Wrong Turn (23 page)

‘It’s OK, Charley. I’m glad you called. Now, you need to talk slower and start at the beginning.’

‘I was so scared when I saw it,’ Charley sobbed.

‘Breathe, Charley, breathe. Take a deep breath in and let it out slowly.’ Lucinda listened as Charley did as instructed. ‘Now, one more time, atta girl. OK. Tell me what scared you.’

‘The doll,’ she said in a quavering voice.

‘What doll, Charley?’

‘The one hanging from my locker with a noose around its neck.’

Lucinda jolted to her feet. ‘You stay right there, Charley.’

‘But I’m already late for class.’

Lucinda hurried to the stairwell, going down the steps as quickly as her heels and tight skirt would allow. ‘Don’t worry about class. You stay by your locker. If anyone gives you any difficulty with that, you have them call me or police headquarters. Understood?’

‘Yes, Lucy. I’ll be here.’

Lucinda popped the light on top of her car again, amazed that she’d had to use it two days in a row, when she’d gone for weeks without even thinking about it. She sped down the road with siren blaring. She pulled up in front of the school, screeching to a halt in a no-parking zone.

Grateful for the PTA Open House where Charley had given her a tour of the school that included a visit to her locker, Lucinda headed straight there without stopping in the office – a clear violation of school policy. Rules, however, were never her priority in a crisis situation.

She found a frightened-looking Charley standing by a locker. Next to her a rag doll with blonde yarn hair hung from a noose tied to the handle of the door. Someone had colored a red tongue lolling from its mouth and drawn block Xs over its eyes.

Lucinda wrapped her arms around Charley and gave her a hug. ‘Now, another lesson in evidence collection,’ she said with a smile.

‘Cool!’

Lucinda pulled out her cell and snapped photos from a couple of angles and distances before she touched anything. She slipped on latex gloves, gathering fingerprints first, even though she suspected that there might be too many overlapping prints for it to be worth the effort. She was surprised when she lifted a few very sharp whorl patterns.

Down the hall, a voice rang out, ‘Hey, hey! What’s going on here?’

Lucinda turned and saw a woman in a red suit barreling in her direction, the large key ring on her waist jingling. She whipped out her badge and held it up. The woman slowed her pace. ‘You’re supposed to report to the office before going out into the school.’

‘Sorry,’ Lucinda said, gesturing toward the locker.

‘Oh, my,’ the woman said and reached a hand to Lucinda. ‘Camilla Stovall, principal.’

‘Pleasure to meet you,’ Lucinda said, holding up her glove-clad hands. ‘Afraid I can’t shake hands right now.’

‘Of course not, I’m sorry.’ She turned back to the locker. ‘Who in heaven’s name would do a thing like this?’

‘I think you probably know, Ms Stovall. You spoke to Agent Lovett about three girls last week.’

‘Yes, those girls. You think they did this? Well, I’ll get them all called out of class right now.’

‘I wish you wouldn’t, ma’am. I’d really like to get this evidence back to headquarters for analysis without giving them any warning. But I did need to see you about Charley. I don’t think she should be attending school until this matter is settled.’

‘I agree. If you’d charge those girls, I could have them transfer to the alternative school.’

‘Hopefully, that will happen soon. Right now, I need to get back to this,’ Lucinda said, pointing to the locker.

‘Of course. Charley, step over here, we’ll talk about what we need to do to keep you from falling behind in your courses.’ The principal and Charley moved over to the other side of the hall.

Lucinda cut the rope in between the doll and the handle; then bagged and labeled the doll with the noose attached. She took a few close-up shots of the knot still tied to the locker, before removing and securing it, too.

When she’d packed up the supplies and evidence, she stood quietly, waiting for the other two to finish up their conversation. Lucinda thanked Camilla and finally shook her hand. ‘Ready, Charley?’

‘Yep,’ she said, bouncing down the hall, her fear gone as if it had never existed, as if the doll and its accompanying threat were nothing more than a momentary distraction.

Lucinda parked at the condominium tower and went inside with Charley. Charley begged her not to leave. ‘I’ve got to get that evidence down to the lab, girlfriend. Duty calls. I’ll check in with you later today.’

‘Won’t you get in trouble for calling me?’

Lucinda almost said, ‘Screw it,’ but stopped just in time. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll take care of that.’

