Page 129 of One of Us Is Guilty

‘But she could have called someone?’

‘It’s possible.’

I had a thought that I didn’t want to speak out loud. Not yet.

‘What about the crew’s phones?’ I asked.

‘Burners,’ said Bloch. ‘But the evidence. Two women beheaded? Both of them in relationships with Patrick, and Patrick reports one of them missing at sea when actually she’d been murdered?’

‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need Raymond to process the DNA from the Hamptons house. If that DNA matches the headless Jane Doe then we’re a little way forward, but remember there’s no DNA profile for Teresa Chase. If the DNA from the Hamptons house and the missing girl line up, that doesn’t prove it’s Teresa, it just proves this woman was murdered there.’

‘Still,’ said Lake, ‘that’s two decapitated women. And we have the crew who probably did it on film.’

‘It throws suspicion on Patrick, but it’s not enough. But there is something that might change things.’

‘What?’ asked Lake.

‘Molly’s journal. It’s an account of her creating a persona, an identity, so she could get close to Patrick Vanderpool. In the journal, reading between the lines, she wanted to go to the Hamptons house to check it out. To look for evidence. If I’m reading the journal correctly, she was seeking revenge for her sister. She wanted to get close to Patrick so she could take him down. Molly was Teresa Chase’s half-sister, Willow, who has been missing for years. I didn’t make the connection until we worked out Molly wasn’t who she said she was. Now, reading that journal, it fits together. Tell Raymond to do a DNA comparison on Molly Green and our Hamptons Jane Doe. I’m betting we get a familial match. That’s a much stronger point in Vanessa’s defense.’

‘Wait, we searched for a deceased Willow Chase and found nothing in the records. Let’s say you’re right. Molly is Willow Chase. If Willow’s DNA was logged under the false name, Molly Green, wouldn’t that DNA profile have thrown up a match with the Jane Doe already?’ asked Lake.

‘No,’ said Bloch. ‘DNA profiles are stored on seven separate databases in the US, all with different categorizations and they don’t cross-reference each other unless you separately search each database. To protect fourth amendment rights to privacy, you can’t search a database without probable cause. The Jane Doe case wasn’t listed as a murder. It was processed underunidentified personsand listed on that database. If Molly’s DNA was fed into thevictimdatabase, then it wouldn’t show up as a match, because the Jane Doe profile wasn’t listed there. I’ll get Raymond on it, now we have cause to cross-reference those DNA profiles.’

‘One thing still bothers me,’ I said. ‘Why did the killer paint over the bloodstains on the wall of Molly’s apartment? It’s not like they moved the body – they just took the head. And there was blood on the floor. I don’t get it.’

‘This wasn’t like the Hamptons house. This a building full of people in Manhattan. We know they didn’t use the back entrance because they weren’t caught on camera, and there’s no cameras out front. They could hide the head in the paint bucket, and no one would know, but even if they wrapped a body in tarpaulin, or one of their rubber sheets, it’s still going to look like a body in a rubber sheet. And they have to bring that right out onto the public street. It could be that there were people outside the building that night. It was probably too risky to move, so they just took the head,’ said Bloch.

‘Maybe, but I don’t know for sure. Just ask Raymond to be quick with the DNA processing from the Hamptons and the profile searches. If everything comes through as we hoped, we have reasonable . . .’

I couldn’t finish the sentence.

For the first time in this case, there was a realistic hope and a narrow path to getting Vanessa an acquittal. I had a bad feeling in my stomach that had only grown as this case got closer to trial. Now, the mere thought of it made me feel sick. But I couldn’t hold that poisonous thought inside any longer.

‘Harry always thought Vanessa was innocent,’ I said. ‘He and I had the same thought: women, even deranged killers, don’t decapitate their victims.’

‘So?’ asked Lake. ‘You’re doubting your client now? After we saw on video exactly how those men murdered and mutilated their victims?’

‘That’s the thing. We still don’t know. We’re assuming a chain of events that may not make perfect sense. I think we can say Patrick found the journal in Molly’s apartment, realized who she really was and either he killed her and called his father for the clean-up crew, or he left her alive and had his old man send the crew out to kill Molly, and they got there after Vanessa had left the apartment. That’s all possible. But something else is equally possible. What ifVanessa killed Molly and thenshecalled the clean-up crew? No matter what way you think about this case, it still comes down to two suspects. Patrick, or Vanessa.’

‘Are you really doubting her?’ asked Bloch.

‘I’m doubting myself,’ I said. ‘You don’t know this, but I once represented a guy on kidnapping charges and got him off, even though right before the verdict came in I realized he was guilty. That man walked free because of me, and he almost killed a young girl named Hanna Tublowski. That young woman’s life was torn apart, and that was all my fault. I just don’t want to make the same mistake.’

Kennedy put a hand on my shoulder, said nothing. He didn’t need to.

‘I thought you’d moved on from that, Eddie,’ he said, and then put his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground. Men have a hard time talking to each other.

‘I don’t know if I ever will. Hanna is doing a lot better these days. Look, we all have theories about this case, yet none of us know the truth. We know a young woman was murdered. We know Patrick lied to the police, and continues to deny the affair. We know our client lied to the police, and lied to us about the affair and being at Molly’s apartment. And she still hasn’t told us how her fingerprints got on that jewelry box.’

‘What do you want to do?’ asked Bloch.

‘We’re in the middle of this now. We have to see it through to the end, one way or another. We have to keep going, but I want to know what really happened in that apartment. There’s justice, and then there’s the law. Sometimes those are two different things. Let’s keep fighting, for now. Let’s see what Raymond finds out. In the meantime, I have another favor to ask of the FBI.’

‘Of course,’ said Kennedy. ‘It’s not like we have anything else to do. What do you need?’

I said, ‘I need you to arrest somebody.’

‘Anyone in particular?’