The Touch of Treason (28 page)

Thomassy stood up. Looking around the courtroom he felt the sudden vertigo of being atop a Ferris wheel that had stopped, the electricity he had counted on snapped off. Had he ever been in greater danger of blowing a case?

He touched the counsel table with steadying hands.

“Is counsel ready to resume?” the judge asked.

Is counsel permitted to have an anxiety attack in front of a hundred and fifty people? Can Your Honor please ring the curtain down?
Roberts was looking at him, ready to spring.

Thomassy nodded. He took a sip from the water glass and started toward the witness box, walking mechanically, a wound-up toy pointed at Cooper.

Close up, he looked at the detective. Cooper couldn’t avoid Thomassy’s gaze. Thomassy nodded as if to thank the detective for his cooperation.

“Mr. Cooper,” Thomassy said, “did you happen to notice the make of the jacket Ed Sturbridge said was his?”

Cooper smiled. “It was a MacGregor.”

“Mr. Cooper, do you know how many MacGregor jackets with those buttons were manufactured each year for the last five years?”

“No, sir.”

“Then how do you know with such certitude that the button you say you found in the garage came off the jacket you say was in the room occupied by Ed Sturbridge?”

“The jacket had some long thread hanging in the place where the button used to be.”

“
The
button or
a
button.”

Cooper looked at the judge as if wanting the judge to help him out. Finally, he turned back to Thomassy and said, “The button I found was busted between two holes. The jacket had thread hanging.”

“Mr. Cooper,” Thomassy said, “did you wear a jacket that day?”

“No, sir, I wore a raincoat.”

“Does your raincoat have buttons?”

“Yes.”

“Are any missing?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“Is the raincoat you wore that day, Mr. Cooper, anywhere in this courthouse?”

After a moment, the judge asked one of the court officers to retrieve Detective Cooper’s raincoat from an anteroom. While they were waiting, Thomassy asked, “Mr. Cooper, do you know the color of the buttons on your raincoat?”

His voice rose as if with a question. “I assume they are brown?”

“Well, we don’t have to deal with assumptions. The court officer is just bringing the raincoat over. Is that the raincoat you wore on the day in question, Mr. Cooper?”

Cooper nodded.

“Please speak up,” Thomassy said.

“Yes!”

“Would you say that the buttons on your raincoat and the buttons on Ed Sturbridge’s jacket are approximately the same color?”

“It was—”

“Your Honor,” Thomassy said, “may I respectfully ask that the witness be instructed to answer the question.”

The judge nodded.

Cooper, his color showing, said, “Yes, they’re about the same.”

“Would you then look at each of the buttons on your raincoat that the court officer brought over, Mr. Cooper, and see if any of the buttons are missing?”

The judge had to gavel the audience back to silence, as Cooper examined his raincoat.

“What are you finding, Mr. Cooper?”

Cooper fidgeted. He looked over at Roberts, then at the judge. “There’s a button missing on the sleeve. There are three buttons on the left sleeve, and two on the right, so I assume there’s one button missing on the right sleeve.”

“Is it possible,” Thomassy asked, “that the button you found was the button now missing from your own raincoat?”

“That button was probably missing for the last five years!” Cooper shouted.

“I move that the response be stricken, Your Honor,” Thomassy said.

Judge Drewson leaned forward. “You asked a hypothetical question, Mr. Thomassy, which is your prerogative, of course. But I agree that the response was inappropriately speculative. Strike the question.”

“Now then, the question stricken,” Thomassy said for the benefit of the jury as the court reporter hastily reached into the well behind his machine and noted the place, “I will rephrase. Mr. Cooper, I’m going to ask you to look closely at one of the buttons on your raincoat and the button that the prosecution has moved to put into evidence as an exhibit and answer the following question: Are the buttons similar?”

Cooper studied the buttons. “Well, maybe yes,” he said.

“Are they similar. Are they the same?”

“I don’t think they’re the same.”

“Are they, or aren’t they!”

“They look very similar.”

“Mr. Cooper, do you know for a fact whether you or your wife or anyone else sewed any replacement buttons on your raincoat during the five years that you say you have owned that garment?”

“She could have.”

“And would she or the tailor who did the job for her have found an exact duplicate, or would they have used a button that looked pretty close to the one that was missing?”

Cooper did not reply.

Thomassy went on, “How many replacement buttons may have been sewn on your raincoat in the last five years?”

Roberts was objecting. The judge said, “Mr. Thomassy, I don’t think any witness is likely to be able to answer a question like that with any certitude.”

“I’m sorry, Your Honor,” Thomassy said, his voice low. He glanced at his notes. Mike was a good investigator. It had been his idea to check on Cooper.

“Detective Cooper,” Thomassy said, “do you know for a fact that
you
didn’t lose a button while you were examining the Fuller garage?”

“I didn’t hear anything fall to the floor.”

“Mr. Cooper, isn’t it true that you have a forty percent hearing loss that might interfere with some aspects of your work?”

Cooper was livid.

“Answer yes or no,” Thomassy said.

“Yes,” Cooper said.

“Did the police department records ever show that you had such a significant hearing loss?”

“Of course.”

“Is it true those records do not now show any reference to that impairment?”
Bless you Mike Costa,
Thomassy thought.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know or you’re not sure?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Did your hearing improve or were the records altered?”

