Lost and Found (31 page)

Harper continued to gaze out the window while he spoke. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Let’s be frank Ativan is one of the most widely prescribed medication in the U.S., sleeping pills too. I bet the judge herself has taken them a time or two. To paint Maggie as they have, as an addict is unfair. In one breath, a doctor prescribes them to help you, but we have a congressman who appears to have used his influence to tar and feather Maggie. If something like this went to the state supreme court, they’d reverse this judge’s decision. The state’s trying to say she abused these prescription drugs. But they have nothing to back it up. Maggie, Richard, and Ryley suffered a tragedy. For each of them to get up in the morning and keep going, I applaud them for pulling together their family after losing Lily…they deserve a medal. Any fool can see how much they love Ryley. I don’t get it. For the state to single out the McCafferty’s the way they have, makes no sense. There are children in this area alone left with parents who aren’t fit. Parents who go out for the night and leave kids alone, so they can get high, get drunk, and party with friends. Kids who can’t have friends over because Mom and Dad are doing something no one can find out about—growing, cooking, or drying whatever drug of choice they’re doing and selling. Then there are those parents or parent who is so doped up or spends their day so drunk, they can’t look after themselves, let alone a child.”

Harper swung around, and in a fraction of a second, Sam saw something reflected from this hard man that had him liking Harper in an odd, kindred way. Then it was gone, and the shrewd lawyer was back.

Harper gave his full attention to both Sam and Diane as he continued. “No, I have to say the judge was pressured. My guess is from the congressman. But no way will she ever admit it. She didn’t rule for the state, so I guarantee Mr. White is most likely kicking down her door as we speak. She covered herself, made it look like she was supporting the state with these ridiculous restrictions. Smart lady, knows there’s no ethical way she could remove Ryley. Anyway, we got work to do. The ruling, we’re going to have to live with. Ryley stays at home, Maggie will have to pee into a cup a few times this month, which I’m certain won’t be an issue. Will it?”

Sam and Diane both looked at each other. “Maggie’s a strong lady. She’s my friend, and she walked through hell. She’ll do it, and she’ll not fail any drug test, I’ll make sure of it.” Diane spoke with such certainty, the tiny worry that flickered on Harper’s face slipped away.

“What about this guardian? You said you know her?” Sam asked.

“Are you asking if she’s in the judge’s pocket or the states?” Harper leaned on his forearms, his black silk jacket now draped across the back of his chair.

“Well yes, I guess I’d like to know if she’s dirty or can be bought. All of it. And what exactly is she going to be doing? How much of Richard’s and Maggie’s privacy does she get to invade? Lines of impropriety?” If there was one thing Sam had learned the hard way, is not to leave things to chance. Cover your bases, know where everyone’s coming from.

“She’s going to spend time with Ryley and talk to him. Find out how he’s feeling and get a good idea from him what’s going on in the home. She’ll observe Maggie and Richard when she’s there. How they respond and interact with Ryley. She’ll probably speak to friends, teachers. In essence she’s going to write a report on the parenting skills of Richard and Maggie McCafferty.”

For the first time since Sam had known Diane, she appeared to be thrown. As her eyes widened, she shifted her bottom in the dark leather chair. She turned to Sam, her eyebrows furrowed deeply, creating wide lines at the bridge of her nose. “Could anyone pass? Seriously?” Irritation colored Diane’s tone.

Harper blinked his eyes and simply shook his head. “This is not an ideal situation. But from what I’ve heard in the past about Jessica Shupe, she’s ethical and independent; she doesn’t
work for an agency. She truly does care for children. We need to hope for the best. I’m pretty sure Fred White’s reach doesn’t include Jessica, but let’s keep an eye out for any problems.”

He clapped his hands together. Then picked up his pen and pointed at Diane. “Let’s move on, we have a lot to do and very little time to pull together this case. Go talk to Ryley’s principal at school. Hammer him on what Fred White’s daughter said to Ryley about Richard being a thief and Maggie a drug addict. Find out his take on it, and if he’s spoken with Fred White. We need to show a link; I suspect Fred White is somehow behind this agenda to discredit Maggie as a witness. So find out why.”

