister Murfee. Nevertheless I will appear in court as commanded by the court and I will bring my investigative file. At least the file cover with the high points. Will that be all, Sir?” He was getting the same response every time he called. He even tried calling her supervisor, but that person had mysteriously disappeared from the office and no one knew when he or she—it was never made known to him—would return. So, he was stuck. He had a witness for this morning’s opening of the defense case, but he had no clue exactly what she knew and, moreover, nobody knew exactly what she would reveal. Other than what Bruce Blongeir had told him, which was that the Governor had been recorded discussing payoffs with Mister Somebody Mob Name. Some unknown. At five of nine she still wasn’t there, and he caught a peek of Judge Prelate looking out the window of his conference room, just off the courtroom. Evidently the judge was going to wait until the last minute, to give Thaddeus as much time as possible to locate and talk to his first witness. Ermeline nudged him. “I haven’t even had a chance to say Hello,” he smiled at her. “Sorry for the preoccupation.” She told him that was Okay and asked him whether her dress was Okay for court. He gave her a once-over and told her she looked fine, better than fine, great. Thaddeus had told her early that morning about the witness he had subpoenaed, but what he hadn’t been able to tell her was what the witness might have to say. “We’re both in the dark about that,” was the way he had left it with Ermeline. Finally the judge could wait no longer. At exactly 9 a.m. he glided out wearing his flowing black robe, glasses pushed up on his forehead as he made his way up the several steps to his throne. Quiet settled over the room. Thaddeus looked around. He didn’t know what Pauline Pepper looked like, so he didn’t know whether she was in the courtroom or not.

  “Counsel, ready to proceed?”

  “Ready your Honor.”

  “Ready your Honor,” said Th
addeus.

  “Counsel—”— indicating Thaddeus, “you may call your first witness.”

  Thaddeus rose to his feet. Might as well play this for all it was worth. “Defense calls Special Agent Pauline Pepper.” The bailiff, whose job it was to locate witnesses and seat them in the witness chair, looked around the courtroom. Seeing no one coming forth in response to the witness call, the bailiff hurried back up the long aisle to the double doors. Thaddeus could then hear him outside in the lobby, calling for the witness by name.

  Sure enough, the bailiff soon returned with the witness close behind. He showed her where to stand to be sworn, although the witness was obviously an old pro and automatically raised her hand before the Clerk of the Court. She took the oath and settled comfortably into the witness chair. Thaddeus sized her up, along with the jury. She was a pleasant enough looking woman, dark hair, very little makeup, no jewelry, with nice sorority girl features, unsmiling, and clutching a blue file folder that appeared to be maybe a half-inch thick. She stared at Thaddeus, awaiting his first question.

  At just that instant, just as Thaddeus was about to pose his first question to the witness, SAAG Barre spoke up. “Your Honor, the State objects to this witness. The State claims surprise.”

  Judge Prelate turned to the jury. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m going to ask the bailiff to return you to the jury room. We have a matter that needs to be taken up on the record in open court. As I’ve told you previously, there will be times when you’ll be excused from what’s being said in here. This is one of those times. Bailiff, please take the jury to the jury room.”

  Long pause while the jury filed out. Murmurs and complaints and sighs could be heard from them as they went out the side door. Soon they had evacuated and the Judge turned his attention to SAAG Barre. “Please put your objection on the record, counsel.”

  “Surprise, your Honor. Pauline Pepper isn’t listed in the Defendant’s written disclosure. At least not until just before we started this morning, when counsel handed me his amended response to disclosure. I haven’t known about this witness until that happened. Ten minutes ago.”

  “Counsel?” the Judge said to Thaddeus.

  Thaddeus slowly drew to his feet. “Your Honor, I didn’t know about this witness myself, not until yesterday. It would have been impossible for me to list her any earlier.”

  “Not true, Judge,” Barre said, jumping to her feet. “Counsel has my number and knows where to find me in my office. He could have alerted me yesterday, when he learned about this new witness.”

  As they argued, the witness was still in the witness chair, slowly thumbing through the blue file folder, ignoring the proceedings. She had been around long enough that she had seen and heard everything. She even looked a trifle bored.

  “Your Honor,” Thaddeus said, “this witness has refused to discuss her testimony with me. I had nothing to tell Counsel about the witness. She has claimed confidentiality and secrecy imposed by the DOJ and until I ask her questions this morning I don’t even know if she is a witness.”

  Judge Prelate frowned down at Thaddeus. “That’s pretty chancy, isn’t it Mister Murfee? Calling a witness whose testimony you’re unsure about? Don’t all the trial manuals say you should never take that chance?”

  Thaddeus was exasperated; he had been feeling exactly the same way. But he couldn’t come right out and say the truth, that he had no case anyway, that he was really on a fishing expedition this morning. “Your Honor, whether I told Counsel about this witness yesterday or today wouldn’t have made any difference. I had nothing else to tell her but the name of the witness. That’s all I know.”

  “But you could have let Ms. Barre do some digging of her own by letting her know yesterday,” the Judge said. “I’m not sure I’m going to allow this at all.”

  “It shouldn’t be allowed,” said SAAG Barre with a hurt tone. She took her seat, not wishing to appear too pushy. Instead she looked hurt, almost pouting, as if Thaddeus had hurt her personally.

