Until Proven Innocent

by Gene Grossman

  Oh boy, that does it. Not only is she getting ready to speak to me, but I think I’m in for a lecture.

  “Peter, I’m well aware of section 538d of the Penal Code, and it specifically states that in order for the crime to be complete, a person who is not a peace officer, but who is wearing the badge of a peace officer must have the specific intent to fraudulently induce the belief that he or she is a peace officer. Now I ask you, is there any condition under which you could be induced to believe that I am a peace officer if you see me wearing this badge?”

  I guess the conversation is over, because she has completed rolling her eyes and is now walking away, disgusted at my feeble attempt to play lawyer. Some day she’s going to be grown up, and I pity any guy who gets involved with her… inside or outside of a courtroom.

  *****

  Gary Fitzpatrick, one of Tony’s closest friends and former partner on the police force stops by to say hello and fills me in some facts about Tony. Gary tells me that just before the trial started, Tony put in his retirement papers, and requested that they become effective one day after the trial ended. The department was directed to deposit all of his pension benefits directly into a special account that was set up to provide for the college education of his two young sons.

  Gary also tells me that Tony was ill, due to his serving four years in the Navy, working in ships’ boiler room. Twenty years ago, before most of the ships were nuclear powered, the boilers were insulated with asbestos and breathing in that dust took its toll on Tony. About a month before the trial he was diagnosed with a lung disease, and the prognosis wasn’t too good. He told Gary that after the trial, which he felt confident would go his way, he planned on packing a normal life’s supply of pain medication, obtained from a friendly drug dealer, and sailing off into the sunset.

  I thought his weight loss was due to the stress of being charged with Joe’s murder, but now I learn that it was because of his illness.

  There were some other interesting news items recently, including the report that some psychiatrist committed suicide by jumping out of an office building somewhere in Hollywood. His name wasn’t released to the public, but I think I know who it was.

  Snell had another mini press conference to announce the arrest of a wealthy husband and wife who were operating a white supremist paramilitary training camp on the outskirts of Los Angeles County. They were distributing racist literature, and training groups of people in how to use illegal machine guns. That bothered the government, so Snell was brought in. Quite a bit of helpful information about their group was provided by a former member who is now in custody on a non-related charge. So much for honor between racists.

  When they reveal the names of the husband and wife, it suddenly dawns on me that the snitch who turned them in may have been in custody on a charge that actually was related to the couple. Their names are Chad and Ruth Sinclair, and if they are the ones who own the apartment building that April lives in, David Miller must be the former member mentioned.

  It’s all slowly starting to come together in my mind. The Sinclairs and David Miller all belonged to a white supremist group. This means that when their tenant April started bringing her black boyfriend Joe Caulfield home with her, Miller and the Sinclairs must have gone postal.

  Being heavily involved in weapons, it was reasonable to expect them to go to target ranges often, and learning that one of the shooters out there was also working on the black boyfriend’s motion picture gave them too great an opportunity to pass up, especially after seeing Joe Caulfield one day when he went shooting with Tony. Miller probably cased the soundstage and planned the whole murder and frame-up, maximizing his access to Tony’s gun during those few seconds when it was out of Tony’s sight while the tight rugby shirt was being removed.

  With the Sinclairs and Miller all in custody, the real estate trust was in financial trouble, so it filed for bankruptcy. From what April tells me, the referee in bankruptcy appointed a receiver to supervise the apartment buildings, and he hired April to be the manager of the building she lives in.

  She also has lost more than fifty pounds already, and Hershel’s weight loss business is doing as well as his dealership. This must be great for Hershel’s supplier, who is my friend Stuart, now semi-retired in his late uncle’s condo in Thailand, on the island of Koh Sumai.

  April is now engaged to a black gentlemen she met at Hershel’s dealership, where he’s the assistant general manger of new car sales. When their wedding announcement is made public, I hope she isn’t disappointed by not getting a congratulatory card from the Sinclairs.

  *****

  After Myra got a guilty verdict in Miller’s murder trial, we got together for dinner again, and she told me the information she wormed out of the kid, as to how the case was really solved. Hearing how it was done is a lot like watching some fabulous magician create the most fantastic illusion you’ve ever seen and then discovering how easy the trick was to perform. That’s why I never watch those TV shows featuring masked magicians who give away all the secrets of their trade.

  When Myra asked Suzi when she dis-covered that the empty casing in Tony’s cylinder was a re-load, Suzi’s answer was cryptic, so Myra recreated her conversation with the kid for me:

  “Suzi, how long did it take you to determine that the shell casing we took out of Tony’s gun was a re-load that was fired earlier that day?”

  “Less than a second.”

