Naive Charles Royce (great novels .txt) 📖

“That’s what they call the questioning of the prospective jury, right?” He’s trying to remember the terminology.

“Yes,” she replies. “Now, this lady … this cat lady … she had on these tight black gloves with white tips. Looked like claws. Toward the end of her questioning, she said something that sounded vaguely like gay-bashing, and Shawn immediately moved to strike her. Which I really didn’t mind, cuz she was annoying as hell.”

“Sounds like he knew what he was looking for, and maybe he got it too.”

“Yeah.” She brings her wineglass up to her mouth to take another sip. She stops, letting the glass rest on her lips.

“Let’s get to work, shall we?” he repeats, breaking Astrid out of her thoughts.

“Let’s do this.” She sits in the chair opposite the view she was enjoying before Detective Penance arrived.

“Okay, so we have the phone calls and texts from Micah, which we have in the timeline,” he starts. “We also have the phone call from Talbot to Lennox that night telling him that he couldn’t make their meeting, whatever that means, and another voice message from James West, who basically said he was at the party, he had just seen Micah, and everyone was wondering where he was. Are you gonna use the Talbot and James West phone calls?”

“Yes, I think we have to if we talk about Micah’s. By introducing the one call, we open ourselves up to the rest of the them during cross.”

“Well, you gotta do what you gotta do. I know you can handle it.”

“Yep. What’s next?”

“Despite Lennox being found naked, the autopsy results showed no signs of sexual battery, plus the shower DNA results showed mostly dark hairs from Lennox. We think he had just taken a shower and was grabbing a snack, which matches what Micah told us in his voluntary deposition. Stomach contents included barely digested cereal and milk, which goes along with the half-eaten corn flakes we found on the desk.”

“What about the chair? What’s your feeling about that?”

“The bloody desk chair that was moved across the floor during the attack? No one doubts that the chair is where the initial murder took place. My guess is the victim was rolled and dumped on the floor. The perpetrator either finished stabbing him there, or just discarded him and left him for dead.”

“My God. I dare someone to convince me this wasn’t a crime of passion. Poor guy, not a care in the world, having some cereal at his desk. If I get caught up in the emotion of that, I’m done for. Moving on.”

“So the Wi-Fi camera that may have taped the murder, where is it, here it is.” He moves the photo of the camera found inside the African trinket box to the forefront of all the other photos. “Now, we still haven’t found any recording, but I leave to you to introduce the camera to the jury.”

“I filed a motion to dismiss it,” Astrid says. “Since nobody knows what the hell it even did. But if the camera is entered into evidence, I’ve been thinking about a counter. Something about sadism … wanting to video his own crime. We don’t know that he didn’t set this up himself.”

“Actually, we might know who did. I went to see James West this week and found a number of souvenirs from his African travels in his office, including a box that looks remarkably similar to this one.” He points to the picture of the box from the crime scene, then unearths a magazine photo of James West next to the console in his office, with an African box clearly on display. He circles the box with a red grease pencil. “Now, might be coincidence, might not, but again, something to consider.”

“Considered. I read your report.”

“Now, along the same lines, we confiscated the main servers and combed any interactions with James West and Lennox Holcomb. We found nothing. Well, we found chats, but any conversations between the two of them from about six months ago until now are gone. Wiped. Not even a trace. Which I thought was kinda strange, especially considering that all other emails, interoffice messaging, everything on virtually every single employee was still there.”

“Wait, so are you saying we should be looking at this company, this CEO, instead of who we arrested and charged?”

“Not exactly. See, my colleague is working the other case, the Union Square murder case, and with all the knowledge I have of the two cases, I have a theory that Élan Publishing was keeping tabs on key conspirators in some sort of financial cover-up, and they may have been keeping tabs on Lennox by placing a camera in their living room, which might have recorded the murder that night. Accidentally.”

“May have, might have. Speculation. You can’t say that on the stand.”

“I could work it in somehow. If the camera’s admitted into evidence.”

“Good luck with that. What’s next?”

“Jenna.” Detective Penance pulls out a photo of Jenna Ancelet. “Now, I saw this chick … excuse me, lady … when I was leaving James West’s office. I remembered her from the night we took in Micah. She was the one Micah saw as we were leaving the murder scene, and he yelled at her to call his lawyer. That’s not even the juicy part.”

“I should say not, you interviewed her as well. I have the transcript.”

“Right, right. She was cleared. Alibi, everything. Done. But get this. I saw her at Élan talking with Mr. West right before I got there. She doesn’t work there anymore, I remembered, so why would she be there? I combed the servers and found out that all of her emails and instant messaging to Lennox were gone from the same exact timeframe, too.”

“Wait, I thought you said everyone else’s emails were still on the servers?”

“I said virtually everyone else’s. Jenna’s is gone, too. Zip. Nada.”

“Jesus Christ, this company. Does that lead you to believe we’re on the wrong