The Burning Man (24 page)

"Good afternoon, Barney. I've had trouble reaching you, so I thought I'd drop by the garage to see how the investigation's been going."

Barney shook his head ruefully. "It's real slow. I've been talking to lots of people, but nobody seems to know anything helpful."

"Who have you talked to?"

"Uh, well, I don't have my notes right here. Family, of course. I do have a lot of good information for you for the penalty phase from the mother, the father and Steve's wife. Lots of good stuff."

Peter recalled receiving several poorly typed reports rife with misspellings that were accompanied by a bill claiming hours way out of proportion to the information Pullen had collected.

"I have the family interviews, but that's all. You have been doing more than just talking to family?"

"Uh, let's see, there's the bartender at the Ponderosa.

You have his statement, right?"

"No, I don't. What about Kevin Booth? Have you found out anything I can use there?"

"Not yet. His father split a long time ago and the mother died last year. She was an alcoholic. Got drunk and fell down the stairs."

"Did you talk to Booth's neighbors, run a rap sheet?"

"Rap sheet's the first thing I thought of. That arrest for drugs he beat is the only thing I could find. There aren't any neighbors. Booth lives way the hell out of town."

"What about school records, his mother's neighbors?"

"I'll get right on it."

"You mean you haven't done that already? We talked about this two weeks ago."

"Yeah. And I'm sorry. I really did mean to get on it, but Art's kept me hoppin' at the shop here."

"Barney, you have to get moving on this. If you don't come up with something on Booth soon, we'll be facing a penalty phase for sure."

"I am investigating, Mr. Hale. As soon as I'm done with this car, I'm gonna get right on it."

"Look, Barney, you're going to have to give this case priority until it's over. Tell your brother you can't work at the shop until it's done."

"Okay," Pullen answered agreeably.

Peter was going to say something else, but there wasn ' t anything more to say. He was just going to have to hope that Pullen would come through for him.

Trying a death penalty case was incredibly exhausting.

While Peter was in court, he was so focused that he did not know where the day went. Most of the time, he was coasting on pure adrenaline because no person could concentrate on every word that was said for hours at a time without it. As soon as the case ended for the day, he felt instantly like someone who had gone for days without sleep.

After a fast dinner, Peter went to his new office in Steve Mancini's building and completed his preparations for the next day of trial. It was a little after eight-thirty when Peter opened the front door of his house.

The phone was ringing. He raced to it in the dark, stumbling over an ottoman and almost knocking over a floor lamp.

"Mr. Hale?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

"Yes."

"I've been calling all night. I'm glad I caught you."

"Who is this?"

"Don Bosco. I'm the Director of Mental Health for the county. I was a witness at the pretrial hearing."

"Right. I remember you. You were present when Gary was questioned by Dennis Downes. What's up?"

"I know I shouldn't be disturbing you at home, but I've been wondering since that pretrial hearing why no one from the defense asked me any questions on cross and why you haven't gotten in touch with me about my trial testimony."

"Do you know something that might help Gary?"

"Didn't Steve Mancini tell you about our conversation?"

"All Steve said was that he didn't think you could help us."

"You're kidding. Do you mean to say he didn't tell you that I believe Gary Harmon was inadvertently hypnotized by Dennis Downes during the interrogation?"

Peter blinked. "No. He never told me anything about hypnotism."

"That really surprises me. I told Miss O'Shay that she shouldn't be using Harmon's statements to convict him, but she won't listen to me."

"I want to make sure I'm understanding you. You're saying that you told the D.A. there was something wrong with Gary's interrogation?"

"Yes.

"And you also told Steve Mancini about this?"

"I told him over a month ago. I thought you'd be interested.

Peter was dazed. Gary's statements were the basis for the state's case. Without them ... "Can we get together tonight? This is very important and Steve never mentioned a thing to me about what you're saying."

"Okay. There's an all-night restaurant near the turnoff to the interstate.

The jolly Roger. Can you be there in half an hour?"

"No problem."

