Kelly stared at her for a second.
"That would explain it," she answered bluntly.
"What did Justice Griffen say about his relationship with Mrs. Griffen?"
Barry asked.
"He told me his wife was all work and no play, and barely tolerated sex.
That would be tough for someone like Robert."
"Who do you think tipped off Mrs. Griffen to your meeting at the Overlook on May third?" Barry asked.
"Probably someone he was sleeping with who was jealous."
"Was there someone else?"
"I always assumed so. Robert was a rabbit where women are concerned."
The statement shocked Tracy, but she concealed her surprise.
She found it hard to reconcile her image of Justice Griffen with the blatant womanizer Justice Kelly and Abbie Griffen believed him to be.
"Do you have any idea who the other woman is?" Barry asked.
"No."
"Do you have any idea who killed him?" Tracy asked.
Kelly crushed out her cigarette. Tracy thought she was debating whether to give her opinion. Then Kelly shrugged her shoulders and said, "Abbie, of course. She's the first person I thought of when I heard Robert had been murdered."
Chapter NINETEEN
Bob Packard did not look well. He seemed jittery. His complexion was pasty and his skin was slack, as if he'd lost weight rapidly.
Tracy wondered if Charlie Deems's lawyer had been ill recently.
"Thanks for seeing me," she said as she took a seat in his office.
"No problem. What can I do for you?"
"I'm an associate of Matthew Reynolds. Mr. Reynolds is representing Abigail Griffen, who has been accused of killing Oregon Supreme Court Justice Robert Griffen."
"Of course. I read about that in the paper. Boy, that was awful. You know, I won a case in the Supreme Court a few months ago and he wrote the opinion."
"That's why I wanted to see you. Mr. Reynolds would like to borrow the transcript in the Deems case."
Packard looked uncomfortable. He shifted nervously in his chair.
"If you don't mind my asking, why do you need the transcript?"
"Charlie Deems is the key witness against Abigail Griffen."
Packard's jaw dropped and he looked at Tracy as if he was waiting for a punch line. When none came, Packard said, "This is a joke, right?"
"Mr. Deems claims Mrs. Griffen hired him to murder her husband."
Packard remembered worrying that Deems might try to harm Abigail Griffen. He'd been thinking about violence, but framing Griffen for murder was diabolical.
"The DA is buying Charlie's story?" Packard asked incredulously.
"He seems to be."
"Well, if it was me, I'd be looking at Charlie long before I'd peg Abbie Griffen as a suspect."
"Do you have any specific reason for suspecting Deems?"
"Are you kidding? Blowing people up is Charlie's thing, and he has plenty of reason to frame Griffen. She made putting Charlie on death row a personal crusade."
"Mr. Reynolds thinks Deems is framing Mrs. Griffen, too.
We're going after Deems and he thought there might be something useful in the transcript. Especially the penalty-phase testimony."
"I'd be careful about going after Charlie if I were you."
"Why's that?"
Packard remembered playing The Price Is Right and his stomach turned. He had been off cocaine, cold turkey, since Deems's visit, but he wished he had some snow right now.
Packard was quiet for so long, Tracy wondered if he had heard the question. Finally he said, "If I tell you something, will you swear not to say where you heard it?"
"That depends. Our first loyalty is to our client."
"Yeah, well, I have to think of myself. I don't want it getting back to Charlie that I talked to anyone about this. I've got him out of my life now, and I don't want him back in."
Packard was fidgeting in his chair and Tracy noticed beads of sweat on his upper lip. She was surprised at how nervous he was.
"It isn't anything concrete anyway," Packard went on. "Not like a confession. It's just something you should know about Deems. I don't want to see anyone get hurt."
"Okay. Go ahead," Tracy said, curious to find out what Deems had done to scare Packard so much.
"Charlie Deems is crazy. I mean really crazy. He thinks he can do anything and nothing will happen to him. And the funny thing is, he's right. I mean, look at what happened with the case I handled. He tortures this guy Shoe, then he kills Hollins and his kid. The jury says death, but he walks away."
"Most criminals don't think they'll get caught."
"You don't understand. How do I say this?"
Tracy waited patiently while Packard searched for the words to explain why Charlie Deems terrified him.
"Charlie not only believes he can break the law with impunity, he believes he's impervious to any kind of harm."
"I'm not following you."
"He doesn't think he can be killed. He thinks he's immortal."
Tracy's mouth opened. Then she laughed out loud.
"It's not funny," Packard said.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand you. Are you saying that Deems thinks nothing would happen if I shot him?"
"That's exactly what I mean."
"Oh, come on."
"I visited Charlie at the penitentiary when I was handling his appeal.
At some point, we got to talking aboutwhat steps he should take if he lost in the Oregon Supreme Court. I noticed he wasn't paying attention, so I tried to shock him into listening by talking about his death sentence. Charlie just smiled. He told me he wasn't worried about dying because he has an angel who protects him."
"An angel?" Tracy asked, thinking she had not heard Packard correctly.
"That's right. An angel. At first I thought he was kidding. I told him that with the stuff he'd done, the last thing he had was an angel.
But he was dead serious. He said his angel is a dark angel. Then he told me this story.
"When Deems was in his late teens there was this woman he was screwing.
An older woman. Maybe thirty-five. She was the wife of Ray Weiss, who was doing time for murder. Weiss was paroled. When he got home he beat up his wife because he heard she was cheating on him. She named Charlie as the guy.
"The wife had kept Weiss's handgun and ammunition in the house all those years. As soon as Weiss got the name, he loaded the gun and went looking for Charlie. He found him sitting on his front stoop. Weiss pulled the gun and accused Charlie of fucking his wife. Charlie denied everything. Weiss called Charlie a liar.
Then he shot him. Charlie told me he was sure he was a dead man. The bullet hit him right in the chest. But the thing is, it bounced off."
"It what?"
"The bullet bounced off Charlie's chest, just like in the Superman comics."
"But how . . . ?"
"I asked a ballistics expert about the story. He said it was possible.
The bullets had been sitting around all that time. Ten years. The powder could have gotten damp or oil might have seeped into it. Whatever the reason, Weiss was in shock. He fired again and the same thing happened. Charlie said Weiss's eyes bugged out of his head. Then he threw the gun at Charlie and took off running.
"Now, here's the scary part. Charlie told me that when the first bullet hit him, he saw the dark angel. She was dressed in a black gown that went from her neck to her feet. She was wearing sandals. He remembered that. And she had wings. Beautiful wings, like the wings of a dove, only huge and black. The angel loomed over Charlie with her wings spread out. When the bullet struck him, he saw a flash of light and the angel said, 'I'll protect you, Charlie."
"From that minute on, Charlie Deems has believed that he can do anything he wants and nothing can hurt him. That means he can't be scared off and he can't be stopped, once he sets his mind to something."
The story was so bizarre that Tracy didn't know what to say.