SW06 - The Innocent Woman

by Parnell Hall

“The front door to the office?”

  “That’s right.”

  “The door the key People’s Exhibit Two fits?”

  “Yes, sir. That door was open.”

  “That’s what she told you at the time?”

  “That’s right.”

  “This is when you questioned her in the office of the partner, Marvin Lowery, on the night you were summoned to the crime scene?”

  “That’s right.”

  “She said the door was open?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wide open?”

  “No. Not wide open. But enough that she could tell it was open. In other words, she didn’t have to try the key. According to her statement, the door was ajar, that was readily apparent, so she didn’t use her key, she just pushed her way in.”

  “When did this happen? According to her?”

  “She said she arrived at the office at approximately ten o’clock.”

  “Ten o’clock?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Did she give you any explanation for why she would have come by the offices at that time?”

  “Yes, she did.”

  “Please tell us, Sergeant, what the defendant told you. With regard to her movements on the day in question.”

  “Yes, sir,” Stams said. “As I say, she’d been in court. On the charge of petty theft. The jury brought back a verdict in the late afternoon. After that, the defendant left court and went uptown to her apartment on West 107th Street to change for dinner. She went out to a restaurant in the neighborhood with a man by the name of Larry Cunningham. According to her, they had intended to go to the movies, but it turned out he had to work. She went home around seven-thirty. According to her, she watched TV, puttered around the apartment for a while, then got the idea of cleaning out her desk. She went out to Broadway, hailed a taxi, took it the office, and went upstairs, arriving at approximately ten o’clock.”

  “And what happened then? According to the defendant’s statement?”

  “She found the door unlocked and the lights on. She pushed the door open and went inside.”

  “What did she find?”

  “The office was apparently empty. She looked around, then she went over to her desk and discovered the office had been robbed.”

  “Robbed?” Dirkson said. “What did she mean by robbed?”

  “According to her,” Stams said, “the petty cash drawer of her desk was open, the petty cash box was open, and the money was gone.”

  “Let me be sure I understand this,” Dirkson said. “This was the defendant’s desk?”

  “Yes.”

  “The one she said she went to the office to clean out?”

  “That’s right.”

  “She went over to the desk to clean it out and found one of the drawers open?”

  “That’s right.”

  “The petty cash drawer?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what about the petty cash box?”

  “According to her, the petty cash box was in the petty cash drawer, but it was open.”

  “What do you mean, open?”

  “I mean the top was up. The petty cash box was a simple metal cash box with a hinged top. That top was up. And the box was empty.”

  “This box was sitting in the petty cash drawer, which was also open.”

  “That’s right.”

  “According to the defendant’s statement?”

  “Yes. According to the defendant’s statement.”

  “This was the statement that she made to you at the time on the night in question?”

  “That’s right.”

  “She claimed she discovered this when she came to the office?”

  “That’s right.”

  “She discovered this before or after she discovered the decedent’s body?”

  “Before.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. She claimed that was the reason she found the body. She went to clean out her desk and discovered the office had been robbed. She looked around to see if anything else had been taken, and found the body.”

  “According to her statement?”

  “According to her statement.”

  “And this statement was made in the office of Marvin Lowery?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Tell me, Sergeant. After the defendant made that statement to you—about finding the petty cash drawer open and the petty cash gone—what, if anything, did you do?”

  “I left the defendant in Mr. Lowery’s office and went out to verify her statement.”

  “Did you tell her you were doing this?”

  “No. I just excused myself, told her to wait there. Then I went to see if her story was true.”

  “And was it?”

  “Objection.”

  “Sustained. Rephrase the question.”

  “You went to look at the defendant’s desk?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Had it been previously pointed out to you?”

  “No. But it was the only desk in the outer office.”

  “Did she subsequently identify it as her desk?”

  “Yes, she did.”

  “Anyway, you went to look at that desk?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “What did you find?”

  “All the drawers were shut.”

  “All of them?”

  “Yes. All of them.”

  “Including the petty cash drawer?”

  “Well, I didn’t know which was the petty cash drawer at the time. But the drawer I subsequently learned was the petty cash drawer was shut, yes.”

  “What did you do after observing this?”

  “Went back in and questioned the defendant some more.”

  “Did you tell her you found the petty cash drawer shut?”

  “No, I did not.”

  “Why not?”

  “I wanted to see what she would say about it.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She continued to lie. She—”

  “Objection!”

  “Sustained. Sergeant, please don’t testify to conclusions.”

  “That’s no conclusion, Your Honor. I saw the drawer and it was shut.”

  “Which is all you can testify to,” Judge Wylie said. “Don’t draw the conclusion that someone was lying. That statement will go out. Jurors will disregard. Proceed, Mr. Dirkson.”

