JO01 - Guilty or Else (23 page)

C H A P T E R 
33

We finished lunch at two
o’clock, but before we left Rocco’s, I stopped at the phone booth, called the district attorney’s office and asked to speak with Bobbi Allen. After the encounter in the courtroom, she was the last person I wanted to talk to, but I had no choice.

I had filed a motion asking the court to grant me access to the Graham house. The motion had been approved, which meant I had a legal right to visit the crime scene. But in order to cross the police line legally, someone from the D.A.’s office would have to accompany me.

“What do you want, O’Brien?” Bobbi’s voice had the same harsh tone I’d heard in the judge’s chambers.

“I’m going to the Graham house. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“It’s still a crime scene.”

“I want an escort.”

“I’m too busy.”

“Send someone.”

“I can’t spare anyone. Try back in a few weeks.”

“I’ll be at the house in twenty minutes.”

“Better not cross the police line.”

“I’m going in, with or without someone to escort me.”

“You cross the line without an escort and I’ll—”

“You’ll what?”

“I’ll see if I can send someone,” she said before slamming the phone down.

She knew I would file a complaint with Judge Koito. It would make her look bad. But she wasn’t going to make anything easy for me.

It took me twenty-two minutes to drive to Gloria Graham’s house on Rosewood Avenue. I parked at the curb but didn’t see a cop or anyone from the D.A.’s office. I decided to wait, but I wasn’t going to wait forever. From the inside of my car, I surveyed the neighborhood.

Rosewood was a pleasant enough street. Mature elm trees shaded the sidewalk in front of well-maintained tract homes. A late model black Ford pick-up truck, polished to a mirror shine, was parked in a driveway a few doors away. A man wearing a sleeveless undershirt and khaki chinos stood in his front yard sprinkling his lawn and smoking a cigar. A woman in the doorway of the house shouted something to him, but I was too far away to hear what she said. I sat in the car for fifteen minutes, waiting.

To hell with Bobbi, I’m going in. Let her file the complaint. I’ll get a slap on the wrist, so what.

Gloria’s property was bound up, trussed, with yellow police tape. The tape wound around the perimeter of her yard, driveway, and house. Printed on it repeatedly were the words, “POLICE LINE—DO NOT CROSS.” The tape fluttered and twisted in the breeze and offered no resistance to my intrusion as I slipped under it and entered the crime scene. Doing a slow shuffle up the driveway with my eyes on the ground, I kicked a dirt clod that rested on the concrete. It disintegrated into a spray of dust.

The police investigators would have picked the scene over and bagged, tagged, or photographed any piece of evidence that would help their case against Rodriguez. I too had the right to have any article I found at the scene tagged and placed in the evidence locker. I doubted that I’d find anything, but still, I wanted to get a feel of the place.

Walking around the corner of the house to the backyard, I sidestepped the faded white spray-painted outline of her fallen body where the police had marked it. I thought of the pretty girl in the cheerleader’s outfit. The girl in the photograph at the Munsons’ home. The girl, young and full of life, the girl with dreams of a future filled with happiness. Her future wasn’t much, just a ghostly image sprayed on the uncut grass with two cents worth of white paint.

The trees that Rodriguez had planted—just sticks really—were flourishing. On one of the trees, a few baby green leaves, still tightly curled, sprouted from tiny buds on the web-like branches. Glancing around the yard, I noticed Rodriguez’s shovel lying on the grass. A lemon-colored hose snaked from a bib at the side of the house, its nozzle resting on a circle of dirt. There were two other dirt patches next to it, each about two feet in diameter. I figured this must have been where Rodriguez had originally planted the tress.

My feet left deep impressions in the grass as I walked across the lawn to the house. It needed mowing. Who would do that now? I wondered as I mounted the porch steps that led to the house.

The screen door hung by a single hinge. I pushed it out of the way and tried the knob of the back door, the one that opened into the kitchen. Locked. I descended the steps and heard the sound of someone approaching.

“Hold it right there.” A police officer in uniform stood a few feet in front of me, his legs spread, his right hand resting on his holstered gun. He stared at me with a severe expression on his face.