‘Thank you, Lucy.’

‘Love you, sweetie,’ she said as she planted a farewell kiss on the young girl’s forehead.

Back at the Justice Center, Lucinda went straight to the forensics lab. She peered through the windows in the door, hoping to avoid Audrey Ringo. When she saw no sign of the woman anywhere within her range of sight, she slipped through the entrance and went to Beth Ann Coynes’ work station.

‘Lieutenant,’ Beth Ann said with a smile. ‘What brings you here?’

She handed the evidence to the technician, explaining the morning’s events as they signed the transfer of custody papers.

‘That’s right,’ Beth Ann said. ‘That’s the little girl that Cafferty busted for vandalism, right? You’ve known her for a while.’

‘Yeah. Has any of that evidence from the interview rooms been processed yet?’

‘I’m running DNA profiles right now. But fingerprint analysis is already completed. Lesley matched the prints on two of the soda cans to the ones on the can of red spray paint.’

‘Excellent,’ Lucinda said. ‘Has anyone spoken to Sergeant Cafferty about that?’

‘No, he said he’d be down at lunchtime. But if you want to let him know now, that’s fine.’

‘Actually, Beth Ann, if I call him, he’ll probably stall for a while. But if someone else lets him know about this morning’s incident at the school, he might take it more seriously.’

‘I can take a hint, lieutenant,’ Beth Ann said with a smirk. ‘I’ll give him a call; tell him about the prints and the school. I’ll tell him we recovered evidence from that scene this morning. When I say “we”, I am including you; but he doesn’t need to know that.’

‘Thanks. Let me know how it goes. My debt to you increases every month.’

‘Just doing my job, lieutenant.’

‘Don’t short sell yourself. I’d say something to Audrey but I doubt that’ll do much good. I’ll try to talk my captain into putting in a good word for you.’

Lucinda went down to the first floor where both sides of the hall were lined with courtrooms. She peered around corners and columns to make sure she didn’t accidentally bump into DA Reed. She approached a pair of deputies outside of Judge Thurston’s chambers. ‘Has the bail revocation hearing started in the Phillips case?’

‘Just underway,’ one of the deputies said, pushing open one of the double doors.

Lucinda ducked back. ‘I can’t go in.’

‘Why not? It’s your case, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah, but Reed warned me to stay away.’

‘Why do you listen to him? It’s your case; you have the right to be there.’

‘Sometimes, deputy, you have to choose your battles.’

‘I hear you on that. C’mon,’ he said with a jerk of his head. ‘I’ve got the perfect solution for your problem.’ He led her into the sheriff’s closed circuit control center.

Multiple screens lined the wall, showing camera shots of every courtroom and pivotal locations in the main lobby and at the entrance. ‘Hey, Bucky. Bring up camera five in the viewing screen. Here, lieutenant, have a seat. Headphones are hanging under the table. And this knob here adjusts the sound.’

The screen flickered on. ‘Thank you, deputy,’ Lucinda said as she settled into place and tweaked the volume.

The defense attorney waved his arms in the air. ‘Your honor, I am outraged at these allegations and disturbed by the attitude of the state. They have taken a simple wish of a father to spend some enjoyable time with his son and perverted its meaning. All my client was saying in his message to his son was that he wanted to spend some time together, relaxing, enjoying each other’s company. My client has been a victim of a great injustice. Locked away, kept from his son by the actions of the state.

‘Soon, the state will either drop the charges or we will be back in this courtroom to defend the innocence of my client. Either way, with the previous court decision overturned, my client should have the benefit of the doubt. He deserves, like any defendant, to be considered innocent until proven guilty, anything less is a deliberate and provocative perversion of justice and an insult to the judicial system of this great nation.’

Judge Thurston turned to the district attorney. ‘Mr Reed, do you have anything further to add before I rule on this matter?’

‘Yes, your honor, we’d like to submit the following documents that we obtained this morning from the airlines. Two reservations on a flight to the Cayman Islands scheduled for 6:10 this morning. The reservations were in the name of Chris Phillips and Trevor Phillips.’

‘I object, your honor,’ the defense attorney said, rising to his feet. ‘I object. This is the first I’ve ever heard of these documents. I question their validity and I question the timing of the state’s introduction of this evidence.’

