Fair Warning (Jack McEvoy #3)(35)

He still had to sit for cross-examination but he knew as well as the defense attorney that he was bulletproof. The science didn’t lie. The science was the hammer.

He looked out into the rows of the gallery and saw a woman weeping. It was the sister who had urged Kleber to reopen the case after nearly three decades. Hammond was her hero now. Her superman. With an S on his chest for Science, he had taken down the villain. It was too bad that her tears didn’t touch him. He felt no sympathy for her or her long-held pain. Hammond believed women deserved all the pain they got.

Then, two rows behind the weeping woman, Hammond saw Vogel. He had slipped into court unnoticed. Now Hammond was reminded of the greater villain who was out there. The Shrike. And that everything Hammond and Vogel had worked for was at risk.





15

Vogel was waiting in the hallway after Hammond finished answering the weak cross-examination from the defense attorney and was finally dismissed as a witness. Vogel was the same age but not the same demeanor. Hammond was the scientist, the white hat, and Vogel was the hacker, the black hat. Vogel was a guy who only had blue jeans and T-shirts in his closet. And that hadn’t changed since they were college roommates.

“Way to go, Hammer!” Vogel said. “That guy’s going down!”

“Not so loud,” Hammond cautioned. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you kick ass in there.”

“Bullshit.”

“Okay, come with me.”

“Where?”

“We’re not even going to leave the building.”

Hammond followed Vogel down the hall to the elevator alcove. Vogel pushed the down button and turned to Hammond.

“He’s here,” Vogel said.

“Who’s here?” Hammond asked.

“The guy. The reporter.”

“McEvoy? What do you mean he’s here?”

“He’s getting arraigned. Hopefully, we didn’t miss it.”

They took the elevator down to the third floor and entered the large and busy arraignment court where Judge Adam Crower was presiding. They took seats on one of the crowded benches of the gallery. Hammond had never seen this part of the system in which he played a part. There were several lawyers standing and sitting while waiting for the names of their clients to be called. There was a wood-and-glass corral where defendants were brought in eight at a time to confer through narrow windows with their lawyers, or with the judge when their case was called. It looked like organized chaos, a place you would not want to be unless you had no choice or were paid to be there.

“What are we doing?” Hammond whispered.

“We’re going to see if McEvoy has been arraigned,” Vogel whispered back.

“How will we know?”

“Just watch the people they’re bringing out. Maybe we’ll see him.”

“Okay, but what’s the point? I don’t get why we’re looking for this guy.”

“Because we might need him.”

“How?”

“As you know, Detective Mattson filed his reports on the case in the department’s online case archives. I took a look. You’re right, the reporter knew Portrero, the victim. The detectives interviewed him and he voluntarily gave his DNA to prove he’s not the guy.”

“So?” Hammond asked.

“So, that DNA is somewhere in your lab. And you know what to do.”

“What are you talking about?”

Hammond realized he had said it too loud. People on the benches in front of them turned to look back. What Vogel was suggesting was beyond anything they had even thought of before.

“First of all,” he whispered. “If it’s not assigned to me I can’t get near it—different procedures than Orange County. Second, we both know he isn’t the Shrike. I would never frame an innocent man.”

“Come on, isn’t it just like what you did in Orange County?” Vogel whispered back.

“What? That was completely different. I kept somebody from going to jail for what should not even be a crime. I didn’t send him there. And this is murder we’re talking about here.”

“It was a crime in the eyes of the law.”

“Have you ever heard the saying that it’s better that a hundred guilty men escape than one innocent suffer? Benjamin fucking Franklin.”

“Whatever. All I’m saying is, we could use this guy to buy us time. Time to find the Shrike.”

“And then do what? Say Never mind, I cooked the DNA? That might work for you but not me. We need to shut it all down. Everything. Now.”

“Not yet. We need it open in order to find the guy.”

The dread that had been growing in Hammond’s chest was in full bloom now. He knew his hatred and greed had led him to this. It was a nightmare he saw no way out of.

“Hey,” Vogel whispered. “I think that’s him.”

Vogel surreptitiously pointed his chin at the corral at the front of the courtroom. A fresh line of arrestees had been led in by the courtroom deputies. Hammond thought that the third man looked like the mug shot he had seen the night before. It looked like the reporter, Jack McEvoy. He looked weary and worn down from his night in jail.





JACK