Peter moved quickly through procedural questions. Defendant taken in for questioning. Unmarked squad car. Was he handcuffed? No. Where did you go? Room C, police headquarters, Eighth and Race Streets. Nelson sat completely still. His eyes barely moved, blinked occasionally; his voice bore the weight of cigarettes, radio crackle, methodical note-taking in the homicide division office, a three-year-old Buick, two slug scars in the lower back, a heavy-assed wife whom he loved loyally and deeply, season tickets to the Eagles, and a baby granddaughter born with spina bifida.
“Did you read the defendant his rights?” Peter asked.
“Yes. I told the defendant, ‘You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to a lawyer. If you cannot afford a lawyer, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will provide you one at its expense. Anything you say can and will be used against you.’ ”
“From what did you read this?”
Nelson held up the card.
“It’s a police form. Standard form seventy-five dash miscellaneous three.”
“What did you do next?”
“On the other side of the card are questions, which I then read to the defendant: ‘Do you understand that you have the right to remain silent?’ And the defendant said yes. ‘Do you understand you have the right to a lawyer?’ And the defendant said yes. ‘You sure you understand that you can have a lawyer here if you want?’ ‘Yes, you motherfucker.’ ‘Do you understand …’”
Morgan sat at his table, intently listening, waiting to leap up with an objection, picking at lint, collecting paper clips in a pile, and watching his case die. Peter had selected this jury to believe a man such as Nelson. And listening to his words be repeated, Robinson kept his head bowed and smiled to himself, gripping the table with both hands as if he were about to fall backward.
“Was any force used in this interview?” Peter asked when the detective was finished. He would steal some of Morgan’s standard questions, undermining the cross-examination that would follow.
“No.”
“Was the defendant drunk?”
“No.”
“Eyes glazed? Speech slurred?”
“No.”
“Any sign of using narcotics?”
“No.”
“Was the defendant ill?”
“No.”
“Deprived of sleep?”
“No.”
“Deprived of water?”
“No.”
“Was he verbally abused, shouted at?”
“No.”
“Did he appear to be oriented as to time, place, identity, and situation?”
“Yes, he appeared to be oriented as to the time. The place. His identity. And to the situation and gravity of being questioned by two detectives, Counselor.”
He appreciated Nelson’s tight, corrective testimony. It was a rare thing; most witnesses and even an occasional policeman slopped around within the vagaries of memory.
“And you took a statement?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have that statement here with you today?”
“That is correct.”
“Please describe the manner in which the statement was taken.”
“I asked him questions and I typed each answer as he said it.”
“Are you a good typist?”
“About ninety-five words a minute.”
The detective smiled thinly, perhaps embarrassed about his secretarial prowess. Peter knew how to redeem him.
“Learned to type in the Army, is that right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So the statement is a fair and accurate transcription of your conversation?”
“That is correct.”
“Why wasn’t the confession videotaped?”
“We were waiting to use the camera, but he started talking before we even got into the room and had the camera set up, and he just kept going, so I started typing as fast as I could.”
“Is there anything particularly unusual about that procedure?”
“No. We’ve used typed confessions a long time.” The detective allowed himself a tired opinion. “They work.”
“Okay,” Peter said. “Did the defendant sign the statement?”
“Yes. He signed every page.”
“Did the defendant read the statement first?”
“Yes.”
“Can the defendant read?” A dumb question in light of Robinson’s education, but necessary.
“I had him read the first couple of paragraphs aloud.”
“I would like this marked Commonwealth’s exhibit.”
“Does counsel for the defense have a copy?” the judge asked.
Morgan searched his papers. “Uh, I had this a minute ago …” Morgan, a man who possessed an excited explosion of wiry black hair that lifted off his head, was as disorganized as he was righteous. Waiting, Peter put his hand in his pocket and felt the slip of paper with Janice’s number. Where in hell was she? Maybe the number was good for only a little while.
“With the court’s indulgence, Your Honor, while he’s looking for his copy, I’d like to take a quick break.”
Judge Scarletti sighed; another delay in a career of delays. He glanced at his watch.
“I have no problem with that, Your Honor,” Morgan said, the epitome of strategic graciousness.
