Marta Perry - Murder in Plain Sight

Naturally. Everything she needed, someone expected her to turn to Trey.

“He works at Walbeck’s Garage and lives outside of Springville,” Leo continued. “He’s been in trouble with the law once or twice, as I recall, although nothing very serious. DUI, maybe assault.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “He might be a more likely candidate for murderer than Thomas, but you can’t get away from the physical evidence. You know as well as I do that ‘I don’t remember’ isn’t going to be an adequate defense. I have to provide the jury with a version of the crime they can buy into.”

“Juries can be unexpected.” Leo rubbed the back of his neck. “Unfortunately, every potential juror in the county is being affected right now by the press coverage.”

“I’ve thought about filing a change-of-venue motion, but there are as many things against that as for it. At least here the potential jurors probably understand the Amish culture. I’m barely beginning to understand it myself, and trying to explain to a jury…” She let that trail off, sure that Leo understood.

Frustrated, she turned to the box. She had to go through it carefully, searching for the bit of wheat among all the chaff it undoubtedly contained.

A few minutes later she sank back in her chair, looking in disbelief at a sheet of paper from the evidence box. She glanced over at Leo, to find him watching her, obviously noting the change in her expression.

“Something interesting?” he asked.

“Something that explains why the D.A. was so slow in releasing the evidence, I’ll bet. This was buried at the bottom of the box. The results of the blood tests on Thomas and Cherry.”

She handed it to him then went and stood behind him, reading it again as he scanned quickly down through the results.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “According to this, there was a whopping amount of Rohypnol in Thomas’s system. Thomas’s. And none in Cherry’s.”

“Date-rape drug,” she said slowly. “That explains why Thomas doesn’t remember anything. I’ve done some research on it in relation to a case.” One of Henderson’s wealthy clients, in fact. She’d been expected to make the case go away. “Victims experience amnesia in regard to anything that happened while under the influence.”

He nodded. “Like Thomas. It wasn’t the drinking. It was the drug. But it’s all the wrong way around. Why would Thomas be drugged?”

“I don’t know. But I’m not sure it would be possible for Thomas to have performed a violent act while under the influence, although I suppose the D.A. could argue that the murder happened before the drug had taken effect.”

Leo reached for his address book. “We need an expert opinion. I know someone in Harrisburg, unless you have a person the firm uses.”

“No, go ahead and call your guy.” She wasn’t sure how Henderson would respond to that request. He’d obviously thought this case would end in a simple plea bargain. If he’d imagined it could have turned into much of a case, he wouldn’t have sent her. “In the meantime, I’m going to call the D.A. He can’t be as sure of his case now as he was.”

A spurt of enthusiasm flowed through Jessica, and her mind began ticking over possibilities. The D.A. might come forth with a more reasonable plea-bargain offer, although she doubted that Geneva would want to accept any deal. And maybe Geneva had been right all along. Thomas just might be innocent.

TREY WAS BACK BEHIND the wheel of the truck again, ferrying Jessica in search of kids who’d been at the party. Working together like this had begun to feel familiar-maybe too easy and familiar.

“Thanks again for helping out with this.” Jessica sounded cool, as if she were as intent as he was on setting boundaries. “I’m sure I’m taking you away from work.”

He shrugged. “I went into the office early to go through some papers that needed my attention. I’ll catch up, eventually. And you’ll get through this faster with someone who knows his way around. Besides, I know a few of these families, so it might help to have me along.”

The truth was that he’d been ignoring a lot that should be done at the office because of this situation. But if he didn’t help Jessica, he had a feeling his mother would, and he shuddered at the thought of Mom playing Nancy Drew.

“Your office is in Springville?” She glanced at him. “I confess, I hadn’t pictured you in an office setting.”

“Because of the khakis and sport shirt? This is considered dressy around here. Anyway, I’m the boss. I can wear what I want. You should see casual Friday.”

That got a faint smile from her. “I’d intended to talk to Cherry Wilson’s employer and coworkers today, but this drug-test report makes it more crucial to talk with people who were at the party.”

“You figure that’s where Thomas was given the drug?”

“I think so.” Her forehead wrinkled. “According to the research I’ve done, Rohypnol causes a sleepy, relaxed, drunk feeling, and the victim may forget everything that happened. The last thing Thomas remembers about that night was being at the party.”

“Makes sense.” His fingers tightened on the wheel at the thought of someone doing that to any kid, let alone one as inexperienced and trusting as Thomas. “If that’s the case, you might argue that he couldn’t have become violent.”

“We talked about that, but we need more than supposition. Leo is contacting an expert to go over the findings for us. The problem with experts is that juries tend to distrust them. The prosecution brings on theirs, we bring on ours…it can just be a wash. We need to find someone who saw Thomas either being drugged or under the influence. Unfortunately, teenagers tend to clam up in the face of authority.”

He shot another glance at Jessica, reading the determination in the set of her jaw. “That sounds like the voice of experience speaking.”

“Me?” She looked startled. “I had the most boring adolescence of all time. We lived in Boston, but I didn’t go to public schools. My father sent me to a strict girls’ boarding school. Most of us were too scared of the administration to party, even if we could have gotten off-campus.”

“That sounds a little…lonely.” In comparison with his childhood, certainly. His younger brother and sister had kept things lively. And even though Mom and Dad could have sent them to private school, as far as he could tell they’d never even considered it.

Jessica shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad. My mother died when I was young, and with my father’s career…well, he didn’t have much time.”

He’d looked up Jessica’s illustrious father when he was trying to find out more about her. It sounded as if his only child had been sacrificed to his judicial advancement.

“No other relatives?”

“No one we were close to.” She seemed to shake off childhood memories. “Anyway, I’m sure you know more about the party scene around here than I ever could.”

He had to respect her changing the subject. “I went to a few in my time,” he admitted. “But I think those were pretty tame in comparison to what kids get up to now.”

“That may make it even harder to get any of them to open up,” she said.

“All we can do is try. I didn’t realize defense attorneys had to be detectives, too.”

Her lips curved. “I admit, it’s not in the job description. But this isn’t an ordinary situation. Right now…” She lifted her hands, palms up. “Right now I don’t have much to take to trial.” Her eyes darkened, and he could feel the tension building in her. “Maybe I ought to be trying harder for a plea-bargain offer.”

“You said the only reason the D.A. would come up with an offer was because he didn’t want to have to explain how the drug report fits into his version of the crime.”