Silent Witness (31 page)

The hell with it.

Her mother wasn't coming back so the question could never be answered.

The hell with him
.

Josie shook away a twinge of sympathy she felt for Colin Wren, the prodigal father, the man who wanted to champion his son in death to make up for the sin of abandoning him in life.

Standing up, Josie smoothed her trousers and her conscience. Tim Wren was a victim who still had something to say. With that thought, the man who could interpret the language of the dead, opened the door and smiled at her.

Doctor Chow, the independent pathologist, was ready to talk.

CHAPTER 31

''Will Mr. Wren be joining us?''

Jude had come at Josie's call. Colin remained outside standing with his back against the wall, his hand was held to his chin, his shoulders slumped a bit. Jude made excuses.

''This might be a little too raw for him.''

''Oh, now, I didn't find anything too gruesome. I know people always expect me to go into excruciating, gory detail but, the fact of the matter is, what I do is fairly cut and dried. No pun intended, of course.'' Doctor Chow pushed up his glasses, wound the grin down a notch and looked out the window toward Colin. ''Would you like to ask him again if he wants to come in? Pathologists don't come cheap.''

''Thanks, but he was pretty clear,'' Jude assured him.

''So? Doctor?'' Josie opened her hands, urging him to get on with it.

''Yes. Well. I have completed my examination of Timothy. I must say, the embalmer did a top notch job. Timothy was quite easy to work on thanks to the expense gone to before he was buried. Made my job so much easier.'' Doctor Chow readjusted his glasses again. They were square and black rimmed and made him look very young. ''I will, of course, provide you with a final report but here it is in a nutshell.

''The death certificate lists blunt force trauma as the cause of death and, truthfully, I have no reason to bicker with that. It is fairly standard in cases such as this where the cause seems quite obvious and there is no reason to perform an autopsy.''

''So, you're absolutely sure Tim wasn't dead before he fell?'' Josie asked, hoping against hope that she had misunderstood.

''No, there was nothing wrong with Timothy's heart. It was strong despite a valve problem. No evidence of a stroke. But that is not to say that he couldn't have appeared to be dead as you described to me, Ms. Bates. Timothy was definitely out of it. He had a high concentration of Phenobarbital in his blood. I'm surprised he was still standing after ingesting that much medication. His reaction time would have been slow. His body would have been heavy. It would have taken a great effort for him to forcefully break through his restraints or to catch himself should the restraint break. So, yes, basically he was a dead weight but he was, by no means, dead.''

''I found a bottle of that drug in Lexi's purse.'' Josie looked from the doctor to Jude. ''I assumed they were hers.''

''They might have been. You'll have to ask Timothy's physician if he would have prescribed them for the boy,'' Doctor Chow suggested.

''Would there be any reason to prescribe those meds for Tim?'' Jude queried.

Doctor Chow shook his head, ''Phenobarbital is prescribed for seizures but I saw no evidence that Timothy suffered in that manner. I would speculate that the prescription was for the mother. She might have suffered seizures if her cancer had affected her brain. It would not be unusual to prescribe Phenobarbital for that. But the question is, why was it in Timothy's system? ''

Doctor Chow took a breath, pursed his lips as if he was about to kiss one of them and then began to speculate.

''I suppose there are a number of scenarios that I could testify to if you chose to examine me on the matter. For instance, prescribing the medication might have been done in an effort to keep Timothy from acting out. The drug can actually be used as a substitute for heroine. With so much in his system he would appear near comatose. I am appalled to think a physician would have done such a thing, but nothing about the medical profession surprises me anymore. Now, there is another option. Phenobarbital might have been used experimentally in an attempt to control Timothy's muscle spasms. I am not up on any new literature regarding experimentation with that drug, but I certainly could research it.''

''I'm almost sure I saw Lexi's name on the bottle, though,'' Josie mused.

''And that brings us to another possibility,'' the doctor said. ''It could be that the mother shared the medication with the boy. Self-medication is not unheard of. If she was concerned with his comfort and she, herself, had found relief using the drug, she might have given it to Timothy. I would have to question the amount administered. It was excessive. However, if a layperson were giving the medication, they would have to guess at how much to give. And then that leads us to a problem. How could anyone prove how the medication got into Timothy's system now that I have proved it was there?''

