Page 92 of Witness 8

We returned to our tables, Castro shaking his head as he walked away.

‘Detective Chase, read this message, sent by the victim just hours before the murder. My partner, Miss Brooks, will put this up onscreen so the jury can read it too.’

SMS message sent to CONTACT: SMS sent at 17:05.

After all we’ve been through, you’re still treating me like a piece of shit. I’m always second best, aren’t I?

I’m done being your fucking piece on the side.

I can end you with one phone call.

Maybe I should tell everyone what you’ve done.

How would you like that?

Then you’ll know what pain feels like.

The courtroom fell silent.

‘Detective Chase, Margaret Blakemore is threatening to reveal information. If you’d read that message before the anonymous call came in, you would have had a high priority suspect, correct?’

Chase said nothing for a moment. His jaw worked back and forth as he ground his teeth. He knew what he had to say. The answer was clear in his mind, and to everyone else in the courtroom, but it was as if his body refused to let those words out of his mouth. After another few seconds, the silence was becoming uncomfortable. He realized he was making things worse.

‘That’s possible, but—’

‘Wait, you have a threatening conversation taking place with an unknown person hours before the victim was murdered, and it’s onlypossiblethat person would be a suspect?’

‘They would have become a suspect, but they would have been the wrong suspect, Mr. Flynn. Your client had the murder weapon in his home with his DNA present on that gun.’

I had been waiting for this.

‘Detective, you don’t know how long that gun was in my client’s closet, do you?’

‘No.’

‘So it’s possible that this unknown suspect could have shot Margaret Blakemore, and planted that weapon in his home.’

‘Not possible,’ he said.

I had been expecting this. Waiting for it.

‘Are you sure? Could you bemomentarily inaccurateabout your answer? Take a moment before we have that conversation again. Just think carefully now. It’s possible an unknown suspect could have shot Margaret Blakemore and planted that weapon in my client’s home, correct?’

‘Possible,’ spat out Chase, but he added, ‘but not likely.’

I had three more questions. I wanted to increase the tempo of question and answer. Chase was already pissed off. I stepped closer to him, fired out the next question fast, with a little spice in my tone.

‘You said at the beginning of this cross-examination you and your team were thorough, meticulous and professional. It was unprofessional to miss that cell phone, laziness not to search her property fully – isn’t that right?’

‘No, I—’ said Chase, firing back his answer immediately.

‘You wanted to make an arrest alright, but it didn’t matter who you arrested, did it?’

‘We got the right man,’ he said, leaning forward, spitting his answer into the courtroom.

I had done my best with Chase, introduced the possibility of doubt. I didn’t want to name Bale and Ellis yet, not until we had more evidence. Getting specific on these two would only give Castro a chance to knock them down and eliminate them one by one. Now, the jury was left with questions. Who were these suspects? Were they having an affair with the victim? Juries asking themselves questions is where the defense wants to be. Doubt is the defense attorney’s nirvana.

The last question I tossed out just as fast. And I waited to see his reaction.