FiFty Fifty

Chapter Thirty Two

EDDIE
I was tempted not to ask Soames anything at all. His testimony had been damaging, but not too bad. Kate had done her best to minimize it, but her opening question wasn't tight enough. Not her fault. Some witnesses need a tighter leash than others and you can't know that until you ask your first question. Years of experience can give you an advantage, but Kate was doing better than I did on my first murder trial.
I stood, decided I had to shake the tree some more. See what fell out.
'Detective Soames, when the defendants made these statements to you at the scene, I suppose both defendants had been arrested, and read their Miranda rights before they spoke to you?'
'Of course,' said Soames.
Even if that weren't true, that was the answer you got from every cop in the city when you asked that question. No cop is going to admit a suspect said anything significant without first being given their right to remain silent. If they didn't have their rights read to them, the statement was largely inadmissible. Soames would never admit to talking to a suspect without them being Mirandized.
'Are you sure both defendants had been arrested and Mirandized before you spoke to them at the scene?'
'I am one hundred percent certain,' he said, with a degree of satisfaction. He had delivered this affirmative answer with a smug smile to the jury. Little did he know, he'd just handed me his heart on a plate. I wouldn't rip it from him yet. I had to wait until the right time.
'Detective Soames, you consider the statements made by the defendants at the scene to be significant, yes?'
'Correct.'
'I thought so. You seem to be implying that because Alexandra and Sofia did not ask you if their father was still alive, that means they killed him?'
'It's a logical conclusion.'
'Let us remind ourselves here that the prosecution maintain there is evidence against both of these defendants. If one defendant makes a significant statement to you, at the crime scene, well, isn't that vital evidence for the prosecution
 
case?' 'Yes.'
'You knew this was important evidence when you wrote it down in your notebook at the scene, didn't you?'
'I guess I did.'
'And given that it's so vital, you didn't think to include it in your deposition or give copies of your notebook to the prosecutor so they could be disclosed to the defense teams?'
'I gave all relevant information to the DA's office.'
'But not a copy of the relevant pages from your notebook?'
He paused.
If he lied and said yes he could jeopardize the credibility of the prosecutor; if
he told the truth then he had no way of knowing what kind of blind alley I was leading him down.
'I must've overlooked my notes. I don't think I gave a copy to the District Attorney's office.'
'You don't think you did? The former mayor of New York City is lying dead, torn to pieces in his bedroom, you have two suspects in custody, according to you both of them made significant statements, and you don't think you handed over a note of those statements? Either you did, or you did not. Which is it?'
Soames cleared his throat, tried to regain some composure, then looked to the jury and said, 'I did not.'
It was my turn to hit the pause button. Let that sink in for the jury. It was a minor point, but I wanted to let it chew up the furniture for a while.
'Are you incapable of conducting a basic investigation, Detective Soames?'
He didn't bother to look at the jury for his answer, he shot it straight back at me with a little heat on the return.
'My record speaks for itself. My department has one of the highest homicide clearance rates in this city, or any other city for that matter.'
'Then as an experienced and talented investigator you wouldn't make such a basic error of not handing over vital information to the DA's office?'
'I guess ...'
'Detective, the statements made by the defendants at the scene are not significant at all, are they?'
'They are. Alexandra and Sofia didn't ask if their father was alive because they both knew he was already dead, because they had made damn sure he was dead.'
'There's another reason neither of the defendants asked if their father was alive, isn't there?' 'Not one that I can see. In all my years as a homicide detective, it has never occurred before.'
'Earlier, you confirmed that before the defendants were questioned at the scene, they had been read their rights, remember?'
'I remember. I'm certain. They had been read their rights.'
'Suspects are only read their rights after they are arrested, yes?'
'Correct,' said Soames, who was tiring of this.
I took a page from the prosecution disclosure and handed it to the clerk.
'Look at this document, please. This is the arrest record. Arresting officer was
patrolman Jacobs?'
'Correct,' said Soames.
'And both defendants were arrested on a single charge?'
'Yes,' said Soames, wary now of where this might lead.
Time to take him out.
'According to the record, patrolman Jacobs arrested both defendants for
murder. Might that be where they got the idea that their father was dead?' Soames swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down in his throat. 'You can't be arrested for murder unless there's a dead body, right?'
He didn't answer. He didn't need to.
'Detective, there is precious little evidence against these defendants. You and the prosecutor are clutching at thin straws trying to make a case, isn't that what's really happening here?'
Soames cleared his throat, took a sip of water, leaned toward the mic and said, 'No, sir.'
Soames had taken the hair from deep in the wound on Frank Avellino's chest. The hair-fiber expert and Detective Tyler would have more to say about it, but I just needed to cover my bases with Soames.
'You testified that you removed a strand of hair from a wound in the victim's chest, detective. You are not a hair-fiber analysis expert, are you?'
'No sir, we have Professor Shandler for that.'
'Good. Nothing further.'
Dreyer didn't try and repair any of the damage, not that there was much he
could have done. It did look to me like the DA was scrabbling for any scrap of evidence that tended to show guilt – anything that could be spun in the prosecution's favor was going to be thrown at us along with the kitchen sink.
'The People call Detective Isiah Tyler,' said Dreyer.
Soames left the witness stand and exchanged nothing more than a look with Tyler. It was a warning. Be careful. Tyler was much younger than Soames, and more hot-headed. More easily led into an ambush by a clever lawyer.