Play Dead

Hawpe has some success in his cross-examination, focusing on the fact that it was raining that night and everything was wet. It could have washed away some of the blood and altered the spatter of what remained. Dr. Simmons gives ground very grudgingly, but Hawpe makes some points.

During the lunch break, I return a message from Kevin, telling me what he’s learned. Diana Carmichael was in fact in the Army, stationed in Afghanistan and working for what was called the Afghani/American Provisional Authority. It was the operation hastily set up immediately after the fall of the Taliban to provide much-needed money for reconstruction.

A theory is forming in my mind, but I don’t have the time right now to analyze it in depth. Hawpe has responded to my announced plan to call Jeffrey Blalock to the stand by asking Judge Gordon to refuse to allow his testimony. The judge has decided to convene a hearing, outside the presence of the jury and media, to consider the matter.

“Exactly what is Mr. Blalock going to testify to?” the judge asks.

“He is going to describe documents that he has reviewed that demonstrate conclusively that Stacy Harriman’s background has been faked in an effort to conceal her true identity.”

Hawpe stands. “Your Honor, unless he is prepared to present a credible explanation for how the deception was accomplished, it is pure speculation and should not be admissible.”

“That makes no sense, Your Honor,” I say. “He is going to be stating facts that exist independent of anyone’s knowledge or understanding of how they came about. It is similar to a witness testifying to a cell phone call without understanding the technology behind it. But I might add that Mr. Blalock will also be advancing his view that the fake background was created in the context of the witness protection program.”

Hawpe shakes his head. “The court has already convened a hearing on that matter, and it was determined that Ms. Harriman was not in that program. The U.S. Marshals Service very clearly represented that to the court.”

“We think they lied or were misinformed,” I say.

Judge Gordon does not seem pleased to hear this. “If you’re going to stand up in open court and in effect accuse the government of lying, you’d better have more than what you just ‘think.’”

“We have an expert presenting his point of view,” I say, but I can feel this slipping away.

Judge Gordon shakes his head. “Not good enough. I’ll allow the testimony regarding the background, but in the absence of new factual information, there will be no reference to the witness protection program. Anything else, gentlemen?”

“Yes, Your Honor,” I say. “We are in the process of determining Ms. Harriman’s real identity right now. My intention would be to have Mr. Blalock review this new information tonight and then present it to the court tomorrow.”

Hawpe starts to object, but the judge cuts him off so that he can question me about how we learned her real identity. I describe the process of getting the fingerprints from the cabin and running them through the national registry. I leave out the actual identities for now; they are not important to the issue we’re arguing, and I don’t want to give Hawpe a heads-up.

Unfortunately, Hawpe doesn’t seem to need one. He argues that none of the fingerprint information should be admissible. There is no chain of custody, no way to be sure that Stacy left the prints there at all. Anyone could have gotten into the cabin in that time, and therefore it is impossible to say how they were left there, or who left them.

I argue the point, but I have no bullets to fire. Hawpe is right; no one can say with certainty that the woman we know as Stacy Harriman left those prints.

Judge Gordon rules the identity inadmissible unless and until further information is brought forth that could demonstrate its reliability. It has not been a good hearing for us; all we got out of it is the right to argue that Stacy’s background was faked. Any second-year law student could have won that point.

The amount of information we’re gathering is starting to take off, and I can feel us getting closer to the truth. It would have been nice to convey that truth to the people deciding Richard’s fate, but his lawyer couldn’t quite pull that off.

At least my client will have a great story to tell his cell mates.

* * * * *

KEVIN HAS SPOKEN to Captain Reid about Diana Carmichael, the woman who became Stacy Harriman.

The army lists her as deceased, but they are not referring to her death in the water off New Jersey. Her death is recorded as having taken place just three weeks after the helicopter crash in Afghanistan that supposedly killed Durelle, Banks, and the others. I suspect that they created this fake death as a way to ease her into the witness protection system.

Unfortunately, that’s all the records show. The rest of her file is listed as classified, and not even Captain Reid or his boss has access to it. Reid considers this very unusual but is powerless to do anything about it.