“Bobbi Allen send you?” I asked.

“You’re in the middle of a crime scene.”

“I’m the defense lawyer on this case. I have a right to be here.”

He waved his fingers at me in a come-on manner. “Let’s see some I.D. Slowly remove your wallet and hand it to me.”

“I called the D.A.’s office and told Miss Allen I was going to be here.”

“You should’ve waited until someone got here before you busted in and contaminated the place.”

I passed my driver’s license and bar card to the cop. “I didn’t contaminate anything.”

He handed back my ID. “Lotta talk about you at the station, O’Brien. Now, did you mess with anything here?”

“I’m an officer of the court, for chrissakes. What do you think? I’d plant some false evidence? Especially after the forensic team has swept this place clean?”

“From what I heard, it wouldn’t have been the first time you tried something like that.”

“What’s your name anyway?”

“Officer Kemp, Leon Kemp.”

“You’re out of line, Kemp. Those charges were dismissed.”

“Yeah sure, just don’t try it here. You won’t get away with that sort of thing while I’m on the job.”

I shook my head and sighed.

Kemp unlocked the kitchen door and moved aside. I opened it and the thick and strong, sour stench of mold and rot engulfed me. I moved slowly into the dark kitchen. The shades were drawn. I exhaled slowly as I flipped on the light switch. The room was a mess. Patches of black powdered graphite covered the cupboards, tabletop, and drawers, places where Rodriguez’s fingerprints might have been found.

Nothing in the room seemed to have been changed or altered since the night of Gloria’s murder, except for the disturbance caused by the police investigation. Dirty dishes from her final meal were still in the sink. A full trashcan sat next to the door. A broom leaned against the table.

I stood in the center of the kitchen and glanced around. But I knew right off that several little things didn’t seem right. The cabinet doors were partially opened, some drawers were pulled out about an inch, and four ice cube trays were on the countertop.

Walking into the living room, I had the same feeling as I did in the kitchen. I darted into the bedroom and looked around. The closet door was open, her clothes were in a heap on the floor, and her dresser drawers were pulled out an inch or so. Then I remembered the police report. It said that the house had been searched. I knew what was troubling me.

After murdering Gloria, why would the killer toss her house? What did he hope to find? And, I wondered, did he find what he was looking for?

My eyes swept the small bedroom. A dresser rested against the wall, close to her bed. A mirror mounted over the dresser had photos and other memorabilia tucked into the edges. Her pretty face smiled at me from the pictures: at the beach, the mountains around a campfire with friends. She looked young and carefree, a girl full of life, not like someone who had been embezzling from a criminal enterprise. Ticket stubs to a concert—the Grateful Dead at the Hollywood Bowl—a few cards, a scattering of dried flowers rested on the dresser.

When I picked up one of the pictures to take a closer look, a small card in an envelope, the kind used when sending flowers, fell out from behind it. I picked it up by its edges.

The card inside wasn’t signed, but there was a quote written on it: “Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you.” The quote sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I wondered if Welch had sent the card. The D.A.’s office obviously knew the card couldn’t be used in their case against Rodriguez, or it would have been tagged and bagged. But, I made a mental note to petition the court to have it marked as evidence for the defense, if needed.

I walked over to the desk on the other side of the room. Papers littered the top; open bills were tossed about. The wastebasket next to the desk was turned over, the trash spilled out onto the floor. I bent down but didn’t see anything incriminating. I righted the wastebasket and saw an empty letter-sized envelope that must have been under it. I picked it up and flipped it over. It was addressed to Gloria, handwritten, and postmarked Friday from Sacramento, the day before she died. The envelope didn’t have a return address, but the handwriting on it matched the writing on the little card with the quote—tall and spidery, with exaggerated loops. It looked like the scrawl of an egomaniac, but maybe it was just my mood. I would want the envelope tagged and dusted for prints.

Kemp tapped me on my shoulder. “You through? My shift’s about done.”

