Justice Delayed (Innocent Prisoners Project)

by Marti Green

  He didn’t know where this need came from. He hadn’t grown up pulling the wings off insects, graduating to torturing dogs and cats—the kinds of behavior he’d read about in serial killers. No, he’d cared about other people, other lives. Until Kelly, until that accident, he’d never thought himself capable of murder. But it happened with Kelly, and his life changed. His needs changed.

  I can’t give in, he thought. It’s wrong. So very wrong.

  CHAPTER

  20

  Derek Whitman hadn’t gone far afield from the town where he’d grown up. He still lived in Georgia, now in Columbus. Before heading to Whitman’s home, Dani wanted to visit Osgood. She hadn’t yet told him about the Supreme Court decision and thought it better to do so in person.

  She and Tommy arrived at the prison just after 2:00 p.m. They didn’t have to wait long for Osgood to be brought into the attorney visiting room. As always, he was led into the room with his hands cuffed and his legs shackled, then had the chains attached to a ring in the floor. After he was settled, the guard who’d accompanied him left the room, remaining just on the other side of the door.

  Dani smiled at Osgood, then asked how he was doing.

  “Okay, I suppose.”

  “Since your mother has passed away, I wondered if you have any other relatives?”

  Osgood looked at her blankly.

  “Is your father alive?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in a really long time.”

  “When was the last time?”

  “Maybe when I was ten.”

  “Is there anyone else—maybe an aunt or uncle? A grandparent?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Dani wished that weren’t the case. With an execution looming, she thought it might be helpful for him to have someone familiar to comfort him. She wondered what had happened to his childhood home. Someone must have inherited it after Osgood’s mother passed away. She made a mental note to check it out.

  “Jack,” she said, “I have some bad news. The Supreme Court turned down your appeal.”

  Osgood looked straight at Dani. “What does that mean?”

  “It means, unless we can find some new evidence, the state is going to execute you.”

  “Execute?”

  “Kill you.”

  Osgood buried his face in his oversize hands, and a loud wail filled the room. Dani waited several minutes before she placed her hands on his. “We’re not stopping, Jack. We’re going to keep looking for the real killer.”

  Osgood looked up. With the backs of his hands, he wiped the tears from his cheeks. “Do you know who he is?”

  Dani shook her head. “I know this happened a very long time ago, but I want you to think hard. Try to remember anything you can about the night Kelly disappeared.”

  “When did she disappear?”

  “Think back to when the police first came to question you. It was during the night before that, that Kelly was taken.”

  “Okay.” Osgood seemed lost in thought as he first stared up at the ceiling, then down at the floor. “There wasn’t anything special that night. Mama and I watched television, I suppose. That’s what we always did, then went to sleep.”

  “Do you remember where your bat was when you went to bed?”

  “No. Mama sometimes got angry at me because I didn’t put it away. The policeman asked me for it when he came to the house, and that’s when I saw it wasn’t in my room.”

  “When had you used it last?”

  Osgood shrugged. “I don’t know. I liked to watch the Little League games down at the field. I think there’d been one the day before. Maybe I left it there?”

  “Are you sure you didn’t take it home with you?”

  “Sometimes I’d forget it there, at the field, then Mama would get mad at me. I tried to remember to keep it with me.”

  “If you brought it home, where would you have put it?”

  “I have a special box for it in my room.”

  “So, that’s where it should have been?”

  “Yes, unless . . .”

  “Unless?”

  “Sometimes after I watched a ball game, I liked to hit balls against the side of my house. Mama sometimes got mad at me because I’d leave the bat outside. Then it would rain, and that wouldn’t be good for the wood.”

  “Could you have left it outside that night?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  Dani glanced at Tommy, busy taking notes. She knew that, without her asking, he’d dig through records to see if a Little League game had been played at the Stone Ridge ball field that afternoon before Kelly was abducted.

  “The police also said there was a ladder in your garage,” Dani continued.

  “Mama used it when the dust in the corners of the ceilings got bad.”

  “What else was it used for?”

  “Sometimes when a lightbulb needed changing.”

  “Would you change the bulb?”

  Osgood blanched. “Not me. Never. I’m afraid of ladders.”

  “What do you mean?” Tommy asked.

  “I mean, I won’t go up on one. Not since I was eight years old, and I was helping my daddy clean out the gutters. I fell off and broke my arm. It hurt really bad. Mama and Daddy took me to the hospital, and they put a cast on. I would never go on a ladder since then.”

  Dani could feel her pulse quicken. “Jack, did you ever tell this to Mr. Bennington, when you were on trial?”

  “I don’t think so. Should I have?”

  “Whoever killed Kelly climbed up a ladder to her room.”

  “Well, I told you it wasn’t me. I told Mr. Bennington, too.”

  Under the table, Dani crossed her fingers as she asked the next question. “Did anyone other than your mother know you were afraid to climb a ladder?”

  “Everyone knew.”

  “What do you mean, everyone?”