Roberts was on his feet, objecting.

“Overruled.”

“Thank you,” Thomassy said. “Your Honor, if the button introduced by the prosecution is going to be admitted as People’s Exhibit E, then I ask that Detective Cooper’s raincoat be admitted as Defendant’s Exhibit A so that both may be examined by the jury in the jury room.”

“Hey,” Cooper said, “I need to wear that raincoat.”

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” Judge Drewson said. “Please mark the exhibit.”

“Now Detective Cooper,” Thomassy said, “with regard to the watch you said you found in Professor Fuller’s bathroom. The federal security officers who examined that room earlier, they didn’t find a watch, did they?”

“They did not.”

“Are you implying that those federal security officers were incompetent in the performance of their duties?”

Thomassy watched Cooper shove his rear end back against the witness chair. A lot of witnesses did that, changed position to give them a moment to think, to count to ten. Cooper said, “I only said that they didn’t find it and I did.”

“Detective Cooper,” Thomassy said, strolling over in the direction of the jury and leaning back against the box, “are you familiar with the slang expression used by police officers who plant a gun next to the body of someone they’ve shot so that they can claim they shot the person in self-defense?”

“Objection!” Roberts’s voice was striated with anger.

“Your Honor,” Thomassy said, still at the witness box so his voice was raised to ring across the courtroom, “the prosecution has introduced in direct examination a watch that they imply is an important piece of evidence. On direct examination of a witness for the defense, I have every intention of proving that that so-called piece of evidence bears no relation to the alleged charges. But as an officer of the court I am very concerned about the fact that more than one experienced federal security person thoroughly examined the locus of the fire and didn’t find something as large as a wristwatch that a local police officer then found simply by lowering the raised toilet seat. I have no desire to prolong this trial by calling as rebuttal witnesses each and every one of the federal security people who examined that bathroom before Detective Cooper appeared on the scene and to put their extensive experience and credentials on the record. I simply feel the responsibility for pointing out that it is not unknown in police practice for putative evidence to be placed by police officers at the scene of an alleged crime as a cover-up for their own conduct. Detective Cooper admitted under oath to a thorough search of the bedroom in which the defendant slept and I wish to ask him now, so that the jury can hear his answers from his own lips and judge the truthfulness of his answers by seeing his expression, did he pick up the watch he alluded to during his search of the defendant’s room and later pretend to find it in a room that had been thoroughly searched previously by federal security officials?”

“That’s a goddamn lie!” Cooper shouted, red-faced, standing.

Judge Drewson said, “Will the witness please sit back down and try to confine his comments to answers to questions asked by counsel. Mr. Thomassy, would you state your questions one at a time.”

“Of course, Your Honor,” Thomassy said, leaving the jury box and coming over to the witness stand, bringing himself as close as he could to Detective Cooper, “Did you find the watch marked as People’s Exhibit D during your search of the bedroom in which the defendant slept?”

“I did not,” Cooper shouted at Thomassy’s face.

Quietly, Thomassy continued, “You did not search the bedroom carefully?”

“I didn’t say that!”

“You did not find the watch in the bedroom?”

“I did not.”

“Yet your search was so thorough, according to your testimony, as to find on the upper shelf of a closet, some stowed curtains, magazines, and a hip flask that had been washed out with water, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Did you attempt to determine whether the stowed curtains belonged to the defendant or someone else?”

“I assumed they were part of the household belongings.”

“Is it your assumption that good detective work requires the detective to ascertain facts or to make assumptions without further investigation?”

“I’ve got a record as a detective, Mr. Thomassy.”

“Oh?” Mike had gotten a copy of Cooper’s record. “And would you care to have that record introduced in evidence in this trial?”

Cooper seemed flustered.

Judge Drewson said, “Mr. Thomassy, do I take it that your line of questioning is intended to impeach the veracity of the witness?”

“Your Honor, since veracity might involve the question of perjury, I would prefer to direct my queries to the professional competence of the witness.”

“Proceed.”

Cooper didn’t want that record introduced. It was enough to have let him know that Thomassy had it.

Thomassy said, “Detective Cooper, did you attempt to ascertain whether the stack of magazines you found in the closet belonged to the defendant, or to some previous transient occupant of that bedroom?”

“No, sir, I did not.”

“Did you attach any special significance to the flask that you did not attach to the curtains or the magazines or anything else you may have found in that closet?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did the flask have initials or any other identifying markings on it that would link it to the defendant?”

“No.”

“Have you ever owned a flask, Detective Cooper?”

Cooper’s face flushed again. “I used to take one to football games.”

“Did you ever wash the flask out afterward with water?”

“Yes.”

“Did your wife accompany you to football games at which you employed the flask?”

“No, sir, I went with some male friends.”

“Did you wash out the flask after the game as a rule?”

“Yes.”

“With water?”

“Yes.”

“Until it no longer smelled of alcohol or anything else?”

“I suppose.”

“Getting back to the flask you say you found in the defendant’s room, did you personally hand it to the chemist who made the analysis of its sparse contents?”

“No, sir. I turned it in to Sergeant Petkov, and he sent it down.”

“In other words, several people handled the flask before its contents were subjected to analysis?”

“Yes.”

“Did you in your investigation attempt to find out if this flask belonged to any previous occupant of a room frequently slept in by people visiting the Fullers?”