I tossed the envelope on the desk. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Hodges’s theory about the case stated that Rodriguez killed Gloria in a rage because she resisted his sexual advances. But how’d he explain to the D.A. that Rodriguez searched the house after he supposedly killed her? He didn’t kill her in a fit of passion and then decide to burglarize the home. Gloria’s TV and her stereo had been untouched—and what kind of burglar leaves behind a box full of jewelry? Was Rodriguez looking for his lawnmower? I didn’t think so.

I left the house and walked back to the Corvette. When I reached my car, I sat behind the wheel and let my gaze drift down the street. The guy in the undershirt was gone, but his hose, lying on the grass, continued to gush.

I had to think. I had a feeling I was on to something.

What about the envelope I found: could it have held the letter that ended the relationship? Maybe it was nothing. The cops knew the envelope had nothing to do with Rodriguez or it would be in the evidence locker. I knew they’d only take evidence that would help their case against my client.

But what about the house being searched? What was the murderer looking for? Incriminating love letters, perhaps? My mind reeled; questions kept coming. Perhaps the killer was looking for the money Gloria had embezzled. Who knew about the money? Bonnie Munson said that Gloria had been worried about the Greek. Would Karadimos suddenly fly down from Sacramento and kill her, as Sol had figured, then search the house in the middle of the night for cash that wasn’t even there? No way, he’s smarter than that. If Karadimos tossed the house, it had to be something more important than money to lure him here. It had to be an immediate problem.

Gloria had called Sacramento on the day she died. Did she call Welch and make demands? Maybe hit him with a threat, a little jab to the solar plexus? Tell him she’d ruin him?

Maybe Gloria had something other than her words to back up the threats. Maybe she had something in writing, something more than the Dear John letter. Maybe she had documents, ledgers, or journals that tied the senator to Karadimos.

Welch could have told Karadimos about the call, told the Greek to have her taken care of. That would have gotten the Greek’s fat ass onto the plane that night, and it would have provoked him to make an unannounced visit.

But if that were the case, wouldn’t he just have a hit man do the job? There’d be no need at all to fly down from Sacramento.

The sun beat down on my car and I started to roast. I hung my left arm outside the car and felt the hot August air drift through my fingers. A thought grabbed me and I couldn’t shake it loose. Every notion I had about the case was pure speculation. I had nothing tangible or solid.

The prosecution would have facts and photos. Hard evidence, the knife with Gloria’s blood still on it, for example. Bobbi had a witness, a neighbor who would point at Rodriguez, and say, “That’s him! That’s the man I saw arguing with Gloria Graham just before she was murdered.”

What would I do then? Would I stand in front of the twelve jurors, who’d be waiting for solid answers to the prosecutor’s claims and say, “Well, folks, you see, I have this feeling in my gut.”

I glanced across the street. A movement in the window caught my eye. I could see Mrs. Wilson, Bobbi’s witness, stealing a look at me through a slit in her Venetian blinds. I walked to her house and rang the doorbell.

C H A P T E R 
34

A wary eye peeked at
me when the door cracked open a few inches. “Are you Mrs. Wilson?”

“Yes,” the woman replied in a meek voice.

I slipped my card through the opening. “My name is Jimmy O’Brien. I’m representing the poor man who’s wrongly accused of the murder that happened across the street. Could I talk to you for a few minutes?”

“The police said you would try to see me. They told me I don’t have to talk to you.”

“That’s true, you don’t—but I’m just trying to clear up a few points. Get the facts straight in my mind. It won’t take long.”

“They said that you would try to trick me.”

I smiled and held my arms out, spread my fingers and twisted my open hands a few times. “I haven’t any tricks up my sleeve. I’m just a lawyer trying to do my job, not a magician.”

“You seem like a nice man, but I already told the detectives everything I know.”

“Mrs. Wilson, I’m sure you did, but it’s up to me to make certain they wrote what you told them correctly in the report.”

“You think they’d lie?”

“No, not at all,” I said with all the sincerity I could muster. “I just want to ensure that an innocent man doesn’t go to prison because of a clerical error.”

“Oh, my…”

“You wouldn’t want that to happen, would you?”