Unintended Consequences (22 page)

“
People versus George Calhoun
,” the bailiff called out sooner than Dani expected. She and Melanie took their seats at the defendant’s table. Ted Landry seated himself at the prosecutor’s table.

“Are you ready?” asked the chief judge, sitting between the two other judges.

“Yes,” Dani said. She walked to the lectern between the two tables and arranged her note cards.

“Let me remind you that when the yellow light comes on, you have only one minute left. When the red light comes on, your time is up.”

“I understand. Your Honors, George Calhoun has been on death row for seventeen years, convicted of murdering his daughter, after the body of a young girl, estimated at between three and four years old, was found in the woods in Orland. From the very beginning, Mr. Calhoun has consistently and repeatedly denied that the child’s body was his daughter. At the time of his trial, DNA testing was not widely used. That’s no longer the case. Now—”

“Isn’t it true that Mr. Calhoun’s daughter had disappeared about the same time?” asked the judge on the right, a woman with brown hair pulled back into a bun.

“Yes, that’s true, and although my client failed to explain her disappearance at that time, he had compelling reasons for doing so.”

“Yes, I’ve read your papers. He now claims he abandoned her at the Mayo Clinic as an act of mercy.”

“More like an act of desperation. His daughter was dying and needed treatment that he couldn’t pay for and that no one would provide without payment.”

“Doesn’t Medicaid pay the medical costs for indigent families?” asked the judge on the left, an elderly man with dark horn-rimmed glasses.

“His income was too high to be eligible for Medicaid but too low to afford insurance. Although the state of Indiana now has a program to provide low-cost health insurance for children whose parents fall into that category, it didn’t exist nineteen years ago. DNA testing is now routine and widely accepted. Even with bones that are nineteen years old, it can conclusively determine whether the child was Angelina Calhoun. Shouldn’t—”

“How long would it take for DNA results to come back?” the right-side judge asked.

“It’s possible to obtain results in five days.”

“Assuming the lab isn’t backed up, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“It seems to me,” the chief judge said, “that you have a fundamental problem. The defendant has already exhausted his direct appeals. Even if we ordered the body to be exhumed and the results of the DNA test excluded Mr. Calhoun as the father, where does he go with that?”

“This would be newly discovered evidence. It would give rise to a new appeal.”

“How is it newly discovered evidence? If what Mr. Calhoun says is true, he’s known from the beginning that it wasn’t his daughter. At every step of his proceedings, this issue could have been raised. Hasn’t he waived the right to ask for the body to be exhumed now by his own silence?”

Dani saw the yellow light come on. She had only a minute left to persuade these three judges to rule in her favor. “Your Honors, if there is incontrovertible evidence available which could show that the child in the woods was not Angelina Calhoun, then the prosecutor’s case disappears. Their only basis for convicting Mr. Calhoun was the identification of that child as Angelina. Justice mandates that he have access to the evidence. If he has no appeals left—and I don’t believe that’s the case—then the governor of this state would be able to right a cruel wrong by commuting George Calhoun’s sentence and setting an innocent man free.”

“Your time is up, Ms. Trumball.”

“Thank you, Your Honors.”

She sat down and a sense of numbness enshrouded her. Landry stood at the podium now. Dani saw his mouth move but heard nothing. She felt exhausted from the preparation, from the performance, from the ever-present sound of the ticking clock. She felt like a wooden soldier marching steadfastly toward a steep cliff and the inevitable fall to the chasm below. A poke in her arm jolted her back to the proceedings.

“Dani, are you okay?” Melanie asked.

She looked up and saw that Landry had left. Two men in neatly pressed suits were waiting to take her place at the defense table. The next case had been called. It was time to leave.

The flight back from Indianapolis departed on time. Dani was anxious to be home, to be enveloped in the safe cocoon of her family. Her already great respect for Bruce had grown exponentially. He’d handled capital appeals from beginning to end for ten years now and, at least during the time she had worked there, never seemed to lose his equilibrium. It wasn’t so for her. There had been moments, alone in her hotel room, when she’d wanted to run away, crawl under the covers, escape the hell of representing an innocent man condemned to die. When she handled only the appeals, she didn’t bond with the inmate in the same way. She wrote words on a page and then argued law and principles in a court. It had changed now. She was connected to George Calhoun. She was his lifeline.

