“You mean Detective O’Hara? I fed him before I came over. Do you have a moment?”
They walked into Gifford’s office. Jamison took the available seat. The other one was covered with files. “Mr. Gifford, I would like to hire you. Are you available?”
The surprise on Gifford’s face wasn’t concealed. “I’m a criminal defense lawyer, Mr. Jamison. Do you need a criminal defense attorney?”
“I need someone who will handle a matter in the right way and will be discreet. Can you do that, Sam?”
Gifford took a moment before answering, measuring the man in front of him contemplatively. “Why don’t you tell me what the problem is?”
Jamison fished a twenty-dollar bill out of his wallet and laid it on Gifford’s desk. “Are you willing to represent me?”
Gifford’s eyes narrowed to black slits. “I’ve never had a district attorney come to me for professional reasons. Why are you here?”
Jamison slid the manila folder across Gifford’s desk. “I have a long story so tell me if it’s more than twenty dollars’ worth when I’m finished. But you can’t use any of it unless we agree on the terms. Agreed?”
“I usually charge more but I’m willing to listen to this for the price of twenty dollars. Agreed.”
Jamison slowly unraveled the story, including the fact that his father had a son that nobody knew about. Gifford was subdued and asked few questions until Jamison was finished. “So, what do you expect me to do with the tapes?”
“I expect you to do the right thing. The truth is still important. Richard Harker deserves that at the very least.”
“What about your father?”
“If that comes out in the wash, it comes out, but it isn’t going to come out unless somebody knows where to look, and even then, it’s buried deep. It’s about whether Harker got a fair trial. In the end, we won’t ever know if he was really innocent, but we will know he didn’t get a fair trial.”
“What about Gage and Justice Cleary?”
“What’s their motive for making their situation worse by telling the whole truth?”
“Good point.” Gifford undid the clasp to the manila envelope and pulled out the tapes. He reached into a lower desk drawer and pulled out a tape recorder. They listened in silence to the voice of Foster and Christine, as well as Jensen, Gage, and Cleary. “This wasn’t in Alton Grady’s file or the disclosure lists from the district attorney. It’s obvious why.” He pulled the tape out and put it back in the envelope. “I have a question.”
“You want to know why?”
“I want to know why.”
“You may not believe this, Sam, but I still believe that the system only works if you follow the rules.”
Epilogue
Samuel Gifford made a motion to reopen the Harker case. Judge Williams denied it but not without the consequence of Gifford’s explosive public declaration about the concealed tapes and an invitation to the press to listen to them. He declined to answer any questions about where he got them but referred the press to District Attorney William Gage and Justice Jonathon Cleary. Neither had any public comment, issuing statements that denied they had failed in their duties as prosecutors.
Jamison sat quietly in front of Bill Gage’s desk, watching the broad back of the district attorney as he stared out the window at his fiefdom. Gage’s summons had been waiting for him when he walked into the office. He could tell from Helen’s voice that it wasn’t a friendly invitation. Finally, Gage turned and sat down, his thick hands thrumming a drumbeat on his desk before speaking. “I suppose you don’t know how those tapes came into Sam Gifford’s possession, do you?” Jamison didn’t answer. He knew Gage didn’t expect him to.
Gage took a deep breath before continuing. “I told you before that to sit behind this desk you have to be able to make a lot of hard decisions, including political decisions. It isn’t all black-and-white. You made a bad decision, Matt.” Gage got up and walked back to the window. The conversation was over. Jamison stood up and walked to the door before he heard Gage make one more comment. “A man has to accept consequences for the choices he makes. Your father used to say that. You might remember it.”
Jamison waited a moment before standing and walking out of the office. His only thought was the irony that Gage had chosen him to handle this case because Gage expected he would do what all lawyers do and stop when he won. Gage’s mistake with him was in not realizing that he hadn’t become a lawyer to do what lawyers do. He had become a lawyer to do what lawyers needed to do. Maybe that made him different than his father, and then again, maybe it didn’t. He had to think about that. But one thing was reassuring. He was different than Bill Gage.
Within two days word leaked from the White House that Justice Cleary was no longer in the running for a seat on the Washington DC Circuit Court.
Rumor had it that Bill Gage received a call from the governor asking that he find a reason not to run for attorney general. He did, announcing that because of unnamed health issues he had decided not to run for statewide office or reelection. To the surprise of everyone he endorsed his assistant district attorney to replace him. Matthew Jamison wasn’t mentioned.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James A. Ardaiz is a former prosecutor, judge, and Presiding Justice of the California Fifth District Court of Appeal. From 1974 to 1980, Ardaiz was a prosecutor for the Fresno County District Attorney’s office. In 1980 Ardaiz was elected to the Fresno Municipal Court, where he served as assistant presiding judge and presiding judge. Ardaiz was appointed to the California Fifth District Court of Appeal in 1988 and was named the court’s Presiding Justice in 1994. Ardaiz retired from the bench in 2011 and remains active in the legal profession.
Ardaiz’s previous books include Hands Through Stone, a first-hand nonfiction account of his work on the investigation and prosecution of murderer Clarence Ray Allen, the last man executed by the State of California, and Fractured Justice, the first Matt Jamison mystery novel.
Shades of Truth Page 37