The Burning Man (36 page)

"Clara thinks I can't remember my schedule without her," Geary said as he pawed through his filing cabinet in search of the Boudreau file. "I let her keep thinking that way. It makes her feel needed."

Geary lit up as soon as he found the file. "Did Dick save the day?" he asked as he settled in behind his desk.

"No, but there has been a break of sorts in the case."

Geary filled the room with a dense cloud of smoke as Peter told him about the meeting at the U.S. Attorney's office, his encounter with Christopher Mammon and everything he knew about Steve Mancini.

"Mancini, huh?" Geary said thoughtfully when Peter finished. "I wouldn't put it past him."

"My problem is how to prove Steve killed Whiley without Mammon as a witness and how to get Gary a new trial on the grounds that O'Shay concealed exculpatory evidence. The justice Department has put a lid on this, so there's no way I can get the DEA reports without a major lawsuit, and O'Shay won't admit what she's, done. With Mammon gone, I've lost my key witness. There's also a good chance all copies of the reports have been destroyed."

"You definitely have problems," Geary agreed.

Peter sighed. "I've only got a few days before the penalty phase starts. There's got to be some way to show that Whiley was the CRI.` Peter suddenly noticed that Geary had a faraway look in his eyes and the hint of -a smile on his lips. The cigarette, forgotten for the moment, dangled from his n1cotinie-stained fingers, the ash flaking off the tip and falling onto his carpet. Suddenly, Geary chuckled.

"Rebecca fucked up."

"How?" Peter asked eagerly.

"Come on, think. If an old drunk like me can figure it out, a sober young stud like yourself should be able to crack this case in no time. I'll even give you a hint.

There's a witness who can bury O'Shay."

Peter went over everything he knew while Geary watched his struggle with glee. Finally, Peter gave up.

"Ah, me. The younger generation," Geary cackled.

"Stuff it, Amos. I've lost my sense of humor."

Geary sat up and blew a plume of smoke across the desk. Peter coughed.

"Lighten up, then listen up and I'll tell you how we're going to bust this case wide open."

Earl Ridgely looked surprised when he walked into the chambers of District Court judge Brett Staley with Becky O'Shay and saw Peter Hale and Amos Geary sitting next to the judge's desk.

"What's up, Brett?" Ridgely asked.

"Something pretty unpleasant, Earl. Why don't you and Miss O'Shay sit down and I'll let Mr. Hale explain."

O'Shay noticed that the judge had avoided eye contact with her. She looked at Peter warily, but said nothing.

"On Sunday, I made a very unsettling discovery, Mr. Ridgely," Peter said. "Almost by accident, I learned that Miss O'Shay has been withholding exculpatory evidence that casts the whole Harmon case in a different light."

"Earl, this is a crock," O'Shay said contemptuously.

"What really happened on Sunday is that Mr. Hale snuck into Kevin Booth's room at the hospital and was arrested. I'm preparing a bar complaint. I don't know what story he's concocted, but it's his way of trying to get back at me for reporting his conduct to the ethics committee."

"Why don't we hear what Peter has to say, Becky?" Ridgely said. O'Shay started to protest. Then, it suddenly dawned on her why they were meeting in judge Staley's chambers instead of judge Kuffel's and she turned pale.

"Becky has known for several months that Sandra Whiley was working as an informant for the DFA in a case involving Christopher Mammon, Kevin Booth, Rafael Vargas and a very violent Colombian drug cartel and she has intentionally concealed this information from the defense," Peter sraid.

"Is this true?" Ridgely asked her.

"Earl, this is nonsense," O'Shay answered angrily.

"I suppose I'd a so e crazy to suggest that you the Booth-Mammon prelim?" Peter said. "I'm sure your boss will be interested in knowing that you told judge Staley that he knew all about your deal with the justice Department."

"What deal?" Ridgely asked O'Shay.

"Miss O'Shay came to me with Steve Mancini and a Justice Department official from Washington, D.C before the preliminary hearing for Christopher Mammon and Kevin Booth," judge Staley answered. "She told me that you had approved a plan that involved my dismissal of Kevin Booth's case at the hearing so that a federal undercover operation would not be endangered."

"I what!"

e "You did assure me that your scheme had Mr. Ridge ly's approval, didn't you, Miss O'Shay?" judge Staley asked.