He wielded his pen like a staph, pointing the tip straight at Sam. “You need to dig and find out everything about Fred White and what connection he has in all this.”

Sam interrupted. “And we also need to focus on finding out what Dan was involved in. He was involved in so many fraudulent land deals, and always had some link to drugs. He’s got Richard over a barrel financially, one step from bankruptcy, and Richard has no life insurance on Dan, so Richard has no financial motive in that regard. His only chance to get the money Dan owes him is if Dan stays alive. But on the other hand, with Dan dead, it’ll be easier to get whoever Dan appointed as executor, to agree to sell the property…maybe.”

“Who’s the executor?” Diane asked.

“Dan’s mom.” Sam needed to talk with Marcie to get a feel for the woman. Someone who created this monster, he could only imagine what she was like. “I’m going to poke around. Find out what all Dan had his hands into. What he was really doing. And I think what may happen is we’ll find out who really killed Dan.”

Harper pressed back into his chair manipulating the pen between his fingers. Then waved his hand at Sam to dismiss all he’d said. “That would helpful if time was on our side. But our course of action is time sensitive, and we need to focus on destroying all the state’s evidence, as shaky as it is. You’re going to do it my way.”

Sam’s cell phone interrupted what he realized was about to become a tense standoff with someone who had his own ideas of how the investigation should run. And it irritated the hell out of him, so much so that it took a second to register in his brain the number displayed and who was calling. “Hey Frank, what’ve you got?”

“Sam, there’s something you need to see on the video tape you gave me. How soon can you be here?”

“I’m in a meeting. Can you give me a heads up on what you found?”

Sam could feel his pulse rise by the slight hesitation on the other end. “Yah, the videos been altered.”

His gut twisted as he gripped the chair with his other hand, and glanced at Diane and then Harper. “I’m on my way.”

As he punched the button to end the call, his eyes remained glued with Harper. “That was Frank Gerrard, a friend of mine and videographer I brought in from the FBI crime lab in Seattle this morning. He found something on the tape. It’s been altered.”

Frank’s computer equipment took over Sam’s office. For the last hour, Frank showed the piece of footage which was just over a minute long. “There’s no time code on the video, and every second of video you see contains thirty frames. I don’t how I caught it. Fluke really, see? It’s just a slight shadow in the edging.” Frank pointed a long bony finger to the laptop screen. “See? Look where you see Richard’s face, that second of video was thirty frames to alter, but that one spot by his right ear doesn’t meet the background. Whoever did this was good; this was not an amateur.”

“So I still don’t understand. How did they get Richard’s face on this video?”

Frank was far from a geek. His prescription dark framed glasses were always new, the height of fashion, and accentuated his striking oval face and his short, stylish brown hair. He dressed well, even when he tried to dress down in something casual. A good looking single guy, and Sam was sure he played it up with the ladies.

“Well for one, Richard has to be on another tape, so there has to be other videos. Whoever did this would have copied the frames and overlaid it. Alter the lighting to match this video. I can tell you this much, it took time to pull this together. Oh and another thing, there’s no meta data or time stamp on this video which makes it even more difficult to find out if it’s fake. If you get me the original video, I can take a look at the binary data. Everyone has a signature. It may give us an idea of who altered it.” His grin told him Frank was almost patting himself on the back.

Sam widened his eyes at Diane and shook his head. She too knew what a conceded arrogant bastard he could be at times. But he was damn good at what he did.

“How do you know it’s a copy and not the original?” Sam didn’t want to tip off Frank, but he specifically requested the original video from the DA.

“Well duh, any second year videographer could see it was a copy.”

Sam dialed the DA’s office. “This is Sam Carre. I’m working with Harper Lee on Richard McCafferty’s defense.”

“What can I do for you?” uttered a distracted young male.

