Page 103 of One of Us Is Guilty

‘Riley doesn’t have the same years of experience as we do, probably just an oversight,’ said Harry in a hushed whisper.

‘I think he’s good enough to know his weaknesses. Something is wrong here.’

Harry frowned, leaned back in his chair, then began to rub the top of his head, letting his fingers comb through his gray hair. He often did this when he was thinking.

Suddenly, he leaned forward, grabbed his trial bundle and began flicking through the pages. I kept an ear on Riley and Dr. Morrow, still on his work history with the city. They hadn’t gotten to the meat of his testimony yet. Vanessa was listening to the witness, but I saw her glance at Harry and I, just to see what we were up to. She soon turned back to listening to the testimony.

Ripping a page from his trial bundle, Harry handed it to me, said, ‘You’re right. Something’s wrong with this picture.’

The document was only a paragraph long. A statement from a uniformed cop, one of the officers who had attended at the crime scene – Officer Garcia. In the statement he said that he had attended the morgue and accompanied Alison Karim who identified the remains as that of Molly Green, from her body shape, approximate height and a small tattoo on her left wrist of a dolphin.

‘There’s nothing about Garcia making an effort to get her driver’s license, birth records or any kind of search for a family member,’ I said, keeping my voice low.

‘Maybe he did, but he couldn’t find anything,’ said Harry. ‘We know nothing about this young woman, and Riley hasn’t done the leg work on her life either.’

This was all too strange. It wasn’t a coincidence.

I texted Lake, told him to see what he could find in public records for Molly Green including any family history. Surely, the NYPD would have made an effort to contact her family. It’s protocol. It had to have been done, but Garcia didn’t make any note of it in eitherhis statement about attending the scene, nor this statement about body identification.

Lake texted back, said he was on it.

‘What do you think?’ asked Harry.

‘Could be three things. Either the NYPD didn’t do their job, Riley didn’t do his due diligence or they couldn’t find anything.’

‘What does that even mean? They would’ve found something,’ said Harry.

‘Not if Molly Green wasn’t who she said she was. What if she was working for Patrick Vanderpool under a false identity? What if she had an alternative agenda? This murder could be about a lot more than a scandalous affair.’

‘Dr. Morrow, did you examine the body of the victim in this case, Molly Green?’

‘I did. I carried out a full postmortem examination . . .’

We were now getting into real territory with Dr. Morrow. I gave him my full attention, and tried to push thoughts of Molly Green to the back of my mind. Nothing about this case was straightforward.

An image flashed on the large screen for the jury.

The headless body of a young woman.

A few members of the jury gasped. Some looked away, then forced their gaze back at the screen.

The image came up without warning to the jury. No words of comfort from Riley, no apologies for showing them the result of an evil, murderous act of violence. He knew most, if not all, of those jurors would take that picture to their grave. That they would close their eyes at night, for a long time after this trial was over, and they would see this young woman lying on a steel table.

It was what he wanted. What he counted on.

Riley wanted to shock.

He got it.

I heard Vanessa sniff, softly. It was then I noticed she was crying.Her face wet with tears, the grief and loss writ large on her features. Normally, I tell my clients not to react to anything in the courtroom. Just look neutral, let me do the reacting.

But there was no hiding this.

This was what the prosecution case lacked – genuine grief, empathy.

I caught some of the jurors staring at Vanessa.

They were trying to figure out if she was crying because someone she had known had been murdered and mutilated in this way, or if she was staring back at her own handiwork with shame and disgust.