And the Sea Will Tell (62 page)

“Well, the tent was quite close to the
Iola
. So, I would say probably…an hour, maybe an hour and a half, altogether. All the trips back and forth.”

“So that would take us to approximately ten-thirty or eleven o’clock?”

“Someplace in there, yes,” she agreed.

“What were your plans for the remainder of the day at that point?”

“Well, I was going to stay on board the
Iola
and do all the things required to make her shipshape, getting everything stowed away, and swabbing and cleaning. And I wanted to do a lot of baking for the trip. And Buck was going to get his camp in order. He had all of this furniture that didn’t belong to us, that we’d accumulated from various buildings on the island. Beds, and tables, and chairs, and things like that. And he was going to move all of that furniture to the Refrigerator House, and bring the tent, which was ours, back to the
Iola
.”

“To your knowledge, did Buck actually bring the furniture to the Refrigerator House that day?”

“I don’t know.”

“From August 30th to September 11th, when you left Palmyra, did you ever go to Buck’s tent area, or to the Refrigerator House?”

“No, I don’t remember going there at all during that period.”

“Did Buck bring the tent back to the
Iola
that day?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“Did you ask him why he did not?”

“Yes. He said it was dilapidated and falling apart, and just wasn’t worth bothering with.”

“Did you agree with Buck’s assessment of the tent?”

“Well, he knew it better than I did. He was living in it. It didn’t appear to leak, but I guess it could have been mildewed.”

Jennifer said that after seeing Buck between 10:30 and eleven
A.M.
that morning, she next saw him “two or three hours” later. “It was sometime in the early afternoon. I remember him coming by the
Iola
and saying something.”

“I take it you can’t recall every time you saw Buck that day.”

“No.”

“When Buck would come by, would he always come aboard the
Iola
?”

“No. Not always. Sometimes he just talked to me from the shore.”

“When is the next time that you recall seeing Buck that day?”

“It was several hours later, around four.”

“And what happened at that time?”

“He came by, and he said that he’d been on his way to bathe, and he had run into Mac, and that Mac had said that he and Muff were still doing all kinds of things around the camp—and they hadn’t gotten a chance to go fishing yet. But he said they were still going to do that. And so we should come over around six-thirty. And that if they weren’t back by then, we should just go on board and make ourselves at home, and they would be along presently.”

“Would there be anything left out for you?”

“They said they would leave out some nibbles or something.”

Jennifer went on to testify to her hearing, a half hour or so after Buck left, Mac’s dinghy being operated in the lagoon.

“Would you please go to the chart, Jennifer, and with the pointer, indicate to the jury the direction in which you sensed, from the sound, that the Zodiac was traveling?”

“Well…here’s where the
Iola
was, and here’s the
Sea Wind
. It sounded like it was going further away from the
Sea Wind
and the
Iola
.”

She indicated a path starting from the area of the
Sea Wind
and proceeding in a westerly direction away from both the
Sea Wind
and the
Iola
.

“You heard the sound of the Zodiac going away from you. Did you hear it coming back that day?”

“No.”

“From the cabin of the
Iola
, could you see outside?”

“Yes. There were windows. And also I could see out the opened hatch.”

“So, you would not have to go on deck to see what was happening in the lagoon?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“However, if the Zodiac dinghy were being operated or driven in the direction that you have indicated, could you have seen it from the cabin of the
Iola
?”

“No,” she answered.

“Why not?”

“Because of that same jut of land that separated the
Sea Wind
from the
Iola
and with all the dense foliage.”

“If someone were operating a dinghy, let’s say in the middle of the lagoon during daylight, would you have been able to see and identify the operator from the
Iola
?”

“Yes.”

Asked if there was any way she might have confused Buck with Mac, Jennifer said no, because they “didn’t look anything alike.”

“From the
Iola
, could you see any boat leaving or entering the channel?”

“Yes.”

The courtroom was perfectly still, so I knew everyone was following Jennifer’s testimony closely. Everyone, that is, with the possible exception of Judge King’s wife, Ann, who had accompanied her husband to San Francisco. Other than those days when she enjoyed shopping in the city’s countless boutiques, she sat quietly in the back row of the courtroom, busily knitting colorful sweaters for her grandchildren, only occasionally looking up from her work.

“After you heard the dinghy, when is the next time you recall seeing Buck?” I asked.

“Buck came by…maybe an hour later, an hour and a half, something like that. And he said that he was going to go bathe, and did I want to go with him.”

