by Teri Ames
“I guess so.”
“Well, wasn’t your advice to hold off until she was sure?”
“Yes.”
“And did she ever express to you whether she had made a decision about which young man she wanted to be with?”
“As far as I know, she wasn’t ready to decide.”
“Thank you. That’s all I have.”
The prosecutor was able to fix most of the damage during re-direct.
“Are you aware of the advice given by Shannon’s other friends?”
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
“Objection, hearsay.” Barry was on his feet.
“It’s not offered for the truth,” the prosecutor said.
“You opened the door, counselor. I’ll allow it. The witness can answer.”
“Most people thought Shannon should tell them both. That it was the fair thing to do.”
“Were you under the impression that Shannon was planning to follow the more popular advice?”
“Objection, speculation.” Barry jumped up again.
“Overruled. The witness can answer,” the judge said.
“I thought she was going to tell them both,” Greta said.
As Cassie watched the girl leave the stand, she felt something foreign brewing in her soul. It was the same feeling she had felt in the fifth grade when she found out her best friend Clara’s uncle had been touching Clara sexually. Clara’s family had moved away and young Cassie had been left with a bitterness that took years to fade. It had to be hate. She actually hated those college girls for publicly painting her son as a monster.
When Greta left the stand, it was four o’clock. The judge conferred briefly with the attorneys before announcing the evening recess. Court would reconvene the next day at 9:00 a.m.
Chapter 55
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
KEENAN ALTERNATED between watching the jury and watching the witnesses. Even the hockey mom in the second row had stopped making eye contact with him, but he could feel the jurors stealing looks at him while he watched the testimony.
Officer Shores was the first witness on the second day of trial. It was the first time he had ever seen the officer dressed in uniform. The prosecutor spent what seemed like half an hour going through his training and experience before asking him about his investigation. Keenan was sure the jury would believe his every word.
“Were you involved in the investigation into the disappearance of Shannon Dawson?” the prosecutor said.
“Yes, I was.”
“How did that come about?”
“The parents contacted MFPD when Shannon didn’t arrive on her plane flight home to California.”
“When did you get involved?”
“The chief assigned the matter to me the morning after the parents contacted us.”
“What did you do?”
“I made contact with the college, had public safety do a wellness check on her dorm room.”
“What else?”
“When they had no luck, I started trying to track down her friends.”
“How did that go?”
“It was a challenge. Everyone had left town for Christmas.”
“Did you get any useful leads?”
“I learned that Shannon had a boyfriend on the hockey team.”
“Did you learn the identity of the boyfriend?”
“It took while to identify him, but I eventually figured out it was the defendant, Keenan Brody.”
“Did you speak with the defendant?”
“I did. I first spoke with him on the telephone.”
“When was this?”
“On December twenty-second of last year.”
“What did the defendant tell you?”
“Objection, hearsay.” Barry said it with a bored tone.
“The witness can answer in accordance with the court’s previous order, but the objection is noted.” The judge’s tone was equally bored.
Officer Shores didn’t miss a beat. “At first he denied that Shannon Dawson was his girlfriend, then he admitted that he was dating her. He also said something about being upset with her.”
“What else did he tell you?”
“He admitted that he saw her the night that she disappeared.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“He referred to Shannon in the past tense a couple of times.”
“Objection, hearsay.” Barry sounded less bored this time.
“It’s an admission.” It was the prosecutor who sounded bored.
“I’ll allow it,” the judge said.
“Why was that notable?” the prosecutor continued.
“Well, at that point, she’d only been missing for a couple of days. In my mind, we were still dealing with a missing person case. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that Shannon was alive and well and hanging out with the defendant.”
“Was that phone interview recorded?”
“Yes, it was.”
The prosecutor produced a CD and had it marked for evidence.
Keenan was floored. They had made it sound like it was different than it was. He remembered the day he spoke to Officer Shores. How could he forget? It was the day his life changed. It was probably the last day he would ever be happy.
He had been down at the pond playing hockey. The score had been tied when his mother showed up. Cassie Brody’s face had been flushed. She looked like she had pulled on her mud boots and grabbed her barn coat before hurrying down to the pond. Keenan took off his helmet and skated over to his mom when he heard her call his name.
“What’s up, Mom? You come down to root for the better team?” Keenan started to laugh and then stopped when his mother’s demeanor registered.
“There was a police officer on the phone. He left a message about a missing girl. Asked you to call him.”
“Who’s missing?”
“I don’t know. But it sounds important. I think you should come up to the house and call him.”
“Okay. I’ll be right up.”