  “Mr. Barnes, across the street. If Mama needed something too high up, then she asked him to get it. Mama told him why I couldn’t.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “Mr. Bennett, at the store. He knew I wouldn’t go on a ladder to reach the high shelves.”

  Dani held back a smile. This wasn’t enough to get a new trial. But it was enough to fully convince her that Osgood was innocent. She glanced over at Tommy and saw he was sitting back in his seat with a big grin on his face.

  “Feel better?” Dani asked Tommy as soon as they got in their rental car.

  “Much. Now I can go full steam without a guilty conscience.”

  “You weren’t working it hard before?”

  “I was. Just felt bad about it. Now, I don’t. I can’t believe it never came out at his trial that he was afraid of ladders.”

  “Maybe his mother was so stressed by his arrest that she wasn’t thinking straight. Or maybe she did tell Bennington, and he dismissed it.”

  They chatted comfortably on the drive to Columbus. Dani had become so used to working with Tommy that he was like a member of her family. How could she leave him for California? Even if she found a similar job there, it wouldn’t be the same with anyone else.

  They pulled into Columbus just before 6:00 p.m. and headed to the Holiday Inn on Bear Lane, not far from the Peachtree Mall. They checked in, then headed over to Ruby Tuesday at the mall for dinner. When they finished, they drove to Whitman’s home, arriving just after 8:00 p.m. He lived in a development of midsize homes that looked like they’d been built recently. Tommy parked in the driveway, then together they walked up to the door and rang the bell. When the door opened, a tall, muscular man with sandy-brown hair thinning at the top stood before them.

  “Derek Whitman?” asked Tommy.

  “That’s me.”

  Dani handed him her card. “Do you mind if we ask you a few questions? It’s about the murder of Kelly Braden.”

  “That’s a name from the past. Why are you dredging it up now?”

  “We’re representing Jack Osgood, who was convic
ted of her murder.”

  Whitman tilted his head. “Isn’t he dead yet?”

  “No. His execution is scheduled to take place soon. Look, can we come in? We won’t take up much of your time.”

  He held the door open for them, and they walked inside, then followed him into the living room. An attractive woman with short, blunt-cut auburn hair came into the room and asked, “Who is this, Derek?”

  “They’re looking into the murder of a girl I knew back in high school.” He looked down at the business card in his hand. “This is Ms. Trumball, and this is . . .” He pointed at Tommy.

  Tommy held out his hand to the woman. “Tom Noorland.”

  She shook his hand as she said, “Nice to meet you. I’m Maisie Whitman, Derek’s wife.”

  “You can join us, honey. Kids okay?”

  “They’re in our room, watching TV.” She took a seat next to her husband.

  Dani let Tommy take the lead. Interrogations were his forte.

  “I’ll get right to the point, Mr. Whitman—”

  “Call me Derek.”

  “Whenever a murder occurs, people closest to the victims are always investigated. One of those was Greg Johnson, Kelly’s boyfriend. You gave him an alibi for that night.”

  “That’s right. I was at a party, came in around three a.m., and he was sound asleep. I woke up at six thirty to take a leak, and he was still in his bed.”

  “Could you have been mistaken about the time you got back to your room?”

  Whitman’s nostrils flared, and he stuck out his chest. “Absolutely not.”

  “Greg was your friend even before college, wasn’t he?”

  Whitman nodded.

  “And you knew Kelly as well, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did Greg ever talk to you about Kelly?”

  “Of course.”

  “How did he feel about his relationship with her?”

  “It was cooling off. I think he wanted to be freer once he got to college.”

  “Did he tell her that?”

  “Actually, he didn’t get a chance to. She called him the night she died. Said she thought it better if they broke up.”

  “He told you that?”

  “Yes. She called right before I left for the party.”

  “How did he feel about that?”

  “Relieved.”

  “Are you certain?”

  “Look, they were never going to make it as a couple anyway. He was the big football star in high school, and she was the pretty cheerleader who was gaga over him, but he treated her miserably. She deserved better, and everyone knew that. It just took her time to realize it.”

  Dani had been watching Whitman, evaluating his body language, trying to decide if she believed him. His last statement lined up with what Kelly’s friends had said. And he was able to confirm Tommy’s speculation that Kelly broke up with Johnson the night she died. Perhaps Johnson wasn’t as relieved as he’d pretended to be. Someone who was used to the spotlight might not handle rejection well. Still, he had Whitman’s alibi.

  “Where was the party?” Dani asked.

  “Alpha Tau Omega.”

  “Were you a member?”

  “No. I went with some friends.”

  “Who?”

  Whitman scrunched up his face. “You can’t really expect me to remember that. It was more than twenty years ago.”

  “Did you leave with them?”

  “Probably.”

  Dani stared hard at Whitman. “The time you got back to your dorm may mean the difference between freedom and death for Jack Osgood. If you can’t remember their names, then I’ll ask Tommy to check who was president of the fraternity back then, and he’ll reach out to every single member to see if anyone remembers you leaving and what time it was.”

  Whitman reached behind him and began to rub the back of his neck. “Look, Greg was my best friend then.”

  “Are you saying you lied?”

