by Adam Zorzi
CHAPTER
FORTY-ONE
Dressed in the hot pink wool dress she'd had delivered to Mark's concierge, Bella reviewed the information provided by Opal's tech. According to his analysis, the tape had been altered seven times. He had marked the nanoseconds almost immediately after the introduction, four times during the first twenty minutes, and twice during the last five.
She was glad she hadn't gone to the office yesterday afternoon. Bella pretended to be asleep when Mark returned just after seven o'clock. She'd taken the news of Larry Yarbrough's death hard. She'd literally taken his dying declaration and needed to take a break before tackling what could be key evidence this morning. She'd deliberately worn a vibrant color as a reminder to remain focused on the case and not let grief overcome her. She had eternity with Daniel in her near future.
The tech's report described the editing of the surveillance video as clumsy and amateurish to a professionally trained eye. He estimated the bulk of a seven-hour shift to be missing. His opinion was that the audio track had been extracted by software available to download for free. Nothing that had been done required technical expertise.
“What do you think?” Opal sat on the sofa in Mark's office with Bella. Mark was doing physician depositions in the conference room.
“Good job. Do you understand how any of this works?”
“Sure. I sometimes hang with the DJ at clubs.”
Bella wondered if Opal had a social life outside clubs. She probably knew LouLou, but wasn't going to ask her.
“Walk me through how this would be done. Assume I know nothing.”
“Do you know anything?”
“No.” Bella laughed. “Not a thing.”
“It's easy. A surveillance camera is hooked up to a DVR. If there are multiple cameras, they can go to the same DVR. If you want to review the footage, you just play the DVR like you would for a recorded TV show. It's not accurate to call it surveillance video anymore. It's digital. It can be saved on a USB.”
“You mean a regular DVR used at home?”
“Yes. Nothing fancy. The DVR can be on site or remote. In the hospital, it would be on site. Anyone sitting in front of it could see multiple cameras simultaneously. My buddy was surprised the hospital even had digital recording. He said most older government buildings still use video cassettes.”
“Could a video be transferred to digital for editing?”
“Yes. He said it might have happened in this case because the quality of the black and white video was poor for a prime digital recording.”
“And the sound?”
“Same thing. It's on the DVR. A free download can separate audio and visual. Some DVRs have that feature built in.”
“Opal, check the transcripts for anything about video surveillance. Who testified? How many surveillance cameras there were? What kind of recorder? Anything. Also, get the authenticity stipulation. “
“What's that?”
“A document that states the prosecution and defense agree that a piece of evidence is what it's supposed to be. An expert examines it and says it's real. Like OJ's glove.”
Opal looked at her expectantly.
“Never mind. You're not old enough. Just copy or print the exhibit page about surveillance video.”
Bella leaned back on the sofa, closed her eyes, and planned her next move.
CHAPTER
FORTY-TWO
“You're related to LouLou Fleming, aren't you?” asked the Sensitive at the only music store in Richmond. Bella was startled. She hadn't seen him when she came in. Her attention had been drawn to the gorgeous black cat stretched on the front counter. She couldn't keep her hands off him and he obliged by rolling over so she could stroke all of him.
“I'm Skylar, the proprietor of Vinyl. I see you've established a friendship with my partner, Robert.”
“He's so handsome,” Bella said as she turned on her considerable charms. “You must have women coming in all the time just to see him.”
“Mmm,” Skylar said in a noncommittal tone.
“Is he named for the great bluesman Robert Lee Johnson?” she asked with her gorgeous blue eyes trained on Skylar.
“Why yes, he is. Are you a blues fan?” the old man asked.
“I love many kinds of music, but the blues hold some very good memories for me.”
“And LouLou?” Skylar wasn't going to let her wriggle out of that.
“Ms. Fleming is a witness in one of my cases. I took her deposition a few weeks ago, which brings me to why I'm here. I have an odd request, but I couldn't think of where else I might find something. I need a VHS tape.”
“What kind?”
“Musical. I realize you don't sell films here, but operas and concerts were recorded on them before the world went digital.” She sighed as though downloads signaled the end of civilization.
“You don't have any preference as to what's on it?” Skylar asked.
Bella slowly stroked her cheek to her chin with her index finger as she pretended to think. “I'd love Puccini's Turandot. Do you have it with Pavarotti singing the role of Calaf? Any soprano is fine. Joan Sutherland or Monserrat Caballé would be ideal.”
“Yes, I have that with Sutherland. I'll get it. Robert will keep an eye on you.” Skylar headed toward a row of VHS tapes on one shelf at the far corner of the store. Bella wondered if she should be concerned. Then again, what could he possibly do? Tell LouLou she'd been to his store and when asked, she’d admitted to taking a deposition. Of course, with LouLou, anything could set her off on a psychotic episode.
“Here you are,” said a brusque Skylar. He moved Robert enough to place the tape on the counter. “The price is on the box. Is there anything else?”
“No, thank you.” She took cash out of her briefcase to pay. When she put her hand out to take the tape, Skylar put his hand on hers. She forced herself not to flinch.