''But it is your opinion that the amount of Phenobarbital you found in the boy's system would have slowed his reactions,'' Josie insisted, wanting the doctor to be very clear.

''Oh, most definitely. Very much so. I'll view the copy of the tape you have brought me but, given my findings, I have no doubt Timothy was in a stupor. I can state fairly clearly that Timothy made some attempt to stop that fall and that is incredible given the amount of drugs in his system.''

''How would you know that?'' Josie asked.

''There is DNA material under his nails, Ms. Bates,'' the doctor answered. ''I scraped him and sent the material out for matching as soon as the body was delivered to me. The nail on the middle finger was broken, the material was only found under three nails on the right and left hands so he was not grappling with someone as you would if you had hold of them, rather he was flailing as if to stop something, grasping without an equal amount of force.''

The doctor motioned with his hands like a dog digging in the dirt.

''Timothy was doing this in a forward movement and it was reactive. There were varying amounts of material under each nail as if he had been grappling. If he was clutching onto someone and struggling with them, there would have been foreign matter found under the nail bed of the thumb and the other nails, also.''

''Could you tell if someone was trying to stop Tim from doing something to his own harness?'' Josie asked, knowing she was reaching.

''You mean was someone intervening as he tried to unlatch his safety harness?''

''Exactly,'' Josie said.

''There's no way to be certain, but I would say that is a doubtful scenario. If Tim had his hand on the metal latch there would have been some sort of scraping on the palm of the hand, some indication of swelling or bruising if someone tried to pull his hand forcibly away from the metal. I doubt I would have found any foreign matter under his nails if that was the case.'' Doctor Chow was using his hands again, pantomiming as he talked. ''If Tim had grabbed onto the webbing material of the harness in order to keep himself erect or to save himself from falling, I might have noted some kind of burn, the type of which you get when rope is drawn through the hand. No, if I were to testify, I would say that Timothy was scratching at a person defensively before he died . . . .'' Doctor Chow took off his glasses and cleaned the lens on his lab coat as he continued, ''. . .and there seem to be only two choices on who that might be.''

''No, Jude, I won't do it so don't ask again,'' Josie said under her breath.

Doctor Chow was gone after requesting a sample of Lexi's DNA and Archer's in order to complete his report. Josie made noises about getting the samples to him but was singing a different tune now.

''Don't be absurd, Josie. Just do the test.''

''No, I don't have to be sure. If it is Archer's DNA. . .''

''Which it probably is unless the Angel Gabriel suddenly appeared beside Tim on that ride,'' Jude said.

''If it is Archer's DNA then Ruth is going to argue that Tim was making a defensive move to ward him off and that's as good as giving her the last nail in his coffin,'' Josie argued as she made to leave. ''I'm not going to do that.''

''Don't be afraid to find out, for God's sake. The strong position is the one with the knowledge. None of this happens in a vacuum. Ruth is going to find out exactly what went down here, and she's going to have a field day with it.''

''I'll work around it. Give me some time to think about it.'' Josie tried to pull away but Jude held her tighter.

''You better think fast, Josie, because if you use anything you found out today, if you even mention the drugs in Tim's system, then no judge in the world is going to stop Ruth from using whatever she can get her hands on. Ruth will argue that Tim scratched at Archer because Archer was trying to hurt him. Ruth will argue that Archer could have given that kid the drugs. Ruth will argue. . .''

''Tell me something I don't know, Jude,'' Josie snapped. She was already half way to the door when Jude called to her.

''If we know for sure, Josie, then we can plan.'' She looked back as he walked toward her. ''We can get ten more doctors to argue statistical error and dilute the DNA information. Jury's still are not sure what to think about DNA. If you do that, then you can play up the drugs in Tim's system, the effect it would have on his body weight and his state of mind. Josie, think.''