  “Yes, Your Honor. I believe the question was what did the defendant say? After you had observed that the drawer was shut.”

  “She continued to maintain that she had found it open.”

  “And when was this that she had found it open?”

  “At ten o’clock, when she arrived.”

  “You pinned that down?”

  “I certainly did. According to her, she arrived at ten, found the drawer open, the cash box open, and the money gone. That was the first thing she found, and that was what led her to find the body.”

  “After she found the body, what did she do?”

  “She called the police.”

  “From what phone?”

  “The one on her desk.”

  “The same desk where the petty cash drawer was?”

  “That’s right.

  “I see,” Dirkson said. “Tell me, sergeant, did you make any attempt to learn how she could have made a phone call from that desk without noticing that the drawer was shut?”

  “Yes, I did. I questioned her about the phone call. According to her, she didn’t sit at her desk when she made the phone call. She didn’t even go behind it. She was too upset. According to her, she came out of the decedent’s office, went straight to her desk, picked up the phone, and dialed nine one one standing there in front of her desk.”

  “In front of her desk?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Tell me, Sergeant. After she made that statement, did you subsequently make the experiment of standing where the defendant said she stood in front of her desk, to
see if you could see the petty cash drawer from that angle?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “With what result?”

  “I couldn’t see it.”

  “You couldn’t tell whether it was open or not?”

  “No, I couldn’t.”

  “Did you try the experiment with the drawer open?”

  “I tried it with the drawer open and with the drawer closed.”

  “With what result?”

  “I couldn’t tell. Standing in that position, I couldn’t see the drawer at all.”

  “Getting back to your conversation with the defendant, after you pinned down the fact that that was where she was standing when she made the phone call, what did you do?”

  “I asked her to show me the desk that had been robbed.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She took me in the outer office and showed me her desk.”

  “What happened then?”

  “I asked her to point out the petty cash drawer.”

  “Did she?”

  “She started to. She walked around her desk. Started to point. Stopped. Stared at it.”

  “Did she say anything?”

  “No, she did not.”

  “She made no comment on the fact the drawer was shut?”

  “No, she just stood there, looking at it.”

  “What did you do then?”

  “I asked her again to show me the drawer.”

  “Did she do so?”

  “No. She said she wanted to call her lawyer.”

  “What did you do then.”

  “I arrested her on suspicion of murder.”

  “Thank you, sergeant. No further questions.”

  Steve Winslow stood up, smiled. “A rather neat sequence, sergeant. She asked to call her lawyer. You arrested her on suspicion of murder.”

  “That’s not unusual,” Stams said. “When they’re arrested, most criminals call their lawyer.”

  “I was referring to the sequence,” Steve said. “Which was the other way around. She asked to call her lawyer, so you made the arrest.”

  Stams shrugged. Said nothing.

  “I’m somewhat interested in the basis for the arrest, sergeant. What was it that led you to believe you had probable cause?”

  Though Sergeant Stam’s face remained impassive, there was a shrewd gleam in his eye. “In my opinion?” he said.

  “Yes, sergeant. In your opinion.”

  “She was lying,” Stams said. “She stated flat out that she had arrived at ten and found that drawer open. That drawer was shut. An out and out lie. Obviously the defendant was not telling the truth, she was there in the office specifically for the purpose of building up an alibi for herself. In my opinion, if she thought the drawer was open, the only way she could have seen that it was open was if she was there earlier when she was committing the murder.”

  “One moment,” Judge Wylie said. He exhaled. “Attorneys, to the sidebar.”

  When they had gathered at the sidebar, Judge Wylie said, “All of that is pure speculation. The witness is testifying to a mass of surmises and conclusions.”

  “He asked for it,” Dirkson said.

  “Indeed he did. Mr. Winslow, you are cluttering up the record with testimony that is inadmissible on the one hand, and detrimental to your client on the other.”

  “I’d like to cross-examine on it, Your Honor.” Steve Winslow said. “And I’d like to point out, there’s been no objection from the prosecution.”

  “Which doesn’t make it any more admissible,” Judge Wylie said.

  “I beg to differ,” Steve said. “We have a veteran police officer called upon to explain why he made an arrest. His thought process is entirely relevant.”

  “To an extent,” Judge Wylie said. “Let’s not get involved in metaphysical speculation. You want to speculate, save it for your closing argument. On cross-examination, please bring out the facts.”

  When they had all resumed their places, Steve Winslow said, “Now, sergeant, your opinion that the defendant was lying about her account of coming to the office, was based entirely on the fact that she said that drawer was open when it in fact was shut? Referring to the time in question, when you made the arrest.”

