David Ellis - The Last Alibi

“Judge,” Shauna says, “at this time, I’d like to refer the jury to the stipulation previously entered into between the parties and read to the jury, in which it is stipulated that the autopsy of Alexa Himmel included a routine toxicological screen.”

Which made sense, to be fair to the government, especially when the cause of death in Alexa’s case was a bullet to the head or neck region. It’s not like they had any reason to think this was connected to the knife murders committed by Marshall Rivers, not back then in late July.

“Very good,” says the judge.

“Detective Austin, were you aware of additional testing performed by the county medical examiner this weekend on the blood and body of the victim in this case, Alexa Himmel?”

“Yes. I oversaw it. Dr. Agarwal performed the tests.”

“Dr. Mitra Agarwal is the chief deputy medical examiner?”

“Yes.”

“A very competent pathologist?”

“The best.”

“And was it your understanding that Dr. Agarwal’s charge was to search for the presence of fentanyl in Alexa Himmel’s blood?”

“Yes, that was the reason for the additional testing.”

“And was it, Detective? Was the drug fentanyl found in Alexa Himmel’s body?”

“Yes, it was,” he says.

The jury reacts. Everyone reacts. The same chemical injected into the other five victims was injected into Alexa, too. It’s the first piece of hard evidence tying Alexa Himmel’s death to Marshall Rivers. We just got back the ME’s report yesterday. Shauna said that she was waiting over at the county attorney’s offices when Roger Ogren came storming out of his office and passed her without saying a word, his face flushed- like he’d just swallowed a bug, Shauna said. Katie O’Connor, the second chair in the trial, was actually the one who broke the good news to Shauna. Roger Ogren, no doubt, had been sure that the test would come up negative. But when it didn’t, he was obligated to tell us so.

Now he’s probably kicking himself, thinking he shouldn’t have ordered the additional test. But it wouldn’t have mattered. Shauna, in her closing argument, would have blistered the prosecution and police so hard for not doing the additional testing- What are they hiding? If the government is so sure that Marshall Rivers didn’t kill Alexa, here’s their chance to prove it! Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if the government doesn’t have that level of confidence in their case, how can you? — that Ogren probably would have been shamed into doing it, anyway. This way, at least, he’s wearing the white hat, ordering the test voluntarily.

“Dr. Agarwal found traces of fentanyl, injected postmortem, in Ms. Himmel’s jugular vein,” Austin says.

That is a point Austin has added, no doubt, at the request of Roger Ogren. The other victims were injected antemortem-prior to death-while their blood continued to circulate, carrying that drug into the far reaches of their bodies, easily detectable as long as your toxicology test was looking for it. A drug injected postmortem, as it was with Alexa, obviously does not travel; the blood has stopped circulating. Instead, the drug tends to pool in the vein or muscle where it was injected, in this case the jugular vein in Alexa’s neck. So Roger Ogren will try to drive a truck through this distinction: The others were injected while alive, but Alexa Himmel was injected after death.

Jason

“Detective Austin,” says Shauna, “we’ve discussed that Marshall Rivers’s use of the fentanyl injection on his victims was information that was withheld from the public, correct?”

“That’s correct.”

“Why is that? I mean, you solved the five murders, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“So isn’t the Marshall Rivers investigation closed?”

“No, it is not closed.”

“And why not?” she asks.

Austin doesn’t hesitate in his response. I thought he might. I thought that Roger Ogren might get to him, make him tone down a few things. But in the end, the north side murders were a huge deal and they belong to Austin; he doesn’t care much at all about my case.

He says, “Because we’ve always suspected there was a sixth victim.”

Another wave of murmurs ripples through the gallery. A sixth victim! The North Side Slasher lives on!

“Detective, I’d like to show you a document marked as Defense Exhibit One. I’m going to put it up on the screen here and ask you if you recognize this.”

The jurors, fully consumed with this testimony, turn their heads in unison, like spectators at a tennis match, to the projection screen.

Now u finaly know who I am

Now u will never forgit

Number six was difrent

But she was my favorit

“Detective,” says Shauna, “do you recognize this document?”

“Yes, I do. When we searched Marshall Rivers’s apartment on August second, we found these words typed on his computer. This is a printout of those words.”

Shauna moves for admission of the document, which is granted without objection. She pauses, giving the jurors some time to read it, and reread it, and process it.

“This document, taken from the computer of Marshall Rivers, has never been made public, either, has it?” Shauna asks.

“No, it has not.”

“It was only yesterday that this document was turned over to the defense. Is that your understanding?”

“Yes.”

“Detective, this note led you to investigate the possibility that Marshall Rivers had killed a sixth person, correct?”

“It was a possibility.”

“Did you ever find that sixth victim, Detective?”

“No, we did not.”

Shauna is quiet a moment. She looks over at the jurors, who are reading the words on the projection screen with great interest, trying to make them jibe with things that I said during my testimony.

“Detective, the third line of this note says that ‘number six was different,’ with the last word misspelled. Do you read it the same way?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Marshall Rivers’s first five murders were relatively. . similar, weren’t they? They involved an ambush, they involved injections of fentanyl and, ultimately, brutal cutting and slashing with a folding lockback knife with a partially serrated blade. Isn’t that correct?”

“It is, yes.”

“Wouldn’t an attack that ultimately ended up as a shooting in the back with a handgun qualify as ‘different’?”

“Ob-jection,” Ogren says, more as a whine. Shauna’s question is clearly out of line.

“Sustained.”

“Well, Detective,” says Shauna, “as the lead investigator on the north side murders and on Marshall Rivers himself, do you now believe that this note was written specifically for Jason Kolarich?”

“Objection!” Roger Ogren calls out. He’s right again, but it still sounds like a gripe, a grumpy complaint.

“Sustained,” says the judge.

“Okay,” says Shauna, nodding. “Well, didn’t you take from this note that this sixth murder, his ‘favorite,’ held a unique, personal significance to Marshall Rivers?”

“Judge!” Ogren calls out.

“Because the last victim was Jason Kolarich’s girlfriend ?”

“Ms. Tasker, stop right there,” says Judge Bialek. “The objection is sustained. These questions are inappropriate for this witness and you know it. Now move on .”

Shauna knows they’re inappropriate. A courtroom tactician ordinarily wouldn’t even ask these questions of a witness. She would save them for closing argument, identifying each line of the note found on Marshall’s computer and tying it to his obsession with me. Now you finally know who I am, now you will never forget -corroborating my testimony that Marshall came to me in disguise and under an assumed name. Number six was different , as Shauna said, because it turned from a knife attack to a shooting. She was my favorite , because it wasn’t just some random woman, but rather a woman very special to me.