  “What? Are you serious? How could you have known so quickly? Did you have some information that we didn’t have?”

  “Someone told me.”

  “Suzi, you have to tell me who told you that, because whoever it was may have been connected to the murder in some way. There’s no other way that a person could have had that information unless they were involved. Now please tell me, who told you?”

  “You did.”

  “What do you mean I told you? I didn’t know that until you revealed it in court that day. I never told you that, Suzi.”

  “Yes you did. Not directly, but in an interview. As soon as you said that they found another set of prints and that they appeared to be those of a child, I knew right then and there that it was a re-load. It didn’t even take a full second for me to be sure of it.”

  “Okay, so you got some information from my press conference, but I never said any of the other things you were so sure of, so how did you form your conclusion?”

  Myra explains at this point that the kid just sighed, as if exhausted by the tedious job of explaining things to adults who don’t have the brains to figure things out by themselves.

  “Well, first of all, Detective Tony never let me touch any live ammunition. He taught me how to re-load his shells, but once they were pressed, re-sized, re-capped, and re-loaded with the 27 grains of powder he used for practice, he took over and crimped the new bullet head onto the shell. That was the only condition he insisted on. I could learn to use the equipment and help him re-load, but I was never to touch a live round.

  “Therefore, when you announced that my fingerprints were on the empty shell you found in his cylinder, I immediately knew that it wasn’t a factory round, because I was never allowed to touch those.”

  “Suzi, if you knew this from the beginning, why didn’t you tell us?”

  “I was going to, but then you subpoenaed me, and I thought it would be better if I told it in court, because I’m trying to get a little more trial experience.”

  “Yes, but what about Tony? He was charged with murder. If you would have broken the case sooner, he wouldn’t have had to suffer that long and go through the trial.”

  “Oh, I told Detective Tony. We had a good laugh about it, and he said it was okay for me to save it for the trial, because he knew he was going to win and he wanted to see the look on your face and put on a show for all of his friends.

  “Besides, at that time I didn’t know who the real killer was. I’m very young, you know, and can’t just solve every crime immediately... sometimes it tak
es a few days.”

  Hearing all this from Myra is a real shocker. I still can’t believe how easy it was for the kid to put things together. Myra continues with her story about their conversation.

  “Suzi, from what Peter tells me, when they first met, Miller’s appearance was completely different than it was when he was arrested. How did you recognize him?”

  “Peter gave me his business card one day after going to the apartment building he managed. We were working on a matter for one of the female tenants there. We also sent the card to Victor’s lab for fingerprint comparison with the envelope slipped under her door. I believe Peter offered that case to you, but you turned it down.

  “Anyway since we already had his name and fingerprints on file, I decided to follow our new forensics lab protocol by entering his driver’s license picture into our new facial recognition software program. The way he looked on his driver’s license was the same way he looked in court. It was the way that Peter saw him that was the alteration in his appearance. He must have disguised himself when he suspected that his tenant might have someone snooping around the building.

  “It was easy to spot him in court, and I had his photo distributed to our team, so there was no way he was going to get away.”

  “That was nice work, Suzi, but you know, you could have been in a lot of trouble if you accused him of murder and he didn’t do it.”

  “No problem. When we saw him in court on the first day of trial, we figured he’d be back for the second day too, so one of our team got a warrant to search his car and his residence. Because of the metal detectors, we knew he couldn’t wear the gun to court, so we figured he’d either leave it at home or in his car, while he was in court.

  “About five minutes after he came into court for the afternoon session, the guys found it in his car trunk. At that time I was unavailable to them, because I was a witness who was going to be called back by Peter. While I was sitting in the witness box, one of our guys outside in the hallway had Miller’s gun in a plastic evidence bag, and he waved it in front of the little window in the rear door to the courtroom.

  “This was our little signal to let me know that not only did they have the gun, but they also conducted a rush-job of test-firing it to get a comparison with that mystery shell that was included in Tony’s brass basket. We had the whole case nailed down for you before I mentioned his name in court that afternoon.

  “Once he knew how dead-bang we had him nailed to the wall for the murder, it was easy for Snell to get that info out of him on Sinclair’s paramilitary group, and the banned machine guns they were using.”

  “Wow. That was some piece of work. But why were you so interested in helping the FBI? Special Agent Snell never did anything for you, did he?”

  “Sure he did. He helped me put together a package that qualifies the four of us for all the reward money that the major motion picture studios will be sending for our information, which Snell mentioned in his press conference as helping to lead to the arrest and conviction of the piracy gang.”

  “You just said that there are four of you. Who are the four that are sharing the reward money?”

  “Me, Peter, and Tony’s two young sons. And Myra I really meant what I said. There’ll always be a place for you in my law firm.”