Keenan only took a few minutes to change out of his skates and sprint up the hill to the house. He had paced the kitchen while waiting for Officer Shores to come to the phone. He had been afraid of what the officer would say, but half expected it. Then, after he confirmed that it was Shannon who was missing, he’d felt mad at her and himself. Whatever the reason for her disappearance, he knew the relationship was over. He now realized that his emotional turmoil had come across the wrong way.
Unfortunately, Officer Shores had more.
“What happened with the investigation after that?” the prosecutor asked.
“Well, we got phone records from AT&T.”
“I’m showing you what’s been marked as Exhibit 4. Can you identify that?”
“It’s the phone records we got from Shannon’s cell.”
“Is there anything notable on there?”
“The last call Shannon got on her phone was from the defendant.”
“When was that?”
“It was 8:47 p.m. on Friday, December 20, 2013.”
“How long was that call?”
“Eight minutes.”
Keenan remembered that call. Shannon had said she had something to tell him, but that it had to be in person. Why were they on the phone so long? Nothing else important was said. How could this be evidence?
“What else did you do?”
“We searched Shannon’s dorm room. We found her suitcase and her winter clothing. We also found her laptop, a Macbook, and started going through it.”
“Did you find anything on it?”
“There were a lot of messages. All done through Facebook.”
“Who did she communicate with?”
“A bunch of girls. Also, the defendant and Jake Miller.”
“What else did you do?”
“We located Shannon’s vehicle in the parking area adjacent to dormitory.”
“Did you search it?”
/> “We did. We did not find her keys in her dorm room, but her father had an extra key.”
“Did you find anything during the search?”
“No, but we did take fingerprints from various places around the car.”
“What did you do with the prints?”
“We ran them through all the databases, but we didn’t get any hits.”
“Why would that be?”
“Not everyone has prints on record. Usually only people with criminal records or certain types of jobs are in the databases.”
“Did you have occasion to talk to the defendant after that?”
“Yes, I did.”
“When?”
“On December 24, 2013.”
“Where?”
“I went to his house. I spoke with the defendant in the presence of his parents.”
“What did he tell you?”
“Objection, hearsay,” Barry said loudly.
“The objection is overruled,” the judge said. “The witness can answer within the bounds of the court’s written order.”
The officer continued. “When I told him that he was the last one to speak with Shannon by phone, he spontaneously said, ‘She’s dead.’”
Dutton paused for effect. “When the defendant said, ‘She’s dead,’ what did that mean to you?”
Barry jumped out of his seat. “Objection. Speculation.”
“Overruled. The witness can answer.” The judge sounded bored again. Like none of this really mattered to him.
Officer Shores sat up straighter. “I took it as an admission that he knew what had happened to her.”
“How long did you spend at the defendant’s house?”
“I was there for about half an hour.”
“How did the defendant seem?”
“He seemed nervous. I could see that he was sweating, even though the temperature in the room was cold enough that I was glad that I was wearing my coat.”
Keenan was kicking himself. Of course, they were making it all sound so incriminating. As soon as the officer had told him that Shannon had not used her phone since Friday night, he knew she was dead. It had hit him so hard that he had said exactly what he was thinking without censoring it. He should have been more careful. And he should have realized that he was a suspect in Shannon’s disappearance.
That night, after Officer Shores had left, Keenan and his parents had gone to sit in front of the fire.
“I didn’t like the way that went,” his dad had said. Keenan mentally agreed. He didn’t like the eagerness he had heard in the officer’s voice.
“He was just doing his job,” his mom said.
“He showed up here on Christmas Eve. Unannounced,” his dad said. “That felt more like an ambush than an interview.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” his mom said. “He just wants to find that girl.”
“Shannon’s dead,” Keenan said.
“You don’t know that, Keenan,” his mom said. “She might have just lost her phone.”
Keenan shook his head. “If she lost her phone, she’d get a new one and have all her stuff transferred. That’s what people do these days.”
“He’s right, Cassie.” his dad said. “Although, she might have had an accident and gotten amnesia. Maybe she’s in a hospital somewhere wondering who she is.”
“You sound like a bad movie,” his mom said.
“Better that than the alternative,” his dad said.
“Are you okay, Keenan,” his dad said. “I know this is probably a shock for you.”
“I’m okay, sort of. I had the feeling she was going to break up with me, so I was prepared for the end. Just not like this.”
“I’m sorry, Keenan,” his mom said.
“Me, too. You know, I’d rather that she ran off with some other guy than have her be dead.”
“Maybe that’s what happened.”
“Let’s hope so,” he had said. Now Keenan couldn’t help thinking how much better his life would be if that had been the case.
The prosecutor was continuing to examine Officer Shores.
“So what else did you do?” Dutton said.
“We searched the defendant’s room.”
“And did you find anything?”
