21st Birthday, James Patterson [best mystery novels of all time TXT] 📗

fingerprints remain on an item like that?”

“As long as the surface isn’t handled. Could be for quite a long time.”

“So, if someone picked up the razor with gloved hands, and didn’t wipe the handle, the fingerprints would be preserved?”

“If the person who picked up the razor wanted to preserve them, yes.”

“Now, you saw the video of Lucas Burke leaving his house? And some twenty minutes later Tara Burke left the same house with the baby?”

“Yes, I saw that video many times. Frame by frame.”

“Did you see Tara lock the front door?”

“No. Her hands were full.”

“So, could Luke’s razor have been taken from the unlocked house by a person wearing gloves who had an interest in preserving the fingerprints that were on it?”

“It’s possible.”

“So…” said Gardner, turning away from the witness, keeping the spectators and the jury waiting for him to finish his point, then spinning back around to give Hallows his fifteen-hundred-dollar-an-hour stare.

“We agree. If someone wearing gloves took Mr. Burke’s razor from the house and the handle had Mr. Burke’s prints on it, that someone could have killed Ms. Fogarty with it. And if that razor remained concealed by weeds for months, it would still have the victim’s blood and the defendant’s prints on it, correct?”

Yuki listened to Gardner lay out his case on Hallows’s back. Hallows was a very good criminologist, but Clapper had blamed him for not searching the vacant lot sooner.

Hallows said, “I’m a scientist, sir. You’re asking me to give definitive answers to a number of compounding possibilities, all untested. That isn’t how I work.”

“I’m asking you as an expert, director. Is this scenario possible?”

“It’s possible.”

“Okay. Now, the prosecution uses your photographic analyst’s work to substantiate their case. Is this type of ‘photographic analysis’ a science?”

“Facial analysis by measurement of features is not all that technical or theoretical.”

“All right. For sake of argument, let’s say that the method Dr. Werner Stutz is using is what’s called the golden ratio. Its purpose is to establish perfect facial proportions for the standards of beauty. My eyesight is twenty-twenty and I can barely see the features of the unknown subject taken in the school parking lot now called photo.”

“Dr. Stutz uses high-powered digital microscopes and calipers.”

“Even so. You say this isn’t a hundred percent dead cert match because the man in the parking lot was wearing a cap?”

“Yes. The knit cap covered 5 percent of his features.”

“Okay. I follow,” said Gardner. “So, here’s the question. If my client closely resembles his father, and it’s dark of night and the camera is a big box store item of C minus quality—”

“Objection, leading like crazy, Your Honor.”

“Sustained. Save it for your closer, counselor.”

“Sorry, Your Honor. The question is, if Dr. Stutz is using a flawed photo 1 to make his match, by definition this match is flawed. And that photo might be the defendant’s father, Evan Burke.”

Yuki stood. “Argumentative, Your Honor. Defense counsel is leading and argumentative and taking liberties with the court.”

Gardner said, “Your Honor, the witness is trying to establish questionable methods as science.”

Hallows wasn’t having it. “If an experiment is repeated innumerable times with the same precise result, it’s scientifically proven—”

Judge Passarelli said, “That’s enough, everyone. Prosecution’s objection is sustained. Mrs. Clemons, please strike defense counsel’s statements from ‘Okay, I follow.’ Mr. Gardner. Do you have anything else for this witness?”

“No, Your Honor,” said Gardner. “That’s all.”

“Ms. Castellano. Redirect?”

“Yes. Thank you. Director Hallows. Now, regarding the razor blade. You’d stake your reputation on the validity of the blood test and fingerprint analysis?”

“Yes. One hundred percent.”

Yuki thanked Hallows and returned to her seat at the counsel table. She was shaken by the exchange but more sure than ever that Lucas Burke was a killer.

Would the jurors—all of them—see that?

Or would they be swayed by her theatrical opponent?

Chapter 102

Yuki watched as Newton Gardner—top-tier criminal defense attorney, showboat, media candy, and amateur wrestler—opened his case by calling his first witness, his client’s ex-wife, Alexandra Conroy.

Gardner was gracious to the attractive woman and gave her the expected softball questions establishing that Lucas Burke could not have killed Misty because at the time of the teenager’s death Lucas Burke was in Ms. Conroy’s arms, sobbing over the loss of his child and his privacy.

The questions were neat and short.

“What time did Mr. Burke call you? Come to your house? What was his mood? When did you arrive at Carmel? When did Mr. Burke see the murder headlines? What did you do after that?”

Questions were asked and answered in about five minutes. Then Gardner turned the witness over to Yuki.

Conroy was the key witness for the defense, and Yuki covered the same ground Gardner had done.

But Yuki was coming from the opposite direction.

She asked, “Ms. Conroy, after so many months and the very emotional circumstances, how can you know for sure that Lucas was in your hotel room at eight o’clock that night?”

Ms. Conroy said, “I checked the time before my evening spa appointment because I was going to put in a room service order.”

Yuki asked, “Did you place the order at eight p.m.?”

“No. I wanted to talk to Luke first.”

“At what time did you place the order?”

“Later. Maybe nine or so.”

Yuki went to her table and returned with a computer printout. She asked the witness, “Is this a copy of your phoned-in order?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can you read your name at the top of the page along with the time you made it?”

The former Mrs. Burke said, “I’m not wearing my glasses.”

Yuki couldn’t help feeling a flash of killer instinct as she homed in on Conroy, preparing to pin her with the truth.

She pointed out a line on the reservation sheet and said, “You placed your order at thirty-five minutes past midnight.”

“Oh. Well.”

Yuki continued.

“That’s time enough for Luke to kill Misty at eight and drive back to Carmel by ten. Take a shower. Have a snack, maybe a drink. Watch, say, Jimmy Kimmel.”

“Objection!”

“Sustained. Watch it, Ms. Castellano.”

Yuki said, “Sorry, Your Honor. Ms. Conroy, do you in fact know whether Lucas stayed in