''I don't know what all this
we
stuff is, Jude. You opted out, remember? The only reason that you're is because you thought there was an outside chance you'd find out something that would convince Colin to move forward on the wrongful death suit. But you forgot that Doctor Chow could not release that information without my express agreement. I paid for the damned autopsy. Archer is protected.''

''Don't be a fool.'' Jude threw up his hands. ''I don't care if there won't be a settlement on Colin. I am trying to help you by pointing out the obvious. In the first place, Ruth is a good lawyer and she'll find someway around that privilege if it kills her. . .''

''And in the second place, I'll sign any thing the prosecution wants to make sure your client pays for what he did to Tim if that's his DNA under my son's fingernails.''

CHAPTER 32

Slowly Josie turned and looked into Colin Wren's red-rimmed eyes. She felt Jude move up behind her as if they stood two against an avenging angel. They had been so involved that neither was aware that Colin had come in, stood close, listen to every word of their argument.

''Don't give me that. You had your chance to be something to Tim. Hurting Archer isn't going to make you feel any better about losing that chance.'' Josie insisted.

''Don't push me, Ms. Bates. All I want to know is who is responsible for killing my son. Now, you have a choice. You can provide a sample of that man's DNA, or I can ask the prosecutor to get it for me.''

''So you can sink Archer because it's convenient?''
''So I can know,'' Colin said, his voice little more than a strangled scream. ''And once I know I will work to convict your client if that's the way it should be. I will then sue him for every last cent he's worth in civil court. I will try to make sure that he never sees the light of day, but, if he does, he will never have one penny to call his own for the rest of his life. I will make him wish he was as dead as Tim.''

''That's not even a rock and a hard place, Mr. Wren. No matter which way it turns you've already got him convicted.'' Josie swung her head toward Jude. ''So, tell me about your client now, Jude. Tell me how sensitive he is. Tell me how this is about grief and bonding and all that crap. I think you hate Archer because he had your woman, because he didn't want your son and neither did you. I think you'd do anything to ease all that misery inside of you, Mr. Wren.''

Josie stepped away. One step, then two. Backwards toward the door.

''One way or another there's a payday coming for you, isn't there? But I'm not going to let it be on Archer's back because he didn't do anything. Understand me? He didn't do it.''

Josie slammed through the door and didn't look back. The men watched until she roared off in the Wrangler. Jude took a deep breath. He was going to say something to Colin – he hadn't decided what – but found himself mute when he looked at his client. There were tears in Colin's eyes that kept the words from coming out.

Jude put his hand on his client's shoulder and walked him out the door. By the time he got to his own car Jude Getts felt strangely empty. Maybe the challenge wasn't as exciting as it used to be. Maybe it didn't matter that Colin wanted to drop the suit against Pacific Park and Jude was going to eat the bill. Maybe all this wasn't about winning but about knowing the truth and those thoughts made Jude Getts uncomfortable as hell.

Archer put his tray on the conveyor belt. Lunch sucked. He'd kill for one of Burt's burgers. He would give anything to be sitting with a beer on his balcony. Instead, he was watching his back in the general population at the Men's Central Jail. No more special privileges. Archer was bound over for trial and the objective was to survive until his case worked its way through the system. To survive, he needed to make some decisions and one of those was if he needed a new attorney, one who. . .

''Ar-ch-er.''

The sound of his name rose like smoke and curled around his ear. No one had heard it except him and the man who tilted toward him as they shuffled toward the yard. Archer turned his head and got a general idea of who his playmate was.

Medium height, powerful build, head shaved bald, Hispanic. One hand in sight. Archer shifted his head the other way. He couldn't see the man's other hand without turning around and that was not a good idea. He would be off balance. Steady on his feet meant he could dodge, weave, side step if that hidden hand held a weapon. So Archer toed the line, breathing in the smell of a hundred men, a thousand men, every man who had ever walked here since the place was built. He kept his senses tuned for a movement or a sound that would be the precursor to trouble.

''You Archer, right? Detective? West LA, man. Right? Right? I think I know you, man.'' God it was an ugly sound, a whisper that wasn't a whisper at all.