to have a firm ID and cause of death. Her license was in her pocket,
and we used dental records to confirm it. ME called the strangulation
based on damage to the small bones in her neck." O'Donnell looked at
his watch. "Hey, I hope this has been helpful, but I really gotta
run."
"Shit, I was hoping you could tell me more about that confession. You
around tomorrow?"
"Nope."
Asshole didn't even pretend to explain. The big boys around here take
off on dry days for golf, and the DA pretends he doesn't know about it.
I guess I'd gotten the maximum amount of help a person can get out of
Tim O'Donnell in a day. Actually, this might be it for the month.
"Alright, I can probably get the rest from Forbes. Thanks for the
help."
As I was walking out of his office, I heard O'Donnell mutter behind me,
"Hey, you should thank me for not finishing the rest of the story. Now
you've got an excuse to be alone with Chuck Forbes after hours."
I spun around and glared at him. "What the hell is that supposed to
mean?"
"Hey, fire down, Kincaid. I thought you had a better sense of humor.
The staff up here goes nuts over the guy every time he's in here. I
was just having some fun with you thought it wouldn't hurt you to spend
some time with the guy."
I decided he was telling the truth. He didn't know anything. "That's
something I don't joke around about. I don't date people at work,
especially cops."
"Alas, Kincaid. It's our loss."
As I started to walk out of his office, I stepped back and asked, "Oh,
by the way, do they have anything yet on that letter? It would help
shut Lopez down if I could show that we got the right bad guys in the
Zimmerman case."
Looking down at his desk, he studied an open magazine. "Letter's still
at the crime lab. If we find out who sent it, I'll let you know."
I imagined myself saying, At the lab, my ass. I hear the lab got
diddly. Instead, I nodded. "I'd appreciate it."
"Now get back to your trial," he said. "Let me know how it turns out.
Bad enough that you took it to begin with. You better not crash and
burn."
I tried not to let his gloating piss me off, since he did stay past his
normal five o'clock punch-out to help me. But his help was something
of a mixed blessing. Now if my case went down in flames, he could say
he filled me in on what I needed to know about the Zimmerman case and
had warned me from the start. No pressure.
Eleven.
Lisa was giving a statement to Dan Manning outside the courthouse when
I walked out of the building. I wished I'd gotten to him first. No
doubt he was already envisioning this case as his first Pulitzer, or at
least a true-crime paperback and a made-for-TV Sunday-night movie.
While Lisa spun a story involving sex, double crosses, and justice
delayed, I was left to make a lame and predictable statement that the
defense was reaching for tall tales out of desperation and that I
trusted the jury to weigh the evidence impartially and ascertain the
truth. Not exactly headline material.
Grace met me at the door of her loft apartment in the Pearl District
with a big hug and an even bigger glass of cabernet. I had called
ahead from the office, so she knew I was in a bad way.
When she was quiet after I finished relating the events of the past few
days, I looked at her with exaggerated disappointment. "Grace, as my
lifelong best friend, you are under a standing obligation to feed my
outrage. Right now, for example, you should be stringing together a
litany of insulting names for my archenemy, Lisa Lopez." Nothing.
"Here, I'll get you started: Snake. Slime. Skunk. Skank. I'm only
on 5. You want to start with the t's?" Still nothing. "Grace?"
She woke up from her daze and looked me in the eye. "Before I say
anything about your case, I just want to clarify something. You're
back with Chuck?"
I rolled my eyes and did my best to voice exasperation. I sounded like
Kendra. "You don't have to say it in that tone, Grace."
"Well, Sam, it's pretty much the tone you seem to reserve for him."
"And that's usually after a couple of martinis when I'm angry at him
for breaking my heart. This time feels different, Grace. We've both
grown up a little, and he's doing more than just trying to flirt his
way into bed with me. He's really opened up to me about this trial and
the Zimmerman case, and he's great with Kendra "
She interrupted me. "What? You think because he brings CDs and Happy
Meals to your witness that you're going to have little babies together
and live happily ever after? Jesus, Sam, Chuck's a nice guy, but look
at the twits he goes for. Not to mention the fact that he makes your
life chaotic, and you hate chaos."
"Maybe some chaos would be good for me."
That made her laugh. "You're kidding, right?"
When I didn't smile at that, she rubbed my forearm, which was resting
on the table. "Oh, Sam, I'm sorry. You do what's right for you, and
I'll support whatever that is. Just be careful. I'm worried about
you."
"Yeah, me too, but I want to do this." I changed the subject. "So,
can we move on to the trashing of my nemesis now?
She smiled, but I could tell she was feeling serious. "It just seems
strange," she said.
"There's nothing strange about it, Grace. Lisa Lopez is completely
scummy slime and has absolutely no ethics. She'll do anything to win,
even for a dirtbag like Derringer."
"But you said yourself that she sat there passively through your entire
case."
I tried not to reveal my impatience. "Right," I said slowly, "but now
it turns out she was doing that so she could hide her ridiculous theory
until the last minute, when I'd be caught off guard."
"But, Sam, look at the big picture. When did she think of this? The
anonymous letter to the Oregonian wasn't printed until the middle of
your case. If she got the idea from the letter, what was her plan
before then? It seems too coincidental that she just happened to be
putting on a lame defense and then decided in the middle of the trial
to capitalize on this anonymous letter thing."
I could see where she was headed. "Right," I said. "I've thought
about that too. It explains why she seemed up to no good ever since
the start of the triaclass="underline" she was planning to tie the case to the
Zimmerman murder all along, and the anonymous letter happened to come
up right before her opening."
"Which is also a major coincidence," she said.
"It's really not, Grace. Think about it: the Supreme Court announced