Page 132 of Witness 8

‘Good staff are hard to find. If I have anything to do with it, your morning is going to get a hell of a lot worse. Say, do you have any gum? I meant to pick some up at the store this morning.’

‘No, I don’t have any gum. Are you telling me your client isn’t interested in a plea deal?’

‘Why should he? I’m going to get him an acquittal before lunch.’

Castro stormed off, his handmade Italian heels pounding the tiles.

I followed him into court.

John sat beside Kate at the defense table. Alison behind. The hotel had provided a babysitter for Tomas with impeccable credentials.

Kate knew what had happened last night. I’d called her around one in the morning, told her about my visit to the Jackson house and she had worked all night in preparation for today. She looked a little tired, but buzzed.

‘Do you have any gum?’ I asked her.

‘No, I don’t chew gum. You nervous or something? I didn’t think you chewed gum?’

‘I don’t,’ I said.

Neither John nor Alison had any gum. I’d get some before lunch, I was sure of it. I checked with Kate, and she had said she’d delivered our new discovery to one of Castro’s assistant district attorneys.

I looked over at the prosecution table and watched Castro looking through the documents with an exasperated expression. He was pissed off and confused, the ideal state that any defense attorney wants for a prosecutor.

The judge came into court and we welcomed the jury back to their seats.

Kate stood up, flattened her suit jacket at the hem, took a pen in her hand, and re-called Ansen Bude, the latent print expert. As Bude took his seat in the witness chair, and was reminded that he was still under oath, I watched the man smile at Kate. She was right. He was handsome.

‘Mr. Bude, just to remind the jury of your earlier testimony,’ said Kate. ‘You testified that the latent palm print on the gun was not a match for the defendant, correct?’

‘It could not be matched, no.’

‘Please take a moment to look at this . . .’ said Kate as she leaned over and began tracing her finger on the mousepad of her laptop.

The large screen facing the witness came to life and displayed a palm print pattern. It was green and four foot wide. So the jury and the expert could see it.

‘Mr. Bude, this is a latent print found last night. The original has been served on the prosecution this morning. You have not seen this print before, correct?’

‘Correct.’

Kate clicked on the mousepad, moved her finger again.

The screen changed. The green print shifted to the left of the screen, and another print, in black, appeared on the right.

‘This print you can see on the right of the screen is the print that you examined and confirmed could not be matched with the defendant, is that right?’

‘Yes.’

Kate tapped the return key on the laptop, then placed two fingers on the pad.

‘Watch what happens when these images are overlaid,’ said Kate.

As her fingers moved across the pad, the print on the right moved and overlaid the green image on the left. It was like watching the last piece fall into place on a jigsaw. The whirls, lines and curves on the prints overlaid exactly.

‘I’m not asking you to conduct a forensic examination right now on the stand, but do you agree that the patterns are very similar?’

‘Do you mind if I take a closer look?’ he asked.

The judge gave him permission. He came out of the witness stand and stood in front of the screen. His fingers traced the lines of the prints, sometimes placing his thumb on one point and stretching his hand to touch another point on the screen. He muttered to himself as his hands and eyes moved across it.