"Boy, I can't understand why Mr. Mancini didn't say anything to you," Bosco said right before he hung up.

"Neither can I," Peter said to the dead phone. He had been standing during the phone conversation, but he sank into an easy chair as soon as he hung up.

Peter didn't know what to think. He remembered the look Bosco had given Mancini during his testimony at the motion to suppress. Peter had even commented on it to Steve. He reached for the phone to call Mancini, but he stopped in mid-dial. It would be better if he waited until he heard what Bosco had to say "How did you get involved in this case?" Peter asked as soon as he and Don Bosco were seated in a booth in the rear of the jolly Roger with two cups of coffee.

"Dennis Downes called me at home around eight-thirty, nine. He wanted me to check my records to see if we had anything on Harmon. You know, a history of mental health problems. Something like that."

"Did you find anything?"

"No.

"What did you do after that?"

"I went over to the station house to tell him. He'd already said that the inquiry concerned the girl who was killed in the park, so I thought it was important enough to tell him in person and see if there was any other way I could help out.

"When I arrived, Becky O'Shay asked me to watch the interrogation with her through a two-way mirror.

She brought me up to date and showed me pictures of the victim." Bosco shuddered. "Pretty gruesome."

"Yeah, I've seen them. But why did Becky want you o observe the questioning?"

"She wanted my take on Harmon."

"Were you there when Downes gave Gary his Miranda warnings?"

"No. That must have been earlier. I got the impression that Dennis had been going at Harmon for a while by the time I started watching."

"Was there anything unusual about the way Gary was responding to Downes?"

"I didn't like the way Dennis conducted the interview.

Not one bit. I even told him to be careful, but he didn't pay any attention to my suggestions."

"What was the problem?"

Bosco took a sip of coffee and thought carefully about what he was about to say.

"The first thing I noticed was all the leading. You know, asking a question that suggests the answer. I mean, Dennis was feeding him everything. And Harmon would go along with every suggestion. I think he really trusted Dennis and wanted to please him. So, Dennis would ask him a question and Harmon would parrot back the answer Downes had fed him."

"And you warned Downes about this?"

"During the breaks. Harmon was exhausted by the end and the more tired you are, the more open you are to suggestion. I told that to Dennis, but he and Becky didn't seem to care. They were too excited about cracking the case. In my opinion, most of what Harmon said is worthless. Especially the last third or so of the interview."

"Why is that?"

"Well, this is only my opinion, but I think Downes induced a trance state and anything Harmon said then, well Bosco shrugged.

"Wait a minute," Peter said, "what's a 'trance state'?

F1 Do you mean he was in a trance? Like hypnotized "He could have been. I think he was."

"How could that happen? I listened to the tape of the interrogation and I didn't hear Downes saying anything about putting Gary in a trance."

"He wouldn't have to do it intentionally. Dennis could have hypnotized Harmon without either of them knowing."

"Explain that to me."

"Okay. "Hypnosis' and 'trance' are words that make people think about magicians or Svengali, but hypnotizing; a person isn t all that mysterious.

All you're really doing when you induce a trance is getting a person relaxed and focused enough to block out exterior noises and influences, so they can go into a quiet, inner space.

We all do that when we drop off to sleep at night or when we're so engrossed in a book that we don't hear someone ask us a question, even though they're right next to us.

"If someone is tired and under a lot of stress, like Harmon was that night, they will tend to focus their attention narrowly. "Dennis helped Harmon along when he told him to shut his eyes and imagine he was watching g events on a movie screen. That's a fairly common technique that hypnotists use when they're trying to intentionally induce a trance."

"What would be the consequences of Gary being in a trance?"

"The big problem is reliability. If he was in a trance, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to tell what Harmon was really remembering and what he was repeating as a result of Downes's suggestions, or just plain making up. See, a person in a trance is not only wide open to suggestion, they also fantasize in order to please the then, questioner or to fill in gaps in their memory, in order to give the interrogator a complete picture."

"I'm not certain I understand what you mean about -ate'?

the fantasizing."

