Sleight of Hand (19 page)

"He was quite positive about that. In fact, he said his security system proved it."

Dodgson was content to let it rest there, the identity of the thief had been established beyond a doubt, was his attitude.

Barbara said good afternoon to Mr. Trelawney, and then asked, "You said you launched your investigation. What did you do?"

"I looked up the history of the boat, the appraisal, things of that sort. Two days later I accompanied a police officer to the home of Mr. Lederer to ask him if he knew anything about the boat. He denied any knowledge about it."

"Mr. Trelawney, were you very concerned with the theft of such a valuable item since your company insured it?"

"Not at that time. Of course, no one knew then that Mrs. Wilkins had already been murdered herself."

Dodgson roared an objection. "Move that comment be stricken as not relevant to this trial." It was sustained.

"You weren't overly concerned. Why was that?" Barbara asked then.

"Mr. Wilkins was very agitated, but he said that his wife was also missing, and that he feared for her safety. I'm afraid I assumed that this was an instance of a domestic quarrel. In my experience the departing spouse frequently takes a prized object away, and eventually that spouse returns, there is a reconciliation and the object reappears. This matter seemed very much to fit that scenario. I advised Mr. Wilkins to await the return of his wife before taking any further action."

"Did he accept that advice?"

"No. He called me a day later to see what I was doing about it. A day or two after his death was discovered I was notified that the boat had reappeared. After that it was no longer my concern."

The next witness was the officer who had made the initial report of the theft of the boat. He added little to what Trelawney had already testified to.

Then Barbara asked, "Why did you ask the housekeeper about Mrs. Wilkins s state of health?"

"Well, Mr. Wilkins said she was suicidal, and I thought if she was disturbed, maybe she took the boat just to get even or something. People do that sometimes. But the housekeeper said she was all right."

"Did your department start a formal investigation at that time?"

"No, ma'am. We wanted to wait until Mrs. Wilkins came back and ask her about it.

We did a routine background check on Mr. Lederer, but that's all."

The medical examiner was next. His testimony was so precise and matter-of-fact that he made a death by murder seem almost prosaic. The deceased died between nine and midnight the night of April 26. He suffered a blow to the head that was not fatal but most likely rendered him unconscious, and death was caused by the severance of his spinal cord at the first and second vertebra. Such severance caused death to occur instantly. He identified the pitcher that had been used as a weapon. It still had Jay Wilkins's hairs in it.

Dodgson had him fill in some details, how they knew when death occurred, had the body been moved after Wilkins broke his neck, was there any indication of drugs or alcohol, and a few others.

Barbara had no questions.

In rapid succession the first police officer to respond to the 911 call testified and described the routine in homicide cases, which he had followed. Barbara had no questions.

Forensics would be next, Barbara knew, and she did have a lot of questions, but before Dodgson could call on the first witness, Judge Wells adjourned for the day.

"It's been a long first day," he said to the jurors. He instructed them not to read about the case, watch any newscast that referred to it, or discuss it with anyone, including one another, and that was the end of day one.

In the corridor outside the courtroom, Meg drew in a long shuddering breath, then said, "Thank God they're done with the boat business."

Barbara did not contradict her, but she knew they were not done with it yet.

Chapter 29

The first witness the following day was Detective Sergeant Donald McChesney, the lead detective of the investigation. He was tall and lean, almost to the point of emaciation, with sharp cheekbones, a long pointed nose, dark hair and eyes and a swarthy complexion. He looked as if an incipient beard was close to emerging.

He described the investigation in specific details to go along with photographs of the crime scene as well as a schematic of the front of the house, the entrance, foyer, the bar room and the study. Pointing to an enlarged photograph of Jay Wilkins's body, he described the same scenario that Barbara and Bailey had enacted. Then he said,

"There was hemlock bark mulch on the floor here." He positioned the schematic on the easel and pointed again. "Bark mulch was on the doorjamb, and small amounts here and here." He pointed to them on the foyer floor. "Outside, on the front entrance stones, more bark mulch. It is used extensively in the foundation planting all around the house.

"We recovered no fingerprints, except some of Mr. Wilkins's. From Mr. Wilkins's fingernails we recovered some denim fibers, and there were some yellow cotton fibers on the bar stool, the bar and on the floor.

"The television was turned on but it was muted. When we examined Mr. Wilkins's desk in the study, we discovered a gold boat in the bottom right drawer. It had been wiped clean of all fingerprints.

"We called the security company to come turn off the system, and they recovered a tape, a log of the past month with a record of all the times the system had been turned off and on."

Dodgson stopped him at that point. "Will you explain the system to the jury so we'll all understand just what you mean?"

He gave a detailed account of each opening and closing of the outside doors.

Dodgson produced a sheet of paper and showed it to Judge Wells and Barbara, then passed it to the officer to identify.

"It's a printout of the log for the period starting Sunday, April 20, to Monday, April 28."

Dodgson had a second sheet entered and asked him to describe that one. "That's the log for the back door that the housekeeper uses."

