This time I saw Terry put her hand on Wagmeister’s arm and stand. Terry took Steve through all the expected points: no, he couldn’t say it was this brand of knife to the exclusion of any other-it was an educated conclusion based on the database; yes, the handle guard sometimes did operate to keep the knife wielder from getting cut.
“And you cannot say with absolute certainty that the wounds on both Hayley and Brian were caused by one and the same knife?”
“Well…based on all the evidence-”
“Stop, Mr. Diamond. You were called as a knife expert, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then please answer the question within your field of expertise. Based on the wounds and what you know of knives, can you say with absolute certainty that both victims were killed with the exact same knife? Yes or no?”
Steven cleared his throat. “No.”
“Then it is possible that two different knives of the same brand could have been used?”
“Well…yes.”
“Thank you,” Terry said, and sat down.
We probably won that round on points, but Terry’d managed to kick up some dust clouds.
Next up was Barbara Meyerson, our very pregnant cell phone records custodian, who waddled in, ungainly and vulnerable, carrying a thick file folder. The minute I saw her, I knew there’d be little, if any, cross. It’d be suicidal to get belligerent with a mother-to-be, and besides, there was no point. The records were what they were.
But that didn’t mean she didn’t have dramatic points to make for our side, and I intended to squeeze the max out of them. I started with the phone calls between Ian Powers and Jack Averly, to prove their connection.
“Do the cell records of Ian Powers and Jack Averly show contact before the murders?”
“Yes.” Barbara shuffled through her paperwork. “Prior to the murders, there were sporadic calls, maybe twice a month, for a period of a few years. None of them were lengthy, and all of the calls placed by Ian Powers came from a cell phone that had a blocked number. It would show up in the records as ‘unknown caller.’”
“And did you find any calls between them on the day of the murders?”
“Yes. I have a call placed from Ian Powers’s unlisted number to Jack Averly’s cell that evening.”
“Just the one?”
“Yes. But the following day there were four calls between Ian Powers’s unlisted cell phone number and Jack Averly’s cell phone, and another few calls over the next three days.”
“Would you say that there were more frequent calls between them after the murders than in previous months?”
“Def-”
“Objection,” Terry said loudly. “The records will speak for themselves.”
“True, they will. Sustained,” the judge said.
I gritted my teeth. Barbara was qualified to summarize what was in the records. But it wasn’t a point worth fighting for. I moved on.
“Did you obtain the locations of the cell sites these phones accessed for the calls in issue?”
“Yes. The call placed from the defendant’s phone to Averly on the day of the murders came from the Bel Air area to a location in West Hollywood. The following day, Jack Averly’s cell phone was making and receiving calls in New York, and Ian Powers’s calls were being made and received in various locations in Los Angeles.”
I put a printout of the texts between Hayley’s and Brian’s cell phones on the monitor.
I pointed to the monitor: still waiting for drop. stay in car. “That first text was sent from Brian to Hayley?”
“Yes.”
“Where was the phone when that text was sent?”
“The cell site location accessed was near Ventura, in the Santa Monica Mountains.”
“Would that cell site be the one accessed if the phone was on Boney Mountain?”
“Yes.”
“Was there a text from Hayley to Brian after that?”
“Yes. Three minutes later, her phone sent a text to his.” She pointed to that text on the monitor: what’s going on? “That text accessed the same cell site location as Brian’s text.”
“So that text also could have been sent from Boney Mountain?”
“Yes.”
“Did Hayley’s phone send more texts to Brian’s phone after that?”
“Yes. Over the next fourteen minutes, she sent four texts.”
“Were any of them answered?”
“Only the last one.”
I took her through each of the texts Hayley had sent after that: u should be done by now! Where r u? No answer. what’s going on??? No answer. r u ok? No answer. where r u??? what’s happening??
Those texts-their rising panic-again gave the sad yet eerie sense of hearing from Hayley herself beyond the grave. “Was there finally an answer from Brian’s phone?”
“Yes. Four minutes after Hayley’s last text, Brian’s phone responded.” She again pointed to the monitor: I’m ok. All clear. Meet me on trail.
“Then a total of two texts were sent from Brian’s phone to Hayley’s, correct?”
“Yes.”
“How much time elapsed between Brian’s first text to Hayley and his second, which would be his last one?”
“Twenty-one minutes.”
“Ms. Meyerson, if you would please consult your cell phone records for Jack Averly now.” She pulled out her paperwork, scanned it, then looked up at me. “Can you tell us whether any calls-as opposed to texts-were placed from Brian’s cell phone to Jack Averly’s cell phone that evening from Boney Mountain?”
“Yes. Within the same minute that last text was sent from Brian’s cell to Hayley’s, a call was placed from Brian’s cell phone to Jack Averly’s cell phone.”
“How long was that call?”
“Very short. Less than thirty seconds.”
I paused and checked through my list of questions, giving the jury a chance to catch the significance of that testimony. “Now, Ms. Meyerson, those records don’t tell you who was actually using those phones, do they?”
“No. All we know is which phone was used and where it was when the call was made.”
“But according to your records, Brian’s killer could have used Brian’s phone to send that last text to Hayley, and then the killer could have used Brian’s phone to call Jack Averly-”
As I’d expected, that one brought Terry to her feet. “Objection! Improper hypothetical, calls for speculation!”
Judge Osterman shot me a disapproving look. “Sustained. That’s not for this witness to say. Ladies and gentlemen, disregard the question and don’t speculate about what the answer might have been. Anything further, Ms. Knight?”
“No, thank you, Your Honor.”
As I sat down, I whispered to Declan, “Think the jury got it?”
“If they were listening,” he whispered.
Terry did the cross. She didn’t even bother to move to the lectern.
“Ms. Meyerson, your records don’t tell you who the killer was, do they?”
“No.”
“Thank you very much. And congratulations. Is it your first?”
The records custodian beamed. “Why, yes, thank you.”
“I know it’s an exciting time.”
I knew Terry had no children. Probably never even had a gerbil. And her move had cut right to the chase-very effectively minimizing the emotional impact of the texts. As I helped the witness off the stand, I noticed a few of the jurors were nodding appreciatively. Terry was gaining fans. Which made this the worst time to have to call my next witness: skinhead führer Dominic Rostoni.
He rolled in, scanning the courtroom from wall to wall as though he’d just landed on Mars. But he looked better than I’d expected: he wore his usual jeans and flip-flops, but his shirt had sleeves, and his shoulder-length white-blonde hair was neatly combed. He looked almost human, albeit not the kind of human you’d want to marry your sister. Or marry anyone at all if procreation was part of the package.
I took him through his testimony with as little fanfare as possible. Not just because I wanted to finish with him, but also because there was no need to embellish. The photographs of Brian’s body in the shallow grave did that for me. All Dominic really had to do was point and say, “That’s what I saw.”