False Convictions

48

LOOK,” CASEY SAID, “I’m not as gleeful about this as you, and I’m not as certain, either. The web is pretty thick here, and you know from TV as much as I know from the law that when things get sticky, the truth has a funny way of losing itself in the slime.”

“I won’t say he’s providing the slime,” Jake said. “But, goddamn, there’s a trail of it wherever he goes.”

“You want to call Marty, or me?” Casey asked.

“I’ll do it,” Jake said. “Keep you clean in case this whole thing pans out for your savior.”

“Your top lip quivers when you’re nasty. Anyone ever tell you that?”

Jake winked at her and dialed Marty as he drove. “Marty? You still at the office? Good, I need in. Just turn me loose in your law library and I’m a pig in shit. No, you don’t have to stick around. I got it. Thanks.”

“You said it,” Casey said.

“What?”

“The pig part.”

“Want odds on who the real bad guy is?” Jake asked. “Ten will get you twenty.”

“I don’t gamble.”

“No, you’re too steady for that.”

When they arrived, Jake suggested that Casey wait outside until Marty went home, then he could let her in. “No sense in you spoiling your million-dollar baby if I’m wrong. He said he’s on his way out, so it won’t be long. I’ll ring you.”

Casey agreed and watched him go before she went across the street for a piece of broccoli pizza and a Diet Coke at a place called Daddabbo’s. As she waited for her food, CNN opened its half-hour news cycle with the Freedom Project press conference on the Auburn Courthouse steps. The restaurant began to buzz with excitement and when Casey’s face appeared, many of the patrons turned to her with knowing and gleeful looks. Most of the face time, though, along with the biggest sound bites, went to Brad Pitt and Al Gore, with Dwayne and Graham making appearances about as brief as Casey’s. Judge Kollar made the B-roll, smiling broadly and mugging with Jesse Jackson at the hors d’oeuvres table. She sighed and shook her head.

When her pizza came, the waiter pointed to the TV and asked Casey if it was really her. She nodded and sprinkled some red pepper on her slice. Two bites into her food the phone rang and she snapped it open.

“That was quick,” she said.

“I knew you wanted to get back, so I pushed it to drinks instead of a dinner.”

“Robert?” Casey said. “Oh.”

“I’m about twenty minutes away,” he said. “I ordered a couple lobster tails and filets for the jet, and a nice bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet, which you’ll love. The tails aren’t as fresh as on Turks, but you’ll be surprised.”

Casey pushed her pizza away. “Actually, I think I’m going to stick around for a few days.”

The chatter of other early diners around her seemed amplified in the silence of the phone. Finally, he spoke.

“What does that mean? You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I really am going to stay.”

“Why?”

“Just some loose ends,” she said, her stomach constricting.

“The jet’s already scheduled,” Graham said. “I’ve got my week planned out. I was going to spend a couple days in Dallas. I thought I’d check out the clinic and maybe have the chance to grab dinner or something. You’re not even making sense. Come on, here.”

Casey took a deep breath. “I spoke with Patricia Rivers today.”

“Today? Today, when? Like, between the press conference and now?”

“That’s the only time I’ve had,” she said.

“That’s ludicrous,” Graham said, his voice softening and taking on a singsong quality, as if he were talking to a child. “This case is closed. You did your job, now it’s time to go back. I’ve got dinner waiting for us. The crew. The jet’s all warmed up. Stop kidding around, Casey. It’s been a long day.”

“I’m not,” Casey said. “I think we may have made a mistake and if we did, I have to fix it.”

“Casey, Casey, come on,” Graham said. “There’s no mistake. You saw the DNA. This is crazy. Where are you?”

“And what if that DNA got switched?” she said.

Graham snorted. “Come on. Cut it out. You saw how serious those lab people were.”

“But how secure was the sample at the hospital?” Casey said. “Just stuck away someplace in some warehouse.”

Graham fell silent for a minute before he asked, “What did Rivers say to you?”

“She showed me three other crime scenes,” Casey said. “Remote places. Small towns where there weren’t any notes being compared. They all looked the same.”

“So, her son was a serial killer,” Graham said.

“She went outside the law to put Dwayne away, but maybe she did it because she knew he was guilty,” Casey said. “Her son wasn’t at those other places, but Dwayne might have been.”

“And you know this?”

It was Casey’s turn to go silent. Finally, she said, “I have to find out. If it’s true, then maybe we’ve done something very wrong.”

“Do you know how stupid, silly you’re going to look?” Graham said, his voice going suddenly hot. “You freed that man. You went on national TV and set him free. You don’t just go back on that. I’ve got this plane booked out for the next five days, so you need to get on it if you want get back home. You’re talking crazy here.”

“Then I am, and there’s always Delta. Good-bye.”

“Wait! Wait, wait, Casey,” Graham’s voice said, softening. “I’m sorry. It’s been a crazy day. I mean it, I’m sorry. Let’s talk. Let me come get you and we’ll talk. I didn’t mean that. I didn’t. You can go whenever you like. If my jet’s not around, I’ll charter one for you, and I’m writing that check for a million dollars for you tonight and you’ll have it. Sometimes my temper and I say stupid things I don’t mean.”

“Well,” Casey said, hesitating. Her phone beeped and she looked at the incoming call: Jake. “I’ve got a couple things to do. Let me call you later if I get free.”

“Like… what do you have to do?” Graham asked.

“I really have to go,” Casey said. “I’ll call you later.”

She clicked over and Jake told her it was clear.