"Okay.Let me give you an example. A month ago, you got up at seven in the morning, you dressed in a the blue suit, a white shirt and a red tie. Then, you ate a :bing breakfast of cornflakes. I hypnotize you and ask you to f tell me what you. did that morning. You remember ev!nnis erything except the color of your tie and what you ate.

hem I tell you to really concentrate, but you still can't remember. So, I help you a little. "Peter,' I say, 'you usually eat Raisin Bran, don't you? Did you eat Raisin Bran that ake morning?" Now, a person in a trance is likely to say he tiz- ate Raisin Bran in order to please the questioner. He ally knows the questioner wants some answer and seems to re- be happ' with that answer being Raisin Bran, so the y ises person in the trance accommodates those wishes.

"Now, the questioner asks you to think about the tie ce. without making a specific suggestion about color.

or Again, you know an answer is expected, so your sub!or conscious imagines a green tie and fills in the blank with lit that color. By the time you're through, you'll believe the an tie was green, so you will appear to be telling the truth on the witness stand and you will pass a polygraph ,ntest."

he "And you didn't warn Sergeant Downes or Becky ng about this?"

,I- Bosco looked embarrassed. "I mentioned it to both of n- them, but I really didn't catch on to what was happening until I'd been there awhile. By then, the questioning was pretty far along. And, remember, I was only there as an observer. I mean, I wasn't supposed to take part in the interrogation.

I guess I should have been more forceful, but most of the harm had already been done' by then and I didn't think it was my place to interfere because the case was so important. I didn't do anything wrong, did 1?"

Peter drove directly to -Steve Mancini's house from the jolly Roger. At first, Bosco's information elated him.

Then he realized how much Steve had cost them by failing to use the information at the pretrial hearing. By the time Peter rang Steve Mancini's doorbell at a little before eleven, he was in an emotional quandary. Mancini was his best friend in Whitaker and he was holding out the possibility of a lucrative partnership that would help Peter climb out of the hole he had dug for himself. But Steve might have ruined Gary Harmon's best chance to win his freedom by concealing information from Peter that explained away Gary Harmon's so-called confession, the basis for all of the charges against Gary.

As soon as Steve opened the door, Peter asked, "Why didn't you tell me about Don Bosco?"

Mancini looked confused. Donna walked out of the living room. She was wearing a bathrobe over a nightgown. Mancini glanced at his wife, then back to Peter.

When he answered, he sounded nervous.

"We're getting ready to go to bed, Pete. C an't this wait until tomorrow?"

"You know it can't. If Gary was in some kind of trance when he was questioned by Downes, the interrogation was no good. We could have gotten the whole thing thrown out before the trial. There wouldn't have been a trial. Without Gary's statements, the state doesn't have a case. Don't tell me you didn't know that?"

"What's this about, Peter?" Donna asked, confused by his intensity and her husband's obvious discomfort.

"Tell her, Steve."

"Tell her what? I still don't know what you're talking about."

"I just came from the jolly Roger where Don Bosco, the county's Director of Mental Health, a man with ex peruse in hypnosis, told me how he explained( that he believed Gary was in a trance state durli of the interrogation. He called me at home bel was surprised that you never brought that out during the hearing on the motion to suppress. He was also surprised that you never told me about your conversation with him. Quite frankly, Steve, so am L"

"I didn't tell you about the conversation because I didn't buy into what Bosco said. You heard the tape.

Downes didn't say anything about trying to hypnotize Gary."

Peter looked astonished. "What Downes did or did not say is irrelevant. We have a witness who would have testified that Gary was hypnotized during the most important part of his interrogation. Didn't you know that there is a statute that forbids the use of hypnotized testimony unless the most stringent precautions are taken?

There are cases from around the country that exclude the testimony of hypnotized witnesses. Bosco knew all about them and he's not even a lawyer."

Mancini looked surprised. "I didn't know about the statute. You have to believe me. I've never had anything like this come up in one of my cases."