Supreme Justice

Chapter Thirty-six

The next morning, Mary called Monte Pike as soon as she got to work. A half hour later, she and Pike were seated in a conference room in the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office.

“So Mary, what’s up?” Monte asked when they’d concluded their small talk.

“Does a freighter named the China Sea mean anything to you?”

“No.”

“Max Dietz can tell you all about it.”

Pike’s brow furrowed. The young DA seemed genuinely puzzled.

“Why does Max know about this ship, and what does it have to do with the Woodruff case?”

“Remember the fingerprint you found in Sarah Woodruff’s house that you ran through AFIS?”

“Yeah. It matched a print from a case in Shelby. I talked to a cop there, but he never got back to me.”

“The cop’s name is Tom Oswald. My investigator tracked down his report about the China Sea. Oswald found the print on the ship. He came to Portland looking for you after you called Shelby about the latent. You were in trial, so he met with Dietz instead.” Mary handed Pike a copy of Oswald’s police report. “I talked to Oswald last night. He verified everything he wrote and added a few items that aren’t in the report. Max knew everything Oswald told me.”

When Pike finished reading the report, Mary told him about the disappearance of the ship and the night watchman.

“And there’s more. Shortly after Finley was kidnapped, two dead men were found on a logging road. They’d been shot to death, and they were working for a Mexican drug cartel. I think they were the men who kidnapped Finley from Sarah’s condo.”

“What do you want, Mary?”

“I want you to dismiss the indictment. This is a clear case of prosecutorial misconduct. Max had a duty to tell me about this exculpatory evidence.”

“Max may have violated the ethics rules, but any effect his misconduct had on Woodruff’s first case was cured by the dismissal.”

“Would you have gotten this new indictment if the grand jury knew everything I’ve just told you?” Mary asked.

Pike considered the question, and Mary waited anxiously for his answer. When she got it, she had trouble hiding her disappointment.

“Yeah,” Pike said. “I would still have presented the case even with this new information. Everything you’ve told me applies to the first case, not this one.”

“How can you say that? If Finley was involved with black ops and drug cartels, it presents several alternatives to the theory that Sarah killed him.”

“This stuff about drug dealers and CIA assassins is total speculation. Do we even know that there was hashish in the hold of the China Sea? Was the substance tested in a lab?”

“Homeland Security absconded with the ship and its cargo. There was no opportunity to test it.”

“So the answer is no. And you’re conveniently ignoring a few things. This stuff about spies and drug cartels is fascinating, but it doesn’t explain away these facts: One, Finley had an argument with your client on the night he was killed; two, he was murdered with a gun that was stolen from the evidence room of the Portland Police Bureau; and three, your client is the last person to have contact with that gun. Spies or no spies, the evidence says that Sarah Woodruff murdered John Finley.”

“Don’t be naive, Monte. The CIA has people on its payroll who could steal a gun from the police evidence room if they wanted to frame Sarah. Remember the Finley DVD? Someone broke into Judge Nesbit’s chambers and left it. You can’t honestly tell me that nothing about this case raises a reasonable doubt in your mind about Sarah’s guilt.”

“If I had a reasonable doubt, I wouldn’t pursue the case. I believe your client killed John Finley. Just because we made a mistake the first time around doesn’t mean Woodruff gets a free pass this time. In fact, it is her audacity in thinking that she can get away with murder because we screwed up in her first case that motivates me.”

“I guess we disagree on what this case is really about,” Mary said as she pulled a stack of papers from her attaché and handed them to Pike. “I was hoping we could resolve this matter once you learned about Finley’s connection to the China Sea. These are copies of my motions to dismiss for prosecutorial misconduct and discovery that I’m filing as soon as I leave our meeting. Sarah Woodruff didn’t kill John Finley this time any more than she did the first time you made the mistake of charging her. He was killed by drug dealers or agents of the United States government who want to keep the public from learning about the China Sea. I’m going to make sure that everyone knows about the CIA’s dirty little secret.”