Pinkie nodded as he pulled into the courthouse parking lot. "And if they"re not, we know this is their origination point."
"And no one around here manufactures vanilla, right?" I asked.
"Not that I know of," Pinkie said, parking.
When we reached the courthouse lobby, reporters, spectators, and witnesses streaming toward the trial venue were abuzz with news of Sheriff Nathan Bean"s fatal heart attack at a local breakfast cafe not an hour before. Sheriff Bean had had a history of heart problems, but it seemed a shock nonetheless.
In the courtroom I heard a reporter ask Starksville police chief Randy Sherman who the likely replacement was.
"Sheriff"s voted in," Chief Sherman replied. "But I"d bet Guy Pedelini would be a strong candidate."
I flashed on Bree"s description of Finn Davis standing on Pedelini"s back porch a few nights before, and for the first time, I felt as if there might really be a puppet master pulling the strings behind the scenes in Starksville. Grandfather? Even without concrete evidence against him, I could plainly see Marvin Bell in that role, hanging back in the shadows, looking legitimate, and using Finn Davis to do his bidding. We figured Bell and Davis were bribing Pedelini. How else did a detective afford a nice house on a lake like that?
A side door opened. A deputy led Stefan into the courtroom. I winced and heard my aunt Hattie cry out. My cousin"s left eye was bruised closed, and his jaw was wired shut.
Naomi rushed forward, looking furious as she helped him to his seat.
"Serves him right," I heard a woman whisper, and I looked across the aisle at Ann Lawrence, who was talking to a sober Cece Turnbull. Rashawn"s mother didn"t reply, but Cece"s parents, who were sitting two rows behind, bobbed their heads in agreement.
District attorney Delilah Strong, however, seemed genuinely concerned about my cousin"s condition. So did her a.s.sistant Matthew Brady, who walked over to say something to Naomi.
She waved him off angrily. Patty Converse came in and sat in the row behind us. It was the first time we"d seen her in five days. She didn"t look at any of us, just stared blankly as the clerk and the court reporter took their positions.
The bailiff called out, "All rise. This court is now in session, Judge Erasmus P. Varney presiding."
CHAPTER 82.
JUDGE VARNEY WAS weaker and sallower than the last time I"d seen him, when he"d been flushed and contorting against the pain of kidney stones as EMTs rolled him from the courtroom. But the judge still had a commanding presence as he took the bench, picked up his gavel, and called his court to order.
"I apologize for my illness," he said. "Ukrainian blood on my mother"s side. And I"d like to say how tragic it is that Sheriff Bean pa.s.sed so suddenly this morning. He was a man of great integrity and honor."
Varney"s eyes stayed locked ahead during his introductory remarks, as if he were not addressing the courtroom as a whole but someone in particular sitting in the gallery. Who, I couldn"t tell. But maybe it was just my imagination.
Varney picked up a piece of paper on the bench, read it, said, "Ms. Cross, the court has been notified that your cross-examination witness Sharon Lawrence will be unavailable today, as she has taken ill and is in the hospital. Is that correct?"
Ann Lawrence, her mother, stood and said, "Yes, Your Honor. She"s on IVs with a hundred and three fever."
"Then I expect you"ll want to be at her side," Varney said.
"Yes, Judge, thank you," she said.
The mother of the girl who"d accused my cousin of rape and tried to frame Jannie glanced hurriedly at us and then left.
"She"s hiding something," Bree whispered in my ear.
"Big-time," I said, wanting to get up and follow her, ask her more than a few pointed questions.
But then Judge Varney said, "Counselor, when Ms. Lawrence is recovered, you"ll be given the opportunity to continue your cross. In the meantime, I"d like to move forward. Unless you have questions or concerns?"
"I have concerns, Your Honor," Naomi said. "With all due respect to the memory of Sheriff Bean, there has been a fundamental breakdown in my client"s protection. Sheriff"s deputies allowed inmates to beat and kick my client until-"
"Objection!" the prosecutor cried. "There"s no evidence that any deputy "allowed" the altercation."
"Judge, Mr. Tate appears before you with multiple contusions, swelling, a broken jaw, and a probable concussion," Naomi shot back. "At the very least, you can allow a competent neurologist to examine him before we continue with trial."
Strong said, "Mr. Tate was treated by jail doctors, who tell me that he shows no sign of concussion."
"Mr. Tate?" Judge Varney said. "Do you understand what"s going on around you? Where you are? What you"re doing here?"
Stefan nodded, spoke thickly through the wires on his teeth. "I do, Judge."
Naomi looked exasperated.
The judge said, "Very well, then, the trial will continue, and I am ordering the sheriff"s office to double the guards with Mr. Tate at all times. Does that satisfy, Counselor?"
Naomi hesitated, then gave up and said, "It does, Judge."
As far as the defense was concerned, that was the high point of the day. The district attorney called forensics experts who hammered home the d.a.m.ning evidence as it was introduced: Stefan"s s.e.m.e.n on Rashawn"s body, Stefan"s s.e.m.e.n in Sharon Lawrence"s panties, and Rashawn"s blood and body tissue on the foldable pruning saw found in my cousin"s bas.e.m.e.nt.
Patty Converse turned ashen during this last testimony, especially when a fingerprint expert testified that the only clear prints on the saw were Stefan"s.
Naomi tried to damage the evidence of Stefan"s DNA in the teenage girl"s underwear, asking if, in the days between the time Lawrence claimed my cousin had raped her and Rashawn"s death, someone could have planted the s.e.m.e.n. The people"s expert said it was possible but unlikely, given that Lawrence had thought to put the panties in a zip-lock bag.
