Fair Warning (Jack McEvoy #3)(44)

“No, I’m not. I’m a reporter, actually. Down from L.A.”

“For this case?”

“No, not this one. Another case you handled. My name’s Jack McEvoy.”

I threw the paper towel I was drying my hands with into the trash can and offered my hand. Ruiz took it tentatively. I didn’t know if that was because of what I had said or the general awkwardness that comes with holding out a hand in a restroom.

“What other case?” Ruiz asked.

“I guess it’s the one who got away,” I said. “William Orton.”

I watched his face for a reaction and thought I caught a glimpse of anger flare before his face turned to stone.

“How do you know about that case?” he asked.

“Sources,” I said. “I know what he did at UCI. You didn’t put him in jail but at least you got him away from the students there.”

“Look, I can’t talk to you about that case. I need to get back to court now.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

Ruiz opened the door and looked back at me.

“You’re doing a story about Orton?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “Whether you talk to me or not. I’d rather it be after we’ve talked and you can explain why he was never charged.”

“What do you think you know about him or that case?”

“I know he may still be a predator. That enough?”

“I have to go back to court. If you’re still here after I’m finished, then maybe we can talk.”

“I’ll—”

He was gone and the door slowly closed.

After I returned to the courtroom, I watched the defense lawyer cross-examine Ruiz, but she scored no points that I could tally and made one large misstep in asking a question that allowed Ruiz to state that DNA collected at the hospital after the abduction and rape was matched to her client. This, of course, would come out anyway, or may have already come out through an earlier prosecution witness, but it’s never a good thing for the defense to reference the state’s key piece of evidence against your client.

After twenty minutes of questions gained little traction for her client’s cause she gave up and the detective was dismissed as a witness.

I left the courtroom and sat on a bench in the hallway. If Ruiz was going to talk to me he would come out. But when he did it was to collect the next witness, who was waiting in the hall on the next bench down. I heard Ruiz call her Dr. Sloan and tell her she was up. He walked her to the courtroom and when he opened the door for her he looked back at me and nodded. I took it to mean he would be back for me.

Another ten minutes passed and Ruiz finally came out of the courtroom again and sat on the bench next to me.

“I should be in there,” he said. “The prosecutor doesn’t know the case like I do.”

“That doctor, is she the DNA expert?” I asked.

“No, she runs the rape-treatment center at the hospital. She collected the evidence. The DNA expert comes next.”

“How long will the trial last?”

“We’ll finish tomorrow morning, then it will be whatever the defense puts on—which doesn’t look like much.”

“If it was such a lost cause, why didn’t he plead, get a deal?”

“Because a guy like that, we don’t give him a deal. Why are you here?”

“I’m working on a story and it’s taken me to Orton. We found out about the UCI case and I wondered why it never went anywhere.”

“Short answer: the DNA didn’t match. We had the victim’s ID, witness corroboration of checkable facts, but the DNA knocked our legs out. The DA passed. How is Orton related to what you’re working on?”

I could see what Ruiz was doing. He was trading. He’d give up information to get information. But so far he hadn’t told me anything I didn’t already know.

“I’m looking at the murder of a woman,” I said. “No direct link in the case to Orton but I think her DNA went through his lab.”

“At UCI?” Ruiz asked.

“No, this is after he left. His current lab, Orange Nano.”

“I don’t get the connection.”

“My victim was killed by a sexual predator. From what I’ve found out about Orton, he’s one too.”

“I can’t make that statement. We never charged him with a crime.”

“But you wanted to. It was the DA who wouldn’t go forward.”

“With good reason. DNA works both ways. It convicts and it clears.”

I pulled out my notebook to write down that line. It freaked Ruiz out.

“You can’t use anything from me. I don’t want to be sued by him. There was no case. The DNA cleared him.”

“But you had the victim’s story.”

“Doesn’t matter. The DNA threw a wrench into things. Made the case untenable. We didn’t proceed. End of story. Is this—do you work for the Times up there?”

“I work for a website that partners with the Times on occasion. How surprised were you when the DNA came back and it wasn’t a match to William Orton?”

“Off the record: very. On the record: no comment.”

I put my notebook down on the bench so he would not perceive it as a threat.