“Gentlemen,” the judge said, smiling wearily, “just remember that you are younger than I am. I’m due to retire in a few years and I’d love to see the end of this trial.” He looked at Peter. “Ten minutes, Mr. Scattergood.”
HE SLIPPED INTO A PHONE BOOTH at the end of the hall and dialed the number on the paper.
“Hello?” came her voice.
“Hi, it’s me.” He stared at the slip in his hand.
“I called the courtroom during the lunch recess. They said you’d be back soon.”
“What’s this number?”
“Just where I am right now.”
He ignored her answer. A good prosecutor got his information sideways when necessary. He wasn’t sure anymore what a good husband did.
“What’s up? How’s the new place?” Too upbeat; she’d slaughter him.
“I’ve been busy. Adjusting, you know.”
“Good. You okay?”
“I’m fine, Peter. You don’t have to worry about me.”
He did worry about her, but he also worried about what he heard in her voice, which said, Keep your distance.
“There wasn’t any mail for you, but when I get some, what—”
“It’s already being forwarded to me at work.”
“Not to the apartment?”
“No.”
She was slipping away quickly, changing patterns, leaving him confused.
“Can we talk tonight?”
“I’d rather not, Peter. You know that.”
“I’m just hanging in space, Janice.”
She didn’t reply.
“Will you be at this number tonight?”
There was a long pause, and he knew she was considering the effect of her answer.
“For a while. Bye.”
Down the hall, he saw Berger schmoozing with a couple of detectives.
“Hey!” he called, seeking relief.
Berger, a small stick of a man with the temperamental energy of a squirrel, hurried over.
“You talking to Janice? You have that look.”
The call had made things worse. “Nobody else.”
Berger’s eyes bulged at this information, as they bulged at everything.
“You on for racquetball tomorrow night?” Peter asked.
“I have to depose this woman out in Harrisburg. Your basic hospital bedside deposition—saw the murder in Philly, got scared, moved to Harrisburg, and her bad heart caught up with her. My train’s at five-thirty tomorrow.”
Peter shook his head. “You just can’t take my serve.”
“What are you on?” Berger asked, indicating the courtroom.
“Robinson.”
“Yeah. Nice guy, my kind of guy. How’s Morgan doing?”
“He’s nervous in there.”
“Get him to jump up. Scarletti hates it when they jump up.”
BACK IN THE COURTROOM, he started with Nelson again.
“Okay, the next question,” the detective replied into his microphone, reading from his statement sheet, dipping his head slightly toward the microphone, readying himself. “Question: ‘After pushing Judy Warren onto the couch, what did you do next?’
“Answer: ‘I told her I knew she was giving it out on the side. She said I was insecure, that I had to be kidding. I’m not insecure. I’m amazingly secure, more than practically anybody. Most guys who say they’re insecure are trying to make you think they’re actually secure enough to admit their insecurity. Reverse psychology. You could even argue that because I’m pointing that out to you that I am in fact doing the same thing, just with another layer of subterfuge.’
“Question: ‘Spell that last word.’
“Answer: ‘S-u-b-t-e-r-f-u-g-e. So, see what I mean? I wasn’t kidding. I told her I knew she was spreading her legs for about ten new guys a week. She laughed. I told her I knew about the other guys. I gave her a chop. Judy started looking at me funny. I told her not to scream, so the fucking bitch screams. Maybe she was doing it through the television, she had these tricks—I learned them all. I had to hit her to shut her up, and then I held her down to change the TV channel. I got the sports on Channel Three. They got that guy—Why don’t you fucking say something? Just sit there … like my father, getting old, shriveling up, both of you preparing for the next step—a swift slice to the prostate. You and my dad, ha! That’s good. I like that. I know this will be part of the police record. You can put in there that my father, Dr. James Covington Robinson the Third, majority stockholder of—‘
“Question: ‘Do you remember the question, Mr. Robinson?’
“Answer: ‘All right, so I wanted to watch the sports guy, the guy with the helmet of hair—shiny, you know, shiny with hair spray. The guy, what’s his name, who’s totally into the genre of being a sportscaster in a major market—one of the lesser American arts. So Judy was on the sofa and she had her heels up and was kicking me in the balls. Nobody kicks me in the balls. I guess I was pretty pissed, especially since she was trying to use radiation on me. I got her again and she grabbed this lamp and jammed the light bulb against me. It was goddamn hot. She was fighting—you know what I’m saying? Not screaming. She knew I was serious. I got her once in the leg with my knife, but she kept kicking like she didn’t feel it. Then I jumped on her … I got… I was completely fucked in the head because of all the radiation that was going around.