“Yes, we did. Shannon’s missing car keys. They were in the defendant’s desk drawer.”
“What did the defendant say when you showed him the keys?”
“He said that he forgot they were there.”
“Did you speak with the defendant at any other time during the investigation?”
“Yes. We got a court order to get fingerprints from him. He came into the station to comply.”
“What did he say to you?”
“At that time, he said he’d taken Shannon’s keys because she was too drunk to drive. He also said that he’d driven her car back to the dorm for her.”
“Was that the first time the defendant had mentioned taking the keys to keep Shannon from driving?”
“Yes, it was.”
“And was it the first time he had mentioned driving her car that evening?”
“Yes, it was.”
“And how many times had you previously spoken with the defendant?”
“Three. Once on the phone and twice in person.”
“So, it was the fourth time you spoke with him that the defendant came up with his explanation?”
Barry stood suddenly. “Objection. Asked and answered.”
“Sustained,” the judge said.
Fred shrugged before continuing. “Where did your investigation lead you after that?”
“Well, the students started returning from winter break, so I interviewed a lot of the people I had spoken to on the phone earlier. I took statements from all of them.”
“What else did you do?”
“We got a search warrant for the house where the party was on the night Shannon disappeared.”
“Did you find anything?”
“No, sir.”
“Did you look anywhere else?”
“We did a search of the nearby woods.”
“Did you find anything?”
“No, sir.”
“What were you hoping to find?”
“At that point, we had given up hope of finding Shannon alive. The truth is, we were looking for a body.”
“When did you find Shannon’s body?”
“Not until April fifth of this year.”
“Tell us about that.”
“A bunch of kayakers spotted the body in the river. Moose Creek, that is. And called it in.”
“What did you do?”
“We called Colchester Technical Rescue. They pulled the body out of the water. Then, we turned it over to the medical examiner.”
Barry rose for cross-examination.
“You said that Keenan admitted to being upset with Shannon, right?”
“Yes.”
“But, isn’t it true that his exact words were that he was ‘ticked’ at her?”
“Maybe.”
“Let me show you what’s been marked as Exhibit B. What were Keenan’s exact words?”
“He said, ‘I was ticked at her.’”
“Do people who are ‘ticked’ usually kill people?”
“Objection,” the prosecutor said. “Calls for speculation.”
“Sustained,” the judge said.
Barry seemed to take it all in stride. “Okay, let’s talk about context. What were Keenan’s words immediately preceding the comment about being ‘ticked?’”
“He said that Shannon hadn’t called him back.”
“In your experience, is it unusual for people to get ticked when other people don’t call them back?”
“I guess not.”
“But, it’s not usually a motive for homicide, is it?”
“Objection.”
“Sustained.”
Barry paused briefly to look at his notes.
“Did you have a search warrant to search my client’s
dorm room?”
“No, we did not.”
“But you didn’t need one, did you?”
“No.”
“That’s because my client gave you permission to search his room, right?”
“Yes.”
“He signed a Consent to Search form, right?”
“Yes.”
“Because he was trying to cooperate with the police, right?”
“I suppose.”
“Just like he had been cooperative when you called him on the phone just after Shannon disappeared, true?”
“I didn’t feel like he was being forthright with me.”
“Move to strike, Your Honor.”
“You opened the door, Counselor.”
Barry paused. “Can counsel approach, Your Honor?”
The judge nodded. The attorneys had a heated discussion with the judge while white noise filled the room. Keenan could tell that Barry was not happy. After a minute the attorneys returned.
“When you called my client the first time, he called you back promptly, right?”
“Yes.”
“And he answered your questions?”
“Yes.”
“And he was cooperative with you when you showed up at his house on Christmas Eve, wasn’t he?”
“Again, I didn’t feel like he was completely truthful.”
“Objection, move to strike.”
“Sustained,” the judge said. “The jury will disregard the answer.” No they won’t, Keenan thought. They’ll remember that the officer thought I was a liar.
“But, he and his family let you in, right?”
“Yes.”
“And my client answered your questions, true?”
“Yes.”
“Despite the fact that you had interrupted their Christmas Eve, right?”
“Yes.”
“You said when you found Shannon’s keys, they were in a drawer, right?”
“Yes.”
“Out of sight, correct?”
“Yes, they were hidden.”
“Or perhaps ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ That’s possible, isn’t it?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Did you ask my client why he had Shannon’s keys?”
“I don’t recall.”
“Let me show you what’s been marked as Defense Exhibit C.” Barry handed him a stack of papers. “Why don’t you refresh your recollection.” Keenan had seen that the document was a transcript of the conversation during the search warrant. The officer took a few minutes to review it. When he was done, he looked up. “Okay, I’ve reviewed it.”