"So you have no idea what happened in the interview room between the time you locked Mr. Hayes in and the time you saw the men in the middle of their fight?"
"No, ma'am."
"No further questions."
"No further questions," Kerrigan said, "and no other witnesses, Your Honor."
"Ms. Jaffe?" Robard asked.
"One witness, Your Honor. Mr. Dupre calls Larry McKenzie."
"What?" the startled jail guard said.
Kerrigan and the judge also looked surprised but Robard recovered quickly and beckoned the redheaded bodybuilder to the stand. McKenzie glowered at Amanda as he walked past her, but Amanda was concentrating on her notes and didn't notice.
"Officer McKenzie," Amanda asked when the guard was sworn, "you were manning the reception desk at the jail on the day that Wendell Hayes was killed, were you not?"
"Yeah."
"Please describe the reception area and the process you go through when an attorney comes to the jail for a contact visit with a client."
"Reception is on Third Avenue off the Justice Center lobby. When you come in, we're behind a desk. To the side of the desk, between the reception area where you can sit down and the elevators that go up to the jail, is a metal detector."
"Okay, so say I come into the jail to visit a prisoner and I come up to your desk, what happens then?"
"I ask for your Bar card and I check your ID."
"Then what?"
"You empty your pockets of any metal objects and you give me your briefcase to search, if you've got one. Then you go through the metal detector."
"What time did Mr. Hayes come into the reception area?"
"Around one, I think."
"Was he alone?"
McKenzie snorted. "He had a circus with him--TV cameras, reporters shouting questions."
"Did Mr. Hayes hold a press conference?"
"He answered a few questions. The reporters had him backed up against the reception desk. When it got too bad, he asked me to rescue him."
"By letting him into the jail?"
"Right."
"What did you do?"
"What I always do. I checked his ID and passed him through the metal detector."
"Did Mr. Hayes have a briefcase?"
"Yeah, but I checked that, too."
"Did you send the briefcase through the metal detector?"
McKenzie started to answer, then stopped.
"No, I don't think so. I think I just went through it."
"What was Mr. Hayes doing while you were going through this procedure?"
"He was . . . Let me think. Yeah, we were talking."
"About what?"
"The Blazers."
"While you searched the briefcase?"
"Yeah."
"So your full attention wasn't on the search?"
"Are you saying I didn't do my job?"
"No, Officer McKenzie. I know you tried to do your job correctly, but you had no reason to think that Wendell Hayes would try and smuggle anything into the jail, did you?"
"Hayes didn't smuggle anything in."
"Did he go through the detector with all of his clothes?"
McKenzie gazed upward, trying to recall everything that had happened. When he looked back at Amanda, he was worried.
"He took off his jacket and . . . and he folded it up and handed it to me with his briefcase and the metal stuff in his pockets, like his keys and a Swiss Army knife. I kept the knife."
"Did you search the jacket thoroughly?"
"I patted it down before I handed it back," McKenzie said, but he did not look as sure of himself now.
"Were the reporters still milling around your desk?"
"Yeah."
"Were they talking?"
"Yeah."
"I was watching a TV news story about Mr. Hayes's death. The station had pictures of him going through the metal detector. Were they filming Mr. Hayes during the search?"
"I guess so."
"So those bright lights were still on and there were a lot of other distractions?"
"Yeah, but I was thorough."
"Think hard about this, Officer McKenzie, please. Did you hand back Mr. Hayes's jacket and briefcase before or after he was through the metal detector?"
McKenzie hesitated for a moment. "After."
"Is it possible, then, that Mr. Hayes could have slipped something by you in his jacket or briefcase while he was talking to you about the Blazers and the reporters were distracting you with their bright lights and chatter?"
"Something like what?"
"Something like Exhibit One."
McKenzie's mouth gaped open, Kerrigan shot Amanda an incredulous look, and a low rumble erupted in the spectator section. Judge Robard rapped his gavel.
"It didn't happen like that," McKenzie insisted.
"But it could have?"
"Anything is possible. But Hayes didn't smuggle in a knife, and even if he did, your boy committed murder."
"Move to strike that last response, Your Honor," Amanda said. "And I'm through with the witness."
"I'll strike it, Miss Jaffe," Judge Robard said, "but I'm having trouble seeing where you're going with this. I assume you'll clear up my confusion when you make your argument."
"I don't have any questions for Officer McKenzie," said Tim Kerrigan, who looked amused.
"Any other evidence for either side?"
"No," Amanda and Kerrigan said.
"Argument, Mr. Kerrigan, since you've got the burden."
"The question before the court is whether the state has met the burden imposed by ORS 135.240(2)(a) of proving that Mr. Dupre's guilt in the murder of Wendell Hayes is evident and that the presumption of that guilt is strong. If we do, the court must deny release. Officer Buckley testified that there were only two people in the contact visiting room--the victim, Wendell Hayes, and the defendant--and they were locked in. He also testified that he saw Mr. Dupre stab Mr. Hayes, and it is stipulated that Exhibit One is the weapon that was used to kill Mr. Hayes. I don't think I've ever heard more convincing evidence of guilt, Your Honor."
Kerrigan sat down and Amanda stood.
"Let's cut to the chase here, Ms. Jaffe," Robard said. "Are you going to argue that Wendell Hayes smuggled Exhibit One into the jail?"
"There's no evidence that contradicts that position."
Robard smiled and shook his head. "I have always considered you to be one of the brightest and most creative attorneys in the Oregon Bar, and you have not disappointed me, today. Why don't you tell me the next logical step in your argument."
"If Wendell Hayes smuggled the knife into the jail, my client acted in self-defense, negating Mr. Kerrigan's proof of guilt."
"Well, that's right, if there was any evidence that Mr. Hayes attacked your client, but the only thing I heard was that Mr. Dupre was wielding the knife. He even threatened Officer Buckley."