Page 114 of Two Kinds of Stranger

‘That’s what that footage records, yes.’

‘And the next time the motion sensor video recording kicks in is at eight in the morning, the following day. Isn’t that right?’

‘Yes.’

Kate heard Harry’s chair creaking. She was aware of him leaning forward and placing his elbows on the defense table. They had not been expecting to get such an easy ride from this witness. Something was up. She had no choice but to keep going now.

‘So the footage corroborates the defendants’ version of events, that they were at home on the night of the murder, doesn’t it?’

Detective Withers paused again. She was considering her answer. If something was going to pop up and bite the defense on the ass, now was the time.

‘On the surface, yes,’ said the detective.

Kate could have doubled down. She was wary now. And moved on.

‘The report also details an outage in the security system in the early hours of the morning. A period of eleven minutes, where the Wi-Fi and radio signals that the system uses were offline, correct?’

‘I read that in the report.’

Kate took a second and looked over her notes. All her questions had led to this point. She knew what she had to ask next. But she was anxious. There was something she wasn’t seeing.

She bent down and lifted their first physical piece of evidence, the gun lockbox, and had it logged as a defense exhibit.

‘Detective, this is the lockbox used by the defendants to store the gun which was found on the victim’s property. This has been examined by defense experts: a fingerprint analyst and a DNA expert. Those reports have been agreed and submitted to the court in evidence. Those reports show that there are nofingerprints, nor any trace DNA found on this box, not even on the keypad. Do you dispute that?’

‘I can’t dispute that.’

‘It is the defendants’ case that, on the night of the murder, someone jammed the transmitter signals to their home-security system, snuck into their home and stole the Smith and Wesson revolver belonging to the defendant Kevin. . .wiped any trace of their theft from the lockbox and used this weapon to shoot and kill the victim, Mr. Cross. Wishing to shift the blame for the victim’s murder onto the defendants, this person left that weapon at the crime scene in the full knowledge that it could be traced back to the defendants.’

‘No,’ said Detective Withers, ‘I do not agree. It is my belief that the defendants deliberately killed the security system so they could leave their home undetected, perpetuate a false alibi, murder the victim and return home where they gained access through the rear of the property without triggering the camera system with their arrival.’

Kate felt those words like a knife.

They cut deep.

A glance at the jury. Some of them were covering their mouths. Some just let their jaws fall wide open. It was the same look that people wore when they’d just seen a car crash.

She was bleeding out. She needed to staunch the wound. Right now.

‘So let me get this straight,’ said Kate. ‘The prosecution’s case is that the defendants took great care to wipe their own fingerprints and DNA from their gun lockbox, temporarily disable their own home-security system, get to the victim’s home somehow, but not using their own vehicles, shoot the defendant, leave their own gun with their fingerprints on it at the crime scene and get back to their house and get inside again, without the home-security system logging their re-entry?’

‘Every murderer makes mistakes. They panic, adrenalin is high and their plans go astray,’ said the detective.

‘This seems to have been a mix of meticulous planning and absolute stupidity. They seem to have taken great pains to hide their participation in this crime apart from leaving their own gun at the crime scene. On your case, they may as well have left their driver’s licenses behind?’

‘It’s more plausible than a mystery man breaking into their home undetected and stealing their gun,’ said Withers.

Kate reserved the right to recall this witness for further questioning, and sat down.

Harry had his phone tucked underneath the desk. She guessed he was keeping Eddie informed. She wondered if he’d told him that they just got their ass handed to them. Harry leaned over, whispered, ‘The security system was a double-edged sword. It did us just as much bad as it did good. Don’t sweat it. This happens. We pick up and move on.’

Kate silently cursed. She should have seen this coming.

She didn’t. Probably because she was too worried about what she might have to do to win this case. Flynn had a plan.

A plan that would compromise everything Kate stood for.

A plan that she wasn’t sure she could be a part of.