‘Your honor,’ Reed interjected. ‘I was already in this courtroom when I received this document. In less than a minute after it arrived, you’d taken your position behind the bench. I had no time to do anything else.’

‘Your honor, I strongly object—’ Phillips’ lawyer began.

‘Save it,’ the judge said. ‘The defense team does have the right to review this evidence and reach their own conclusions. The court defers its decision until Friday when you can present your arguments once again.’ The judge banged down the gavel.

Lucinda smiled. Good, she thought. She stayed in place, watching deputies cuff Phillips and escort him out of the courtroom. Then, she snuck out the side entrance of the Justice Center and went over to the deli for lunch, with high hopes that the afternoon in court would turn out as well as the morning had.

L
ucinda placed an indulgent order for lunch – a big, fat Reuben on dark rye with melted Swiss cheese, with a baton-sized kosher dill on the side. When it arrived, though, her appetite was already gone.

She nibbled on a corner of the sandwich before giving up. She got the waiter to box it up and went back across the street to the Justice Center where she went to the break room. She wrapped the box in yellow police tape before putting it into the refrigerator. Even with that precaution, she knew her sandwich wouldn’t be safe for long. Hopefully, she’d feel like eating once the hearing was over.

She dawdled in her office not wanting to get downstairs in time for Reed to intercept her but knowing she had to be there before the proceedings started or risk alienating the judge. Outside the courtroom, reporters spotted her.

Cries of ‘Lieutenant! Lieutenant!’ filled the air around her. She looked straight ahead and did not pause to acknowledge their presence. ‘Why are you here, lieutenant? What do you know? And when did you know it? Do you feel any responsibility for ruining this woman’s life?’

Martha’s attorney Nelson Culver spotted her first and nodded in her direction. The district attorney saw the gesture and turned to see who had drawn Culver’s eye. His brow furrowed and his nostrils flared as he saw Lucinda. He leaned down to the assistant DA, whispered and then strode down the aisle. ‘I told you not to show up in this courtroom, Pierce.’

‘I was subpoenaed. I had no choice.’

‘Leave this courtroom right now before the judge arrives and I’ll forget this ever happened.’

Coming up behind Lucinda and placing a hand on her shoulder, Captain Holland said, ‘No one under my command will ever ignore a subpoena.’

‘Captain,’ Lucinda said, surprised by his presence.

‘Lieutenant,’ Holland acknowledged.

‘Holland, her presence in this courtroom will not only damage the office of the district attorney but it will also blacken the reputation of your department.’

‘What happened, happened,’ Holland said. ‘I wish the lieutenant was not subpoenaed but she was. We all need to adapt to that reality and right now, we all need to take a seat.’

Lucinda moved toward the side aisle on the defense side of the chamber but the captain put a hand on her arm and guided her over to the prosecution side. ‘It’s not a wedding; you don’t have to sit with who invited you.’

As they settled into a row, the clanking of chains drew their attention to the left side of the courtroom where Martha Sherman entered, escorted by two deputies. She spotted Lucinda and gave her a nervous smile.

The judge was announced and took his position behind the bench. He slipped on a pair of reading glasses and shuffled through the papers before him. ‘I’ve read your motion for the immediate release of your client, Martha Sherman, counsel. Do you have any additional argument or witnesses to call in support of your motion?’

‘Yes, sir, your honor,’ Culver said. ‘The defense calls Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce.’

‘Objection, your honor,’ Reed shouted.

‘The state knew full well that we planned to call this witness, your honor,’ Culver said. ‘They were aware that we had served her with a subpoena.’

‘Mr Reed?’ the judge said.

‘May we approach the bench, your honor?’ Reed asked.

‘You are aware that this is a hearing, not a trial, aren’t you, Mr Reed? You do know there is no jury in this courtroom, don’t you?’

‘Yes, your honor, but there is a sensitive matter with the lieutenant’s testimony that I do not think would be appropriate to address in the presence of the media.’

‘Very well, both attorneys please approach the bench.’

Lucinda couldn’t hear anything but mumbles from where she sat. She tried to read lips, but Reed and the judge both kept a hand up blocking their mouths. She settled for watching their body language. Reed was clearly angry. The judge, with a scowl on his face, appeared more than a little annoyed. Only Culver seemed relaxed and unperturbed. That, she thought, was a good indication that all might go well for Martha.