"In other words," Dodgson said slowly, speaking to the jury now, "we know every single time an outside window or door was opened and when it was closed again.

We know that Mr. Wilkins returned from the coast on Sunday evening, ordered a meal and remained home that night. On Monday he turned the system off to admit the defendant and his wife, and turned it back on when they left. On Tuesday he admitted the police officer and his insurance agent. And no one entered or left that house again except for the housekeeper or someone delivering food until the night that Jay Wilkins admitted his killer." He turned to the witness. "Is that a correct summation of the logs?"

The officer confirmed it was.

Now the boat business was wrapped up, Barbara thought, at least for now. Every juror s gaze shifted from the sergeant to Wally. She heard a soft moan from Meg, sitting behind her, and she hoped that Frank was holding her hand, or patting her or something. At her side Wally was looking thoughtful.

Dodgson then asked, "You said you found yellow cotton fibers. Did you find the source for them?"

"Yes, sir. They match the towels in the downstairs bathroom."

"Also, you found denim fibers. Did you locate a source for them?"

"Yes, sir. We obtained a search warrant for the defendant's house and a pair of denim jeans was located. On examination, the fibers matched the denim in the jeans."

Dodgson opened a plastic bag and carefully removed a pair of jeans. They were worn and faded, with thorns and dirt still clinging to them. "Are these the blue jeans you found when you searched the defendant's house?"

The sergeant looked them over, then said yes.

"And the fibers at the crime scene matched the denim in these jeans. Is that correct?"

"Yes, sir."

Dodgson walked to the jury box with the jeans. "I won't pass them among you," he said. "As you can see they are soiled." He held them up for the jury to look at, then returned them to the plastic bag and had them entered as a state exhibit.

"Sergeant McChesney," he said, "is it your practice to try to reconstruct the events of a crime like this? To give you a direction for your continuing investigation?"

"Yes, sir. We generally do that."

"Will you tell the jury how you reconstructed this crime?"

"We believe the assailant stepped into the mulch and picked up a stick. There are quite a number of them. They break off with winter rains."

Barbara objected. "You Honor, this is merely speculation, guesses as to what happened. The detective has no way of knowing if what he is suggesting actually occurred."

"We said it is speculative," Dodgson said smoothly. "This is a common procedure in a serious investigation. It is merely used to give the investigators a sense of what might have happened."

The judge nodded, then regarded the jury and said, "It must be clearly understood that any speculation done by the investigators is not to be considered evidence. It is speculation only." He overruled, and the detective continued.

"The assailant rang the doorbell and Mr. Wilkins opened the door. His assailant put the stick in the doorway to keep the door from closing, and followed him into the bar room. He left bark mulch in the foyer, and on the floor in the bar. They stood in front of the bar. The assailant picked up the pitcher and struck Mr. Wilkins, then probably knelt down to see if he was dead. In feeling for a pulse, he caused the body to shift. He put the pitcher down, went for the towel and wiped all fingerprints off the bar and the pitcher. Then he wiped the boat and went to the study and put it in the drawer."

"Objection," Barbara said. "Move that the last remark be stricken as moving beyond speculation concerning the act of murder. No evidence has been presented to indicate such action."

It was sustained.

Unperturbed, the sergeant continued. "We assume he picked up his stick on the way out and tossed it back into the plants and left the scene."

"And how do you account for the denim fibers?"

"When Mr. Wilkins was falling, he likely grabbed at something for support and his hand raked down the assailant's leg."

"Why do you say the killer put the pitcher down instead of just dropping it?"

"If he had dropped it, it would have broken on the stone flooring, or at least chipped or cracked. It didn't do that. If he intended to use it again, he would have kept it.

Since Mr. Wilkins's neck was broken on the stool's rung, the murderer didn't need the pitcher, so he put it down."

Dodgson finished soon after that and Barbara stood up. "Detective McChesney, just to clarify some of the assumptions you made, do you know how bark mulch was deposited in the door-sill?" He said no, and she went down the rest of the assumptions, each time getting the same answer: no. He didn't know how long the assailant and Wilkins remained at the bar before the attack. He didn't know why the pitcher was not cracked or broken. He didn't know how the body got moved. When she finished that line she asked, "Is there anything unusual about the security system at the Wilkins house?"

"It's standard, with an added feature," he said.

"What is that added feature?"

"Keeping the thirty-day log. Not many private systems do that."

Pointing to the schematic, Barbara asked where the outside keypad was located. He pointed to it.

"Is it plainly visible?" He said yes.

"Where is the inside control panel with the switches?"

"On the foyer wall."

"Is it plainly visible?"

"No. It's located behind a wall hanging."

"Are the cases in the study connected to the same security system?"

"They're tied in to the system but on a separate circuit. It has to be turned off and the cases unlocked with a key. They have to be operated manually."

"Does the log include them?"

"Yes."

"And what does it tell about when they were opened that week?" She picked up the printout and handed it to him.

