Page 112 of The Accomplice
‘She and her husband were well-known socialites. Of course I’d met them.’
‘And you’d been in their house …’
He grimaced.
‘I don’t remember,’ he said.
‘You were in that house, Mr. Peltier. You knew that the only way to force entry would be the front door, not the back door with the deadbolts, right ?’
‘I didn’t kill Stacy or her husband. Nor anyone else.’
‘Was it you who introduced Stacy to Daniel ? Their affair is very convenient to you. It allowed you to gaslight my client into believing her husband was a killer. You planted that seed, didn’t you ?’
‘Lies.’
‘Really ?’ I said, and Harry gave me a brown envelope. I opened it, held up the contents.
‘These are your phone records, I won’t say how I got them, but they log all your calls with Carrie Miller. In the months leading up to her trial, you never called her, and she never called you. That’s unusual, isn’t it ? She didn’t call you because you were with her. You were in constant contact. You were in a relationship with her by then. Carrie Miller will testify to this.’
‘She’s a liar.’
‘Her diary entries, they are all accurate, aren’t they ? You said so yourself earlier.’
‘I told you, she’s lying. Your client is desperate for an acquittal and she’s trying to frame me for her crimes. It’s my word against hers. I’m a lawyer with a sterling reputation and your client is a failed actress who married a serial killer for money. I think this jury knows who is telling the truth.’
For a man in his situation, he was remarkably cool. He lifted the glass of water to his lips, sipped and set it down.
I approached him, reached up and took the glass of water from the witness stand, then placed it on the defense table.
‘It’s not just your word against Carrie’s, is it ? The Sandman abducted a young woman in Manhattan, two nights ago. He’s getting sloppy. He left behind a plastic syringe cover. It has been tested for fibers and other trace evidence …’
As I spoke, I saw his neck bloom into a red blush that spread out of the top of his shirt collar. He swallowed, and I got the impression he was making a great effort to stay calm.
‘The lab that examined the syringe is now sharing its results with the FBI. Turns out the DNA on the syringe doesn’t belong to Daniel Miller. My client’s DNA is already on record. It doesn’t match her profile either …’
I paused, stared down at the glass on the defense table.
‘What are the odds it matches the DNA you left on this glass ?’
‘This is preposterous,’ he said, and then took a breath, puffed out his chest like he was going to say a lot more.
He didn’t. His eyes fell on Carrie and there was a longing in his gaze that was better than a hundred DNA matches.
‘I have nothing further for this witness,’ I said, and turned to White.
He looked like he’d just been run over by a flatbed truck full of horseshit. The judge asked him if he had any questions on re-direct. He shook his head.
‘Mr. Peltier, you are free to leave the stand,’ said Stoker, eyeing him warily.
Otto got up, buttoned his jacket and walked past the defense table on his way out the door. His eyes never left Carrie, who in all this time had her head bowed. She couldn’t look at him. Carrie had questioned her sanity, wondered why she hadn’t spotted the signs from her husband long ago, why she hadn’t known before she married him that he was a killer. The irony was she hadn’t married a killer. A killer had seen her, and wanted her, and manipulated his way into her life, made her believe she had killed her husband, made her carry all that guilt, and then stepped in as her savior.
It was only when the Sandman killed agent Delaney and started up his killing spree again that Carrie realized she had been played. Many people wouldn’t have put it all together as quickly as Carrie. But she was wary after her experience with Daniel. She knew how easily her trust could be broken. And so, she had run, not knowing what else to do and unable to trust anyone, even her new lover and lawyer, Otto.
Just as he was passing the defense table, Otto took a step toward it, raised his knee and bumped the edge of the desk, tipping it up.
The glass of water toppled over, fell to the tiled floor and smashed into a million pieces. Peltier smiled and walked out of the courtroom.
Soon as Peltier left, I asked Harry to take over, get an adjournment for the day while the FBI carried out further investigations on the body in the freezer to confirm its identity, and then I turned and ran for the door.
