A Good Marriage(75)
Amanda’s father—viable alternate suspect no. 1—remained our best defense. We—or ideally somebody other than me—needed to find him and prove he’d been in Brooklyn that night. Otherwise, I had a bad feeling that Wendy Wallace’s very well-crafted story would bury Zach alive.
And I didn’t want to be responsible. I needed to go back to Paul and tell him that we should hand Zach’s defense off to someone now, well before trial. I could say that a murder trial would interfere with my other matters, all of which were also Paul’s. He might even be happy for an excuse to drop the case; he’d been able to see Wendy, maybe he’d already gotten it out of his system.
“Here you go,” the guard said when he returned, handing back Zach’s signed power of attorney. “You know, you should tell your client to be careful. He’s going to get hurt for real one of these times.”
“I know,” I said, relieved and surprised that a guard was acknowledging the assaults. “Is there something we could do, or I—I could do to help him? Maybe some advice, or someplace he could be moved?”
The guard tilted his head, like he was sure I was messing with him.
“Uh, how about you start by telling him to stop bashing his own head in.”
Grand Jury Testimony
KENNETH JAMESON,
called as a witness the 7th of July and was examined and testified as follows: EXAMINATION
BY MS. WALLACE:
Q: Thank you for being here, Mr. Jameson.
A: Yes. Okay.
Q: Can you state your job title for the record, please?
A: Senior New York City crime scene analyst, Second Department.
Q: And how long have you been a crime scene analyst?
A: Twenty-five years. I’ve been a senior analyst for fifteen years.
Q: Did you visit the scene at 597 Montgomery Place in the early morning hours of July 3rd?
A: Yes.
Q: And what did you observe at the scene?
A: There was a deceased female. Extensive blood spatter.
Q: Could you determine the cause of death at that time?
A: I made a preliminary determination. Cause, homicide. Method, blunt-force trauma.
Q: Have you identified the murder weapon?
A: Not definitively. We are waiting for final test results.
Q: Have you made a preliminary assessment?
A: Yes.
Q: And what is that assessment?
A: That Mrs. Grayson was struck with a golf club.
Q: How did you reach this conclusion?
A: First, it was found at the scene right next to the body. Second, it was found to have blood on it matching the victim’s.
Q: Anything else?
A: She had a defensive wound to her arm. She held it up to block the blow.
Q: Anything else?
A: The blood spatter patterns in the area of the body are consistent with that object being used to strike the victim repeatedly.
Q: Can you elaborate, please?
A: You can tell from the shape of the blood drops and their pattern the manner in which they were left. Blood spatter provides a blueprint for the way a particular crime was committed.
Q: And what did you discern from the blood spatter pattern in this case?
A: That Mrs. Grayson was struck multiple times about the head.
Q: Anything else that points to the golf club as the murder weapon?
A: Preliminary analysis suggests that the wounds are consistent with the size and shape of the golf club.
Q: Meaning?
A: I believe she was struck with a golf club about the head when she was standing, then again several times after she had fallen. Her being at different heights as the attack continued accounts for the various locations and the variety in the type of blood spatter.
Q: So, in layman’s terms and based only on your preliminary analysis, of course, what is your professional conclusion as to the manner and cause of Mrs. Grayson’s death?
A: That she was beaten to death with a golf club while at the bottom of the stairs in her home.
Amanda
TWO DAYS BEFORE THE PARTY
Amanda awoke later than usual the day after Kerry’s birthday dinner, her body beginning to acclimate to her child-free days. Almost as if Case had never even existed. It frightened her a little. But at least Amanda hadn’t had the dream again, had she? That was something. Maybe getting used to Case being gone wasn’t the worst thing.
It was 8:15 a.m., the bed next to her long empty. Zach was always up and out at 5:30 a.m. to the gym and then to work. He did not believe in idleness.
What was he doing, though, she wondered, at this exact moment? And why was he always at the office so late, and so early? Did he really need to work quite that much? Kerry was a lawyer and Sebe was a doctor and a tech start-up entrepreneur, and neither of them put in hours like Zach. Or was he not really working the whole time he was gone? The thought had, of course, occurred to Amanda before. She was not stupid.
But when Case was around, Amanda always had more important things to worry about. And their life moved more smoothly when she held her tongue. Amanda thought back to the last time she’d forgotten that. They’d been in their second home in Davis and Zach had been complaining again about his most recent boss—he was not as smart or talented or hardworking or insightful as Zach. And Amanda was pregnant and so nauseous at the time. It was like their entire reality slipped her mind.