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“His wife says her husband confessed to killing Pete Michaels prior to his injury.”
Lydia stood a little straighter. “That would be new information. And it’s an admissible hearsay exception.”
“She won’t testify though. She said her lawyer wouldn’t let her.”
Lydia raised an eyebrow. “That’s a provocative statement.”
“Her husband was nearly beaten to death ten years ago. It’s possible she encouraged his assailant.”
“Incitement to commit assault, possibly. But it’s way beyond the statute of limitations. She would not be putting herself at risk.”
“Some lawyers are overly cautious.”
“Is that a dig?”
“No.” Well, maybe it was. I asked, “Could we subpoena her if we took the case?”
“We could compel her to give a deposition, and if she says that her husband confessed to murdering Pete Michaels, that will likely get us a new trial. But it’s also likely she won’t say that, isn’t it? And since the conversation we want her to testify to was between her and her now mentally incompetent husband, she can lie with impunity.Andshe could rely on spousal privilege and say nothing if she wants to. Unless she comes forward voluntarily, we can’t use her.”
We stood there awkwardly for a moment.
“There must be something else,” Karen said.
“I think Anne Michaels will recant her testimony.”
“That just speaks to motive,” Lydia said. “You can change the reason and all the same things happen. That’s what a judge would say.” I’d already figured that out, but it was good to have confirmation.
“I’m sure I could find something in discovery,” I said, though it was unlikely I’d be around that long. Lydia gave me a look that said I was incorrigible.
“The problem with our taking a case like this one is that it could drag on for years. There’s no smoking gun, nothing to threaten the DA with. They could easily dig in and make this drag out for six, seven, eight years. When did you say this guy is up for parole?”
“Five years.”
“If we do anything, we should help with that. It’s fifty-fifty whether he’ll get out on his first try at parole, but if we get the right mix of people speaking for him, if he’s contrite and remorseful given that he was so young when he was convicted, it might improve those odds.”
“That’s the best we can do?”
“Unless you find something concrete. But I need you to let this go, Dom. We can’t get so caught up saving one guy that we fail a dozen others.”
When Lydia went back to her office, I asked Karen to help me make arrangements to see Larry Wilkes the next day.
23
April 18, 1996
Thursday morning
On the drive up to Corcoran, I listened to KCRW until the signal broke up. They’d begun their one-year anniversary coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing. The story they decided to air—which would likely never hit the big networks—had to do with the media’s rush to judgement. In the first twenty-four hours after the bombing, the reports indicated that the terrorist was likely from the Middle East. There were even suggestions that we bomb whichever Arab country was most likely to have supplied the terrorist and worry about whether we were right later. The press was left thoroughly confused when they learned a nice-looking, white Christian boy had committed the worst ever terrorist attack on American soil. How would we ever process that?
When I finally lost the signal, I put in a CD. Jane Olivor’sBest Side of Goodbye. Not my normal fare. I’d mentioned her once to Ronnie and he’d gotten me the CD. She reminded me… well, she reminded me of so much.
While I listened, I tried to focus. I needed to be thinking about Pete Michaels’ murder. I was on my way to the prison to tell Larry Wilkes we would not be taking his case. I desperately wanted not to be doing that, so I ran through the murder mentally, hoping to find some tiny bit of possible evidence I might have overlooked.
Pete Michaels met with his killer, Coach Bernie Carrier, on September 18, 1976. A Saturday. Sometime in the afternoon. His parents and his brother were out. But not together. Pete must have set up the meeting himself, he was the one who’d have known his family’s plans. So Coach Carrier would have known what the meeting was about: blackmail. He’d likely agreed to Pete’s terms and had come to hand over the money. Except he had no intention of doing that. He’d obtained a gun, so he went with the intent to kill Pete.
There were no fingerprints on the gun. That meant it was wiped. Or the coach wore gloves. But was that before the murder or after? If it was before, it implies a great deal of planning—including the gloves. After, suggests Bernie went hoping not to have to kill Pete. I decided to go with before.
So, no fingerprints on the gun—Coach Carrier was wearing gloves. And what about the bullets? Were there fingerprints on them? Could you even get fingerprints off a bullet casing? I had no idea.