“Well for one thing, I asked for the original video from the surveillance of the crime scene. But our videographer has just informed me you sent a copy.”

There was silence on the other end. Sam could hear papers rustling before the ADA roughly cleared his throat. “I’ll have to get back to you.”

Sam could feel Frank’s arrogant eyes burning into him when he disconnected his phone.

“They’re screwing with you. Welcome to the dark side.”

“I’m Jessica Shupe. I’m the court appointed guardian for Ryley McCafferty.”

Maggie was on her knees in the winter garden with a handful of weeds no one had cleared during the fall now piled on the ground beside her. She jumped up and wiped the dirt from her hands on her torn blue jeans. Her heart sank a little more as she glanced at her stained sweatshirt, one of the comfortable unpresentable ones she reserved for yard work, never for entertaining anyone.

Maggie struggled to find something to ease her anxiety and calm her rattled brain—to explain to this woman she didn’t always look like this. Because this lady not only didn’t call first, which Maggie suspected was deliberate to rattle her, but the way she gazed at Maggie was as if she was a nobody.

Maggie extended her trembling hand out to the other woman to shake. Jessica crossed her arms in front of her, and watched as Maggie dropped her hand, as if what she’d done had just crossed some line. She flushed, and in a moment of panic, she tripped over the bucket of weeds beside her and fell on her bum. She wanted to cry, but scampered up on her knees and rose with all the dignity she could muster. The screen door rattled.

“Maggie, I was wondering if you could give me a hand…oh, I didn’t know anyone was here.” Marcie stepped lightly down the stairs, holding her head high, her light blue dress shimmering as she strode with confidence—confidence Maggie would have killed for right about now—to Jessica. Her strength oozed as she invaded Jessica’s space and stuck her hand out, daring the woman not to take it. For a moment, Maggie was sure the other woman was rattled. She blinked and appeared to hesitate and then accepted Marcie’s hand.

“I’m Marcie, who are you?”

Jessica shot a puzzled glance at Maggie before turning back to answer this assertive woman. “I’m Jessica Shupe, the court appointed guardian for Ryley.”

“Oh well, it’s nice to meet you, we’ve been looking forward to meeting you. I didn’t realize you were coming over. Maggie has made a fabulous salad for lunch. It would be great if you could join us.”

“No, that’s not necessary. I’m here to see Ryley.”

Maggie could feel the air thicken between the two women, like a pissing contest. She glanced at Marcie and then Jessica, two strong determined women, and wanted to shrink back.

“Well unfortunately, we sit down as a family and eat together. If you look at the time you’ll see it’s lunch time. You can join us at the table while we eat, and then you can spend time with Ryley after lunch. Or is it your intention to disrupt the peaceful mealtime of this family, sneaking in unannounced, maybe to catch everyone off guard?”

Maggie gasped and instantly covered her mouth with her grimy hand. Jessica crossed her arms in front of her and stuck out her jaw as she subtly tilted her head as if to concede to Marcie.

“I guess I’ll be joining you for lunch.”

“Very good. I’ll see to it another place is set for you. Oh and Ms. Shupe, Richard and Maggie are good people. Whether you believe it or not, please don’t play games.” Marcie held her head high and raised her eyebrows at the woman.

“My interest is Ryley, and I won’t have my authority undermined.”

Maggie felt herself shrink back, even though she didn’t move a step. She’d never seen this side of Marcie—in control and unwilling to cut this woman any slack.

“Well, just remember, this is about a boy and his well-being, and not the pocket book of some politician or mind games of how you usurp his parents.” Marcie turned before the woman could respond.

“Maggie honey, you should have seen what Kyla did before I put her down for her nap, she pulled herself up to the coffee table and took two steps bouncing with her magical toothless smile.”

Marcie stepped around Jessica and linked arms with Maggie, guiding her into the house. And the entire way, Maggie could feel Jessica burning a hole in her back. And for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what she’d done to this woman who appeared to have already judged her as the unfit parent she prayed she wasn’t. She hoped she’d have the chance to repair the damage with Ryley.