FiFty Fifty

Chapter Twenty - Two

EDDIE

Once I was sure Kate and her client had safely passed by the storage room, I let go of Sofia. She was already anxious about the thought of taking the polygraph and this only made things worse. When I'd seen them coming towards us, I knew I had to get her away. The room we were in had boxes piled up in the corner, and assorted stationery filling the rest of the wall space which had been taken up by shelves. At first she resisted. I could see the anger rise in Sofia. Hurt too. She resisted at first, telling me, 'No,' and repeating it as she held onto the doorway. She wanted to get to her sister. Alexandra had taken everything from Sofia. Then, the emotions overwhelmed her.
Sofia grabbed me, hugged me and buried her head in my chest. She moaned and held tight. I had put my arms on her shoulders, whispering to her that it would be alright. Now, having let go of her, I told her Alexandra had gone.
She took her arms from around me, stood back and adjusted her hair. She had been crying, and there was a wet patch on my shirt pocket.
'Sorry,' she said.
'It's fine. There have been a lot of tears on this shirt over the years. Mostly mine. Don't worry, she's out of here. You're safe.'
'Coast is clear,' said Harry from the corridor. We joined him and made our way down the corridor to the exam room. Inside, I saw Dreyer and the examiner in a lab coat typing on a computer with a bank of screens above it. Beside that was the chair for test subjects. I told Sofia to relax and go take a seat. Harry went with her to make sure she was settled and check out the exam process.
'I hope that was worth it,' I said to Dreyer. He ignored me. He was already making notes.
'We'll see, won't we?' he replied.
While the examiner in the white lab coat hooked her up to his machines, Harry spoke softly to Sofia and reminded her to tell the truth and, above all, to relax.
The examiner began the lie detector test with simple questions. After a few minutes, Sofia got into the swing of things. She was answering more confidently and sticking to her story.
'Did you murder your father?' said the examiner.
 
Sofia looked right at him, then at Dreyer, her face impassive. She had control. Dreyer, on the other hand, looked like a man who realized he might have gotten on the wrong bus. He bit down on the nail of his index finger, then adjusted his tie, and returned the already bitten-down nail to his teeth. Whatever charade he had arranged for today wasn't working out as he had hoped.
I returned my attention to Sofia, realizing she hadn't answered the question. Her lip trembled, and she said, 'No.'
The examiner had something in his hand now. It was in a plastic evidence bag. He dropped it beside Sofia and said, 'Did you put this knife though your father's eyes?'
Tears formed and quickly ran down Sofia's cheeks as she said, in a whisper, 'No.'
'Goddamn it,' I said, 'That's low. Stop this test right now.'
Before Dreyer could interject, Sofia said, 'No, it's okay. I'm okay. Just keep going.'
I shook my head.
'This is an ambush, Sofia. The results for this test are skewed. Your reaction to the murder weapon is natural and it's going to be recorded as a blip in the data by Doctor Dickface here, who will say you lied in that answer,' I said, gesturing at the examiner.
He turned around and said, 'Just doing my job.'
'If your job is to intimidate and frighten my client then you're doing it just fine. Come on, this is a freak show.'
'No, it's okay. I'm telling them the truth,' said Sofia.
Save for going over there and removing the pads and sensors from her skin, there was not much else I could do. I thought about it for a second. It was the right thing. I looked at the middle of the three screens in front of the examiner. Displayed was a wave of crazy lines and then more rhythmic, smooth curls after the wild scrawls. Those scrawls were the sensors going ape shit from Sofia's reaction to the murder weapon.
This was not going well.
'Ask her the last question again,' I said.
'Fair enough,' said the examiner. 'Did you put that knife in your father's
skull?'
'No,' said Sofia.
I looked at the screen. Smooth lines.
The truth.
A bucketful of relief hit me. It was like a warm wave, washing me clean. I had
called this one correctly. Sofia was innocent. But the comfort of that knowledge

didn't last. As fast as that feeling had arrived, it quickly dissipated under an anvil of responsibility.
If I failed, this innocent, messed-up young woman would go to jail. And she'd tie a rope blanket around her neck first chance she got.
A murder trial with an innocent client is like saving someone who's fallen over a cliff edge. You've got their hand. You've got to hang on. You've got to haul them to safety. Their life is in your grasp. Your strength is all that separates them from a chasm.
Just a few more weeks. Then the trial.
While I was sure, Dreyer was the opposite. I'd bet he was expecting to put a little daylight between the defendants with his lie detector test. That had backfired for him. He chewed his nails, ignoring me. Watching the examiner's screen. He sighed, got up and said, 'Be ready for trial. I'm pulling no punches, Eddie.'
'Bring it on,' I said.
The inspection of the murder scene that night had been pointless. I got nothing other than a better understanding of the layout of the mansion. In the car, on the way back to my office, Harper and Harry confirmed they'd also got very little from the inspection. Nothing the cops overlooked. We'd taken photos, but there didn't seem to be much point. The DA would use their official photographer with the body in situ to show the jury. Our photos didn't have any evidential value.
Still, I might go over them again. See if it shook something loose, but I doubted it.
Two hours after I got back to the office, Harper and Harry having already left, I got the email with the DA's videos of our inspection. I checked Kate's video, and didn't seem to think they had had any eureka revelations from their inspection either – or if they did, they'd hidden their reactions well.
I forwarded the videos to Sofia to check over, drained my coffee and hit the sack.