Supreme Justice

by Phillip Margolin

  "And they told you to back off, that they were taking over?"

  Oswald shrugged. "And my boss agreed. He was right. We would have ended up turning it over to the state police, so why not the feds?"

  "And that's everything that happened?"

  "Didn't the DA tell you the rest of it?"

  "What DA?"

  "I talked to two of them."

  "Look, Tom, all this information about the China Sea is new to me. So why don't you tell me what isn't in the report."

  Oswald took a swig from his bottle. Mary got the impression that he was making a decision. After a he thought for a few moments, Oswald wiped some moisture from his mouth and started talking.

  "Jerry and I couldn't let go, so we drove back to the dock. This was a day later. The ship was gone, and Dave Fletcher, the night watchman who'd called in the 911, wasn't there either. I drove out to his place. It was deserted. One of his neighbors told me she hadn't seen Fletcher or his car since the night I was called to the dock. I talked to Fletcher's boss at the company that provides the security guards. He told me Fletcher didn't work there anymore and they didn't know where he'd gone."

  "Do you know what happened to him?" Mary asked.

  "I have no idea. He has family in town, and they filed a missing-person report. I've followed up from time to time, but he vanished off the face of the earth.

  "If I had to bet, I'd put my money on the men who disappeared the ship. You read about the CIA kidnapping terrorists all the time and taking them to secret prisons."

  Oswald paused. He looked ill. "Dave was a good guy, a veteran. I hope to God he's still alive."

  "Did Mr. Fletcher tell you anything you didn't write in the report?" Mary asked.

  "Yeah, the chief told me to make the report bare bones, so I didn't put in a lot of stuff. For instance, Fletcher told me he'd seen a man run from the ship and drive away. The man was staggering, and Fletcher thought he might be wounded. He also thought another car followed the man when he drove off."

  Mary started to get a funny feeling in her gut. "When I called you and told you I represented Sarah Woodruff, you said you'd been expecting my call. Why do you think what happened on the China Sea has something to do with Sarah Woodruff's case?"

  "Shortly before your client's first case came to trial, a Multnomah County DA named Monte Pike called me. You know that several prints were found in your client's house that couldn't be identified when they were run through AFIS."

  Mary nodded.

  "Pike ran them again and came up with a match to a print I put into AFIS a few days after I lifted it."

  "You didn't turn over all the evidence to the Homeland Security guys."

  Oswald leaned forward. "I do not appreciate being treated like a hick, and I especially do not appreciate being treated like a hick by some asshole whose salary is paid by my taxes."

  Mary smiled. "Where did the print come from?"

  "The hatch covering the hashish."

  Mary let out a low whistle. "Did Pike know about the hash and the wounded man who ran from the ship?"

  "That I don't know, but I assume the other prosecutor told him."

  "What other prosecutor?"

  "The one I saw in Portland--Dietz. My chief told me to keep my mouth shut about the China Sea, and I didn't want Homeland Security pissed at me, so I told Pike I didn't know anything about the print, and I never got back to him. But I started to feel guilty. You know, Woodruff's a cop, and this stuff with the ship didn't feel right. My conscience was really bothering me, and I was in Portland on business. When I finished what I had to do, I went to the DA's office to talk to Pike, but he was in trial and they told me that Dietz was lead counsel. So I told him everything. Didn't he tell you about the ship?"

  "No, Tom, he didn't, and I'm going to find out why. Will you get in trouble with your chief for talking to me?"

  "If he brings it up, I'll handle it. Woodruff is a cop. If she killed the guy, I've got no sympathy for her. But I'm not going to sit on information that can prove she didn't do it. What kind of person would I be if I did that?"

  Chapter Thirty-six

  The next morning, Mary called Monte Pike as soon as she got to work. A half hour later, she and Pike were seated in a conference room in the Multnomah County District Attorney's office.

  "So Mary, what's up?" Monte asked when they'd concluded their small talk.

  "Does a freighter named the China Sea mean anything to you?"

  "No."

  "Max Dietz can tell you all about it."

