Legal Thriller: Michael Gresham: Secrets Girls Keep: A Courtroom Drama (Michael Gresham Legal Thriller Series Book 2)

by John Ellsworth

  "Latents?"

  "Sorry. Fingerprints. He didn't want to smudge any fingerprints she might have on her neck where she was garroted."

  "By the way, have you ever located the item used to choke her?"

  “We have not.”

  “What did you do after observing Amy's body?"

  "Made CSI assignments. I told them I wanted the entire scene vacuumed."

  "You actually vacuum the ground?"

  "We do. That's something else you don't see on TV. Then we check the bag for hair and fiber. Those things can be very revealing."

  "Did you find any hair or fiber?"

  "Not on the ground."

  "On her body?"

  "In her mouth. There was mouse hair in her mouth."

  The jury recoils. Hands tighten on purses, pens pause from note-taking, several people in the front row cross their arms on their chests. It isn't pleasant to see. It's having a huge, negative impact and I hate that. Still, I'm powerless to do anything about it. It is what it is.

  "Tell us about that."

  "The killer left a mouse in her mouth. It tried to gnaw its way out did serious damage to her cheek, then died."

  A hand immediately shoots up from the jury box and juror number eight rushes toward the restroom door without seeking the court's permission. Next to me I can feel Jana stiffen and inhale sharply when the mouse details come out. He stops doing his art. Judge Lancer-Burgess takes a ten-minute recess. The other jurors file out of the courtroom. They are clearly in shock.

  Once the judge disappears through her door in the wall, the courtroom erupts in pandemonium. This is the mayor's blessed daughter we're discussing here. Phones are produced and frantic calls made to media outlets and offices. Voices are raised: "Yes, a mouse in her mouth! Yes, you heard me right!"

  * * *

  AFTER ANOTHER DOZEN questions about the scene and tasks undertaken, State's Attorney Dickinson begins asking questions about Jana.

  "Did you have a chance to interview the defendant?"

  "We asked some questions and he gave some answers."

  "Was he under arrest when this happened?”

  “No. We were down at the station, but there was no arrest. We were just investigating."

  "Investigating what?"

  "Actually, we were investigating the murder of Franny Arlington. This investigation happened several weeks after Amy was killed."

  "Was Jana Emerich a suspect?"

  "Objection!" I cry and leap to my feet. "Relevance."

  "Sustained. Counsel, you know better."

  "Was Jana Emerich a person of interest?"

  "Same objection!" I shout. "This is purposeful and grounds for reversal, Your Honor."

  "Counsel," the judge says to Dickinson, "let's move it along. Ask something else."

  "Why was Jana Emerich at the police station?"

  "Because he had said something to the football security people. He was taken by the uniforms to the station and that's where we asked him a few questions."

  "What did you ask him?"

  “We asked about mice, for openers. Whether he had any mice.”

  “What did he say?”

  "All he would say is he wanted to see his lawyer."

  "Did you then cease asking questions?"

  "Yes. We took him with us to identify another person of interest."

  "In the Franny Arlington case? Not this case?"

  "Correct. It had nothing to do with Amy Tanenbaum."

  "Very well, I think that's all for right now, Your Honor."

  "Counsel? You may cross-examine."

  I stand and step up to the lectern. Laying my yellow pad on its surface, I immediately ask, "Detective Ngo, isn't it true you know of no evidence linking my client to the death of Amy Tanenbaum?"

  "No, that's not true."

  "Well, tell the jury what links you know about, please."

  "Mouse hair. Mouse hair in her mouth that matched mouse hair taken from your client's mouse cage."

  I decide to open the Franny Arlington case; it has already been referenced and I might as well clear the air.

  "Could that mouse hair also have come from Rudy Gomez's mouse cage?"

  The detective shoots a look at the State's Attorney. Knowing he is being watched by the jury, the SA makes no move to suggest an answer.

  "Without looking at the State's Attorney, please answer my question."

  "Would you repeat it?"

  "I asked whether the mouse hair removed from Amy's mouth might also have matched mouse hair at Rudy Gomez's house."

  "I don't know."

  "Did you investigate that possibility?"

  "Yes. We searched Mr. Gomez's house."

  "Why did you do that?"

  "He admitted being present when Franny Arlington hit her head and died."

  "Did he admit killing her?"

  "Killing her? No, you couldn't say that."

  "What could you say?"

  "He was there when she fell and struck her head."

  "Did he cause her to fall?"

  "He says not. He says she tripped and fell."

  "Do you believe he killed her?"

  "We have a working hypothesis. We always do."

  "Which is what?"

  "That he was with her under the bleachers and he killed her by pushing her against the bleacher metal. She hit her head and died. We also believe he held a knife to her throat."

  So we’re getting the mouse hair at Rudy’s into evidence and we’re learning Jana had nothing to do with Franny’s death. To top it off, we have another student who might have killed a classmate. If he did, then he might also have killed Amy. This is a good first witness for the defense and the questions and answers have definitely not been what the State’s Attorney expected, at least not on cross.

  "Why do you believe he held a knife?"

  "We seized a knife when we frisked him. We had it tested. Franny's blood was found along its blade."