They circled LaGuardia Airport for twenty minutes before being cleared for landing, typical of congested New York City airports. When they finally landed, they all checked their voice mail.

“Hey, I got a message from a nurse at the Mayo Clinic,” Tommy said after closing his phone. “She saw the flier posted in the nurse’s lounge. Says she may have some information for us.”

Dani couldn’t believe what she’d heard. Proof that Angelina had been left at the Mayo Clinic would change everything. “Call her back. Right now.”

“Already tried. Got her voice mail. I’ll keep trying. This may be just the break we need.”

Please let it be so
suddenly became her mantra.
Please let it be so
.

C
HAPTER

25

Eleven Days

T
ommy hoped the perfect weather in Rochester, Minnesota, portended that something good would come of his meeting with Jody Melnick. Instead of the drenching rain that had greeted him on his last visit, a few puffy white clouds dotted the crystalline blue sky and the temperature stayed at seventy-two degrees. He’d finally reached Jody last night. She wasn’t certain her information would be helpful but had agreed to meet with him the next day when her shift ended. Tommy had caught the first plane out in the morning and now waited for her in the hospital cafeteria.

“Mr. Noorland?”

Tommy looked up and saw a middle-aged woman in starched white scrubs. Her name tag read “Jody Melnick, R.N.” “Ms. Melnick,” he said as he stood up and extended his hand to shake hers. “Thank you so much for meeting with me. And please call me Tommy. You sounded a little cryptic on the phone.”

“And call me Jody. I appreciate you coming out to speak to me in person. I hesitated to call at all. Trudy and I worked closely together for many years. I wouldn’t want to get her in trouble. I can’t even be sure we’re talking about the same girl.”

“Why don’t we sit down? Can I get you something to eat? A cup of coffee maybe?”

Jody shook her head. “No, thank you, I’m fine.”

“Why don’t you start from the beginning? Tell me why you think you know something about Angelina Calhoun.”

“Well, Trudy and Ed never had children of their own. Trudy worked with me as a surgical nurse. We weren’t friends outside the hospital, but you know how it is. When you work with someone a long time, you talk to each other about things. Only some things Trudy never talked about. Oh dear, I think I’m rambling already.”

Tommy patted her hand. “It’s okay, dear. You tell the story any way you want.”

“Well, as I said, Trudy and Ed had been married for ten years or so and never had any children. Then one day Trudy calls in sick at the last minute—really, she should already have started her shift. We had to scramble to find a replacement. But she said a family emergency had come up. A full week passed before she came back, and when she did, she told everyone that her sister and brother-in-law had been killed in a car crash. Their daughter survived and had come to live with Trudy and Ed. I thought it peculiar then, because Trudy had never mentioned a sister. Trudy missed a lot of work after that, for a few years at least. She said the niece had lingering injuries from the accident and she took time off to get her treatment. I remember asking how old her niece was, you know, when the accident happened. And Trudy said four years old. Wasn’t that the age of the little girl you’re asking about?”

“Yes, about that. Do you know the name of her niece?”

“Sunshine. I always remembered that because it was such an unusual name.”

“And her last name?”

“Well, that’s the strange thing. She should have had the last name of Trudy’s brother-in-law, but she didn’t. She used Trudy and Ed’s last name. Harrington. And whenever Trudy brought her to our annual picnic, Sunshine would call her ‘Mommy.’ ”

“Did she look like the girl in the picture on the flier?”

“Well, years passed before Trudy actually took her anyplace public. I’d always assumed it was because of her injuries. So when I first saw Sunshine, she must have been around six or seven years old. But yes, I think there’s a similarity. It was a long time ago, so I’m not absolutely certain. But I think so.”

“Is Trudy still working here?”

“No. She retired a few years ago. I think she lived in Byron. At least she did when she worked here. Maybe human resources can give you her address.”

Tommy thanked Jody profusely. Finally, a solid lead. After Jody left, he took out his cell phone and dialed information. “Do you have a listing for Edward or Trudy Harrington in Byron, Minnesota?” he asked the operator.

