Page 134 of One of Us Is Guilty

‘I wish I did have more time in here. I think better.’

A Department of Corrections officer joined Harry outside my cell. He took a thick bunch of keys from his belt and unlocked the door.

‘Judge says you’ll have cooled off by now,’ said the CO.

I got up, grabbed my jacket and left the confines of the cell. As we walked down the hallway, I slipped my jacket on, asked Harry for his cell phone.

‘You’ll get yours back in a second,’ he said.

‘Can’t wait that long,’ I said.

He handed me his phone. I dialed Bloch’s number from his contacts.

‘It’s me,’ I said. ‘The van that the paint crew arrived in. You said there was all kinds of kit in the back, paint buckets, tarpaulin, rubber sheets. Do you remember seeing any pictures in there?’

‘Pictures?’

‘Framed pictures. Ask Bill Kennedy to get his agents to send you photos of the contents of the back of the van. The Monet picture you saw in Molly’s apartment looked to you like it didn’t belong. Do you remember?’

‘I remember. They must’ve put it there to help hide the paint job.’

‘They weren’t trying to hide the bloodstains, Bloch. How’s Raymond doing with the DNA samples from the Hamptons?’

‘I talked to him an hour ago. He just got the dried scrapings processed and they’re in the rapid DNA testing machine now. Heshould get results in an hour or two and then it’ll take another few hours at least to upload and search on the DNA databases.’

‘Tell him to put a hold on it for now. There’s something more important. Get him over to Molly’s apartment again and sweep that wall.’

‘We swept the wall with the black light – there was nothing more to see.’

‘I don’t need you to sweep with the UV light. I need you to use a metal detector.’

I hung up, giving Harry back his phone as we got to the end of the hallway and the CO’s station. They gave me back my personal items with my phone, money and my father’s Saint Christopher medal, which I wore every day. The only time I took it off was when I was in a jail cell, which was increasingly too often.

‘The judge is going to ask you to apologize to her in front of the jury,’ said Harry. ‘If you don’t, it might be easier just to give me your stuff and I’ll hold on to it while you spend the night here.’

‘Who is Riley calling next?’

‘We’ve got Geoff Gilbert, Patrick’s campaign manager. I think he’s just going to call him as a representative witness to establish bad blood between Vanessa and the victim. Then it’s the forensics officer, then Ben Larkin, and last should be Patrick Vanderpool.’

‘Then let’s get through this as fast as possible. I have no choice now but to blow up Larkin. I’ll ask him if he’s been paid to target Vanessa and when he denies it, I’ll try to use the audio recording from Taco Bell.’

‘You think the judge will allow that?’

‘Clandestine recordings can be tricky at the best of times. With this judge, I doubt it. But we have to try.’

‘Your Honor, I apologize for my remarks,’ I said.

Riley was practically rubbing his hands. The jury watched somewhat impassively. But I noticed that three jurors in the front rowwere leaning forward, listening intently to this exchange. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I only needed one juror to have reasonable doubt, but it certainly gave me the impression they were at least interested in the dynamic between me and the judge.

Harry had his head in his hands, but he was peeking at me between his fingers. Our client was stony-faced, as we’d asked her to be.

‘Is thatall?’ asked Judge Tanner with a little hot sauce poured onto her tone. She was clearly still pissed at me.

There’s a long line of judges that I’ve pissed off. They’re at the back of a longer line of police officers and district attorneys. To me, that was a source of pride.

‘I apologize if my remarks offended you,’ I said.

This wasn’t exactly a good apology. Not my best, but definitely not my worst, as my ex-wife could attest.