"Earl, there was no time to track you down," O'Shay said desperately. "We shouldn't even be discussing this.

We could be endangering a major undercover operation."

s "Will someone explain what's going on here?" Ridgely asked.

"The feds were monitoring a drug deal that was sup "S posed to go down on the Whitaker State campus," Peter explained. "The deal was being used to help an under cover agent infiltrate a Colombian drug cartel. Then, the e campus security guards screwed everything up by arrest ,e in Booth and Mammon.

g "You were out of town on vacation, so Becky was -a contacted by the DEA. They wanted her to get Booth n back on the street. The feds concocted a plan to fix Booth's prelim. Becky lied to judge Staley and said she'd cleared everything with you.

"When Gary was arrested for Whiley's murder, Becky knew Whiley was an informant. She'd been briefed by the DEA and she even sent Steve Mancini two DEA reports about the Whitaker State case when they worked up the hoax. I found out about the reports by accident and she convinced Steve to destroy them and deny he'd ever seen them. She knew judge Kuffel would have to throw out Gary's conviction if he learned about her cover-up."

"I don't believe this," Ridgely said incredulously.

"There's more and it's worse than what I've told you.

Peter paused and looked directly at O'Shay. He was about to bluff and he hoped O'Shay could not tell how, scared he was that he had guessed wrong.

"Steve Mancini has been sabotaging Gary Harmon's defense from the beginning of this case. His last act was destroying the reports, but he had done several other things to make certain Gary was convicted. What I couldn't understand was why he would want to send his brother-in-law to death row. But Becky knows the answer to that riddle, don't you?"

"I ... I don't know what you're talking about."

"Why would Steve destroy the DEA reports for you, Becky? Why would you trust him to do that instead of running to me with evidence that would win Gary a new trial? You knew that Steve had a reason to want Gary convicted.

You knew that Steve had to obey you or risk exposure. You knew that Steve Mancini was with Sandra Whiley right before she was murdered."

"Is this true?" Ridgely demanded.

"What does all this matter?" O'Shay implored Ridgely. "Harmon's guilty. How did he know that the victim had been at the Stallion hours before anyone knew Whiley's identity, if he didn't kill her?"

"I talked with Gary before I set up this meeting to see if I could figure out how he knew some of the things he d seemed to know. The morning that the body was found was the morning that Steve was married. He drove Gary T to the church. They passed by the park and saw the pay lice cars. Donna remembered that Gary was excited by all the activity. He probably asked Steve why there were d it police all over the park. I'm betting Steve slipped and said some girl who'd been at the Stallion last night had been murdered.

"I also spoke to Wilma Polk. Her, husband was at the x crime scene. He told Mrs. Polk that the man who killed Whiley chopped her up with a hatchet.

Mrs. Polk told her friend about the killer using a hatchet when they were at the food table at the reception following the wedding. Mrs. Polk remembers Gary standing next to s her and listening intently to what she said.

"And the placement of the blows. Before Bob Patrick tricked Gary with the black light, he showed him several autopsy photos of Whiley's head wounds.

"There are reasonable explanations for a lot of the evidence that incriminates Gary, but you weren't interested in the truth, were you, Becky?"

"I ... I thought it was Gary. I still do. I didn't know that Steve was with Whiley that night until I debriefed Booth. He saw them together at the Stallion."

"And you told Booth to keep his mouth shut," Peter said accusingly.

"I couldn't tell you. The jury would never have conviqed if it knew about Whiley being an informant and Steve being with her right before she was killed. There would have been too many other suspects. And Steve swore he didn't kill her."

"You still don't understand what you've done, do you?" Peter asked, amazed by O'Shay's continued defiance. "You still don't see that you've done something terribly wrong. How could you blind yourself to the possibility that Steve killed Whiley when it was right in front of you? How could you .. ."

All of a sudden Peter knew why O'Shay had shielded Steve. He remembered the way Steve and Becky acted when they were together, he recalled a cryptic re mark Becky had made at the wedding reception when Peter asked her how she knew Steve.

"Did Steve swear he was innocent while you were having sex or after you were finished screwing?" Peter asked O'Shay.

Becky's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

"Are you denying that you've been sleeping with Steve Mancini?"