  Pike's brow furrowed. The young DA seemed genuinely puzzled.

  "Why does Max know about this ship, and what does it have to do with the Woodruff case?"

  "Remember the fingerprint you found in Sarah Woodruff's house that you ran through AFIS?"

  "Yeah. It matched a print from a case in Shelby. I talked to a cop there, but he never got back to me."

  "The cop's name is Tom Oswald. My investigator tracked down his report about the China Sea. Oswald found the print on the ship. He came to Portland looking for you after you called Shelby about the latent. You were in trial, so he met with Dietz instead." Mary handed Pike a copy of Oswald's police report. "I talked to Oswald last night. He verified everything he wrote and added a few items that aren't in the report. Max knew everything Oswald told me."

  When Pike finished reading the report, Mary told him about the disappearance of the ship and the night watchman.

  "And there's more. Shortly after Finley was kidnapped, two dead men were found on a logging road. They'd been shot to death, and they were working for a Mexican drug cartel. I think they were the men who kidnapped Finley from Sarah's condo."

  "What do you want, Mary?"

  "I want you to dismiss the indictment. This is a clear case of prosecutorial misconduct. Max had a duty to tell me about this exculpatory evidence."

  "Max may have violated the ethics rules, but any effect his misconduct had on Woodruff's first case was cured by the dismissal."

  "Would you have gotten this new indictment if the grand jury knew everything I've just told you?" Mary asked.

  Pike considered the question, and Mary waited anxiously for his answer. When she got it, she had trouble hiding her disappointment.

  "Yeah," Pike said. "I would still have presented the case even with this new information. Everything you've told me applies to the first case, not this one."

  "How can you say that? If Finley was involved with black ops and drug cartels, it presents several alternatives to the theory that Sarah killed him."

  "This stuff about drug dealers and CIA assassins is total speculation. Do we even know that there was hashish in the hold of the China Sea? Was the substance tested in a lab?"

  "Homeland Security absconded with the ship and its cargo. There was no opportunity to test it."

  "So the answer is no. And you're conveniently ignoring a few things. This stuff about spies and drug cartels is fascinating, but it doesn't explain away these facts: One, Finley had an argument with your client on the night he was killed; two, he was murdered with a gun that was stolen from the evidence room of the Portland Police Bureau; and three, your client is the last person to have contact with that gun. Spies or no spies, the evidence says that Sarah Woodruff murdered John Finley."

  "Don't be naive, Monte. The CIA has people on its payroll who could steal a gun from the police evidence room if they wanted to frame Sarah. Remember the Finley DVD? Someone broke into Judge Nesbit's chambers and left it. You can't honestly tell me that nothing about this case raises a reasonable doubt in your mind about Sarah's guilt."

  "If I had a reasonable doubt, I wouldn't pursue the case. I believe your client killed John Finley. Just because we made a mistake the first time around doesn't mean Woodruff gets a free pass this time. In fact, it is her audacity in thinking that she can get away with murder because we screwed up in her first case that motivates me."

  "I guess we disagree on what this case is really about," Mary said
as she pulled a stack of papers from her attache and handed them to Pike. "I was hoping we could resolve this matter once you learned about Finley's connection to the China Sea. These are copies of my motions to dismiss for prosecutorial misconduct and discovery that I'm filing as soon as I leave our meeting. Sarah Woodruff didn't kill John Finley this time any more than she did the first time you made the mistake of charging her. He was killed by drug dealers or agents of the United States government who want to keep the public from learning about the China Sea. I'm going to make sure that everyone knows about the CIA's dirty little secret."

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Max Dietz had no idea why Jack Stamm had summoned him to his office, but he began to feel uneasy when he found Monte Pike and the district attorney waiting for him, looking like mourners at a funeral.

  "What's up, Jack?" Dietz asked as he took a seat.

  "Monte has just given me some disturbing information."

  "Oh?" Dietz said, turning his head toward his fellow prosecutor.

  "What do you know about a ship named the China Sea?" Stamm asked.

