The Last Alibi

102

Jason

“Detective Austin,” says Shauna, “we’ve discussed that Marshall Rivers’s use of the fentanyl injection on his victims was information that was withheld from the public, correct?”

“That’s correct.”

“Why is that? I mean, you solved the five murders, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“So isn’t the Marshall Rivers investigation closed?”

“No, it is not closed.”

“And why not?” she asks.

Austin doesn’t hesitate in his response. I thought he might. I thought that Roger Ogren might get to him, make him tone down a few things. But in the end, the north side murders were a huge deal and they belong to Austin; he doesn’t care much at all about my case.

He says, “Because we’ve always suspected there was a sixth victim.”

Another wave of murmurs ripples through the gallery. A sixth victim! The North Side Slasher lives on!

“Detective, I’d like to show you a document marked as Defense Exhibit One. I’m going to put it up on the screen here and ask you if you recognize this.”

The jurors, fully consumed with this testimony, turn their heads in unison, like spectators at a tennis match, to the projection screen.

Now u finaly know who I am

Now u will never forgit

Number six was difrent

But she was my favorit

“Detective,” says Shauna, “do you recognize this document?”

“Yes, I do. When we searched Marshall Rivers’s apartment on August second, we found these words typed on his computer. This is a printout of those words.”

Shauna moves for admission of the document, which is granted without objection. She pauses, giving the jurors some time to read it, and reread it, and process it.

“This document, taken from the computer of Marshall Rivers, has never been made public, either, has it?” Shauna asks.

“No, it has not.”

“It was only yesterday that this document was turned over to the defense. Is that your understanding?”

“Yes.”

“Detective, this note led you to investigate the possibility that Marshall Rivers had killed a sixth person, correct?”

“It was a possibility.”

“Did you ever find that sixth victim, Detective?”

“No, we did not.”

Shauna is quiet a moment. She looks over at the jurors, who are reading the words on the projection screen with great interest, trying to make them jibe with things that I said during my testimony.

“Detective, the third line of this note says that ‘number six was different,’ with the last word misspelled. Do you read it the same way?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Marshall Rivers’s first five murders were relatively. . similar, weren’t they? They involved an ambush, they involved injections of fentanyl and, ultimately, brutal cutting and slashing with a folding lockback knife with a partially serrated blade. Isn’t that correct?”

“It is, yes.”

“Wouldn’t an attack that ultimately ended up as a shooting in the back with a handgun qualify as ‘different’?”

“Ob-jection,” Ogren says, more as a whine. Shauna’s question is clearly out of line.

“Sustained.”

“Well, Detective,” says Shauna, “as the lead investigator on the north side murders and on Marshall Rivers himself, do you now believe that this note was written specifically for Jason Kolarich?”

“Objection!” Roger Ogren calls out. He’s right again, but it still sounds like a gripe, a grumpy complaint.

“Sustained,” says the judge.

“Okay,” says Shauna, nodding. “Well, didn’t you take from this note that this sixth murder, his ‘favorite,’ held a unique, personal significance to Marshall Rivers?”

“Judge!” Ogren calls out.

“Because the last victim was Jason Kolarich’s girlfriend?”

“Ms. Tasker, stop right there,” says Judge Bialek. “The objection is sustained. These questions are inappropriate for this witness and you know it. Now move on.”

Shauna knows they’re inappropriate. A courtroom tactician ordinarily wouldn’t even ask these questions of a witness. She would save them for closing argument, identifying each line of the note found on Marshall’s computer and tying it to his obsession with me. Now you finally know who I am, now you will never forget-corroborating my testimony that Marshall came to me in disguise and under an assumed name. Number six was different, as Shauna said, because it turned from a knife attack to a shooting. She was my favorite, because it wasn’t just some random woman, but rather a woman very special to me.

Typically, the lawyer would save these arguments for closing, when she is free to argue anything she wants from the evidence. She wouldn’t ask them of a witness who could fight her. But Shauna has a couple of reasons for doing it now. One, she wants the reporters to hear it. She wants them to take this information and publish stories and call for an end to this prosecution, to build public pressure.

And second, she knew Roger Ogren would object. She hoped he would object. Because now the prosecution looks like it’s hiding the truth. The white hat Roger Ogren is wearing has just received a stain or two.