“There’s a Trudy Harrington on Aspen Road.”

“I’ll take that—and before you go, do you have a house number?”

“It’s 4. Hold on and I’ll connect you.”

The phone rang twice and a computer voice came on. “The number you have reached is disconnected. Please try again or check your number for accuracy.”

“Damn.”

But at least now he had a name. He decided to see if Dr. Jeffreys were available and rode the elevator to his floor. He walked down the hallway in the direction he remembered and opened the outer door to the secretary’s desk. “Any chance Dr. Jeffreys is in?” he asked the young woman sitting there.

“He’s off today.”

“Can you reach him at home? It’s important.”

The young woman studied him. “You’re the investigator who was here last week, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“About the little girl?”

“Right.”

“Dr. Jeffreys is at a medical conference in Paris. He’ll be back in two days. Normally, he doesn’t work on Sundays, but he plans on coming in to check on his patients and catch up with paperwork. Can it wait?”

Tommy put on his most winsome smile. “I wish it could, sweetheart, but I really need to speak to him. Can you give him a call?”

The secretary looked at her watch. “It’s after eight there. I could try his hotel, but he’s probably out to dinner by now. And his cell doesn’t work overseas.”

“What’s your name?”

“Mandy.”

“Mandy, I need to see if you have records of a little girl treated here twenty years ago. Is there any way you can help me with that? I have a release from the girl’s biological and legal father.” George took a copy of the release from his briefcase and handed it to Mandy.

Mandy looked it over. “Is this the girl’s last name? Calhoun?”

“No. It would be Harrington. Sunshine Harrington.”

“Well, to begin with, I wouldn’t have access to that database. But I don’t think anyone will do a search for you without proof that the person who signed the release is her father.”

“And who does have authority to access the database?”

“Probably Mr. Oxblood. He’s the executive director of the hospital. But he’s out too. His father passed away two days ago. The wake is going on now, and the funeral is tomorrow, so he’ll be back on Monday. And don’t even ask. I wouldn’t dream of disturbing him during this time.”

“Who’s covering for Dr. Jeffreys while he’s away?”

“That would be Dr. Burroughs, but she wouldn’t okay a search of the database without Mr. Oxblood’s go-ahead. And neither would Dr. Jeffreys. Not with the name on the release being different.”

Tommy understood that getting angry wouldn’t get him anywhere. As difficult as it was, he needed to be patient. There were other avenues he could pursue in the meantime. “Okay, Mandy. Can you get me in to see Dr. Jeffreys first thing in the morning when he gets back?”

Mandy penciled him in for 8:00 a.m., before the doctor would begin his rounds.

If Tommy was right, he didn’t need to call Helen at Vital Records or Abby at County Community Services. It seemed that Angelina hadn’t succumbed to the leukemia, so there wouldn’t be a death certificate. And he didn’t think anyone had turned her over to foster care. If he couldn’t get anywhere with his search, he’d double back to both places and have them check the name of Sunshine Harrington. But he suspected that the person who found Angelina Calhoun at the Mayo Clinic, alone and frightened, was Trudy Harrington, on her way to work. He figured she’d read the records tied around Angelina’s waist and made an instant decision: She would take care of this child, get treatment for her, and raise her and love her as her own daughter. Dani may have had George Calhoun pegged from the start after all.
Damn, I must be losing my touch.
Now he needed to find Trudy Harrington to confirm his theory.

The hour was getting late and he was tired. He decided to call it a night and take a drive out to Byron the next day to poke around and see what he could find.

After his morning stop at Dunkin Donuts, Tommy found a bookstore that had street maps for Olmsted County. He mapped out a route to Aspen Road, got in his car and thirty minutes later stood in front of the beige, vinyl-sided house at 4 Aspen Road. After he knocked on the door and received no response, he walked to the front window nearest the door. Curtains covered the windows, but it appeared that no lights were on inside. He walked to the back of the house and still saw no evidence of movement.
Well, this is what legwork is about
. He walked to the house to the right of No. 4, identical in all respects except the color, and knocked on the front door. A young woman, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, opened the door, and Tommy could see two toddlers sitting on the floor inside, hunched over toy trucks and making
vroom
sounds.