Parnell Hall: The Innocent Woman

“So, he’s watching to see if the cops show up and, surprise, surprise, you and I both come out. Well, I’m sure Amy’s described me to him, so I’ve got to be the hippie lawyer. So he tags along to see what we do.

“Well, we go right back to the office. A short while later, Amy comes out alone. Cunningham follows her to the subway, sees she’s headed uptown. Well, he can figure that out-slick, shyster lawyer sent her home so she can come to the office and pretend she just got there.

“And that’s when Cunningham made the diabolically clever, incredibly shrewd move.

“He knows the three of us have been in there. We’ve all seen the crime scene. He knows how Amy will describe it to the cops. And he knows she’s gonna show up and try to pretend she just got there the first time. So he thinks to himself, is there anything he could plant there that they would immediately know her story wasn’t true?

“Then he gets it.

“Yes, of course.

“The drawer.

“He rushes up there, closes the drawer and gets out. It’s the perfect frame. Well, not perfect-Amy might notice the drawer closed before she talks to the cops. But probably not. It’s on the far side of the desk, she’d have to walk around there to see it, and why should she?

“And if she does, no real harm done. With everything he knows, it won’t be that hard to fame her. He’ll find another way.”

“Like what?”

Steve shrugged. “I imagine that’s why he hung onto the gun.”

“You mean to plant in her apartment?”

“Exactly,” Steve said. “If he’d had her keys, I’m sure that’s what he’d have done. Failing that, he’d want to come up with a place where it would look like she’d ditched it.”

“Where would that be?”

“Actually, it wouldn’t really matter. Practically anywhere would do, but probably near her apartment. He’d stash the gun somewhere, then phone in an anonymous tip saying he’d seen a woman of her description hiding a gun.”

“So why didn’t he?” Taylor said.

“He didn’t have to. The drawer worked. The cops nailed her on it.”

“Right.”

“Which he learned when he visited her in jail,” Tracy said.

“Exactly,” Steve said. “Plus the cops got the tape from the answering machine. A bit of luck there. The message wasn’t saved. If another call had come in, it would have been erased.”

“Right,” Taylor said. “So why didn’t Cunningham save it? I mean again, after Amy went down there?”

Steve shrugged. “It was a two-edged sword. If the light’s blinking, it looks like Amy never got the message-you’ll recall Dirkson’s strongest argument was the light was steady.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Taylor said.

“Plus, I’m not sure it works that way.”

“Huh?”

“The message wasn’t saved,” Steve said. “So if Cunningham called the machine to try to play it and save it, would that work, or would his call erase Fletcher’s message? See what I mean?”

“Would it?”

“I don’t know. Tracy?”

“I think it could be done,” Tracy said. She shrugged. “Whether Cunningham could do it is another matter.”

“Why, just because he’s a man?” Steve said. “Well, I sure know I couldn’t.” He shook his head. “This technical stuff. I probably could have figured this case out long ago if I didn’t have a blind spot for it.” He turned to Tracy. “And I haven’t really been thinking straight since you got involved.”

“Sorry,” Tracy said.

“No need to apologize,” Taylor said. “It’s contagious. Just hang around with him long enough and before you know it, you’re spiriting witnesses away, suppressing evidence, and planting clues.” He shook his head. “It’s practically part of the job.”

“Don’t take it so hard, Mark,” Steve said. “You realize in this whole case, the cops and the D.A. never made a pass at you?”

“Sure, ’cause you and Tracy were such good targets. But if they nailed you, you wanna bet they would have got to me?”

Tracy held up her hand. “Hey, lay off, Mark. This is my fault. I brought him the case, I forced him to take it.”

“Let’s not go overboard,” Steve said. “I’m a big boy, I’m responsible for my own actions.” He waggled his finger and smiled. “Just don’t do it again.”

“Bring you a client?” Tracy said. “You gotta be kidding.”

“Oh, you can bring me clients,” Steve said. “Just no more innocent ones. They’re entirely too much trouble.”

“That’s for sure.”

“So let that be a lesson,” Steve said.

“Whaddya mean?”

“Next client you bring me damn well better be guilty.”