The Night Swim(87)

“As the only other person who was at the beach that night, did you hear or see anything that indicates whether Scott Blair raped Kelly Moore?” Alkins asked.

“Oh, he raped her all right.” said Knox. “After I found that poor girl, I saw and heard enough to know without a shadow of doubt that she didn’t want any of it.”





50



Guilty or Not Guilty


Season 3, Episode 11: He Said/She Said

The most incriminating testimony against Scott Blair may well be the word of a drifter. His name is Vince Knox. That’s not his real name. He changed it when he got out of prison. Aside from a criminal record, he has a history of vagrancy. For the past few years, he’s been living in Neapolis. He gets work where he can find it. Odd jobs mostly. He mows lawns, clears gutters. On weekends, he pushes a wheelbarrow down the beach to collect discarded cans and bottles for cash deposits.

He owns a rusty station wagon and a small outboard motor boat. He takes it out most mornings to catch crabs. He sells his haul to local restaurants to supplement his income. He cares for injured birds with damaged wings; he wraps them up in his own shirts to keep them warm. And he keeps his own company. He doesn’t have friends. Not unless you count the birds and strays he feeds and cares for when they’re injured.

He sleeps wherever he can lay his head. In good times, it’s a room, if he can find one cheap. In bad times, he sleeps in the back of his car. Sometimes he sleeps on the beach or in a boat shed. That’s where he was on the night in question. The night that K was allegedly raped.

Vince Knox was one of the character witnesses called by Scott Blair’s defense lawyer earlier in the trial. He told the court how, three years ago, Scott dived into the sea in dangerous conditions and saved a drowning boy who’d been pulled out by the currents. Vince Knox said Scott was a hero.

Today in court, he testified again. This time, he didn’t call Scott a hero. He called him a rapist.

Vince Knox told the court that he was living in a boat shed last year when he came out early in the morning and saw K lying half-naked on the sand. He thought she was dead.

When she whimpered, he realized that she was alive. He recalled seeing bruises on her body. It looked to him as if she’d been assaulted. He suspected she’d been raped. He took off his shirt and covered her nakedness with it. Then he tucked it around her like a blanket. Just the way he does with the injured birds that he saves. He was worried she’d go into shock.

He returned to the boathouse and kept watch from the gap between the timber slats. He said he didn’t want to frighten her if she came to and saw him. He’s an intimidating man. Frightening to look at. He has scars on his face from a knife attack in prison and tattoos that go all the way up his neck.

He didn’t call the police or an ambulance that night. He claims his mobile phone battery was dead. He admitted that he could have taken her to the hospital in the back of his station wagon. He didn’t. He was afraid that he’d get jammed up. Perhaps be accused of raping the girl himself. Or get hit with a vagrancy and trespassing charge. This is a man who’s spent so much of his life in prison that he doesn’t trust the authorities to leave him be.

So he watched K to make sure she was safe while he was hiding in the boat shed. Peering through the cracks in the timber slats, he saw Scott Blair walk onto the beach from his sports car. Scott was carrying a small navy sports bag. The girl had woken by then. The shirt Vince Knox left on her body slid off as she sat up, visibly disoriented. From his hiding place in the shed, Vince Knox assumed that Scott was there to help the girl. Instead, Scott kicked her lightly in her thigh with his sneaker. Like he was rousing a stray dog.

Scott ordered her to get up. He told her to shower in the icy outdoor beach shower. He gave her soap and shampoo, which he’d brought in the sports bag. He told her that if she didn’t wash off all the evidence, then he’d do it himself. “Better be careful,” he threatened with a smirk as he groped her naked body. “One thing might lead to another. I might get carried away.”

When she’d showered and dressed, Scott pushed her against the boat shed where Vince Knox was hiding. Scott warned her not to tell anyone what he’d done to her. Vince Knox recalled that Scott took specific pleasure in mentioning some of the sex acts he’d forced on her. He heard Scott tell the girl that he’d destroy her reputation if she told on him. After that, Scott gave her cash and told her to use it to catch a bus home.

Because K’s testimony was struck from the record, whatever she said that day in court does not exist. It never happened. The jury can’t refer to it. They can’t even remember it. This is why Vince Knox’s eyewitness testimony is so crucial. And his testimony was damning.

Despite his gruff, abrupt manner, I think the jurors found him sincere. A simple man who spoke from the heart in simple words. They appreciated his candor. They realized that he had nothing to gain from coming forward, other than telling the truth. The jury, like all of us, is suffering from trial fatigue. I could tell they liked his authenticity.

When it was his turn, Dale Quinn threw everything he had at Vince Knox. He accused Knox of being a voyeur who spied on two teenagers having a romantic interlude at the beach. He suggested Knox’s testimony was motivated by anger against Scott Blair’s dad, who’d hired him in the past to do ground maintenance work but never followed through with a full-time job. Once he was done casting aspersions on Vince Knox’s character, he focused his attention on finding inconsistencies in his testimony. In trying to trap him in lies.