This is totally scientific. You should see the crystal therapy research going on in California. The Western rational mind just can’t see this radiation. And she was flipping the music at me with her eyes—you know what I’m saying? Sort of Madonna, but better. You’re gonna find this out anyway, what the fuck. I mean you got the damn prints already. Right?’
“Question: ‘I can’t comment on that, Mr. Robinson. I can’t say what will happen to you.’ ”
Benita, the good-looking court reporter, filled the sudden silence with her soft clacking. The roving jurors whispered among themselves at the back of the room. Peter glanced at Judy Warren’s family. Her mother sat, head bowed, twisting her wedding ring around her finger, thinking what? That she should have protected her daughter, a young girl studying part-time to be a dental technician? Judy had possessed a sort of sleazy appeal—given to tight dresses and moussing her hair into a frenzy—but was no wiser than what she was, a twenty-year-old still living at home who inhabited the circumscribed world of drifting young people who hang out at malls and bars on the weekends, pass through one minimum-wage job after another, get married, and generally lead dissatisfied, materialistic lives repetitive of their parents’. Judy had been passively promiscuous, without any real desire for men. It was all probably a little boring, and so she began to hit some of the yuppie clubs and restaurants downtown. Peter guessed that she’d learned that a great set of tits helped a girl change crowds easily. She liked what she’d seen, and that had only accelerated her desires. It hadn’t taken long, maybe a couple of months. A change of wardrobe, recreational drugs, quick mastery of the right topics of conversation. People find each other, and Robinson had found her and she him. Seeing that he was rich, she became more than willing to overlook his queer behavior. He had helped her move into an apartment out by the Art Museum. Then she’d dumped him, and he couldn’t take it. When Peter was choosing the jury, he had been sure to eliminate anyone who might decide Judy Warren had been a cheap fuck waiting for trouble and had gotten what was coming to her. It wasn’t that simple. He glanced at his notes, not wanting to make the confession any harder than necessary on the family. But he had to get the majority of it into the jury’s heads. Nelson sensed the necessary lull, and shut his eyes.
“Please continue,” Peter said.
“Okay, uh, repeating the question: ‘I can’t comment on that, Mr. Robinson. I can’t say what will happen to you.’
“Answer: ‘You fucking cops don’t have any prints. I didn’t kill Judy. I don’t have the kind you found.’
“Question: ‘Do you wish to continue your statement, Mr. Robinson?’
“Answer: ‘Fuck you. Fuck you. All right, I’ll give you what you want to hear. I stabbed the shit out of Judy. I jumped on her—‘ ”
The sound of the defendant laughing interrupted Nelson. Robinson swiveled his head around and smiled brazenly, nodding enthusiastically to the jury.
“Ha! Ha!” he cackled, addressing the court. “Ready for this?”
Morgan quickly bent toward Robinson to silence him. It was no wonder that he decided to keep Robinson off the stand.
“I can say anything I fucking want,” Robinson whispered loudly.
“Mr. Robinson, you will be held in contempt of court if we have any further outburst!” the judge bellowed. “Is that understood?”
“Yes.” Robinson bowed his head. “Oh-ho, yes.”
Morgan was rubbing his forehead in discouragement.
“Continue,” Peter told the detective.
“ ‘I jumped on her and kept stabbing at her neck and she had her fingers in my eyes, but you don’t fucking need your eyes to stab somebody. I was cutting at her neck and she stopped making those noises and fell sideways on the sofa, and I had to pull her by the hair to get her to sit up so I could keep cutting her. Cut, cut, cut. She was warm. I was getting a lot of the radiation from her now, especially because the television was on Johnny Carson. It was better than coke. I’m talking about L.A. coke, not this lousy East Coast shit. The kind the Bloods and the Crips sell, man, right? Wait till they get to Philly, kill those Dominican dudes. Anyway, I cut her open, right in the heart—it was harder than I thought. I’m telling you this because I’m going to transport myself out of here. I’ve got the technology, that’s what you cops don’t understand. I saw the security camera in the lobby, what goes in can go out… She was all limp and her tongue was hanging out and that gave me a hard-on, her tongue, you see. But I wanted to put it somewhere different—see where I’m coming from? I had the big knife in my coat—‘
“Question: ‘Where is this weapon now, Mr. Robinson?’
