Dog Tags

CHAPTER 69

“THE DEFENSE CALLS CAPTAIN ROGER DESSENS.”

Dessens stands and heads for the witness stand, staring at me as he walks. He’s expecting me to attack him and make him look incompetent, and the truth is it would give me great pleasure to do just that.

But I won’t, damnit.

Frustrating as it is, Dessens is my witness, and he has things to say that will benefit my client. I don’t want him reluctant to say them because he’s pissed off at me. So I have to treat him with kid gloves, even though I’ve never really found a pair that fit.

I ask him to describe the circumstances by which he came to be responsible for the protection of Raymond Santiago the other night.

“Judge Catchings issued an order for the state police to take him into protective custody, at your request.”

“Were you given background information on Sergeant Santiago?”

He nods. “We were.” Dessens keeps using “we” rather than “I”; he doesn’t want to take the fall for this on his own. He then goes on, at my prodding, to reveal that Santiago was one of the soldiers who was discharged from the army as a result of negligence that fateful day in Iraq.

After he describes getting the phone call from me and sending two officers to my house to pick up Santiago, I ask, “Were you waiting for him at the hotel?”

“Yes.”

“With more of your officers?”

“Yes. We had six more officers assigned to the hotel detail.”

“Was anyone else with you?”

He nods. “Yes. FBI Special Agent Wilbur Briggs and US Army Captain Derek Meade. They were planning to question Santiago when he arrived.”

This is an important fact for the jury to hear. I want them to know that Santiago was not just some defense concoction; serious branches of the US government were anxious to hear what he had to say.

At the same time, the inconsistency of it puzzles me. First the feds were interested enough to have Milo guarded, then they backed off entirely, and then they were anxious to question Santiago. I’m not sure what Santiago could have told them that they’d be interested in, especially since they had obviously been content to conduct a whitewash investigation of the Iraq explosion.

“Had you notified them about Santiago being taken into custody?” I ask.

“No. I have no idea how they became aware of the situation.”

I have no idea, either, and it’s bugged me since that night. But I move on and get Dessens to explain that the shot came from a window in a building a good distance away. He describes the weapon as an advanced, high-powered rifle, and the shooter as an outstanding marksman.

“Is it your assessment that he was already in position when your men arrived with Santiago?”

“Definitely,” he says.

“Do you have any idea how he knew where Santiago was being taken?”

“I do not,” he says, firmly.

“Had you revealed the location to myself, any member of the defense team, or the court?”

“No.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

Dessens almost does a double take when I dismiss him; he still can’t believe I didn’t try to embarrass him. I’m having trouble believing it myself.

Eli starts his cross by asking if Dessens knew where Santiago lived.

“No.”

“Do you know his occupation before he went in the army?”

Dessens shakes his head. “No.”

“Was he married?”

“I don’t know.”

“So you know very little about him? Is that fair?” Eli asks.

“That is fair.”

“Do you know if he had any enemies?”

“He had at least one.” The gallery and some of the jury laugh at the answer, which is certainly not the reaction Eli wanted.

“But you have no personal knowledge of why that one enemy shot and killed him?”

“No.”

“For all you know it could have nothing to do with the explosion in Iraq?”

“Correct.”

“For all you know it could have nothing to do with this case?”

“Correct.”

“Thank you. No further questions.”