  "Oh, that," Dietz answered, smiling to mask the fear that washed over him like a red tide. Dietz didn't know what Pike and Stamm knew, so he held his tongue, hoping one of them would fill the void with information he could use to figure out a cover story.

  "Did a police officer from Shelby visit you while Sarah Woodruff was awaiting trial under the first indictment?"

  "Yes."

  "What did he tell you, Max?" Stamm asked.

  "I don't remember everything," Dietz hedged. "It was a few months ago."

  "Why don't you tell us what you do remember."

  Dietz felt sick. "What's this all about, Jack? Why the third degree?"

  "Mary Garrett met with Monte earlier today and told him about a discussion she had with Tom Oswald, the policeman you met with about Sarah Woodruff's case. Mary was upset. She thought you'd breached your duty to tell her about exculpatory evidence that you had a duty to disclose under Brady v. Maryland."

  "Over that ship? What did it have to do with Woodruff?"

  "Well, there were the fingerprints," Stamm said. "Monte told you about them, didn't he?"

  This was all Pike's doing, Dietz told himself. The little prick had gone running to Stamm to build up brownie points and to sabotage Dietz's career. Dietz was fuming inside, but he knew he was doomed if he showed any weakness.

  Dietz smiled and shook his head. "Monte was all excited about some prints from Woodruff's condo. I remember that."

  "Do you remember telling Monte to forget about the prints, that you didn't want him pursuing them?"

  "Sure. They had nothing to do with our case. Pursuing them would be a waste of valuable time. Pike had no idea who made them or when they were made, and they matched some case in Shelby. Our case had nothing to do with Shelby."

  "Until Officer Oswald visited you," Stamm said. "He's a police officer in Shelby. Didn't he tell you that the print he lifted came from a hatch on the ship covering a shipment of hashish?"

  "Hold up, Jack. Oswald said he thought it was hashish, but there were never any tests done on the stuff in the hold. And we didn't know that the print was Finley's. No one could ID it on either end."

  "The prints were compared to Finley's prints this afternoon and they match," Stamm said.

  "I didn't know that then."

  "But you did know that the night watchman saw a man run from a ship where five dead men were found and drive toward Portland, possibly followed by another car. And this was about when Finley would have had to leave the ship if he was going to arrive at Woodruff's house when he did."

  "Jack, this is speculation. We had nothing then that would have proved the guy who fled from the ship was Finley. No one had a match for those prints."

  "Sarah Woodruff contended that men broke into her house, fought with Finley, and kidnapped him. That fits the information Oswald gave you."

  "Only if we knew it was Finley who ran from the ship, and I didn't. Look, Jack, Garrett would have had the jury running around in circles if she introduced evidence of drug dealers and terrorists and God knows what else, which is exactly what would have happened if I had told her about the ship."

  Dietz could see the disappointment on Stamm's face. "You're better than this, Max. We all want to win, but prosecutors have a higher duty, and that is to seek justice. Justice is never served if an innocent person is convicted."

  "I honestly believed Woodruff was guilty. I know I was wrong, now. But I believed it then. And giving Garrett this incendiary information . . ."

  "Evidence of innocence is always incendiary, Max."

  "I didn't see the evidence pointing toward innocence. I thought it was about an incident that had nothing to do with Sarah Woodruff. It was a judgment call."

  "Then you showed poor judgment."

  "Where is this going, Jack?"

  "I'm not certain. I want to give this matter serious thought. Why don't you do the same, and I'll get back to you."

  "OK, but I didn't do anything wrong here."

  Dietz left with his head held high, but his shoulders sagged as soon as the door to Stamm's office closed behind him. He felt dizzy, sick. Everything had gone downhill for him since Woodruff's first case had been dismissed, and his career was going to come to a crashing halt if something good didn't happen fast.