  “So what I’m going to do, Miss Barre. I’m going to give you fifteen minutes alone with the witness, in your library office. You can have the same time Thaddeus had to prepare for this witness. Maybe she’ll talk to you, maybe she won’t. I don’t know. But you do deserve fifteen minutes with her. We’ll stand in recess until 9:25 and then I want everyone back in here. Agent Pepper, do you understand?”

  Agent Pepper looked up from her review of the file. “I’ll be here at 9:25, your Honor.”

  “Very well. The court stands in recess.”

  At 9:25 everyone, including the jury, had returned and been seated. Thaddeus watched the Special Agent as she took her seat. Her blank look gave no indication what, if anything, she had discussed with the Attorney General’s representative. It would be very unusual for one law enforcement officer not to discuss a pending case with another law enforcement officer, so Thaddeus didn’t have the highest hopes for how this was going to go, now that the witness had been sandpapered by the SAAG. Nevertheless, he had no choice but to plunge ahead.

  Thaddeus continued with his case in chief.

  “State your name?”

  “Special Agent Pauline Pepper.”

  “What is your business, occupation, or profession?”

  “Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

  “How long have you had that job?”

  She tilted her eyes to the ceiling. “Let’s see. As of yesterday, twelve years. It was my anniversary hire date yesterday.”

  “Well, congratulations,” Thaddeus smiled.

  She returned the smile; not exactly a warm smile, more in the line of a business-person-to-business-person smile of acknowledgment. A smile that said, Thank you, but we’re really colleagues here, not friends. Thaddeus got the message. She was cool and she was definitely not his friend. He figured she was probably not anyone’s friend, since the State hadn’t called her in its case.

  “And what is your rank?”

  “GS-1811. General Investigation Series.”

  “Which means what?”

  “I can carry a firearm and investigate crimes. I cannot make arrests.”

  “Where are you based out of.”

  “Primary field office is Chicago, Illinois. My address is the Dirksen Building.”

  “What is your educational background?”

  “College, University of Florida. Master’s Degree Forensic Accounting.”

  “Have you done any forensic accounting in this case?”

  “As a matter of fact, I have.”

  Thaddeus’ felt his heart flip over. Finally, was he on to something here? Would it help him or hurt him? He wanted to tell Ermeline to hang on to her seat, that her future was just now coming into view. Maybe. Maybe not.

  “What accounting records have you looked at?”

  “I should re-phrase that. I haven’t done any forensic accounting specifically related to this case, no. Nor have I been asked to do that. But I have reviewed the books and records of one Victor Harrow, whom I believe your client is charged with murdering.”

  “And who asked you to review Victor Harrow’s records?”

  “No one.”

  “Why did you review those records?”

  “I had a suspicion of what I might find there, based on a conversation I had.”

  “Who did you have a conversation with?”

  “Attorney Fletcher T. Franey.”

  “And what did Attorney Franey say to you?”

  “Objection!” SAAG Barre was quickly on her feet. “Calls for hearsay.”

  “Business record rule exception, your Honor,” Thaddeus shot back. “Besides the statement is not being offered for the truth of the matter asserted, only that it was said.”

  “This is preliminary,” said Judge Prelate, with a nod at the witness. “I’m going to allow it. Please proceed.”

  “I’ll repeat the question. What did Attorney Franey say to you?”

  “That he had a telephone conference with the A
ttorney General of Illinois.”

  “What was said?”

  “Same objection!”

  “Overruled. Proceed, please. Objection is noted on the record.”

  “Franey played a recording for me. The Attorney General is asking him to look into items of property owned by Victor Harrow.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes, the AG—Attorney General—instructed Franey to obtain Vic Harrow’s federal income tax returns.”

  “Anything about that of suspicion to you?”

  “Well—Attorney Franey wasn’t Victor Harrow’s power of attorney for income tax purposes. So it would have been illegal for him to have obtained Victor Harrow’s federal income tax returns.”

  The hair prickled on Thaddeus’ neck. Finally, a light, a curtain parted, a glimmer of hope. “Let me be sure I understand this. You’re saying the Attorney General of Illinois asked Attorney Fletcher T. Franey to commit an illegal act?”

  “That’s what the tape recording says. I have a transcript of that conversation,” she said, and removed four sheets from her file folder. She held them up and Thaddeus quickly stood, asked permission of the court to approach, and retrieved the papers. He scanned them quickly. “Your Honor, I would submit these four sheets as Defendants’ Exhibit 1.”

  The Judge looked at the witness. “I trust these are copies? You have others?”

  “Of course.”

  “Very well. Any objection, Counsel?”

  “Yes, your Honor,” said SAAG Barre. “First of all, it’s hearsay. Second of all, it’s surprise. When I had my fifteen minutes with this witness she said nothing about this supposed recorded statement. Third, it’s immaterial as it doesn’t make any fact in this case more or less likely.”

  “Is that all?”

  SAAG Barre nodded. “That’s all for right now. But I would like to file a written brief on this issue before Defendant’s Exhibit 1 is passed to the jury.”

  “I don’t think so,” said the Judge. “Mister Murfee, please pass Defendant’s Exhibit 1 to the jury. And continue with your questions. If there’s more.”