A. Taylor - Innocent or Guilty?

“One or both of us is going to have to head back to work tomorrow,” Daniel said as soon as I opened the door to our room. The floor and coffee table were littered with papers Daniel had brought with him, but it was the phone in his hand that my eyes were drawn to.

“Why?” I said, “it’s Sunday tomorrow.” It wasn’t unusual for us to work weekends, of course, especially not during a big case, but it was still fairly early days with Reid Murphy’s case, and the all-nighters and long weekends didn’t usually begin until we were a lot closer to the trial.

“Reid’s just been charged with murder. James Asher died late last night.”

“Holy shit,” I said, the breath drawn right out of me.

“Yeah. That was Colin I just spoke to, Karen’s demanding all hands on deck from tomorrow.”

I looked behind me, towards the doorway I’d just walked through, as if, if I hadn’t come through that door, this wouldn’t have happened, and I wouldn’t have had to deal with the push-pull that was currently tugging away inside me. But that was wishful thinking, because Daniel would’ve called me regardless, telling me this news, and potentially cutting short this trip to Twin Rivers.

“You can stay,” he said now. “Stay until tomorrow evening at least, I’ll cover for you tomorrow.”

“You drove me out here, remember?” I said, frustration finding its way through my words. If he hadn’t insisted on coming with me, I’d have my own car here, and I wouldn’t be obliged to travel back to Portland so soon. I could’ve just pretended I’d never heard this news, and stayed here until Monday. But Reid’s charge being upped from attempted murder to murder really did change things, and I couldn’t help thinking about the conversation we’d had just the day before, and how much her life had now changed in the intervening 24-hours.

“How did you leave things with Kat and Ray?” Daniel asked, ignoring my petulance.

“They’re interviewing Morgan, Tyler’s older sister, literally as we speak.”

“You didn’t want to hang around for that?” Daniel asked, confusion creasing his forehead.

“They wouldn’t let me,” I said.

But they did let me listen to the recording later that evening, when both Kat and Ray came over for a drink.

* * *

Extract from transcript of Season 3 Episode 2 of Shadow of a Doubt :

Kat Thomas [voiceover]: If you listen carefully, the names Ethan Hall and Tyler Washington are still everywhere in Twin Rivers. Tyler may have died, and Ethan been convicted nine years ago, but the wounds are still so fresh they have barely begun to heal. It’s years later and while Ethan serves his sentence in the state penitentiary hundreds of miles away, Twin Rivers is still peopled by the players who were most severely affected by Tyler’s murder.

The Hall family may have long since stopped walking its streets, but Tyler’s classmates now teach in the very same high school they all attended, work in the bars and breweries they used to try to sneak into without being carded, manage the sporting goods stores they all bought their climbing gear from. His mother, Maria, is still mayor of Twin Rivers. She took a leave of absence for a while after her son died, but just a couple of years after Ethan was convicted of the murder of Tyler Washington, Maria was standing for election again. And she won.

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