“And did you?”

“No. I was still baking.”

“You testified earlier that around 4:00
P.M.
, or thereabouts, Buck came by and told you that he had been on his way to take a bath, when he claimed he bumped into Mac. Were you surprised that an hour and a half later, he still hadn’t bathed?”

“No, I didn’t think anything of it.”

“You never gave it a thought at that point?”

“No.”

“Did you agree to meet each other later?”

“Yes. I told him that when I was through baking, I would go take a bath. And he said he would meet me over at Mac and Muff’s.”

“When is the next time that you saw Buck as far as you recall?”

“On my way to bathe, Buck was coming back from bathing.”

“Did you talk to him at that point?”

“I said I would see him at Mac’s.”

At ten-thirty, the judge asked if it was a good time for a fifteen-minute recess, and I said it was. I sped down to the law library on the sixteenth floor of the courthouse to research a point of law.

In the hallway, I saw Jennifer, who was being cooled down like an overheated racehorse. Her brother and mother were at her side, walking her slowly. As I passed her, I patted her gently on the back and told her she was doing just fine.

When Judge King took the bench shortly after ten forty-five, I was, unfortunately, nowhere to be seen and was unaccounted for. I had simply stayed a minute too long in the library.

“He’ll be back in a moment,” Len bluffed gamely.

“I hope so,” Judge King sniffed. He had not called in the jury, and wouldn’t do so in my absence.

Lawyers are required to await every whim or impulse of judges as a matter of course. But seconds have a way of stretching swiftly into intolerable eons when a judge is waiting for a lawyer. It’s the universe upended.

“I tell you what,” the judge barked, his cheeks flaming. “You call me when Mr. Bugliosi’s ready. I don’t wait for the lawyers. They wait for me.”

Judge King left the bench with powerful strides.

Just as I barreled through the double doors into the courtroom, the door to his chambers closed with thumping finality.

A
FTER A WAIT OF SEVERAL MINUTES
—possibly he was evening the score—the judge materialized, mounted the bench, and signaled the bailiff to summon the jury.

I apologized for my tardiness.

Judge King nodded curtly. “You may resume.”

“Jennifer, on August 30, 1974, did you see either Mac or Muff at
any
time that day?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Did you hear any screaming or gunshots?”

“No.”

“Or any other sound that aroused your attention?”

“No.”

“During the period of time that you were on Palmyra, other than when Buck fired at fish in the lagoon, were you aware of any guns being fired on the island?”

“Well, once—I don’t remember whether it was someone from the
Shearwater
or the
Toloa—
they told me that they were with Mac and Muff when they had been target practicing.”

“Did you hear any gunshots that time?” I asked.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Was it difficult or easy to hear things on the island?”

“It was difficult.”

“Would you relate for the jury the various sounds that inhibited one’s ability to hear things on the island?”

“The birds made a terrific racket with their squawking. And there were the sounds of the ocean breaking on the outside shore, and the water in the lagoon lapping against the boat. There were also the winds, and the winds rustling through the trees would make quite a bit of noise. The dense foliage muted sounds, too.”

“Did you see any fire or smoke on the island on August 30, 1974?”

“No.”

In answer to my question, Jennifer said one “couldn’t see anything on shore from the
Iola
.”

“So, you couldn’t see the
Sea Wind
or Buck’s tent or the Refrigerator House or anything else on the island?”

“That’s correct.”

“From the
Iola
you just saw a wall of green foliage. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

Jennifer explained that when she arrived at the
Sea Wind
’s anchorage at six-thirty that night, Buck had already been there, waiting for her.

“Was it getting dark around that time?”

“It was approaching sunset.”

Was the masthead light of the
Sea Wind
on?”

“No.”

“Were the Grahams on the boat?”

“No. I hailed them and there was no answer. And their Zodiac wasn’t tied to the side of the boat, which was usually an indication that nobody was aboard.”

“Everything appeared to be still?”

“Yes,” she said.

“What happened next?”

“Well, Buck and I just sat there at the lanai area for maybe ten or fifteen minutes or so, talking. And then Buck said that we should go aboard because they had said that if they weren’t back by six-thirty, to go aboard and make ourselves at home. So we did.”

“What did you observe once you went aboard the
Sea Wind
?”

“There were some things left out on the table in the kitchen area. There was some alcohol and some nibble things.”

“Did it appear to you or did you believe that what had been left out had been left for you by Muff?”