“You're Bella, aren't you?” he asked.
She took the tape with her free hand and put it in her briefcase. “Yes, I am,” she said briskly.
Skylar stood straighter. Almost as if he were prepared to physically do battle for LouLou.
“I've no reason to deny it. I'm here solely for the purpose of obtaining the tape. I'm not stalking LouLou. You can tell her I was here and upset her or keep this to yourself. It's up to you. I don't plan to see either of you again.”
Skylar relaxed his shoulders and removed his hand from hers. “LouLou showed me the book you gave her. She's been trying to relive every moment with Gregg so she can include it in the list of places he might return.” He absent-mindedly rubbed Robert's head.
“Skylar, I can't help her. I don't know where Gregg is or how she can reach him. I taught myself what I need to function as a ghost on earth. There's no guide.”
“That's too bad.” Skylar shook his head. “Seems like there should be some sort of ghost oral history passed around.”
Bella nodded but didn't speak.
“I don't mean to sound disloyal, but you're an exceptionable woman. You are the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen, not that that's pertinent to Gregg. The point is you're brilliant, well-educated, and sophisticated.” He hesitated. “LouLou's Gregg is a musical genius, but I don't think he has a great intellect and he has no education beyond high school. He died in the 1980s and was hospitalized in the late 1960s so he's almost fifty years behind in everything. Technology, social mores, and transportation. If he didn't find eternal peace and is trying to come back to LouLou, he's at a great disadvantage.”
“Skylar,” she said softly, “I'm back because I willed myself to be. I came back for Daniel—LouLou's father. My return has nothing to do with intelligence. It's raw emotion. Stinging, searing, slashing pain embedded in my heart. If Gregg feels that for LouLou, he'll learn whatever he needs. LouLou can only wait. Gregg has to return if he can. I don't know him so I can't predict whether he'll be able to find his way back.”
Skylar would know if there was even a chance of Gregg
returning. “Do you think he left prematurely?” Bella asked. “LouLou said he had music still inside him.”
Skylar eyed her with suspicion. “Yes, I think he left rather too quickly. He had plenty of music in his head.”
Bella wasn't going to belabor talk about Gregg's departure with a Sensitive. He couldn't read her mind, but Skylar might suspect she had something to do with Gregg's premature exit. She stroked Robert one last time.
“Skylar, you're the one who can help her. You have the ability to divine several dimensions simultaneously and you know both LouLou and Gregg. I wish you the best.”
As she put her hand on the doorknob, Robert let out a long, loud, Siamese cry. Bella knew he was sorry to see her go.
CHAPTER
FORTY-THREE
Mark was disappointed she wouldn't spend the night with him, but Bella allowed him to take her to dinner. She could pass the time with him before she went on her mission in Petersburg.
They ate at a small family-owned Indian restaurant with low lighting. She allowed Mark to order for them both, but insisted he order his favorites. She wasn't feeling one hundred percent, and assured him that was why she wanted to sleep at home tonight.
“It's the trial, isn't it?” Mark stated as he held her hand across the small table.
“Yes. I knew the hospital was a cesspool, but I didn't realize absolutely everyone we deposed would confirm it. Not one person has said anything positive about patient safety and treatment. Hearing Larry Yarbrough's dying declaration confirmed the worst. I'll feel better once we have the original surveillance tape.”
He squeezed her hand. “That will make the case if what Yarbrough remembers is captured on tape. He asked for help and it was denied. Caught on tape, there's no way for the AG to deny it.”
Bella nodded and pretended to sip jasmine tea. It smelled lovely and calmed her nerves.
“All assuming what Yarbrough remembers is true and not a hallucination. Besides, we still have to hear what Jess Cox, the aide who was on duty that night and testified at Yarbrough's trial, says tomorrow.” She lowered her eyes and looked at him through her long lashes.
“Bella, you don't have to come with me. I can take his deposition alone.” He looked genuinely concerned about her.
She looked up at him with tears forming at the creases of her lids. “I must go. I want to get a sense of a man whose job it is to keep patients safe watch a murder be committed without intervening.”
“Let me know if you change your mind,” Mark said, and he released her hand. Relief at not having to make conversation flooded through Bella.
Mark seemed to relish the medium spicy curry and vegetable filled bread he’d ordered. She was mildly repulsed that he could eat with such gusto.
She pulled off a Bella smile. “The good news is this clinches the case. I'll make a few tweaks to the Motion for Summary Judgment and we're done.”
“That's the Bella I know.” He smiled.
“Mark, have you been in touch with Evan Cooper's family?”
He nodded while he finished a mouthful. “I called them once a week when the case started, but Mr. Cooper asked that I just let them know when the trial would start. He and his wife seem to still be in shock that their son is dead even after his murder trial. They don't want details of a civil suit. Mr. Cooper said he wouldn't have retained me if he didn't believe I'd do my best.
“I can't believe I call him Mr. Cooper. He's barely forty. He and Mrs. Cooper were high school sweethearts who married and had a baby young. That baby grew up and is now dead.” He shook his head. “Once again, I feel like I'm in a parallel universe to my contemporaries. You, the Coopers, everyone.”
