Miracle Creek(41)

Shannon continued. “So we’re left with circumstantial evidence, which, in your own words, is quote, ‘not as reliable.’ The first of these is the ‘smoking gun,’ or the smoking cigarette, as the case may be here.” Several jurors chuckled. “Did you find Elizabeth’s DNA, fingerprints, or any other forensic evidence on the cigarette or match at the explosion site?”

“The fire caused too much damage for us to retrieve such identifying information,” Pierson said.

“That would be a no, Detective?”

His lips tightened. “Correct.”

Shannon crossed out Smoking gun under CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. “Next, let’s skip down to ‘Opportunity to commit crime.’ The fire was set outside, behind the barn, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Anyone could’ve walked right up there and set the fire, right? There’s no lock or fence?”

“Sure, but we’re not talking theoretical opportunity. We’re looking for a realistic opportunity to commit the crime, someone in the vicinity and with no alibi, like the defendant.”

“Vicinity and no alibi. I see. Well, how about Pak Yoo? He was in the vicinity. In fact, he was much closer than Elizabeth, isn’t that so?”

“Yes, but he has an alibi. He was inside the barn, as verified by his wife, daughter, and patients.”

“Ah, yes, the alibi. Detective, you are aware that a neighbor has come forward to say that Pak Yoo was outside the barn before the explosion?”

“I am,” Pierson said, sounding confident, smiling the delicious smile of someone who knows something no one else knows. “And are you aware, Ms. Haug, that Mary Yoo has since clarified that she was outside that night, and that the neighbor, upon hearing this, admitted that the person he saw from a distance could well have been Mary?” Pierson shook his head and chuckled. “Apparently, Mary was wearing a baseball cap with her hair bunched up, so he thought she was a man. An innocent mistake.”

Shannon said, “Objection. Please order the response stricken—”

Abe stood. “Ms. Haug opened the door, Your Honor.”

“Overruled,” the judge said.

Shannon turned her back to the jury and looked down, as if reading her notes, but Elizabeth could see her eyes scrunched shut, deep frown lines dividing her brows. After a moment, her eyes popped open. “So let’s get this straight.” She turned to Pierson. “The Yoos are all inside, then Young Yoo leaves to get batteries, then Mary Yoo goes outside where her neighbor sees her. Right?”

Pierson blinked repeatedly, rapidly, like one of those futuristic androids processing information. “That’s my understanding,” he said, his voice tentative.

“Which means Pak Yoo was alone in the barn before the explosion— in the vicinity and had no alibi, meeting your criteria for ‘opportunity to commit crime,’ isn’t that right?”

He stopped blinking. He seemed to be holding his breath; there was no movement in his face or body. After a moment, he swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up. “Yes.”

A grin overtook Shannon’s face, and she wrote P. YOO in red letters next to Opportunity to commit crime. “Next, motive. Tell me, Detective: What’s the most typical motive for arson you see?”

“This isn’t a typical arson case,” he said.

“Detective, I didn’t ask if this was a typical arson case. Please answer my question: What’s the most typical motive for arson that you’ve seen?”

He clamped his lips, like a boy refusing to answer his mother, then spat out, “Money. Insurance fraud.”

“Here, Pak Yoo stood to gain 1.3 million dollars from fire insurance, correct?”

He shrugged. “Maybe, sounds right. But again, this isn’t a typical case. In most insurance-fraud cases, fires are set when the building is unoccupied, and no one’s injured.”

“Really? That’s funny, because I have here your notes from your most recent arson case”—Shannon looked at a document in her hand—“let’s see, in Winchester last November. You wrote, ‘Perpetrator set fire and remained inside, believing insurer might suspect fraud if building empty. Perpetrator believed if he was injured, insurer more likely to believe it was accidental and pay out.’” She handed the document to Pierson. “This is your report, correct?”

Pierson clamped his jaws and narrowed his eyes, barely looking down at the paper, before saying, “Correct.”

“So, based on your experience, would you say that a 1.3-million-dollar policy can provide motive for an owner such as Pak Yoo to set fire to his own building, even when the building is occupied?”

Detective Pierson looked at Pak, looked away, then finally said, “Yes.”

Shannon wrote P. YOO in big red letters next to Motive to commit crime. She pointed to the next bullet point. “Detective, for ‘Special knowledge and interest,’ you have ‘bomb expertise or research example’ in parentheses. What does that mean?”

“It’s for specialized crimes. For instance, in a bombing, if the suspect knew how to make that particular type of bomb or researched it, I’d consider that strong evidence. Much like the evidence found on the defendant’s computer here.”

“Detective, isn’t it true that Pak Yoo had specialized knowledge of HBOT fires? That, in fact, he’d studied previous fires just like the one here?”