David Kessler - No Way Out

The fingers of “Lannosea” were flying across the keyboard. She didn’t even need to go to the public records office. All the records of births, marriage, divorce and death had now been put on-line and were available on the same terms as at the public records office itself. It always amazed her that so many people relied on a person’s mother’s maiden name for security purposes, despite the fact that some one’s mother’s maiden name is a detail so easy to obtain. She knew his name and she knew his age. She could search through the records based on his name and the quarter of the year in which he was born. But having his exact date of birth made the process even quicker.

So, after getting the information from the daytime systems administrator, she

had logged on to the public records and looked for the record of Paul Greenberg’s birth based on his age and birthday. This record included his mother’s maiden name: Ruth Berman. And he had already told her that he used his mother’s maiden name as his password.

But yesterday they might not yet have scanned the electropherogram from the new DNA profile into the computer. It normally takes four days from start to finish, and the judge had ordered it on Wednesday. They probably wouldn’t even run the actual comparison until Sunday morning. That meant that she had her window of opportunity now.

Using the information she had, she set about gaining access to the Ventura Local Database Index System. It took her a while to track down the IP address of the server that hosted the LDIS but once she did, she used the Telnet protocol to take her to the root prompt and from there she typed in “pgreenberg” as the username and “Berman” as the password. Her reasoning was that Greenberg was evidently a lazy person for using such a short and obvious password to begin with, so it was probable that he used some form of his name as his username.

In a matter of seconds, she had root control over the LDIS server!

She downloaded copies of the evidence sample file and Claymore’s reference sample file. She then copied over the data from Claymore’s reference sample file to the evidence sample itself, thereby bringing the evidence sample file into line with the Elias Claymore reference sample. Finally she deleted the old evidence sample file from the server and uploaded the false evidence sample file in its place.

When Alvarez got the report showing a perfect match, Claymore’s fate would be sealed.

“You’re spoiling me,” said Alex, as Martine served him a plate that was full to toppling point.

Alex had invited Martine again for Friday evening dinner, which they had prepared together this time.

Like last week, Martine had stayed the night, as he had predicted she would from the overnight bag in her hand when he answered the door. But this time, she had stayed over till Sunday and was now reciprocating his culinary hospitality by treating him to a traditional English Sunday roast, complete with roast beef (he drew the line at pork), roast potatoes and parsnips, sage and onion stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, Brussels sprouts, carrots and peas.

“So they said they’ll courier the results over?” asked Martine

“As soon as they get them.”

They were talking about the DNA results of the new tests. They were due to get them today, in preparation for the Court hearing tomorrow.

“Any bets on what they’ll show?”

“Not with me. All bets are off.”

“She was looking at him across the table.”

“You look uncomfortable.”

“It’s the waiting,” he said.

“What about it?”

“The waiting is the hardest part.”

“For us or for Claymore.”

Alex shrugged sheepishly.

“You’re right. Here we are feeling sorry for ourselves when it’s Elias who’s fate is hanging in the balance.”

It was later, when they were clearing away the plates and loading up the dishwasher that the doorbell rang Alex went to answer it, looking through the spy hole first. It was a man in a brown uniform, a courier. Alex had been expecting this. He opened the door and signed for the envelope. In his excitement, he was already ripping it open as he walked back to the dining room.

“The DNA results?” asked Martine, meeting him in the corridor?

“Yes.”

Alex flipped past the first page to look at the crucial second page with its results. And what it showed was not good news.

Locus

B. Newton (index fingernail)

Elias Claymore (ref sample)

Louis Manning (ref sample)

19

17

17

17

385a/b

16, 19

16, 19

16, 19

388

12

12

12

389-1

13

13

13

389-2

31

31

31

390

21

21

21

391

10

10

10

392

11

11

11

393

16

16

16

426

11

11

11

437

14

14

14

438

11

11

11

439

12

12

12

447

28

28

28

448

24

24

24

460

10

10

10

H4

11

11

11

YCA2a/b

17, 19

17, 19

17, 19

450

8

8

8

456

16

16

16

458

18

18

18

464 a/b/c/d

13, 16, 17

13, 16, 17

13, 16, 17

Much to Alex’s disappointment, it showed that the Y-STR profile of the sample marked as “Reference, Elias Claymore” did match the Sample, with no exclusions. Not that this made him guilty. They had already established that the chance of a random match between the evidence sample and an African-American was 1/500 and that was confirmed on this report too. It’s just that after the way he had exposed Steven Johnson’s tampering, it was bitterly disappointing.

The question was, could he block this evidence? Technically, the prosecution had rested their case. Even if the case wasn’t dismissed, Alex could argue that the prosecution could not introduce this report, as they could not now introduce any new material, except to rebut new evidence. And the defense had offered nothing to rebut. They hadn’t offered any evidence that purported to show that the DNA was not from Elias Claymore. They had merely discredited the evidence purporting to show that it was .

On Monday morning he would move that this new evidence be excluded. If the judge granted the motion, the prosecution would then move to dismiss the case without prejudice, intending to go for a retrial. Alex would then argue that there were no grounds for dismissal, as it was not a procedural error in the trial, but merely a careless mistake at the lab. He was already planning his argument:

“The prosecution have introduced flawed evidence that had now been discredited and they are now looking for a second bite of the cherry. But that is not what the law says, Your Honor. The law says that if the prosecution were sloppy with the evidence they introduced then they must live with the consequences.”

But then he noticed another line on the report that stated: “Neither Elias Claymore nor Louis Manning can be eliminated as suspects on a basis of this comparison. He flipped over to the grid with the comparison. So focused had he had been on comparing Elias Claymore’s line to that of the evidence sample, that he had missed the other line — that of Louis Manning. And the numbers of repetitions in that line also matched the evidence sample.

Then in the Frequency of Occurrence Estimates, it gave the figure for Caucasians as 1/4000, for Blacks as 1/500 and for Hispanics as 1/6500.”

So the cops or the DA had a second suspect? But who was this Louis Manning? And why was his name so familiar? Whoever he was, this report referred to him as a suspect. But he hadn’t been mentioned in the first report. Maybe he was some one who had come to the attention of the police since then. But why had Alex not been notified? Maybe it had only happened recently.