  He dropped his hand from his neck and gripped his leg, his eyes fixed on the carpet between his feet.

  “Honey?” his wife said in a small voice.

  He sighed and shook his head slowly, then finally met Dani’s eyes. “It’s true that he was asleep when I got back,” he said very quietly. “But it was closer to one, not three. And I didn’t wake up at six thirty. It was closer to eight.”

  Dani let the silence in the room linger for a while. Finally, she said, “You need to sign an affidavit with the real time.”

  “Hell, no. I’m not sticking my neck out for a perjury charge.”

  “Has the statute of limitations passed?” Tommy asked Dani.

  Dani shook her head. “There isn’t one in Georgia, not in connection with a capital offense. But you didn’t testify under oath at the trial. At most, it would be obstruction of justice, and the time to charge you with that has long passed.” Dani paused. “I am concerned, though, about the prosecution tearing apart your new statement because of the change. Spare us the effort of tracking down your friends, and tell me who else knows when you returned.”

  Whitman dropped his chin to his chest and slumped down on the sofa.

  “We will find out on our own,” Dani said. “But if you don’t tell us now, it makes me think you have something to hide.”

  Without lifting his head, Whitman answered, “Russ. He roomed with us, too. We had a two-bedroom suite. Greg and I shared one bedroom, and Russ and Aaron the other.”

  “So they both saw you when you came back?”

  “Not Aaron. He didn’t hang out with us. But Russ, Greg, and I were all friends back in Stone Ridge. We all played football together, along with Kelly’s brother, and all went to college together. Only Adam didn’t want to room with us. He wanted to”—Whitman made air quotes with his hands—“broaden his experience. I went to the party with Russ, and we came back together.”

  “What’s his full name?”

  “Jessup. Russell Jessup.”

  “Know where he is now?”

  “Yeah. We’ve stayed friends.”

  “So, we have an understanding. You’re going to give us an affidavit, right?”

  Whitman glanced over at his wife, sitting stiffly in her seat, then back at Dani and nodded, without saying a word.

  Piece by piece, Dani thought. They had just found another piece to fit in the puzzle.

  CHAPTER

  21

  Early the next morning, Dani and Tommy drove to Atlanta, where Russ Jessup lived. The door was answered by his wife, yet another willowy blonde, with glacial-blue eyes. Dani twirled a strand of her own dark-brown curls and wondered if every woman in the South had blonde hair.

  She invited them in, then called out to Russ that he had company. “Excuse me,” she said as she left them standing in the foyer. “I have to finish making the kids’ lunch.”

  Moments later, Jessup walked down the stairs. Dani introduced herself and Tommy.

  “You’re in luck,” he said. “Tomorrow I head out for a three-day business trip.”

  “Oh? What do you do?”

  “I work for a management-consulting firm, analyzing efficiency metrics.”

  Dani explained why they were there.

  “That was a long time ago,” Jessup said.

  “True. But you knew Kelly. Her death must have had an impact on you. Most people, when something traumatic happens, they remember a lot of details.”

  “I guess.”

  “Derek has admitted to us that he lied to the police about the time he got home from a party, that he’d gotten back much earlier. Do you remember what time that was?”

  Jessup’s face reddened. “Are we in trouble?”

  “No. Not if you’re truthful now.”

  “Greg knew the police would question him. I mean, he was her boyfriend. And she’d broken up with him. Derek was just doing him a favor. We didn’t think it was a big deal, since Greg would never have hurt Kelly.”

  “Well, that little deal contributed to a man spen
ding twenty-two years on death row. A man who’s probably innocent. Do you remember what time you really got back to the dorm room?”

  “It was around one.”

  “And will you give us an affidavit to that effect?”

  “Yes.” Jessup took a deep breath. “It’s the least I can do.”

  Dani finished up with Jessup, and then she and Tommy headed to the Atlanta airport for a flight to Texas. They knew exactly where Lisa Montague worked, and so once they landed, they took a taxi to her office. When they arrived, they were told she was in court.

  “Do you expect her back today?” Dani asked the receptionist.

  “Probably. She usually stops in the office before heading for home.”

  “Then we’ll wait.”

  Dani didn’t expect to get much from Lisa. She had only been five years old when the abduction took place and had received a head injury in the process. Still, she was the star witness for the prosecution, identifying Jack Osgood as the man who stood over her bed and struck her with the bat. They had to at least talk to her.

  At 5:15 p.m., a striking young woman entered the office, dressed in a tailored navy suit with an emerald-green silk blouse that matched the color of her eyes. Her blonde, pixie-cut hair perfectly framed her heart-shaped face. As she approached the receptionist’s desk, the woman sitting behind it said something to her, then pointed at Dani and Tommy. She turned and walked back toward them.

  “I’m Lisa Montague. I understand you’re waiting for me.”

  Dani and Tommy stood, then Dani handed Lisa her business card. The look of recognition on her face told Dani that her parents or cousin had forewarned her.

  “Come on into my office,” Lisa said. “We can talk there.”

  Lisa’s office was much like Dani’s—small, without a window, and furnished simply.