Supreme Justice

Chapter Sixty-three

Monte Pike was puzzled by Mary Garrett’s discovery request. Why would she want to inspect the evidence gathered by the police in Max Dietz’s case? Garrett’s secretary had left the DA’s office as soon as she delivered the motion for discovery, so Pike didn’t get a chance to question her. He assumed she wouldn’t know why her boss had filed the motion anyway and wouldn’t tell him anything if she did. That left a mystery for Pike to solve, but he loved puzzles. Unfortunately, he had no clue to the solution of this one, and the only conclusion he drew was that Garrett suspected a connection between Max’s disappearance and Sarah Woodruff’s case. Pike had no idea what that connection might be when he called Garrett and told her that the evidence would be in a conference room in the DA’s office whenever she wanted to examine it. He had asked what she was looking for, but Garrett had given him a polite version of “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” so he was no wiser when Garrett broke their connection.

The next day, another mystery presented itself when Dana Cutler followed Mary Garrett into the conference room. Pike flashed a bemused smile.

“What a pleasant and unexpected surprise. But I’m afraid reporters aren’t allowed to look at evidence in an ongoing case, no matter how famous they may be.”

“Cutler’s my investigator, Monte,” Garrett said.

Pike looked perplexed and could see that Garrett was pleased by his obvious confusion.

“I guess I could ask if Ms. Cutler is licensed in Oregon,” Pike said, “but you’d find some way around that.”

Mary started to say something, but Pike held up his hand.

“I’m fine with Ms. Cutler helping the defense as long as she promises that she won’t report about anything she sees that is not public record.”

Mary turned toward Dana.

“I’m fine with that,” Dana said.

“OK, then.” Pike pointed to one of the DA’s investigators who was sitting in a corner of the conference room. “Bob Hunsacker is here to keep an eye on you.”

“Hey, Bob,” said Garrett, who knew the investigator.

“Ms. Garrett,” he answered with a nod.

Pike took another hard look at Dana. Then he shook his head.

“Do either of you ladies want some coffee?” Pike asked.

“I know how bad your office coffee is, Monte,” Mary said. “Just the offer is enough for a prosecutorial misconduct charge.”

Pike laughed. “Have fun,” he said before closing the door behind him.

Mary had tried to get Dana to tell her what she was looking for, but Dana insisted that the lawyer couldn’t be hurt by what she didn’t know. Dana suggested that Mary go through the evidence as if she did know why they were there. Dana could see that Garrett was annoyed, but she was relieved when Woodruff’s attorney decided to play along.

Brown cardboard boxes were stacked on the conference table and the floor. There were Magic Marker notations indicating where the contents of each box had been found. Dana started with the boxes filled with evidence taken from Dietz’s house so Hunsacker would not be able to figure out what she was doing. She knew that Pike would get a full briefing on what Hunsacker had seen as soon as she and Mary were gone.

One hour and fifteen minutes after Dana started, she opened the first box she actually wanted to examine. It held the contents of Dietz’s office desk. She wasn’t disappointed when she found nothing of interest. The real object of her search was a plastic trash bag that held everything that had been found on Dietz’s desk. Dana’s heart beat rapidly as she unwound the tie that secured the neck of the bag and emptied the contents onto the tabletop.

Dana was an excellent poker player, and she kept any emotion from showing as she sifted through the contents of the bag. Halfway through the mess, her long shot came through in the form of a crumpled, half-filled-out subpoena. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hunsacker watching her closely, so she controlled her desire to read the subpoena and made it the fifth piece of paper she studied. It only took her a moment to see what Dietz had written and, in that moment, she knew she was right.

Instead of feeling elated, she felt sick.