Page 69 of The Devil's Advocate

‘Is that your car?’ he asked, pointing to the Prius.

‘It’s a rental, but yeah. Can we talk inside?’

He ushered me indoors, fast. Closed the door and showed me into a room to the left of the hallway. It was an oak-paneled study, with bookshelves lining one wall. The curtains were pulled in this room, and the only light came from a banker’s lamp on his desk. He didn’t sit down, didn’t offer me a seat on the couch.

‘What do you want? I already told you, I’m retired.’

He was out of breath, but it was panic and fear rather than exertion on his part.

‘Cody Warren hired you to perform an autopsy on Skylar Edwards. You found marks on her temple, made with a ring. Those marks are not in the medical examiner’s report. I think that’s important. Either the ME missed them, which I don’t think is likely, or she was told to omit them from her report. Why do you think that is?’

‘Isn’t it obvious? The suspect Korn found for the murder didn’t have that ring. The ring could be used for reasonable doubt. Let me tell you something, Mr. Flynn, there are very few unsolved murders in Sunville County. Many suspect that the few unsolved cases that they do have were probably committed by the DA himself, or those close to him.’

‘You think the DA is a killer?’

He shook his head. ‘If you have not arrived at that conclusion on your own then I can’t help you. He lives to watch the executions he has orchestrated. Either in the chair or with the needle, or … by other means.’

‘All the more reason to help me save Andy Dubois.’

As I spoke that name, Farnesworth’s face changed. He turned away, unable to meet my eyes, his gaze fell and his features too. The name of Andy Dubois was a sliver of shame that pricked at this skin.

‘I can’t help you. I told you I’m retired,’ he said again, his voice low.

‘You were retired when you took the job from Cody. What’s changed?’

‘Everything. I did the autopsy, wrote my report and discussed it with Cody. At some stage he had to share it with the prosecutor through discovery. Day after my report was served on the District Attorney’s Office, I got a phone call to say it would not be in my interests to testify if I wanted to keep breathing.’

‘Did you tell the sheriff about this?’

‘The phone call came from the Sheriff’s Office.’

‘Lomax?’

‘Yeah, Lomax was a good man before he met Korn. I don’t know how to explain it to you properly, maybe I don’t have to, but Korn has a way of getting to people. Climbing inside them with his filth. Infecting them. Not long after he became DA, the capital-murder cases in the county went through the roof, and Lomax bought a new car. Then soon after, a new house, his wife started shopping at all the expensive stores in town. Look, do you need me to draw you a picture? Korn put Lomax on the take. And once you make a little compromise, you’re finished. Then it’s a one-way street. Taking a bribe becomes turning a blind eye to some evidence tampering, then actively evidence tampering, then destroying evidence, then destroying people like Cody and Betty. Sooner or later, you realize that street has taken you someplace you never expected to be.’

I knew the story only too well. I’d seen it before in cops. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a slow accretion ; little by little they become more corrupt until it consumes them. It’s a frog in cold water, which slowly comes to the boil.

‘Why would Lomax pull the trigger for Korn? That’s a big step. Is he being blackmailed?’

‘I don’t know. Korn has a way of making people do whatever he wants. And if he can’t control someone, they won’t be around for much longer. That’s why I can’t help you. I don’t want to meet the business end of a shotgun on my way to the mailbox one morning.’

I didn’t want to pressure Farnesworth. He looked like a scared old man. But the thought of Andy sitting in an electric chair was by far the greater evil.

‘Look, you took photos when you examined the body. Betty told me they were in the trunk of Cody’s car with the case files – but they’re missing. I need those photos, and I need you to testify about the marks on the victim’s head. If you do this, I’ll protect you.’

‘You going to move in with me, son? No disrespect, but you’re going to have a tough enough time staying alive yourself.’

‘Story of my life,’ I said. ‘Look, there has to be a way of me using the photographs and keeping you out of it. None of the other reports or photos show that marking on the victim.’

‘I’m sorry about your client. Truly, I am. But I’m not willing to die for him.’

‘I’ve got friends in New York. I can have a full protection team on a plane, on their way here in under an hour. Please—’

‘There’s no way I’m taking that chance.’

‘So Cody and Betty died for nothing, Skylar’s killer walks free and Korn gets to fry an innocent kid in the electric chair? Is that what you’re telling me?’

He took a step back, his bottom lip trembled as he sucked in air.