  “Referring only to that time?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Because I have subsequently learned—”

  “Never mind what you have subsequently learned, sergeant. I’m talking about the time of the arrest. I’m talking about the evidence you just commented on. The evidence you just gave us your evaluation of. The evidence on which you arrested the defendant for this crime. At the time, was the key evidence that led you to make that arrest the fact that the petty cash drawer which she had told you was open was actually shut?”

  Stams took a breath, considered. “That’s right,” he said.

  “Fine, sergeant. Then let me ask you this. If you were basing a murder arrest on the fact that drawer was shut, why didn’t you first make sure that drawer could not have been shut by any other means?”

  Stams frowned. “I beg your pardon?”

  “If that was the basis for the arrest, it was pretty important whether that drawer was open or shut. Wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Was there any chance that drawer was shut by one of the officers of the crime scene unit—”

  “No.”

  “Let me finish, sergeant—by one of the officers of the crime scene unit, while you were in Marvin Lowery’s office interrogating the defendant for the first time, before she told you about that drawer and you went out to check on it?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “You’re talking about the officers of a crime scene unit. These are highly trained individuals. They know their job. They would never make that mistake.”

  “Never?”

  “No, never.”

  “Each and every one of them?”

  “Each and every one.”

  “Sergeant, you are stating that it is impossible for an officer of a crime scene unit to make a mistake?”

  “No, I am stating that it is impossible for them to make that mistake, to contaminate the crime scene by closing an open drawer. It is the type of mistake they’re trained against. It simply isn’t done.”

  “You’re saying they might make other mistakes?”

  “Don’t put words in my mouth,” Stams said irritably. “You challenged me to say a crime scene unit never made a mistake. Now you want to crucify me for refusing to say that?”

  “Not at all, sergeant. But I’d certainly like you to clarify what you mean.”

  “I mean what I say. No one’s infallible. A crime scene officer might make a mistake, but it would be a mistake along the line of overlooking a fingerprint because it was on the underside of a table.” Sergeant Stams was somewhat red in the face. “Now, I’m not saying I suspect a crime scene unit would make such a mistake. I’m saying that’s the type of mistake it would be possible for them to make. The type you were referring to— contaminating the crime scene by closing an open drawer—that’s the type of mistake they would not make. That’s what I mean when I say it would be impossible.”

  “You say such a thing would be impossible?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “You base this statement solely on your opinion that no crime scene officer would be liable to make such a mistake?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “In other words, you have no personal knowledge. You merely assume that mistake was not made.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Oh, you do have personal knowledge?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Are you telling me you conducted your own investigation into this matter?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Then I beg your pardon, sergeant, and I stand corrected. Would you mind telling me exactly what you did?”

  “Before I brought the defendant
out and confronted her with the closed drawer, I personally conferred with each and every member of the crime scene unit and ascertained that that drawer was indeed shut when we arrived.”

  Steve Winslow smiled. “You did this personally, sergeant?”

  That’s right.”

  “You personally asked each member of the crime scene unit about the drawer?”

  “That’s right.”

  “You asked them if the drawer was shut when they first saw it?”

  “That’s right.”

  “With what result?”

  “All of them said the drawer was shut.”

  “None of them said they shut the drawer?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Are you just assuming that, or did you ask specifically if they had shut the drawer?”

  “I asked specifically.”

  Steve Winslow smiled. “Yes, I was sure you had. Correct me if I’m wrong, sergeant, but didn’t you testify that it was absolutely impossible for any member of the crime scene unit to have shut that drawer, because they are trained individuals who would never do that?”

  “Yes, I did. That’s absolutely right.”

  “Then why did you ask them if they had?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “If it was impossible for them to have shut the drawer, then why did you have to ask them if they had?”

  Sergeant Stams opened his mouth. Closed it again. Glared at Winslow.

  “You want to answer that, sergeant?”

  “You can twist my words around any way you like, but the fact is the crime scene unit wouldn’t have done that. You know it and I know it.”

  “You know it?”

  “I certainly do.”

  “But your actions belie your words, sergeant. If you know they couldn’t have done it, why ask them if they did?”

  And when Stams didn’t answer, Steve Winslow said, “No further questions.”

  35.

  MARK TAYLOR LEANED BACK in his desk chair and referred to his notebook. “Okay, here’s the dope. The boyfriend’s a washout. This Larry Cunningham. He’s just like you said. There’s no problem getting him to talk—the guy’s so eager to help, he’s falling’ all over himself. Has all the credibility of a wet sponge. Determined to say he left the restaurant at eight. More so now the doctor’s set it as the probable time of death. My man tried to knock his story down, but it’s no go. The waiters and the cashier in the restaurant don’t remember well enough. As far as they know, they could have left at eight o’clock. They don’t know they did, they don’t know they didn’t. They just don’t remember.