"It shows that the case with the gold objects was opened on Monday night at six twenty-five and closed on Tuesday at two-thirty in the afternoon."

"You mentioned bark mulch in the doorway. Just to clarify what you meant, is this the kind of object you were talking about?" She went to her table and Shelley passed her a door threshold —a metal strip as long as the door was wide, with raised rubber running the length of it.

When the sergeant examined it he said it was just like the one at the Wilkins house.

"What is the purpose of it?" Barbara asked, handing it to the foreman of the jury. He looked it over and passed it along to the other panel members.

"It closes the gap at the bottom of the door to make a tight fit," the sergeant said.

Barbara retrieved the threshold and, pointing to it, she said, "The raised top is ridged, and there appears to be a metal strip. Exactly where was the bark mulch found?"

"On the extreme left as you enter."

"About the door itself, is it spring loaded or weighted in such a way that it automatically closes after being opened?"

"No."

"If its pushed open, it stays open until someone closes it. Is that right?"

He hesitated a moment, then said yes.

"In other words it does not need to be propped open with anything. Is that correct?"

"Yes, but someone might not have known that."

"I move that the last part of his remark be stricken," she said, glancing at the judge.

He nodded. "Everything after the word 'yes' will be stricken."

"Sergeant, what is the lot number of the blue jeans you examined?"

"I don't know. There's no lot number on them."

"When were they manufactured?"

His answer was more brusque. "I don't know."

"Do you know where they were manufactured?"

He said no.

"Exactly what were you basing your conclusion on? That the fibers matched that particular garment?"

"The fibers are old and frayed and faded just like the jeans, obviously as old as the jeans. They are a perfect match."

"I see." She walked to her table and Shelley handed her a man's denim jacket. It looked to be as old as the jeans, as faded and just as frayed. She held it up to the sergeant. "Would those fibers match this jacket?"

"I would have to have it examined under a microscope to be certain," he said.

"Did you examine the jeans under a microscope?"

He hesitated, then said no.

She put the jacket down and held up a child's coveralls, in the same condition as the jacket and the jeans. "Would those fibers match this material?"

"I don't know," he snapped.

"All right. Would it be correct to say that the fibers you found are frayed and old, very faded, and that the jeans are in the same shape, and that's just about all you can say about them?"

Dodgson objected, but Judge Wells overruled and after another pause the sergeant said that was a fair statement.

"Did you go to Mr. Lederer's house yourself with the search warrant?"

He said no. Two detectives on his team did that. They had stipulated as much at a pretrial hearing, she just wanted to make it clear now.

"But you can answer for them," she said. "Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Where were those jeans that day?"

"He was wearing them."

"So they asked him to change his clothes, is that right?"

"Yes."

"Where was he when he took off his jeans?"

"On the back porch by the door. He put on a robe and slippers there."

"Was the robe already by the door?" He said yes, and he said yes when she asked if the slippers were already there.

"What else did they collect that day?"

"His shoes."

"Did they examine his car and remove the floor mat?"

"Yes."

"Was there any bark mulch on his shoes?" He said no. "Was there any in his car or on the floor mat?" He said no again.

"After the jeans were examined, what did you do with them?"

"We put them in the evidence bag, and they've been there ever since until today."

"I see. I noticed that when Mr. Dodgson removed them earlier, he was careful not to turn the evidence bag over. I'd like to remove them again at this time." She did that, then carefully held the plastic bag close enough for him to see inside. "What is that in the bottom of the bag, Sergeant?"

"There's some dirt, maybe some thorns, just debris from the jeans."

"What was Mr. Lederer doing the day your officers collected the jeans?"

"He was clearing brambles off his property."

Barbara walked in front of the jurors, showing them the dirt in the bag. Then she replaced the jeans and returned it to the exhibit table.

"Did you find any dirt, thorns or debris like that at the crime scene?"

"No."

She moved to the schematic and pointed to the floor in the foyer and then to the bar room where bark mulch had been found. "Do you know how that bark mulch was left in those places?"

"No."

"All right. Previously you made many assumptions about what happened that night.

Did you make any assumptions about how the bark mulch was left on the floors?"

"We assume it was on the defendant's shoes."

"Was there any bark mulch in the study?"

"No."

"Was any found anywhere else besides where you indicate here?" She pointed to the schematic, and he said no.

She asked if they'd found any yellow fibers in Wally's car or on his clothing, and the answer was no. She asked the same question about red silk fibers, and got the same no for an answer.

When Barbara said she had no more questions, Dodgson in his redirect examination simply reinforced the fact that the security log showed that no one had entered the house after Wally and Meg's visit on Monday evening until the next day after the boat was discovered to be missing, and that the boat had reappeared after someone murdered Jay Wilkins.

Judge Wells called for a brief recess then. When the bailiff escorted the jurors out, Wally leaned over the rail behind the defense table to take Meg's hands. "I told you Frank wouldn't have given her a thumbs-up if she wasn't good. She made a monkey out of that guy. Let's go get a soda or something."