by Roger Bray
Nicholas smiled sadly and shook his head.
“It didn’t seem to matter, really. I knew that I had nothing to do with it and it seemed easier to say what I did. I wanted her found safe and alive. Once they suspected Alex, I thought that what I might have said would have been irrelevant, anyway.”
“The cops pinned Hazel’s murder onto Alex based on a timeline and a window of opportunity which your evidence now blows out of the water. The cops and the DA put everything into their version of events, of Alex beating Hazel to death an hour and a half before you now say she was leaving your house. The cop’s timeline is destroyed by your evidence. An hour and a half after the DA said that Hazel was probably dead, she was packing her bags upstairs, here in your house.”
“It doesn’t matter though does it?”
“Why not?”
“Hazel is gone, the DA said Alex did it, and the jury agreed with him. Does it matter if he did it when they originally said or a couple of hours later? If they think he did it, the timing doesn’t matter.”
“Everything matters in a case like this, pinning down a time that the offense was committed more than ever.”
Nicholas shrugged.
“And the investigation showed that Alex logged on to the computer and was online from when Hazel was here until well after the time that the cops believe she was killed. Even if we were to believe your sliding timeline idea, Alex has a solid alibi for the time.”
Rowe looked at him. He had gone white as the realization of what he had done sank in.
“I didn’t know that. It didn’t come up in the trial.”
“No, it didn’t.” Steve said. “It was only relevant as it helped to bracket the timeline that the DA was trying to prove. As soon as the time shifted, Alex would have been in the clear and the charges would never have been laid.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Do you think my brother killed Hazel?”
“I have no idea, he was found guilty of it, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, he was,” she said slowly, “but that’s not what I asked. Do you think that my brother killed Hazel?”
He looked at her and shook his head.
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t see a murderer in the man Hazel described to me. Hazel was a strong, intelligent woman, and she was nobody’s fool, if she didn’t believe in Alex and their relationship then she wouldn’t have gone back to him. I think if she had have had any misgivings about going back to Alex, she wouldn’t have gone. He was lucky to have her, but, from what she said, she was as equally lucky to have him.”
Even though Nicholas’s evidence almost destroyed the DA’s theoretical chain of events, there was one more thing that Steve needed to cover to kick out another major pillar of the DA’s case.
“How was Hazel when she came back here?” Steve asked, “What was her demeanor when she returned here to pack?”
“Calm, I would have to say. Determined as well. She was a little nervous, but she had made her decision. I’m sure that she had made it a week or so before. In her way, she had deliberated and made her decision and once made, she was happy with it.”
“She knew that she would hurt you?”
“I would have to say yes, but she didn’t let that stand in her way. She was sorry for that, she was certainly sorry for the hurt her stupidity and her words, had caused a lot of people, she apologized to me, so yes, she knew it wasn’t what I wanted.”
“What was her attitude toward Alex?”
“That night or in general?”
“Both, but that night in particular.”
“Actually, it doesn’t matter when you’re asking about, even when she left him, she wouldn’t say a bad word against him, she knew that he was the real innocent party in all her mess and that he had done nothing wrong. She loved him, she never stopped loving him at all,” he shook his head, “I knew that, I suppose I wanted to believe I could take his place, but I knew that I never would.”
“Did she say how the talk with Alex had gone.”
“She was incredulous about it, and she was almost in tears. Alex had forgiven her, completely and unconditionally. He even apologized to her for not being there for her when she needed him.”
“But he had been?”
“According to Hazel, Alex was there for her the entire time, whatever she needed, he was there for her.”
“Did she express any concerns at all about going back to Alex, that they might argue or fight, did she have any fears that she expressed to you that he might hurt her?”
Nicholas shook his head, “No, nothing at all. I could see that leaving me was stressing her a little. Not leaving me emotionally but the physical act of it. She wanted it over and to get out, but beneath that I could see that she was happy and a little excited and wanted to get back to Alex.”
“So, when she left, she was happy to be going, happy to be going back to Alex and did not have, that you know of, any concerns at all?”
Nicolas thought, remembering her rushed flight down the front steps.
He shook his head, “No, nothing at all. I think she was glad to be going, I may have scared her a little as she left by making a stupid comment.”
“About what?”
“Whether I was going to let her leave. I didn’t mean it like I would prevent her driving away but more whether I would fight Alex for her. Try to romance her is what I meant, but it didn’t come out like that and her actually leaving was a bit rushed. That aside, when she first came back we talked, and she made her plans clear. She packed her bag and then left.”
They were all quiet for a moment before Steve asked, “Would you be happy to give a full statement about this new evidence?”
Nicholas nodded, “Yeah, of course. I had no intention of not telling the truth, it sort of got away from me. Once I told my original story, it seemed easier to keep it going than tell the truth. I have nothing to hide, I had nothing to do with Hazel’s disappearance.”
“If it’s the truth?” Alice asked.
