Page 19 of The Best Lawyer
“It’s something,” Eric said. “But not enough. Not if Tom’s lawyer testifies.”
Jeanie lookedpuzzled.
“Marcia Murphy,” I said. “Do you know her?”
“Sure,” Jeanie said. “We’ve gone head to head a few times on some divorce cases. She specializes in representing husbands.” Her face fell. “He didn’t …”
“He did,” I said. “Or he might have.” There was another flash drive in the file. Eric turned and wrote DIVORCE on the Guilty board.
“Tom consulted with Murphy a couple of months before the murder,” I said. “Had a draft divorce complaint drawn up. Estate planning docs too.”
“Great,” Jeanie said. “He was getting ready to cut her off?”
I walked over to the Not Guilty board and wrote NEVER FILED on it.
“There’s no dispute they were having issues about a year ago,” I said. “She was hooking up with Joe. It ended. She says Tom knew. They were working past it. The consultation with Murphy looks bad. But he never followed through. It is what it is.”
“What about the murder weapon?” Jeanie asked, shaking her head.
I picked up a photo from the stack in front of me. It showed a bloodied, wood-handled hunting knife lying beside a ruler. The blade was 3.75 inches long.
“It’s a Buck 110,” Eric said. I met his eyes. Eric used to have one just like it. I knew how deadly a weapon it truly was.
“What’s that?” Jeanie asked, picking up the photo and peering closer and sliding her glasses to the top of her head. She needed them for distance but could read flawlessly withoutthem.
“Letters,” I said. The handle of the knife had the letters “XYZ” soldered into it.
“Does Katy know what they mean?”
“Nope,” I said. “She claims she’s never seen the knife before and to her knowledge, it didn’t belong to Tom.”
“As far as she knows,” Eric said. “It’s not reasonable doubt. I suppose it’s better than if it were a kitchen knife that could be definitely proven to have come from the house.”
“And Katy’s story is completely self-serving,” I admitted. “Still, it’s odd. Do you think you could look into it? This particular knife? See if you can figure out how old it might be.”
“I’ll do what I can,” he said. “But that’s a pretty standard buck knife. Loomis could have picked it up anywhere. It’d be easier if she’d just shot him as far as tracking that kind of thing down.”
“Then there’s this,” I said, walking to the Guilty board. I wrote “Katy’s Big Mouth” underneath. “She said some damning things after the police got there. Verbal diarrhea. DePaul’s report says she first claimed she was innocent. Then she said she didn’t know what happened. That she had just woken up and he was dead. Then later, when they took her to the hospital for a blood draw, she started blabbing her head off. She allegedly said, ‘Did I do this, could I have done this, I don’t remember’.”
“Did she?” Jeanie asked.
“Did she what?” I responded.
“Come on,” she said. “It’s just us. Just the three of us. What do we really think? I agree, Quick has some hurdles he’ll have to clear to get to guilty. All of that works in Katy’s favor. But what do we think?”
“I don’t know,” Eric said. “I haven’t known Katy as long as the rest of you have. She always seemed sweet. Kind of a dingbat. I guess I’m neutral in the sense that if we find out she really did this, I won’t be surprised.”
“You’re jaded though,” Jeanie said. “So am I. But Katy? My heart’s telling me she’s innocent. But my brain is telling me it’ll be damn hard to get a jury to believe it.”
“She didn’t do it,” I said. “That’s where I’m at. It doesn’t feel like she’s lying.”
“What about a poly?” Eric asked. “Just for your own peace of mind.”
I shook my head. “I’ve agreed to put on a legal defense. Plus, I don’t want to run the risk of something like that leaking to these online trolls. Just the fact she took it is going to make it seem like we think she’s guilty.”
“So you’re down to the fact that the prosecution’s eyewitness didn’t actually see Katy murder Tom.”
“I want to back that up even further,” I said. “My first weapon is a motion to suppress. DePaul never should have questioned Katy after she asked for me. If I can get her ramblings thrown out, the prosecutor’s only got the maid’s testimony. Which, as we’ve all said, is incomplete.”