“Yes.”

I purposefully didn’t bring up the apricot brandy. It was evidence favorable to my prosecution of Buck, but I feared the jury might think it sounded contrived so that Jennifer could point the finger of guilt at her former lover. It was one of those two-edged swords peculiar to the trial of a lawsuit. If it somehow came out on cross-examination, of course, the suspicion of contrivance would be substantially reduced, and this is what I was hoping for.

“What did you and Buck do at that point?”

“Well, we poured ourselves a drink, and I think Buck grabbed a box of cookies. We both went topside and sat and waited for Mac and Muff.”

“Was it getting darker then?”

“Yes.”

Jennifer said that by around seven o’clock, it was completely dark.

“So you’re on deck with Buck and it’s around seven o’clock and the Grahams are not there. What’s your state of mind at that point?”

“I started getting very worried. They knew that we were coming over and I knew that it was dangerous to be out on the lagoon after dark.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, you couldn’t see where you were going. You wouldn’t know whether you were in the middle of the lagoon or if you were getting toward the shore. And there were metal poles sticking up in the water. I…got worried…about Mac and Muff.”

Since the recess, Jennifer had been answering my questions rather dispassionately. She had been responsive and detailed, but not clearly engaged emotionally. But now her composure began to crack at the seams.

“Did Buck appear to be worried?”

“I…I don’t know.”

I gave her a moment to recover. She sipped from a cup of water and took a deep breath. She patted her nose with a tissue she had balled up in her hand.

“Would you tell the jury and Judge King what happened next—the sequence of events?”

“I went looking for the switch for the masthead light,” Jennifer said haltingly. “I put it on so that if Mac and Muff were coming in the dark, they would be able to see the boat. And then…I was just mostly up on deck, watching and listening for them.”

“What happened next?”

“Buck said that he was hungry and he was going to open something to eat. I told him that I didn’t think he should, because if…when they came back, they would see that we had eaten something of their stores, and that wouldn’t be right. It would be embarrassing.”

“What’s the next thing that happened?”

Jennifer testified that she stayed on deck most of the night, listening and looking out across the lagoon, trying to see if she could see any type of light or anything Mac and Muff might have been using trying to signal. She finally dozed off and awakened around dawn. She immediately woke Buck up, he got the Grahams’ other dinghy (wooden), and they started to search for Mac and Muff.

“From your starting point in the cove, you could have proceeded, I guess, in one of three directions. Across the lagoon or to the left or to the right. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Who was operating the Grahams’ wooden dinghy?”

“Buck was.”

“In which direction did he go?” I asked.

“He went off to the right, going along the shore.”

“What’s the next thing that happened?”

“I spotted the Zodiac dinghy a ways up the coast from where the
Sea Wind
was.”

“Approximately how far from the
Sea Wind
?”

“Maybe a quarter mile or half mile—something like that. I’m not sure.”

“Was it on the beach?”

“Yes, it was on the beach.”

“The dinghy was not in the water?”

“No. The dinghy was on the beach.”

“Was any portion of the dinghy in the water?”

“No. It was about a foot and a half, two feet above the waterline.”

I had Jennifer go again to the large chart of Palmyra to her right and mark the approximate location of the beached Zodiac.
^*

“What did you and Buck do at that point?”

“Well, the dinghy was upside down on the beach. And I thought maybe they had turned the dinghy over themselves as protection from the night. And I knocked on the dinghy and called their names. And then I peeked under it and they weren’t there.”

“Didn’t you think Mac and Muff would have simply walked back to the
Sea Wind
instead of staying underneath the dinghy all night?”

“Well, it would have been hard in the dark, and with all the vegetation, to make it back.”

“What’s the next thing that happened?” I asked.

“I remember I started to call their names. Then Buck and I went up this rise that was there and I continued to call out their names and look around.”

She had controlled herself almost too well in these last answers, but my next questions restored the human element.

“What was your state of mind at this particular point?”

“I was just about
frantic
.”

“How did Buck appear to be taking it?”

“I was so upset, I didn’t notice.”

“What’s the next thing that happened?”

“We came back down the hill, and down the beach a little ways I saw the gas tank from the dinghy. Buck went down and got the gas tank. The two of us turned the dinghy right side up and moved it into the water.”

“So, the gas tank was also on the beach?”

“Yes.”

This had to be burned in.

“It was not in the water?”

“No.”

