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Even as she said it, discomfort tickled the back of her neck. It was one thing to not give a person a job because you didn’t want them associated with your business. It was entirely another thing to lie about something inconsequential and send someone to prison for a serious crime they hadn’t committed. “Was Dermot Hadlee still on the town council back then?”
“Yes,” said Hallie. She kicked off both sneakers and gently pushed them to the side so that Flynn could have full control over them. Immediately, the cat started wrestling with Hallie’s left sneaker, her little bell tinkling.
Trinity looked over at Josie and then jotted down some notes.
Josie thought about how Carolina Eddy had been bullied into leaving town. How the citizens had wanted her to tell a white lie to send Mathias to prison because they believed he’d already gotten away with rape. Had Dermot been of the same mind after Piper Tobin’s shooting? Had he considered Mathias a stain on the town and just wanted to get rid of him?
Trinity asked, “Mathias hired Downey, Downey & O’Neill to defend him. From what I’ve been able to glean in my internet research, they’re a very experienced defense firm. It seems like they would have looked pretty hard for other suspects.”
Hallie watched as Flynn dragged her sneaker toward the kitchen. “They would have, and they did when he finally hired them. When Mathias was first arrested, he had another public defender. Neither of us had money for a good lawyer. Downey, Downey & O’Neill came into the picture after he’d been in prison for a few years.”
“Did you visit him in prison?” Trinity asked.
“Every weekend,” said Hallie. “He was up near Erie so it was about a six-hour drive each way, but there was no way I was letting him rot in there alone. I told him I’d do everything I could to prove his innocence.”
Josie asked, “You were the one who hired Downey, Downey & O’Neill?”
“Oh no. I still didn’t have the money for that. I’d been trying to find a good firm that would take his appeal pro bono, but no one wanted to touch it. Then one day I went to visit him at the prison, and he told me that he’d gotten someone. I asked him how and he said not to worry about it. I was so happy, I didn’t. I just wanted him to come home, and he seemed pretty confident about this firm.”
Josie said, “Did you ever meet anyone from the firm?”
“Yes. Throughout the process I did meet his attorney.”
“How about any of the paralegals?” Josie pressed. “Did you ever meet someone named Keri Cryer?”
She could feel Trinity’s eyes burning a hole in the side of her face, but she ignored it.
Hallie gave a faltering smile. “I think. I don’t know. There was a woman on the staff there that Mathias thought was really pretty and nice. He talked about her a lot. That might have been her name.”
Before Josie could ask more questions, Trinity said, “But Mathias wasn’t set free on appeal, he was exonerated, thanks to exculpatory evidence. I couldn’t get any of the trial or hearing transcripts or the file from the DA—assuming they’d even give it to me—before we met.” She turned and looked pointedly at Josie. “Maybe you have some of the files?”
Josie said, “No, I don’t have any of the files. My department could not get anything from the law firm.”
Satisfied, Trinity turned back to Hallie. “Without information from either the prosecutor or Mathias’s attorney, I’m at a loss. Just like with Jana’s case, neither Piper’s shooting nor Mathias’s exoneration were covered in the press. Do you know what the exculpatory evidence was?”
“A witness,” Hallie answered. “He came forward and said that he’d seen Mathias at the time that Piper was murdered. Evidently, he hadn’t come forward earlier because the police had never talked with him, but it was enough to free Mathias.”
Josie said, “Where is Mathias now?”
Hallie frowned. “I don’t know. Your colleague—Detective Palmer, you said? She called me yesterday to ask if I knew where he was or how to get in touch with him. I honestly don’t know. I haven’t seen him in months. When he got out, he stayed at a halfway house in Bradysport. I couldn’t believe it. All those years of me driving out to Erie to visit him. All those years of us living together as a family before that, and he would not come home to me.” She waved a hand around the room. “I mean, this is his home as much as it is mine. Believe me, I wanted him to come stay with me, but he said that he couldn’t. The last time I spoke with him, which was about a month or two after he got out, he said he couldn’t see me again until he had cleared his name.”
“Why not?” Trinity asked.
“It wasn’t safe. That’s what he told me. He said when he cleared his name once and for all, we could be a family again. Then he disappeared. His phone number was disconnected soon after that. He never went back to the halfway house. I’ve been looking all over for him. I have no idea where he is or if he’s even alive. I hope he is.” Tears formed in her eyes. She swallowed. Flynn abandoned the sneaker near the kitchen doorway and sauntered back to Hallie, rubbing her body against Hallie’s shins. “He’s all I’ve got left.”
Josie said, “Hallie, my team recently discovered that he’s been staying in Denton.”
Confusion creased her forehead. “Denton? We don’t know anyone in Denton.”
“Keri Cryer,” Josie said. “She was a paralegal with Downey, Downey & O’Neill. Evidently she had worked on his case. They’ve been dating. He was staying with her. He was last seen there Thursday.”
Flynn leapt up into Hallie’s lap, nudging her hands to be petted. “Last seen? If he was there, can’t you just ask her where he went? I really need to talk to him. I need to see him. I need to tell him about Trinity and the show.”
“We can’t ask Keri,” Josie said. “Because she was murdered.”
Hallie’s hands lifted to cover her mouth. In her lap, Flynn froze, staring up at her. Voice muffled behind her hands, she said, “Oh my God. What happened?”
“I’m not at liberty to say,” Josie replied.