  "Detective Ngo, I want to suggest another hypothesis to you. What if you worked up the Amy Tanenbaum case from the same starting point as the Franny Arlington case? What if you went in with the idea that Rudy Gomez killed them both? After all, he admitted the second, so why not the first too?"

  "I don't know. Because your client's muffler was found near Amy's body."

  "Speaking of which, the muffler proves what, exactly?"

  "That it was near her body. He might have been under the stands with her."

  "He might just have easily have lost his muffler when it fell through the bleachers, correct?"

  "Correct."

  "Did Jana Emerich ever admit killing Amy Tanenbaum?"

  "No."

  "But Rudy Gomez admitted being with Franny Arlington when she died beneath the same bleachers as Amy?"

  "Yes."

  "Do you see a pattern there?"

  "I knew you would see one. That's your job."

  "What about you? Do you see a pattern?"

  "Maybe. Maybe not."

  "Well, doesn't it seem supremely coincidental that two high school boys would suddenly go off on killing sprees in the same month of football season?"

  "I don't know."

  "I mean, what are the odds of that happening?"

  "I don't know."

  "Have you ever known it to happen before?"

  "No."

  "And how long have you been a cop?"

  "Fifteen years, give or take."

  "And during those fifteen years you've never seen two murders in close proximity at the exact same location like we have here by two different assailants?"

  "No. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen. It could be a conspiracy.”

  "But you have no proof, correct?"

  He draws a deep breath.

  "We have the muffler, the mouse hair, and the Superglue that sealed her mouth.”

  "Would it surprise you to hear that my investigator will testify the company that manufactured that tube of Superglue you told the jury about sh
ared that it actually was sold along with twenty thousand other tubes in Chicagoland over the past two years?"

  "It wouldn't surprise me."

  "So your Superglue theory has twenty-thousand ways it's possibly wrong, true?"

  "I guess."

  "So what proof do you really have that my client and not Rudy Gomez murdered Amy Tanenbaum?"

  "I've said what our investigation uncovered."

  "Asked and answered," says the State's Attorney, arriving late to the party.

  "Sustained. Please move along, counsel."

  The remainder of the morning is spent with me covering and recovering the same ground again and again as much as possible, given that the second time around the State's Attorney is on his feet objecting that I'm re-asking the same questions. I am, truth be told, but I'm enough of a trial lawyer to phrase them just differently enough the second and third time through that his objections are mostly denied. Good on me.

  When I at last take my seat, I am feeling much better about our defense.

  The next witness is late in showing, so we break for lunch.

  34

  Hector Rodriguez is the groundskeeper who found Amy's body the morning after the football game.

  The State's Attorney calls Mr. Rodriguez as his second trial witness when we take up after lunch. Mr. Rodriguez is a short, dark Mexican national who was working at a job that normally had no involvement with police authorities. But this time around it did. Big time.

  He testifies that he went beneath the stands with a wheeled trash barrel just after eight o'clock that morning. He was alone when he went under; the other three members of his crew were handling the restrooms and parking area and sidelines. As he was walking to the far end of the bleachers to begin, he noticed the body maybe ten feet off to the side of the under-passage. Leaving his trash bin behind, he crept close enough to get a good look. He couldn't tell whether the girl was asleep, unconscious, or dead. But he had seen enough TV to know he shouldn't disturb or try to move the person. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, found he had no bars underneath the bleachers, and hurried back out to the open side where he dialed 911. In under ten minutes a police cruiser came roaring into the parking area, nosed up to the chain link fence and parked. The driver and his partner hit the ground running where Hector directed them.

  Hector watched as the police officers checked the body for any signs of life. He watched as they carefully followed their footsteps back out of the high grass under the stands. Then he was told to leave the area, and he never went back. That was the last time he saw the dead girl and the crime scene.

  There was no tactic available on cross-examination so I passed on the witness and he was excused by the judge.

  Next up was Erin Caulflo, a freshman girl from Amy Tanenbaum's home room at Wendover High. She was a sprite of a girl barely five feet tall, with a developing body and long, black eyelashes and fiery eyes that flashed when she described what happened to her friend that night.

  "Tell us where you were sitting," the State's Attorney directed.

  "About five girls, Amy included, were in the stands watching the boys straggle in. We had all come in one car and were excited because it was homecoming and there would be a huge dance the next night."

  "Why was your game on a Thursday night?"

  "The other team had several players whose holy day was Friday. So they arranged their entire schedule around that. All games were on Thursday. We didn't care, except there were lots of absences from class the next day because lots of kids slept in."

  "You were on the home team's side?"

  "Of course. About two-thirds of the way up in the bleachers. There were people all around, young and old, and lots of other students. But we were a clique and we kept to ourselves."

  "Describe Amy that night."

  "What do you mean? How she was acting?"

  "Yes. Whatever you can remember."

  "She was in a great mood. She was showing off her bat mitzvah outfit that she was wearing. And it was cute and really showed off her figure."

  "Was she upbeat?"

  "Yes. We listened to some hip-hop on her iPhone. We shared ear buds."

