AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, so Kranst only had an accomplice for that one murder, then.”
Arnett shook his head again. “Except there was nothing to show any connection between Kranst and Ossokov. And also, by then the girlfriend came forward and said she’d lied, that shehadbeen with Ossokov on the night of Richards’ murder.”
Jo leaned forward in her chair. “Oh, come on. How did any judge take that as credible?”
“She said she’d lied because she’d caught him having sex with a friend of hers right after the night they went to the movies, and was pissed.”
Jo scrunched her face skeptically. “And she just woke up one morning and decided to tell the truth?”
“She was heavy into meth and alcohol back when she lied. Went into rehab and Narcotics Anonymous and found God. Part of the program and her new born-again life was making amends for her wrongs. The fact that she was willing to risk a perjury charge lent credibility. Initially the judge ruled that her testimony wasn’t likely to have changed the outcome of the trial, but once it combined with Kranst’s confession, that changed, and Sakurai overturned. She didn’t see the point in subjecting everyone to a second trial when there was no way the prosecutor would get a conviction.”
Jo sat for a minute, trying to straighten out the twists—something still wasn’t making sense. “If Sakurai was the judge that overturned his conviction, he’d have no reason to bear her a grudge. And wait—how could Sakurai know for sure it would have changed the outcome of the trial when Zara’s blood was found inside Ossokov’s car? It had to have gotten there somehow.”
“The new defense attorney argued it was a lab mistake, that there had somehow been cross contamination between the tests. The amount of blood found in Ossokov’s car was tiny, just a smudge. When the CSI swabbed it, they took all of it and used it in the analysis and it couldn’t be rerun.”
“And no way to confirm equals reasonable doubt.” Jo blew out a long puff of air. “Fifteen years behind bars for an innocent man.”
“That’s one way to look at it,” Arnett said.
That struck Jo as an odd response. “What’s another way?”
Arnett started to respond, but his phone rang. He glanced down at the screen. “ADA Nguyen returning my call about Hauptman.”
* * *
Jo pulled her chair over to Arnett’s desk as he put the phone on speaker.
“Arnett. I’m returning your call.”
The brisk, mildly irritated voice pulled up an image of Steve Nguyen in Jo’s mind: his receding line of black hair, medium-brown eyes, and jittery demeanor always seemed to fit better in a room of over-caffeinated stockbrokers than a DA’s office.
“I appreciate it. I’m here with Jo Fournier. You have a minute?” Arnett asked.
“I’m at the wife’s mother’s house for Sunday lunch, so take all the time you need.”
Jo and Arnett both smiled. “We need to talk to you about Mitch Hauptmann. About six years ago you got the grand jury to indict him for rape, and were lined up for trial in front of Judge Sakurai when the witness bowed out. Does the name ring a bell?”
“You have to be kidding me. What is it with this case that I have people calling me every few months, like I have nothing better to do than relive the most frustrating experience of my life?”
“Who else called you about it?” Arnett asked.
“Sandra Ashville did, a few months back.”
Jo raised her brows at Arnett, and he raised his back. “Why?”
“The guy had given her some trouble, and she was looking into his record. Wanted to know all about the rape case, and why the witness bailed.”
“We’d like to know that, too.”
Nguyen blew out a puff of air. “Yeah, well, I don’t know for sure, but I have my suspicions. We had as solid a case as you can have without DNA. Victim was a young, widowed church-going librarian named Arlene Wharton, would have been next to impossible for the defense to drag her through the mud. She described him down to a birthmark on his arm, and appeared fearless, at least at first. I gave her my standard prep talk about how the defense would try to attack her any way they could, and she looked me directly in my eyes and told me she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if he did the same thing to anybody else. I went home that night and had happy dreams about Truth, Justice, and the American way. Then the very next morning she called and told me she wasn’t willing to testify.”
“What reason did she give?” Arnett asked.
“She didn’t. Wouldn’t say a word, no matter how much I pushed her. But she didn’t have to, because the quiver in her voice told me all I needed to know.”
“She was afraid? You think Hauptmann threatened her?” Jo asked.
“Her? No. She had one thing that meant the world to her—I think he threatenedher daughter.”