  *****

  Tony’s case is now behind us but he’ll never be completely forgotten, especially by all the cops here in the Chinese restaurant, where I’m now having lunch and watching them all file in for their once-a-month inter-agency meeting.

  Once everyone is seated and enjoying their meals, a hush falls over the room. I look up and see that all eyes in the place are looking to the rear of the restaurant, where two criminal violations are taking place simultaneously, both being perpetrated by the same person… Suzi!

  First, she’s brought that huge beast of a dog into the restaurant with her as she comes in through the private rear entrance. They both strut through the entire length of the restaurant towards the front door, where there is a table waiting for her, complete with telephone book for her to sit on. I don’t know exactly which particular section of the Health and Safety Code she’s currently in violation of, but I do believe that other than when assisting the blind, animals are not supposed to be brought into restaurants.

  The other remarkable violation is the fact that she’s parading herself past table after table of uniformed cops while prominently displaying that detective badge of Tony’s around her neck. After the little parade is over, she parks herself at her table near the front door and some small servings of food are immediately brought over to her by the Asian Boys.

  I’m sure there isn’t one cop in the place who didn’t know and respect Tony and I’m also positive that they all know it’s his badge she’s wearing. I feel in my bones that any minute now she’s going to get arrested. They’re going to take her and the dog away and I’m going to have to spend the rest of the day getting them both released. I warned her about wearing that badge. She should have listened to me.

  I finish my meal. The cops all finish their meals. The kid finishes her meal. Every cop in the place gets up to leave and. on their way out of the restaurant, each one of them passes by her table and pats her on the head. There is no arrest. There is silence. One of the cops seems to be wiping something out of his eye. Almost every one of them drops a little piece of food for the dog.

  * * * * * *

  Editor’s Note: DISCOUNT COUPON OFFER

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  * * * * * *

  The Peter Sharp Legal Mystery Series

  #1: Single Jeopardy

  Attorney Peter Sharp has been wrongfully suspended from the practice of law and thrown out of the house by his soon-to-be ex-wife, a newly appointed deputy district attorney. As a result of the eviction, he’s forced to live in their back yard on an old, poorly wired, 40-foot Chris Craft cabin cruiser he’s restoring, that is in danger of burning up at any time.

  To make matters worse, as the result of trying to help someone fill out some claim forms, he gets arrested for conspiracy to defraud an insurance company. His alleged co-conspirator, a man charged with murdering his own wife to be with a beautiful flight attendant, is about to discover that Peter is also sleeping with her while the man is out of town.

  As Peter fights to get his law license reinstated, he discovers the secrets behind two murders, a fatal plane crash, and who framed him with the State Bar - all with the help of his legal ward Suzi, an adorable, quiet (at least to Peter) ten-year-old Chinese girl and her huge Saint Bernard.

  Peter also gets involved in matters concerning sexual harassment, vexatious litigation, double jeopardy, and a groundbreaking case of Negligent Nymphomania.

  *****

  #2: …By Reason of Sanity

  In his second Adventure, Attorney Peter Sharp gets retained to defend a man accused of capital murder. The only things making this case a little harder to defend than most others are that the client’s acts were captured
on videotape, he confessed to the police, and he wants to plead guilty. To make matters worse, the District Attorney’s office has brought in a special prosecutor for the trial: Peter’s ex-wife Myra.

  While he’s preparing for trial on the murder case, Peter is also hired to represent an insurance company, to defend it against a man who slipped and fell while inside a bank that was coincidentally robbed later that same day. Peter thinks the case would have died when the claimant was murdered, but at usual, he’s wrong.

  In this adventure, while Peter is involved representing Vinnie, the prolific, peeing pornographer, he also helps solve several bank robberies by catching the entire gang, and makes the acquaintance of a new friend who runs an autopsy store - all with the help of his legal ward, the adorable ten-year-old Suzi and her huge Saint Bernard.

  *****

  #3: A Class Action

  In his third Adventure, Attorney Peter Sharp is retained to represent a man accused of murder, by the planting of bombs in vehicles. The client is also suspected of being part of a conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States in an upcoming Fourth of July parade.

  With the assistance of his legal ward Suzi, Peter cracks the case, identifies the real murderer, and at the same time solves the mystery of a dead body found in his friend Stuart's automobile trunk... all while falling for a lesbian lawyer, winning a Will contest, breaking up a stolen car ring 4,000 miles away, and battling with his ex-wife, who has been elected to the office of District Attorney.

  In the adventure’s finale, Suzi miraculously manages to get ‘Bernie,’ her huge Saint Bernard into a courtroom, where she makes her first official court appearance, holds her first press conference, and becomes a local television hero.

  *****