“Jennifer, based on your previous testimony, am I correct in assuming that from where the
Iola
was moored, you would also be
unable
to see the location where you and Buck found the dinghy because the portion of Cooper Island protruding out into the lagoon obstructed your line of sight?”

“That’s correct.”

“Jennifer, did you tell FBI agent Calvin Shishido that you found the dinghy
in
the lagoon?”

“I don’t remember exactly what I told Mr. Shishido, but I found the dinghy on the beach. If I said in the lagoon, it could have been to differentiate between finding the dinghy
on the beach in the lagoon
as opposed to
on the beach on the ocean side
.”

“Did you tell Agent Shishido that you saw the gas tank of the dinghy floating in the lagoon near the dinghy?”

“No, he got that wrong. I told him that I thought the gas tank had floated to shore.”

“After you found the gas tank, did Buck reattach it to the dinghy?”

“Yes.”

“What happened next?”

Jennifer thought a moment. “Buck tried starting up the Zodiac dinghy, and he pulled the cord a bunch of times, and finally, the motor started. And we took the wooden dinghy back to the
Sea Wind
and started searching for Mac and Muff in the Zodiac.”

“Where did you and Buck search for Mac and Muff?”

“We searched all over the lagoon. We just started going around the whole lagoon, as close to the land as we could get, looking on the shore to see if there was some sign of them.”

I gestured toward the map. “There are three lagoons on Palmyra: the West, Center, and East lagoons. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Did you search all three lagoons?”

“The first day, we searched the Center Lagoon and the West Lagoon. Access to the East Lagoon was difficult. We didn’t go over there because it wouldn’t have been feasible [because of the causeway] for the dinghy to have floated from the East Lagoon to where we found it.”

“And you found nothing in your search?”

“Right.”

“How long did you search that first day?”

“We searched all day,” she answered. “At some point during the day, after we completed going around the lagoon twice, Buck said that they were nowhere. He wanted to give up. And I said
no
, that we couldn’t give up.”

Jennifer stopped abruptly and breathed deeply.

“But Buck said he was hungry,” she continued, “and we went back to the
Sea Wind
and got something to eat.”

“What happened next?”

“We went back out and searched. We went across to Paradise and Home islands because from the way the ripples were in the lagoon, it looked like that would have been where the dinghy could have floated from. We searched all of those two islands on foot.”

“And you found no trace of Mac or Muff on Paradise or Home islands?”

“That’s correct.”

“What did you and Buck do that night, August 31, 1974?”

“We stayed on the
Sea Wind
. I don’t really remember what we did. I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I’m sure I slept.”

“What did you and Buck do the next day—that would be September 1st?”

“We searched.”

“Where did you search?”

“The same area. That was all there was to search.”

“Where did you and Buck spend this second night?”

“On the
Sea Wind
.”

They searched the East Lagoon the following morning, she explained, describing it as a “last-ditch” effort.

“So, when you went into the East Lagoon, you were kind of grasping at straws.”

“Yes.”

“What about the following day? Did you search that day?”

“Buck said it was ridiculous, that they were gone. But I went out for a little while by myself. He was right.”

“So, you finally discontinued your search at this point?”

“Yes.” She looked down. Despite Len’s stylish dress code, she had taken us all back to the simpler, confused young woman entangled in a tragedy hundreds of miles from civilization.

“And you did not find the slightest trace of them? Footprints in the sand, or a signal fire, or anything at all?”

“Nothing.”

“At the end of your search, was it your belief, at that point, that Mac and Muff were dead?”

“Yes.” Jennifer’s voice lowered to a barely audible whisper.

I asked what she thought had happened to them, and she said she believed they had had a boating accident and either drowned or were attacked by sharks.

“Jennifer, we have since learned, of course, about the skeletal remains of Muff Graham being found next to the aluminum container—the strong implication being that she was murdered. But I want to ask you what your state of mind was way back then at the time of Mac and Muff’s disappearance. You didn’t find it improbable that the Zodiac had flipped over in the lagoon?”

“No, I found it upside down. It was obvious it had flipped over.”

“What about the fact that, according to several witnesses who testified at this trial, the Zodiac was a very stable craft?”

“I didn’t know any of that then, but I don’t know that it would have made any difference.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“I had seen Mac taking the Zodiac across the lagoon and the nose would kind of be in the air. And I knew there were obstructions in the lagoon, and I had been with Don Stevens and Bill Larson when the dinghy propeller hit the coral head or something. It made a terrible noise, and had to be repaired.”