by Неизвестный
“Your call, Doc.”
“It may lead nowhere, but I think it is worth a shot.”
Tuesday, October 9
Buck Johnson’s Office, 10 a.m.
Buck got his first report from his investigator Joe Sontag. Joe first visited the crime scene immediately after being hired and within about two hours of the event.
”Buck, I scoured the area around the bar and the picnic area. The scene appeared pretty much untouched. Lots of dirt disturbed near the wash basin on the side of the bar. There was still some blood in the dirt in that area. I found no evidence of tire tracks, discernible footprints or anything else leading to the proverbial unknown assailant.”
“I talked to anyone around I could find who may have seen what went on. No real luck. I questioned Burt Anderson, the store owner, and Anderson recounted that he saw no suspicious characters around, no other vehicles in the area, nor any noticeable foot traffic in or out of Dante’s, just the boys hanging around the store as they always did.”
“Anderson did blow his own horn by telling me that as a responsible citizen, rest assured he discouraged the loitering by young kids around his store. He proudly stated, ‘at least they are there at my store in a safe place rather than hanging out somewhere else and getting into trouble.’ ”
Sontag said, “I almost choked when Burt Anderson made that statement to me.”
All in all, none of the interviews of Ed Simpson, the bartender at Dante’s, or the three other customers in the bar at the time, had anything helpful or new to add.
Not feeling particularly buoyed by that report, Buck needed a lift from somewhere. Since it didn’t look like that lift was going to come from anything in the case, he decided to get a little personal think time on the bike. With that, he took care of a few routine matters on his other cases and at about 2 p.m. he told his secretary that he was wrapping up for the day.
By the time Buck got home it was still warm. After tinkering with his bike for a while, the evening cool down in the East County in October was just beginning. He decided to take a little ride to a backcountry bar in the nearby mountains where it would be even cooler than where he was. It was still Daylight Savings Time so Buck had several hours of sunlight left. Buck did some of his best thinking on these rides.
Tuesday, October 9
East Country Mountains, San Diego, 5 p.m.
When he stopped at the bar above Lake Cuyamaca, he ordered a cold non-alcoholic O’Doul’s. Drinking alcohol while riding his motorcycle was just plain stupid and he never broke that rule. Not that he was some kind of wimp, he just valued his life. When he arrived at the Mountain Goat Cafe he parked his bike, took out his leather folio and notepad and went inside. Just as he sat down and take the first sip, his cell phone rang.
It was Dr. Anderson, his forensic pathologist.
“Buck, maybe we have a break about to come down the path.”
“I just received the results from one of the special toxicology tests I ran from tissue samples. I sent them to one of the best labs in the country to do the depth of trace I wanted. The head of that lab is an old college friend and prepared the results for me in almost record speed.
“Whoever wanted this guy killed was pretty damned determined and sophisticated. The lab found the slightest trace of an almost undetectable toxin derived from a rare plant in the Amazon rain forest, believe it or not.”
“It’s called “Motubo” by the local tribes, meaning, literally in their language, “sleep of death.”
“It has become known in crime novels and TV shows as a drug that causes heart failure without generally leaving any evidence of it being administered. In Mexico, it is referred to as ‘muerte sin aparato’ (death without tracks).”
“Lucky for us it left some ‘tracks’ here!”
“Buck, I need to examine Molina’s body again as soon as possible. I want go over the body carefully to see if a point of entry can be established and hopefully confirm the true cause of death.”
Certainly up to this point there had been no indication from the autopsy that he had died from anything other than the beating he suffered.
Sitting there finishing his O’Doul’s and making some notes on his call from Dr. Anderson, Buck reminded himself of two things that had been said in the ME’s lab. One by Dr. Louden and one by Eddie McDermott.
First, Louden indicated that it still gave her slight pause understanding how Molina could have died from the beating she had observed during post mortem.
The second thing was Eddie’s passing statement during their first full interview that he had this strange sense that while he, Tommy, and Jack were hovered over Molina throwing some punches, someone else had “joined the party” for a brief moment. However, Eddie still never recalled actually seeing anyone else.
Buck called Dr. Anderson back, “Look Doc, give Rebecca Louden a call and arrange to re-examine the body as soon as you can.”
“I don’t want to keep anything from her ultimately, but I don’t want to spook her or anyone in the lab until we know more.”
Anderson called back a few moments later. “Dr. Louden says we can meet her at the morgue lab at 8:30 tomorrow morning.” Buck
confirmed that he would meet Anderson there.
Tuesday, October 9
Rebecca Louden’s Office, 6 p.m.
