CHAPTER 50
THE ALIBI
I got to the courtroom early, before Trenton or Stan had arrived. It was Thursday and Trenton had a full slate of prosecution witnesses to go through—crime scene personnel, police and sheriff's deputies who had been on the scene, and a ballistics expert. When Stan walked in, I noticed he looked a little pale, so I went over to him to see how he was.
"Good morning," I said.
"Oh. Hi Paula."
"Are you okay? You don't look so good."
"I'm just tired. I didn't sleep well."
"Can I get you anything?"
"No. I'm fine. Don't worry. How are you holding up?"
"I'd be better if I were down here with you."
"I wish you were. Believe me."
"Well, Trenton may wrap it up today. None of his witnesses should take very long."
"Yeah, there's not much to argue about. They saw what they saw. I'm worried about their ballistics expert. What if he claims he can match the shot to Dusty's gun."
"Then he's a lying son of a bitch. Anyway, I've got another ballistics expert available if need be."
"I know. I just have a feeling they're going to spring a surprise on us today."
"I don't think so. What could it possibly be?" Paula asked.
"I'm probably just paranoid. Don't worry about it."
Stan had got me to worrying. If Trenton had a big surprise up his sleeve, what would it be? I couldn't think of a thing that he could do without us knowing about it. As he walked into the room, I watched him closely. He was looking very cocky. When Bart came in, I went over to him.
"Hey. Good morning."
"Hi, babe. How are you?"
"Great. Listen. There isn't anything coming down that I should be worried about is there?"
"What do you mean?"
"Trenton's been playing it pretty cool. What's he got up his sleeve?"
Bart gave me a stone cold look. I immediately knew we were in trouble.
"What is it? Tell me."
"I can't. It's confidential trial strategy,"
"Bart. Don't give me that. What is it?"
"I can only tell you that Stan's about to get his ass kicked. I'm surprised you two haven't seen it coming."
I went back to my seat mortified. What was happening? Stan looked at me and I forced a smile. The bailiff stood up and announced the judge's arrival and everyone scampered to their seats. The judge took the bench and the bailiff brought in the jury. The judge nodded and Trenton called his next witness, the ambulance driver who was first on the scene. All morning Trenton paraded his witnesses before the court. I held my breath expecting to hear some new revelation that would prove Dusty was guilty, but nothing happened. By the end of the day it appeared Trenton had called all his witnesses and I was expecting him to rest but he didn't. He announced to the judge that he had one more witness.
"The prosecution calls Mr. Don Harris."
My heart plunged as Don Harris walked into the courtroom and took the stand. He had a grin on his face that was almost demonic. The fact that Don Harris was appearing as a witness could only mean one thing: he had an alibi, and if he had an alibi, Dusty Thomas was as good as dead.
"Objection, Your Honor, " Stan said. "This witness is on our list, not the prosecution's list."
"That is very true, Your Honor. But there is no reason we can't call him first. Mr. Turner certainly can't complain since he was going to call him himself."
"Overruled. You may proceed."
After the court reporter administered the oath, Trenton Lee proceeded. He asked Harris to identify himself, give his occupation, educational background, and other pertinent information. Then he asked about the day of Bobby's Tuttle's death.
"Can you account for your whereabouts on July 11, 1986?"
"Yes, I had a meeting in Austin at 11:00 a.m. with two buyers. I also stopped in and saw my CPA in the afternoon. He needed some papers to finish up a tax return."
"So you were gone all day?"
"Yes, I didn't get home until 9:30 or so that night."
"How did you get to Austin?"
"I drove my wife's car. I couldn't get mine started and I didn't have time to get it fixed."
"Did you have any problems with your wife's car while you were on this trip?"
"Yes. My wife is kind of fussy about her car. She didn't really want me to take it. On the way down, we got into a couple rain showers and the car got filthy. I didn't want to bring her home a dirty car so I went to a car wash on the way home. Unfortunately, I got too close to a security post and knocked the left, side mirror off."
"Now I understand you were also being audited by Agent Bobby Tuttle on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service about this time."
"Yes. I belong to the People's Mission, a local church that was being audited by Agent Tuttle."
"Did you have any animosity toward Mr. Tuttle on account of this audit?"
"No, he was just doing his job. My accountant was dealing with Mr. Tuttle. I only met the man one time."
"Were you involved in any way in Bobby Tuttle's death?"
"No. Absolutely not."
Trenton smiled at Stan and said, "Pass the witness."
The judge responded. "It's nearly five o'clock. We'll adjourn and resume tomorrow at 9:30."
When the judge had left the bench, I went over to the defense table. Stan was shaking his head and Dusty looked very dejected.
"Well, now we know why Don Harris was avoiding us. He was setting a trap and we fell right into it," Stan said.
"I'm so sorry," I said. "This is all my fault. I should have seen this coming."
"It's as much my fault as yours," Stan said.
"So, what's going to happen now?" Dusty asked.
"We're going to have to rethink our defense," Stan said. "It doesn't appear Don Harris killed Bobby Tuttle. We'll have to go back over our investigation and figure out where we went wrong."
"But will there be time?" Dusty asked.
Stan shrugged. "We still have some time. We all just need to stay focused and not panic. The killer is out there and we will find him."
"Or her," I said.
"I don't know, Paula. Women rarely kill with a shotgun. I'd bet it's a man."
That night Dusty, Stan, and I met back at the office to go over all our notes and rethink our defense. We ordered in some pizza and drinks as it was going to be a long night and we couldn't go home until we had come up with an entirely new defense. In retrospect, it had been foolish to try to pin the murder on Don Harris. But we didn't have time to moan and groan about that error in judgment. We had to move on and come up with something new quickly.
"Oh, Paula," Stan said. "Paul Thayer came up with the name of Don Harris' contact in Virginia. The name didn't mean anything to me, but maybe it will to you."
"What is it?" I asked.
"Ronald Jack."
"Ronald Jack. . . . Ronald Jack . . .Wait. Isn't that Raymond Farr's chief security officer?"
"Is it? I wouldn't know," Stan said. "I never met him."
"Yes it is," Jodie said. "He hung around here the first week they were supposedly protecting Paula. A lot of good their protection did."
"Yes, wasn't it a coincidence that they quit protecting Paula the day of the alleged hit and run," Stan said.
"You think the CDA has a connection to Don Harris?" I asked.
"Why else would Harris be calling Ronald Jack," Stan said. "We've been set up. I can't believe it."
"But the CDA was financing the trial?" I said.
"You've got to have a fight to draw a crowd. If the Feds had crushed Dusty Thomas without a fight it would have been in the news a day or two, tops. The CDA wanted publicity, lots of publicity so they could spread their message and get lots of new recruits. They didn't care about Dusty Thomas. They didn't want to save him. They just wanted a martyr."
"Well, it's a moot point now since Don Harris has an alibi," I said.
Stan squinted, stroked his chin a few times, a
nd then a smile lit up his face. "But Lewis Lance doesn't."
I looked at Stan and said, "You think?"
Stan nodded and said, "Jodie, I'm going to need Johanson's accident report and get in touch with the accident investigator."