Earl Ridgely stared at O'Shay with a growing sense of horror.

"If Earl learned that you lied to judge Staley in order to fix the prelim and that you were secretly sleeping with a defense attorney against whom you've tried cases, he would have fired you on the spot. Did you keep quiet about Mancini because he threatened to expose you?" Peter asked.

"No, no, it wasn't like that. As soon as Kevin Booth told me he had seen Steve with Whiley at the Stallion I confronted Steve. He swore he was innocent. Then, he reminded me of ... of something I should have remembered. Steve and I ... Well, uh, we've been together off and on since I moved to Whitaker. And, well ... We'd made plans to spend the evening before his wedding together."

"What!" Peter said.

"You don't think Steve married Donna Harmon for love, do you?" O'Shay said scornfully. "He was worried about Mountain View and he figured Jesse Harmon would come through with a sizable investment once he was married to Jesse's daughter."

"That son of a bitch," Peter said. Amos Geary put a restraining hand on Peter's arm.

"You were telling us how you knew Mr. Mancini was innocent, Miss O'Shay," Geary prodded. "Why don't you continue."

"Steve was with me the night Whiley was killed. He showed up around midnight. He seemed upset. When I -k asked, he said it was because Gary had been in some r trouble at the Stallion.

"Later, I confronted him about Booth seeing him with T Whiley. He admitted it was true. He said Whiley was at the Stallion. When he left, she cornered him. It was in the parking lot. She was almost hysterical. She told him she had to leave town. She was scared to death of Christopher Mammon. Whiley thought he was in jail. Then .h she saw him in the Stallion. Whiley thought Mammon )f would suspect her of setting him up at Whitaker State and kill her.

"She was making a scene, so Steve told her to get in ,r his car. They drove around for a while. She demanded h e money from Steve so she could run away. He tried to reason with her, but she was irrational. She said she would tell everyone Steve was using cocaine if he didn't give her money. She even threatened to crash his wedding.

"Steve told her he had some money at his office. He didn't want to be seen with her so he dropped her at the entrance to Wishing Well Park and said he'd meet her at the well as soon as he got the money."

.f "When did he say he dropped off Whiley?"

"Eleven-fifty. He checked his watch because he was supposed to come to my place around midnight."

Peter controlled his excitement. The bartender at the Ponderosa had testified that Gary came into the bar at eleven fifty-three or eleven fifty-four. If everyone's times were accurate, it would be impossible for Gary to be the killer.

"What did Steve say happened next?"

"He. said he went to his office, picked up every penny he could find, which was about three thousand dollars in cash, and went right back to the park. Steve said he parked on a side street and walked over. He saw someone running away from the well when he approached.

At first, he thought it was Whiley. Then, he saw her body."

"When did you learn all this?" Earl Ridgely asked in a tone that made it clear that he was having trouble believing what he was hearing.

"Right before Booth was set on fire."

"And ... and you kept this to yourself) You made that poor bastard and his family go through a trial for e murder when you knew h wasn't guilty` Ridgetv asked as he looied at O'Shay with disgust.

"I didn't know that. Steve denied killing Whiley-and I believed him. I still think Gary committed the murder."

"How could you?" Ridgely demanded. "Whiley was blackmailing Mancini, he was at the park with her at the time of the killing. My God, are'you an idiot?"

"No, Earl. I'm sure he didn't kill her. I remembered the suit he was wearing when he came to my house. I'd seen him in it earlier in the day. It was the same suit and the same tie. The same shoes. I confirmed that he was wearing the suit at the Stallion by checking with Karen Nix, the bartenders and some other witnesses."

O'Shay paused and breathed deeply. She stared at the floor when she spoke.

"I ... I undressed Steve that night. I saw his shirt, his suit. The killer would have had blood all over him and there wasn't a drop of blood on Steve Mancini."

Chapter THIRTY-ONE.

The Harmons sat in the front row of the courtroom.

Peter had told them to come to court, but little else, because he did not want to get their hopes up. Steve Mancini sat in a row behind the Harmons on the other side of the courtroom. A deputy sheriff had served him a subpoena while he was eating breakfast. Mancini wondered why Earl Ridgely was sitting alone at thep'rosecution table. He was not aware that Becky O'Shay was in a jail cell charged with tampering with a witness and official misconduct.