Dr. Louden hung up the phone after talking to Dr. Anderson. She summoned Che through the intercom who was doing some cleanup in the lab before he left for the day. He had the night off and was thinking how he was going to party that evening.
Without looking up from the paperwork she was trying to complete, Dr. Louden said, “Che, tell the night tech to please prepare the Molina body for a re-examination at 8:30 tomorrow morning.”
It was typical practice that when the day lab tech had the night off without being on call, he or she was not required to report the next day until 9:00 a.m.
Che, however, immediately responded, “Dr. Louden, it’s not necessary for the night tech to do the prep, I’ll come in early and take care of it. I’ve been handling the case anyway.”
Dr. Louden thought that was worth a good laugh, Che volunteering to come in early following a potential party night, but she was preoccupied with other matters and did not give it any further thought.
Wednesday,October 10
County Medical Examiner’s Lab, 7:30 a.m.
Che arrived at the lab about an hour before the scheduled re-examination by Buck Johnson and Dr. Anderson. No one was in the lab. It had been a quiet night and the duty tech was still over in the office catching up on some paperwork.
Che went to the body vault and opened and slid out Molina’s body. He had a gurney next to him to transfer the body but before he did so, he focused on a single location on the body’s left chest. He touched the area with his gloved hand ever so slightly.
Satisfied with whatever he had done, Che pushed the body back into the vault. Che then began some “make work” activities for awhile. Promptly at 8:15 he went back over to the Molina vault and placed the body on the gurney and moved it to the exam area.
Dr. Louden, Dr. Anderson, and Buck Johnson entered the lab at 8:30 a.m. Che offered, “The body’s ready to go.” By the way, what’s this all about?”
Anderson simply said “I just need to check a few things on the body.”
Due to the limited space around the gurney, there was no room (nor any reason) for Che to join the exam. Che hung back off to the side but attempted to peer over their shoulders to see what Dr. Anderson was doing.
After less than 5 minutes, Dr. Anderson said, “Thank you” and he, Dr. Louden and Buck left the room. Che stayed behind to cover Molina back up and put him back in the vault.
Louden and Anderson walked to her office with Buck closely following. Anderson thanked Dr. Louden. “Rebecca, I will be in touch if I need anything more.”
While Dr. Louden had half expected Dr. Anderson to tell her what he was onto, she realized that defense lawyers and their c
onsultants usually played anything helpful to their cases very close to the vest. She did not inquire further. She was not insulted in any way or feeling put upon because she realized that while she was in fact an objective, independent pathologist, the County (i.e. The People) still paid her salary and she was deemed by Buck to be on the other team in this case.
Buck and Dr. Anderson walked across the street to a Denny’s, sat down and ordered coffee. Dr. Anderson said, “That cinches it for me. I’m sure I discovered the point of entry of the hypodermic needle and syringe containing the lethal toxin.”
“It was pretty damn interesting that the spot I discovered on Molina’s body seemed to have a small scab over it hiding what was actually a puncture location.”
He continued, “Frankly, I’m a bit surprised that it was not previously discovered, but again, everything as to cause of death appeared so clear that Louden simply had no reason to scrub the body looking for anything else.”
Wednesday, October 10
County Jail, 1:30 p.m.
Buck met with the other boys and their counsel later that Wednesday. He met first with Public Defender Leo Pierson and Tommy Snyder. After mutually agreeing on the ground rules for the interview (what Leo was likely to allow Buck to ask) Pierson let Buck begin with Tommy’s recollection of the events of the day in question. It was agreed that any question that was problematic for Pierson would simply not be answered by Tommy.
Most of Tommy’s version mirrored what Buck already understood. Tommy, of course, insisted, “I never used a pipe or two-by-four or anything like that.”
While Buck did not believe Tommy (watching his demeanor as he answered the questions) it really did not matter at this point. Buck was going to wait until he talked with Jack Robinson to decide how to pursue that issue. One thing Tommy did say that stuck in Buck’s mind was Tommy's statement, “I swear I thought there was someone else there beating on the Mesican.”
Buck, intrigued, as was Leo Pierson, stated, “Eddie never mentioned anything like that.”
“Messin’ up the beaner was all I was tryin to do. Teach him a lesson about taking jobs from real Americans.”
“We was only hittin’ him with our fists, there wern’t no pipe or board. But then, shit, I woulda sworn there was some extra pair of fists in there.”
“Everything was happening so fast. When the bartender came out we all split, but I never saw no one else. The guy was absolutely alive and jabbering something to me in Mexican.” Tommy said he never saw anyone else around the outside of Dante’s when it all started. That was all Tommy could remember.