Nicholas nodded and stood up, “I have something that might help, relevant to that evening.”
He walked into the house leaving Steve and Alice sitting at the table. Ten minutes later he was back carrying a digital disc which he handed to Steve.
“This is a copy of the surveillance tapes of that evening from late afternoon, well before Hazel left in the early evening. It shows her leaving the first time and me following her a short time later. Later it shows both of us returning, me first, followed by Hazel, as I described. It shows us individually parking our cars out at the front of the house, in full view of one of the cameras and then of us then entering the house, me first then Hazel ten minutes or so later.
“Hazel leaves sometime later and gets into her car, alone. She then drives off down the driveway toward the road. The lights are turned off, and the system goes to night vision approximately thirty minutes later, also as I have described.”
Steve looked at the disc in his hand before asking, “What does it actually cover, with regard to views around the house.”
Nick shrugged, “Everything. I have cameras all around the house, but it’s probably better if you were to watch it. It’s easier than me trying to explain it all but I think that it clearly shows what I have said and also shows that after Hazel left, I did not leave the house again. It’s fully time stamped, and the coverage goes until the following morning. I’m sure you will see everything that you need to satisfy you.”
Steve shook his head and looked at Alice who was silently trying not to cry.
“He might not have gone to jail at all if you had brought this forward at the time. Do you realize what you’ve done? You’re lucky there’s a full moratorium on the death penalty. If this had ended in death row, I don’t think that you could live with yourself.”
“No, I don’t think so either,” Nicholas said quietly.
He looked at Alice, “I’m so sorry.”
She sniffed and took a big brea
th before standing and gathering her papers, Nicholas tried to stand as Alice looked at him and said through gritted teeth, “Fuck you Nicholas.”
She looked at him with disdain before walking into the house and heading toward the front door. Nicholas slumped back into his chair, staring into the distance, wishing that a hole would open up for him while Steve quickly gathered his own papers and followed Alice back to their car.
Chapter Twelve
It took Alice the whole drive from Nicholas’s house back to Eugene to calm down and Steve realized that his best course of action was to shut up and drive. She would let him know soon enough when she wanted to talk, but that didn’t happen until she had put her paper work and handbag down onto the dining room table.
She had calmed down; he was expecting a lot of swearing and shouting which didn’t come. He expected her to have a meltdown and he would not have begrudged her if she did. Nicholas’s confession was extreme. He had lied and committed perjury but from his account not to cover anything up but because it was easier than putting himself through an interrogation as a potential suspect. If his account were to be believed, and if it was verified by the CCTV footage which Steve would check frame by frame before passing it to Phil to have it checked for editing or tampering, then Nicholas’s position would be exactly where it had been at the time of the trial. It was now the timeline had moved forward by two hours and with the video Nicolas had an alibi, something that he hadn’t had or needed before.
The other thing that Nicholas’s story proved was Alex had told the truth. He and Hazel had reconciled, and she was going back to him, on good terms and because she wanted to. There had been no fight. There had been no argument or jealous rage in which he had lost it and beaten or strangled her to death. Nicholas’s account made that even stronger given he was the spurned party in all this and could easily have enjoyed setting Alex up.
“Will this get him out?” was all she wanted to know.
Steve shrugged, “Alice, I would like to say yes, but one thing that fool Rowe did say was that it moved the timeline forward two hours, and I’ll bet that that’s what the DA has to say as well.”
“But he can’t ignore it!”
“No, he can’t,” Steve admitted, “but had this come up before trial, the DA might have considered that it was all too hard and quietly dropped the case.”
“But now?”
“But now he has a conviction, he has been through the appeals and the evidence has stacked up. I think that he will fight it like Rowe said.”
“How can he? Nicholas has told us that the timeline is all wrong and that Hazel was more than happy to go back to Alex. They had had the conversation, and she left, exactly how Alex said. Rowe has confirmed that. No argument, no fight. No motive.”
Steve nodded and looked across the table at her, he could see her anger and frustration.
“Alice, I did say at the start that getting Alex out may not be straightforward.”
“But you also said that we may not find something new and we have, lots of things. Do we have enough to take it to the DA?”
He shrugged his shoulders, “I think we do.”
“But?”
“I think there’s still more. Phil went and had a look at Hazel’s Volvo two weeks ago, he’s supposed to be getting back to me on that, once we have that, we need to speak to Alex and then to his legal team. I think there’s enough to have the verdict vacated and I don’t think the DA will even go for a retrial, most of his case is gone.”
Alice sat looking at the floor while drumming one finger on the table top. Steve thought that she was beaten and might be on the edge of breaking down; instead she seemed to get her second wind. She stopped drumming her finger and looked up at him. He could see that determined look he was beginning to recognize in her eyes.
“In that case, we will have to do better and find more evidence that he can’t fight.”