"Unless Ms. Lawrence put the s.e.m.e.n there herself," Naomi said.
The expert said, "Correct, but we have no evidence of that."
During the lunch recess, the service manager at the dealership where we"d left our Explorer called to tell me it looked like a rock had knocked an already loose hydraulic brake line free of its connection. The fluid ran out. We"d lost the brakes.
"You been driving many dirt roads?" he asked.
"A few, but I don"t remember something like a big rock hitting the undercarriage," I said. "You"re not seeing signs of sabotage?"
"Like someone wanted your brakes to fail?" he said.
"Like that."
"There"s easier ways to make brakes fail than banging a rock on the hydraulic line."
"Unless you want it to look like an accident," I said.
"I guess."
I asked the manager to take pictures of the damage, and we agreed on a price to fix the car and a time for me to pick it up the following morning.
After lunch, the trial got even worse for Stefan and Naomi. Detective Carmichael took the stand and walked the jury through the evidence that had been logged in the old limestone quarry, including Stefan"s b.l.o.o.d.y school ID card.
Naomi tried to get Carmichael to admit the ID could have been planted, but the detective wouldn"t bite, said, "Your client was so hopped up on booze and drugs and so deep into his s.a.d.i.s.tic ways that he wasn"t thinking straight."
Detective Frost testified about photographs taken at the scene. I"d seen them all before, but blown up like that, the brutality of what had been done to Rashawn"s body was magnified. There were audible gasps in the room, several from the jurors.
"Monster!" Cece Turnbull screamed as she leaped to her feet and stabbed her finger at Stefan. "You butchered him! You butchered him like there was nothing human and good there at all!"
For several beats, Judge Varney hammered his gavel and called for order, and then he instructed the bailiffs to escort Rashawn"s mother from the court yet again.
Cece was having none of it and screeched and spit at Stefan before the bailiffs could get hold of her and muscle her out. Cece"s mother wept while her father held his wife and stared in loathing at my cousin.
After the session, Naomi emerged from the courthouse and tried to put a positive spin on the day for the reporters gathered out front.
She left them finally and came over to Bree, Pinkie, and me in the parking lot. My aunts and Nana Mama had gone home at lunch.
Naomi said, "I know the judge instructed the jury to ignore Cece"s rant, but they"ll remember it."
"They couldn"t help but remember it," Bree said. "She left me shaking."
Naomi looked away, wiped at her watering eyes. "Me too. I know it"s unprofessional of me, but I"m beginning to wonder whether Stefan did those things to Rashawn."
"I am too," said Patty Converse, who walked up to us. "I"m asking myself how I could have missed so much."
"I"m considering whether or not to ask for a plea bargain," Naomi said. "I know Matt Brady. He"ll be fair."
"Don"t throw in the towel just yet," I said.
"We"ve got nothing to refute Stefan"s being at the crime scene," Naomi said. "They"ve got his DNA all over the place."
Before I could respond to that, my phone rang, and I turned away. It was Coach Greene calling.
"You don"t know how much I hate to say this, Dr. Cross, but I just received a call from Detective Pedelini with the sheriff"s office. The blood and urine tests on your daughter both came back positive for cocaine and methamphetamine. I"m afraid Jannie can"t continue training with us, and Duke will be withdrawing its offer of a scholarship."
CHAPTER 83.
"THIS IS BULLs.h.i.t, coach," I said, struggling to control my fury. "Those samples had to have been tampered with. Probably by Detective Pedelini."
"Well," she said skeptically, "I don"t know how you"re-"
"Going to prove it? We have our own samples from that day in a brown paper bag in my refrigerator. I asked for them as a precaution. I"ll be sending those samples to an impartial lab. Will Duke take the FBI"s word?"
The line fell silent. Then Coach Greene said, "If the FBI says Jannie"s clean, then she"s clean."
"Thank you, Coach," I said curtly. "I"ll be in touch."
I punched the disconnect b.u.t.ton, wanting to hurl my cell phone through the windshield of my rental car. But I summoned every reserve of control I had left and told Bree and the others about the lab report.
"There is no way Jannie could have run like she did the other day if she was on c.o.ke and speed," Bree said.
"Yeah," Pinkie said. "Can"t they see that?"
"Evidently not, until we"ve got evidence that says otherwise," I said and told them about Greene"s agreement to let the FBI"s lab be the final word.
"That works," Pinkie said.
It did, and I started to calm down. Then something about the whole issue of drugs in the bloodstream and in the urine made me ask, "Naomi, has anyone run drug tests on the s.e.m.e.n off Rashawn"s body and the Lawrence girl"s underwear?"
She thought about that, said, "Not that I know of."
"Do you have access to those samples?"
"We received small subsamples that we are free to use to conduct our own tests," she said. "They"re at the office."
"Get them and bring them to our house," I said, then I turned to Bree. "Get Jannie"s samples from our fridge and what Naomi brings you and pack it all up. Pinkie will take you to the Winston-Salem airport."
"Okay ..."
"Buy a round-trip ticket to National Airport," I said. "I"ll call my friends at Quantico. Someone will meet you when your plane lands. You"ll go home, check on the house, fly back here in the morning."
"You think this drug test might help Stefan?" Pinkie said.
"Depends on the results," I said.
"And what are you going to do while I"m gone?" Bree asked.
"Pay Detective Pedelini a visit, and maybe Marvin Bell too."
CHAPTER 84.