“Don't,” Bella said more sharply than she'd intended. “Don't make this about you and what you have yet to do with your life. We've got the final damning evidence. We can't make a mistake now that could cost us a win. We both have to keep our wits together. I can't let my rage against the state for the suffering of its patients blind me to what needs to be done. You can worry about your future after we win the Summary Judgment, but we have to win it.”
This time, Mark high fived her across the table.
***
Bella left before the check came. She didn't want Mark to offer to see her home. He'd never asked where that home was, although he probably assumed she stayed in a luxury residential hotel. She definitely didn't want him to see her get into a cab headed toward Petersburg.
Once inside the police headquarters, the evidence room should be easy to find. She had a floor plan of the station from the internet. She didn't know how old the plan was, but the building was only two stories and couldn't have been altered significantly. She knew two officers and a clerk were on duty after midnight. They'd never know she was there.
Invisible, she headed where the evidence room was located on the floor plan at the back of the building. There was no duty officer there at one in the morning, but the door was locked. She walked through the wall and discovered rows of overflowing cardboard banker's boxes on shelves from the floor almost to the ceiling. Surely, she wasn't going to have to go through all of them.
A hand printed sign that read ‘Media Evidence’ with a drawing of a finger pointing left made her mission easier. The law required media evidence to be housed in a separate location from other crime scene evidence, but she had no expectation that a police department as small as this would actually have complied.
She went to the media room and quickly found the Evan Cooper case file box. She opened it without difficulty and there it was. Lying on top of what looked like computer discs was a VHS tape marked Commonwealth Psychiatric Hospital Surveillance and the date of the murder. She exchanged the VHS copy of Turandot she'd purchased at Vinyl for the original surveillance video and left the way she came.
This was it. She had the last piece of evidence in her hand. Bella hadn't wanted to risk someone making the surveillance tape disappear after word got out of Mark's application for a warrant. By substituting Turandot for the hospital tape, the surveillance tape was safe with her. Even if someone made the tape disappear, it wouldn't be the surveillance tape; Turandot would disappear.
She hadn't let Mark in on her actions. He needed to be able to swear in court that the evidence had been procured lawfully.
Once a warrant for the original video tape was obtained, Mark's friend from the Petersburg police department would go to the evidence room, collect it, and sign the property log. She'd give what she believed to be the surveillance tape to Mark. Everything would be done according to strict chain of custody requirements.
In the meantime, Bella had the real thing.
CHAPTER
FORTY-FOUR
Confident that she had the original surveillance tape in her possession, Bella insisted on accompanying Mark the next afternoon to take the deposition of the aide who had been on duty the night Evan Cooper had been killed. She was surprised that the man still worked at the hospital. Whoever was running the hospital hadn't the foresight to transfer him or retire him or whatever else could be done to get him out of Commonwealth Psychiatric and away from the murder trial or Mark's civil action.
The duo arrived early and waited in a consultation room while security fetched Jess Cox. According to his employment record, Cox was twenty-eight, held a GED, and became a medical assistant or MA through a private online educational service. He’d worked at Commonwealth Psych for six months before the murder. He was single, no criminal record, and had lived his entire life in West Petersburg.
“Ever been here?” Mark asked. He nervously paced the windowless room.
“I'm ashamed to admit I don't want to be here now.” She didn't want to be where horrible things took place. She'd had more than enough of that in human form. Bella was here because it was important to get a statement from Cox where he felt most comfortable and where, if necessary, he could walk them through the crime scene. She shivered.
Mark looked out of place. He was far too handsome, well-groome
d, and well-dressed to pass even as a physician here.
The door opened and a man in his fifties entered with recording equipment. He was the court reporter for the deposition and looked just as unhappy to be there as Bella and Mark.
Mark tried to put him at ease. “If there's an outlet, try to set up close to the door. You'll want to be able to get out easily for breaks.”
The reporter nodded. “I don't know that I want to take a break here. We're on a floor with patients. No one told me we'd be here. What if one of them goes crazy?”
Bella bit the inside of her cheek to prevent her from saying anything. Mark was reassuring. “I think most of these patients are sedated. They're on a locked ward on the other side of the building. Treat it like any other hospital,” he said.
After the reporter was set up, the three waited in silence. Cox entered exactly on time.
No one rose to shake his hand. Mark handled the introductions and got the preliminaries on the record. Bella didn't intend to question Cox. She didn't think she'd be able to control her rage at whatever pitiful excuses he might offer.
Mark started the questioning.
“Mr. Cox, you were on duty the night of Evan Cooper's murder, correct?” Mark had stated the date and time of the murder earlier.
“Yes.” The young man slouched in his chair. He looked sleepy. Bella wondered if he was stoned although he claimed he hadn't taken any drugs or alcohol prior to the deposition.
“What were your duties that night?”
“That was almost three years ago. I don't know.” Bella didn't expect him to play things that way for long. His attempt to stare at her until she became uncomfortable wouldn't work, either. She had the delicious thought of becoming invisible, but that would shock Mark and the court reporter.