  It was almost four, and Dietz couldn't concentrate, so he left the courthouse. When he got home, he shed his jacket and tie and fixed himself a stiff drink. What had he done to deserve this kind of treatment? Nothing, he told himself. It was Pike. The suck-up had run to Stamm as soon as Garrett complained. Pike was trying to destroy him. Would Garrett file an ethics complaint with the bar? Would Stamm sack him? What if he was out in the street in disgrace? What would he do then? Dietz slumped forward and held his head in his hands. He'd talked to several people about the China Sea, and no one had gotten back to him. It looked like the ship was not only a dead end, but he might end up going down with it.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Denise Blailock pulled a nondescript brown Honda to the curb in front of the Multnomah County Courthouse and looked around nervously as Max Dietz jumped into the passenger seat. After twenty minutes of evasive driving, Blailock stopped the car in a deserted gravel lot under a freeway overpass near the Willamette. As soon as the car was parked, Blailock got out and turned up her collar to cut the wind coming off the river. Dietz was dressed in a suit because he had court in the afternoon, and he started to shiver as soon as he got out.

  "What the fuck have you gotten me into?" Blailock asked in a tone of voice he'd never heard her use before. Dietz sensed anger, but he also heard fear.

  "I told you everything I knew," he insisted. "That's why I asked you to poke around."

  "Yeah, well, you didn't tell me I'd be jabbing a hornet's nest."

  "What happened?"

  "I made a few calls, went on the Internet, nothing that exciting. The next thing I know, I'm called on the carpet by my boss and told in no uncertain terms that the China Sea does not exist, and never has, and any further inquiries I make about this phantom will be from my new posting in Butt Fuck, North Dakota."

  "Geez, I'm sorry. I had no idea your boss would come down on you."

  "Well, he has, and I know how to take a hint."

  "Did he tell you why he threatened you?"

  "He was trying to help me. He's a good egg. He watches my back, and he didn't want me to get in trouble. After I talked to him, he got curious and made a few calls. He was also upset that DEA was kept out of the loop in a federal investigation involving drugs. The people he talked to at Homeland Security said no one from that agency was anywhere near Shelby, Oregon, on the night in question. Ditto every other agency he contacted. A few days later, he got a call from someone so high up the food chain he had to put on an oxygen mask to talk to him. This person told my boss in no uncertain terms that the China Sea never existed and he was never to inquire about the
ship again."

  Dietz was about to apologize again when it dawned on him that Denise didn't have to drive to a place where they would have complete privacy to tell him what she'd just disclosed.

  "You found something, didn't you?" he asked.

  "Yeah, and I'm going to tell you because I think Jack Stamm screwed you. But we're never going to discuss this subject again, ever."

  "OK, I swear. So tell me what's going on with this ship."

  "Bad things, amigo. The China Sea has the makings of an urban legend. From what I know, two Shelby cops responded to a 911 and found five dead men and a large shipment of hashish on board. Shortly after they arrived, three carloads of armed men claiming to be from Homeland Security pulled up and told them they would be arrested for interfering in a federal investigation if they didn't leave and turn over any forensic evidence they'd collected. Then the ship vanished, along with the night watchman who made the 911 call."

  "I was told this already," Dietz said.

  "Did anyone tell you about the other two dead men and the money?"

  "What dead men, what money?"

  "Sarah Woodruff told the cops that two men kidnapped John Finley from her house and the one she saw was wearing a leather jacket."

  "Yeah."

  "Shortly after Finley disappeared, two dead men were found on a deserted logging road. The police reports say they were shot. One of them was wearing a leather jacket, and they were both known drug dealers linked to Hector Gomez, who works for a Mexican drug cartel.

  "Well, there's a rumor making the rounds about a missing quarter-million dollars that was supposed to have been in the possession of the skipper of the China Sea. That's what the drug dealers were after, in addition to the hashish, and it was the reason they kidnapped Finley."

  "Where did you get that tidbit? I thought the federal agencies won't admit the ship exists."

  "They won't. This rumor has been circulating among drug dealers and drug users. The same people who were questioned about the dead men on the logging road. If the hash on the ship was going to be used by some agency to fund an illegal operation, the agency would never admit to it. Drug dealers wouldn't have the same motivation to keep quiet. That's all I know, and this is the last time I'm ever going to talk about this subject."