“Answer: ‘Both the knives are in the water over by the Art Museum. I practically ruined the blades. It was pretty fucking hard, too. Took about five minutes. I got this flap open and stuck myself in—‘
“Question: ‘Can you be specific, Mr. Robinson?’
“Answer: ‘You fucking know what the fuck I mean. I put my cock in there against her heart ‘cause it’s warm and wet just like it’s supposed to be, you know, and there’s a lot of fucking ways to get fucked. Then she was pretty dead and a car commercial came on. “Make your best deal!” Balloons, small-town America, and you know—family values, and there I am fucking a corpse. Amazing society we live in. Amazing culture. Got a cigarett
e?’
“Question: ‘Here. Go on.’
“Answer: ‘Well, it was the usual shit, what do you do with the body. Typical cliché situation. Then I remembered that the television is full of crystals, all those solid-state components. I thought about sending her on to Johnny Carson. I was going to make her walk on to the show and sit down and talk with my man, Star Search Ed McMahon. But she was pretty bloody. I had the gasoline in the car and got that and came back in the building and poured it around with absolute care and took the phone off the hook. I turned Johnny up and then lit it—‘
“Question: ‘Were the lights on or off?’
“Answer: ‘This was smart. I was smart. I kept them on, so you couldn’t see the fire for a while. All the lights in the place. I got in my car and put on the Hendrix tape. That man was before his time, he knew about the crystals first. That’s why he died, he came too soon before his time.’ ”
Peter made notes on his pad as the detective finished. The confession showed that Robinson had no legal claim to the insanity defense. Peter could argue that anyone cogent enough to: (1) make sure the phone was busy; (2) attempt to burn the evidence; and (3) throw away the murder weapon was plenty sane enough to understand the gravity of his acts and to be convicted of first-degree murder. The attempt at concealment indicated knowledge of wrongdoing before, during, and after the murder—which fulfilled the M’Naghten Rule test that the Commonwealth used to decide sanity.
“I don’t have any more questions.” He looked up. “Thank you, Detective Nelson.”
Robinson now stared into space, like a man hypnotized by the sound of his own heartbeat. Perhaps he was remembering his own verbiage, perhaps the confession had penetrated his brightly sick confidence, and he finally understood how ludicrous was his defense. Even Morgan, who had long waited for this moment, seemed stunned. But he forced himself up and, like a small, pesky mutt snapping at a huge, immovable bulldog, began to pepper the detective with questions, trying to get him to admit that the defendant was obviously lying. Since Robinson had been arrested the next day, wasn’t it plausible that he had driven by the burned apartment and seen what had happened? And heard about it on the news? Wasn’t it true that the police often received false confessions? Did it occur to the detective that Robinson might be familiar with some of the details of the apartment because he had been there so many times? Such as the location of the lamp and of the television set? Wasn’t it true that the arresting officers had babbled details about the crime scene? Hadn’t Nelson really told Robinson how the crime had been committed first and then “gotten” the confession? Wasn’t it obvious that Robinson was highly impressionable and intelligent and, with some slight coaching, could sing out just about any version of events the detectives wanted? Didn’t the rambling, associative character of Robinson’s sentences demonstrate someone who was not in control of his faculties? Yes or no, sir? Did the detectives really know if the defendant was under the influence of drugs? Did they have a blood test to prove that he wasn’t? Wasn’t it true that no videotape was made because Robinson was so obviously sarcastic and spontaneously creative in his responses that the tape would have been a liability to the detectives? Wasn’t it true that many key statements in the confession were wrong, such as the way the body was mutilated, and wasn’t it true that those points that were more or less correct were easy facts to infer from all that had previously been said? Did the police immediately look for the knives that the defendant mentioned? Wasn’t it telling that no knives were found? Wasn’t it possible that Mr. Robinson included such a detail in order to convince the police and to please himself with his own manipulating intelligence? Wasn’t it true that the entire confession was just a confabulation of this detail and of that hint and proved only that the detectives had arrested the wrong man?
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