She stood up and looked at him with a small smile. “In the meantime, I’m going to get showered and changed. I’m going to go out and eat pizza and drink too many beers. You’re welcome to come along but I’m going out and I will more than likely get drunk with or without you.”
Steve looked at her, a little shocked before he started laughing, he looked at his watch. A quarter to six.
“Give me an hour to go home have a shower and get changed and I’ll be back.”
“You had better be,” she said turning toward her own bathroom, “or I’ll be leaving without you.”
“I’ll be here sweetheart, don’t you fear,” Steve said with a grin as he almost ran for the door.
Chapter Thirteen
The lights came on and Hazel awoke. She found that her arms and legs were numb from the restraints. Her breasts were still exposed from before the lights had been turned off.
How she had fallen asleep she had no idea, how long she had fallen asleep for she didn’t know either. All she knew now was that she could see pinpricks of light through the black hood and that she was in pain from the lack of movement.
She tried to straighten herself but couldn’t. Her knees felt broken, and she was, for a moment, grateful that she was so numb there was no pain in her limbs. But she knew that when she was allowed to move, it would quickly become excruciating.
Trying to hear and vainly trying to place one of the pinpricks in the hood into a position where she might see something through it, she moved her head around as much as she could. It was only a moment or so before a synthesized voice stopped her.
“I’m going to untie you and lead you out of this room,” the metallic voice said. “If you try to resist me, I will hurt you, you cannot get away from here but if you try, I will hurt you. If you see my face I will kill you and your body will never be found. Nod your head if you understand.”
She could hardly move in fear but managed to nod.
“I will untie you but leave the hood in place. If you take it off or even try to take it off, I will kill you. Do you understand?”
She nodded and felt her legs being dragged backward a few inches to relieve the tension on the restraint, so the shackles could be undone. As she feared, as soon as she dragged her legs forward, the blood flow returned fully, and the pain quickly turned from pins and needles to cramps in each leg. She managed to straighten her legs in front of her and the pain ratcheted back to pins and needles as she wiggled her toes trying to get her circulation working again.
The restraints were removed from her wrists and she eased her arms forward as her shoulders began to burn with the pain. Hardly able to move her arms, her hands in claws, she tried to grab the bottom edge of her jumper, finally succeeding in pulling it down covering her breasts, but leaving her bra awkwardly out of place below her shoulders.
“Don’t forget,” the voice said, “I can hurt you before you see it coming. I don’t want to hurt you, Hazel, but I will if I must.”
“I know you then?” Hazel thought, alarmed at hearing her name being used. She tried to hear through the synthesizer to the voice beyond, but it was no one she recognized, and she couldn’t concentrate, not with the pain in her shoulders and knees.
When she was able to she tried to stand and when no metallic voice abused her and when no blows rained down on her, she supposed that this is what he wanted. Her hips ached, but she was strong, and she bent her knees to ease out the remaining cramps.
“I’m going to walk you into another room.”
Her elbows were grabbed from the rear and her arms were pulled back causing her to gasp as the pain intensified in her shoulders. He let her arms move forward a little, a small sign of humanity, before she was turned around and steered from behind by her elbows to somewhere else.
As hard as she tried she could not see anything at all through the tiny holes in the hood.
She stood, waiting. He had stopped her and let go of her arms and she heard a heavy door slam behind her.
It was silent, she could hear nothing except her own slow breathing. Hazel knew t
wo things; that she was in a lit room, and the floor on her bare feet was cold, anything else she could only guess.
She half expected to feel hands on her body, groping her again and was starting to breathe faster expecting it. No hands came, and she remained standing in silence. Finally, she thought that she must be alone but dared not move, she thought she would quickly pull the mask off, and she would be alone.
I’ll do it now or, in a moment, she fearfully backed out of the movement before she had even started and was trying to build up her courage to do it when the voice behind her spoke. It didn’t ask if she understood, this was not a discussion, she was being given her new reality, instructions on how her life would now be lived.
She was relieved, there was someone there.
“You idiot, stupid idiot,” she thought how can you be excited that he’s here, before she could consider any more, the voice said, “When I say, you can take off the hood. While you are in here, you do not have to wear it. I will bang on the door when I’m coming in. When you hear that you have thirty seconds to put the mask, that you will find in here, on. If you do not comply I will kill you, if you do anything against what I say, I will hurt you.”
She wasn’t asked if she understood this time, it was taken for granted that she did. Or the voice didn’t care, this was not an invitation for discussion or negotiation.
“Have a shower and get changed, put all the clothes you are wearing, the hood and gag into a black plastic bag and put that into the chute that you will find to your left.
“You will find all you need in here, I will be away for a short time. Don’t bother shouting or screaming; I assure you that nobody can hear you, you will tire yourself for no reason. Remember, Hazel, I will bang on the door and you have to put the mask on and stand with your back to the door, you have no excuse.”
There was a pause before the voice finally said, “You can take the hood off now.”
