Robin nodded.
“Why did you think I’d agree to meet?” Anders asked.
“Doug told me how you and Roger treated him when you made the arrest. He also said you told him you wanted me to check into the DNA test the crime lab conducted. That struck me as a strange way to act if you were convinced Doug was a murderer.”
“I’m not.”
“Why?”
“Can we agree that Rex Kellerman is an unscrupulous asshole?”
“Definitely,” Robin said, using all her willpower to keep her facial muscles from forming a smile.
Anders leaned forward and lowered her voice. “No one but Kellerman thinks your client murdered his partner, and no one can figure out why he’s so intent on convicting Armstrong. The firm’s receptionist left Nylander and Armstrong alone in the office on the evening of the murder—so he could have done it—but no one we talked to can come up with a single reason why your client would kill the person everyone says was his best friend in the whole world. So, there’s opportunity but no motive. And then there’s the DNA.”
“What about it?”
“They scraped a minuscule amount of blood from under Nylander’s fingernails. The lab couldn’t analyze it, because the sample was too small, so Kellerman used a lab I’ve never heard of to analyze it. The report he read to the grand jury concluded it was Armstrong’s blood. But the lab didn’t use a conventional test. They used a test I’ve never heard of that depends on algorithms.”
“So, the DNA test might be flawed?”
“I don’t know anything about the science. Suppressing the results is your job. I just thought you should know that the state’s case is flaky.”
“Who do you have pegged for the killing?” Robin asked.
“There’s a good chance this was a burglary gone bad. If it wasn’t, Blaine Hastings is the obvious choice, but we have no evidence that puts him at the scene of Nylander’s murder.”
“So, there are no solid suspects?”
“No. And it’s time for me to go.”
“I can’t thank you enough for this, Carrie.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve always thought of Armstrong as a pretty solid guy. If he’s guilty, I misjudged him. But this just doesn’t sit right with me.”
Anders left and Robin waited fifteen minutes before going to her car. While she waited, she decided that if she was going to save Doug Armstrong, she had to find out everything she could about the test that had been used to conclude that his blood was under Frank Nylander’s nail.
Jeff was sitting on the couch, watching a football game, when Robin walked in. He smiled and used the remote to pause the game.
“Hi, kid,” he said. “What kept you so late?”
“Doug Armstrong’s case, and I need your help with something odd that’s popped up.”
Jeff patted the sofa. “What do you want me to do?” he asked when Robin was seated next to him.
“There’s plenty of evidence that Doug and Frank Nylander were alone in their law office around the time that the murder occurred, but Doug claims that he has amnesia for the evening of the murder and several days after, so he can’t tell me what happened that night.”
“Do you believe him?”
“I’m sure Rex Kellerman will claim he’s faking. Kellerman called me shortly after the arraignment and wanted Doug to take some tests he claimed would show if he really has amnesia.”
“What did you tell him?”
“What do you think?”
Jeff laughed. “I hope you were diplomatic.”
“My answer was completely in Latin.”
“Good for you. So. Do you think Armstrong is faking?”
“I don’t have the training to give an opinion, but he seems genuinely confused.”
“So what’s this thing you need help with?”
“Doug has injuries that could have come from a fight. One piece of evidence that suggests that the fight was with Nylander is a minute amount of blood that was found under Nylander’s fingernail. The blood sample is too small to be used in a conventional DNA test, so Kellerman submitted the sample to an independent lab that uses some kind of cutting-edge technology, and they concluded that the blood is Doug’s. I need you to find out what that lab did and brief me on how valid the test is. I want to know if I can knock out the DNA evidence pretrial by arguing that it’s not been deemed reliable in the relevant scientific community.”
“Sounds interesting. Give me what you’ve got tomorrow, and I’ll look into it.”
“Will do.” Robin looked at the TV. “Who’s playing?”
“Broncos and Colts, but the game’s a snooze.”
Robin smiled. “Does that mean you don’t want to watch anymore?”
Jeff smiled back. “Why? Can you think of something we could do that would be less boring?”
Robin put her hand on Jeff’s thigh and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“I might,” she said, as she took the remote and switched off the set.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
In the morning, Robin thought about Doug Armstrong’s case as she walked from the gym to her office through a cold, damp drizzle. As soon as she got in, she gave the discovery she’d received from Rex Kellerman to her secretary with instructions to make copies for Jeff.
Moments after her secretary left with the reports, the receptionist told Robin that she had a call.
“My name is Herschel Jacobs,” the caller said in a heavy New York accent. “I’m a homicide detective in Manhattan. Carrie Anders gave me your name. She says you represent Douglas Armstrong.”
“That’s right. What’s your interest in Mr. Armstrong?”
“None, actually. I’m calling because he’s Frank Nylander’s law partner.”
“Was,” Robin corrected. “Mr. Nylander was murdered, and Mr. Armstrong is charged with his murder.”
“Yeah, Detective Anders filled me in on the case.”
“I still don’t get why you’re calling.”
“I’m investigating the murder of Tyler Harrison III, an attorney in a firm with offices on Park Avenue. Mr. Harrison was found in a vacant lot Saturday morning, about five days after he met with Mr. Nylander to negotiate a case.”
“I’m still confused. Mr. Nylander was killed on Tuesday evening, the day he returned from New York. That’s several days before Mr. Harrison was murdered. So why do you want to talk to my client?”
“We’re stuck, Miss Lockwood. The vacant lot is in a part of Manhattan where someone like Mr. Harrison wouldn’t go. It’s high crime rate, drugs, prostitutes. No one in his law firm or his acquaintances or his family can give us any reason why he would be there. And to answer your question before you ask it, no, he didn’t have a drug habit and he was happily married.”
“How about clients? Did anyone he represented live in the neighborhood?”
Jacobs laughed. “Mr. Harrison represented financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies. Aside from one bank with a branch that’s fifteen blocks from the lot, there’s nothing that connects his practice with the area. Our theory is that he was killed someplace else and the killer dumped his body in the lot.”
“I still don’t understand why you’re interested in Mr. Armstrong.”
“I’m talking to everyone who had contact with Harrison the week he was murdered, so I called to talk to Mr. Nylander and I found out he was murdered the same week. I don’t like coincidences.”
“Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence.”
“True, but I’d still like to talk to your client to find out about the case Harrison and Nylander were working on and any guesses he can make that might help with Harrison’s murder.”