  "Did you eventually pair off with boys?"

  "More or less. Boys came and sat with us. But no one was really dating or anything. We were mostly freshmen and sophomores and everyone had known everyone else since like grade school. Except for Jana Emerich. He was from California and so he was kind of mysterious. I know Amy liked him lots and talked about him sometimes."

  "Did she ever date him?"

  "Like date date? Not that I know."

  "What did you see happen between her and Jana that night?"

  "They just watched the game and talked like all the rest of us. There was lots of talking. A popcorn fight broke out just before halftime. Five minutes before halftime all the girls left for the restrooms. We always left early to beat the crowds. Amy came too, naturally."

  "What happened next?"

  "Next? We peed. I mean we all went in the bathroom and used the facility then washed. Except some girls wouldn't wash. They didn't want to touch anything. No one did."

  "Did Mr. Emerich accompany your group to the restrooms?"

  "Not that I know of. Later on I heard he trailed behind us, but I never saw him."

  "What happened after the restroom?"

  "Our team scored a touchdown and the crowd began stamping their feet in the bleachers and clapping and whistling. So we came running out of the bathroom to see what the uproar was all about."

  "Was Amy with you then?"

  "I don't know. I don't have a memory of who was there."

  "Then what did you do?"

  "Walked back over to the snack shop. I bought an Almond Joy and a Mountain Dew. My girlfriends bought their drinks and food and we all went back up the steps."

  "Back up the bleachers?"

  "Yes."

  "Who did you see at the snack shop?"

  "I don't remember."

  "Who went back up the bleachers?"

  "Everyone except Amy."

  "Did you think there was anything wrong at that time?"

  "No, in fact we laughed. We laughed because we thought she'd snuck off somewhere with Jana Emerich. We knew she would if he asked her to go somewhere to talk."

  "Did you see Amy again that night?"

  "I never saw Amy again, period."

  Tears start rolling down the schoolgirl's cheeks and she wipes at them with a tissue from the box on the witness stand shelf. She dabs carefully around her eyes as if to preserve her eye shadow.

  "Have you talked to your friends about that night, Erin?"

  "Lots of times."

  "Did anyone else see Amy after the restroom?"

  "Objection. Calls for hearsay."

  "Sustained. Counsel, ask it another way."

  "All right, Your Honor. Erin, did you ever become aware of any person who saw Amy after the restroom stop that night?"

  "No. No one saw her again."

  "Did you ever discuss that night with the defendant, Jana Emerich?"

  "No, why would I? They arrested him right away. Everyone's parents called the school board about getting him kicked out of school, but they wouldn't. So we were ordered to stay away from him no matter what."

  "Have I failed to ask you anything that might better help us understand what happened to Amy that night?"

  "Objection. Vague and ambiguous."

  "Overruled. You may answer."

  "You've asked me everything. I really don't know anything else."

  The witness is turned over to me for cross-examination.

  35

  Erin Caulflo eyes me suspiciously as I step up to the lectern for her cross-examination. Her long black eyelashes flutter and her eyes dart from the State's Attorney to the jury and back to me. She grips the rail of the witness box shelf in front of her as if to lean against a coming storm.

  I am anything but stormy.

  "Good afternoo
n, Ms. Caulflo. May I call you Erin?"

  "Sure, Erin is fine."

  "I am Jana Emerich's lawyer. Jana has pleaded not guilty in this case. He says he had nothing to do with Amy's death. Do you understand this?"

  "I understand. I may not agree, but I understand."

  "Why do you say you may not agree?"

  I know better than to ask a witness an open-ended question on cross-examination, but I do. I do because her direct examination hasn't yielded anything damning and so I'm going to take this opportunity to shoot down any theories she may have. This will impress on the jury yet another way of thinking of Jana's innocence.

  "I don't agree because he was with her. I saw how he was looking at her."

  "How was that?"

  "Not normal. He looked like he wanted to jump her bones right there in the bleachers."

  "Jump her bones?"

  "You know. Make out with her."

  "But you're not saying he looked like he wanted to murder her?"

  She looks helplessly at the State's Attorney and it becomes clear that she is here to help her friend Amy.

  "I don't know how someone looks when they want to murder someone. So I don't know if he was looking like he wanted to murder her or not."

  So. That makes her feel safe. Here we go.

  "Well, let's talk about his look. Did he appear angry?"

  "No."

  "Was he frowning?"

  "No."

  "Did he look threatening?"

  "No."

  "Was he raising his voice to Amy?"

  "No."

  "In all truth, he looked like he was enjoying being with Amy, didn't he?"

  "I guess so. I didn't watch them all that much."

  "But you did see enough to be able to tell us today that Jana looked like he was enjoying being with Amy, correct?"

  "Yes."

  "And while we're at, let's talk about Amy's look. Was she frightened?"

  "No."

  "Did she raise her voice?"

  "No."

  "Did she cry out for help?"

  "No."

  "On the way to the restroom, did she come to you and complain about Jana?"

  "I didn't see her all the way to the restroom. I don't know where she went so I can't answer you."

  "But for what you did see of her on the walk over, you didn't see her trying to get away from Jana?"