Buck thanked Leo for the professional courtesy of the interview and said that he would be happy to reciprocate. Leo sensed that Buck had a real paid defense going so Leo hoped to coattail on Buck’s work on matters that might help his defense position for Tommy.
Buck did not tell Leo at that time that he had already given Dr. Anderson the go-ahead to do further toxicological studies. While the public defender’s office would do an adequate job, it was unlikely, given their budgetary restraints, that they would be able to hire as extensive a group of consultants since their clients had only been charged in a manner that clearly indicated the DA’s office was looking at Eddie McDermott as the principal perpetrator.
Wednesday, October 10
County Jail, 3:30 p.m.
Buck’s meeting with Stan McLeod and Jack Robinson was uneventful. Buck and Stan agreed on the same conditions of the interview as Buck had with Leo. Jack had no recollection of anyone else joining the melee and insisted he never used any pipe or two-by-four and never saw any of his buddies use anything either.
“Look, I never wanted to be involved in rousting the guy, it was Eddie and Tommy made me do it.” The entire interview took less than half an hour.
Buck got back to the office about 4:30 p.m. He saw that there was a message from his investigator, Joe Sontag. It was a breathtakingly beautiful early Fall day with a soft Santa Ana breeze. Buck left the office with the anticipation of sounds from the pipes and a warm breeze in his face and headed for his KRMPONY. What better way was there to do your uninterrupted thinking?
He would call Joe back later, as there was no expression of urgency in the voicemail.
Thursday, October 11
Buck Johnson’s Office, 11:30 a.m.
Buck decided to call Kyra to try to set up a meeting to discuss a potential plea bargain just to see where the DA’s office might be on negotiating a deal for Eddie.
“Kyra O’Neill,” she answered.
“Hello, Kyra, I hope I haven’t interrupted you, but I would like to set up a time to talk about the case.”
“How’s tomorrow morning?”
“9 o’clock, your office?”
“See you then,” she replied concluding the call.
From the background music, Buck surmised that Kyra was having an early lunch at a popular cafe, The Kahala Grille. The proprietors, Kealei and Tidah were a brother and sister from the Big Island of Hawaii who decided to bring their great regional food to the mainland. Kyra had first met them on a trip to Hawaii where they owned and ran a small island style restaurant in the town of Hawi, the birthplace of King Kamahamaha. Their dream had been to bring their food to the mainland. Relatives who had moved to Oceanside in the north county made San Diego a perfect choice.
Their restaurant offered everything from the best pulled pork sandwiches Kyra had ever tasted to various fresh fish items cooked in the Hawaiian style. Whether it was meat wrapped in tarot leaves, seasoned with lilicoi or macadamia crusted, their food had developed quite a following and not only with Hawaiian ex-patriots but with travelers who had visited the islands and wanted to keep in touch with Aloha when back on the Mainland. The tunes of IZ, John Keawe, the Makaha Sons and the like were always played softly in the background and the ambiance gave the sense of the serenity of the islands.
Friday, October 12
District Attorney’s Office, 9 a.m.
Buck met with Kyra the next morning. Arriving at the District Attorney’s office, he went through the standard procedure of showing his “bar card” and depositing his driver’s license through the reception window in the small lobby of the DA’s office. His reward was a clip-on visitor’s pass. About two minutes later, Kyra came through the door and escorted him to the small office she occupied.
While not clear whether Kyra would “first chair” the case, it was clear that she was in charge in the interim.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit from The Great Buck Johnson?”
“No, I won’t go for a ride with you on the Harley.”
“No, I won’t buy you lunch at the Kahala Grille.”
“Yes, I will convict your client.”
“Don’t be fooled by my diminutive stature.”
“Remember, thin but wiley,” she concluded.
Buck laughed out loud then came right to the point, “What are the options in the Eddie McDermott case?”
While Kyra would not play games with Buck, she had to utter the standard prosecutor’s mantra, “Buck, you know this is a multi-perpetrator case, Tommy Snyder and Jack Robinson are ready to make a deal and testify against Eddie. I’ve got an open and shut case. The lack of priors is a plus for the kid, but we’re going to be under a lot of pressure due to the ethnicity of the victim.”
There was silence on Buck’s end.
“I might be able to deal away the death penalty but not much more,” she offered.
“Kyra, you know I appreciate the courtesy and your telling me your current position, but, as you probably can guess, that’s not a deal I’m really interested in.”
Buck had to make an important tactical decision at this point. How much would he reveal to Kyra with respect to his developing theory on the cause of death and the findings of his consultant. The problem was that there was no evidence of someone else at the scene to administer the deadly toxin, but Buck had a pretty clear understanding that something was missed during the au
topsy. He was in no way prepared to attack Dr. Louden’s competency, but something did not add up.
