44

 

 

The next morning, I was back in the same interview room as the day before. This time, though, I had no handcuffs on and was sipping coffee from a Styrofoam cup. There was no guard at the door, and both Harrity and I sat easily, waiting.

When the door opened, I was treated to a similar parade to yesterday’s. First Kinkaid marched in, followed by Matsuda and Katie. No Cole this time. No Dan-o, either. But a slender man in an expensive suit followed by a heavy-set woman in one almost as expensive strode in behind the cops.

Harrity stood. I reluctantly joined him as the handshake ritual got underway, but I didn’t need to bother. The three cops ignored me as they introduced themselves to Harrity.

“Sergeant Kinkaid.” Shake.

“Detective Matsuda.” Shake.

“Detective MacLeod.” Shake.

Each of them had a professional manner but their contempt for Harrity brewed right under the surface, and was obvious. Defense attorneys rated somewhere lower than whale shit for most cops. The only ones that rated lower than that were good defense attorneys.

Harrity didn’t seem to notice. Once he finished shaking Katie’s hand, he held out his own to the man in the expensive suit. “Patrick.”

The man reached out and gave Harrity a firm shake. Unlike the police, he didn’t seem to have contempt for Harrity. In fact, the only sense I got from him was one of respect.

Harrity turned to me. “This is my associate, Stefan Kopriva. He’s done some investigative work for me.”

Katie let out a barely suppressed snort of disgust that everyone ignored.

I held out my hand and Patrick took it.

“Patrick Hinote,” he said, his grip firm but not overbearing. “I head up the Major Crimes Division in the Prosecutor’s Office.”

“He’s also the number two, after the DA,” Harrity informed me.

I didn’t know how to answer that, so I simply nodded.

“Patrick is the prosecutor who got a lifetime conviction for the Rainy Day Rapist,” Harrity added.

I remembered that well, even though it happened after my time on the job. Involuntarily, I glanced over at Katie, but her expression remained flat. Which, given her involvement in that case, was quite an accomplishment. “Congratulations,” I told Hinote.

He shrugged. “I got lucky.” He thumbed toward Harrity. “He wasn’t defense counsel on that one.” He motioned toward the woman with him. “This is Kami Preston. She’s second chair on the Brassart case.”

Kami Preston wore thin, round glasses on her intelligent face and carried herself with a serious, confident demeanor. Her handshake was a carbon copy of Hinote’s – firm but not overbearing.

“Shall we sit?” Hinote suggested.

We clustered around the table, which had more chairs than table space. Several of us compensated by sitting further away from the table, which created the end result of the lawyers being the only ones really seated at the table.

“Give me a moment,” Harrity said, taking out his phone and dialing.

Kami Preston removed a yellow legal pad from her briefcase and began writing on it. I had no idea what there was to write about yet, but she obviously found something.

“Joel Harrity calling,” Harrity spoke into the receiver. “I just need you to verify for the prosecutor.”

After a moment, he passed the cell phone to Hinote.

“This is Patrick Hinote.” Hinote listened for a moment, then nodded tersely. “Thank you, Mrs. Brassart.” He handed the cell back to Harrity. “For the record, I recognize you as defense counsel for Marie Brassart in this case.”

Preston’s pen scrawled.

Harrity closed his cell and put it away.

“Now that we’ve got that out of the way, why are we here?” Hinote asked.

Harrity turned to me. “Go ahead.”

All the eyes in the room shifted to me. I cleared my throat, and said, “I don’t think Marie Brassart killed her husband.”

My words hung in the air for a moment before both detectives exhaled in disgust. Matsuda shook his head. Preston wrote on her pad. Hinote remained impassive.

“That is not the opinion of the detectives behind me,” he said. “But I suppose we’ll hash out that difference at trial.” He seemed to really look at me for the first time, appraising what he saw. “You have more than that, I trust?”

“Yes. Do you know about the life insurance policy?”

“Of course we do,” Matsuda broke in. “We’re real detectives, not some failed burnout who—”

Kinkaid held up his hand. “Stop, detective.”

“No, it’s bullshit, Sarge. He can’t come in here and try to tell us how to do our job. Not after the shit he’s pulled.”

Kinkaid looked over his shoulder. His voice was low and cool. “Stop, or leave.”

Matsuda clenched his jaw but said nothing.

Kinkaid turned back around and motioned for me to continue.

“I’m not talking about the life insurance policy that the Brassarts carried,” I said. “I mean the Important Man policy that Stoker, Shelley, and Bynes had on Henry Brassart. Are you aware of that?”

“Yes,” Kinkaid said. “My detectives are aware of this. They’re professionals.”

“If I recall,” Hinote added, “the defendant was beneficiary to several million dollars as a result of that.”

“Five,” Kami Preston said, her pen skipping across the page without breaking stride.

“Yes, five million.” Hinote looked at me. “Sounds like motive to me. And when you add in that she is having an affair with the neighbor’s husband? Walter Garrison, I believe? Even more motive.”

“It’s Jeni Garrison she’s having the affair with,” I said evenly. “But who cares? It’s a weak motive, anyway.”

Hinote smiled indulgently. “Forgive me, Mr. Kopriva, if I don’t take your advice on what constitutes a strong motive or a weak one. As for your revelation?” He shrugged. “An affair is an affair. I don’t care who it is with. Only crazy conservatives do, these days.”

“Plenty of those here in River City.”

Hinote shrugged again. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t need to prove motive for my case, anyway. It merely adds circumstantial evidence for the jury to consider. I have physical evidence.”

“Indulge me on the motive for a second. You’re saying the affair is her motive? Or the money?”

Hinote regarded me for a moment, then glanced at Harrity. “All of this will come out in discovery, anyway. But yes, we believe the affair was the catalyst for this murder but the motive was the money.”

I leaned forward. “If five million was the payout for her as a secondary beneficiary, what do you suppose the payout was for the primary?”

Hinote crinkled his brow. “What do you mean by primary? I thought the wife was the primary.”

I just stared at him, then gave my head a small shake.

“Who investigated the business?” Hinote asked. He glanced over at Kinkaid, who gave him a blank look in return. Then both turned to look at Matsuda and Katie.

The two detectives exchanged a glance. Matsuda dropped his eyes. “I…I had the business angle. I interviewed Thad Richards. He told me about the defendant being beneficiary to the five mill. He…he didn’t say anything about there being something on the company’s end.”

“And you didn’t ask?” Kinkaid snapped.

The room fell silent. Even Kami Preston stopped writing for a moment.

Matsuda shook his head slowly. “No, I…we…we were focused on the wife already, and…”

Kinkaid gave him a withering look and he trailed off.

“Very professional,” I said, injecting all the sarcasm I could muster. “Bang up job there, detective.”

Kinkaid turned back his angry gaze to me. He appeared on the verge of a reply, but Hinote interrupted him.

“It appears there was an oversight in the initial investigation.” He motioned toward me. “Would you care to illuminate me on the details?”

“I can’t say much more. I don’t know how much the company’s end was, but logic would dictate that the primary beneficiary would receive at least as much as the secondary, if not substantially more.” I looked at Matsuda, who was still hanging his head. “Right?”

“That seems like a reasonable conclusion,” Hinote said. “But what does it matter?”

“The business was struggling. Henry Brassart was one of the few managers turning a profit for clients. And he was on the verge of leaving and going it on his own.”

Hinote considered. “You’re suggesting that someone at the company murdered Brassart for the insurance money?”

“I am.”

“Your proof?”

“I don’t have any.”

Hinote looked over at Harrity. “You can’t be serious, counselor.”

Harrity nodded. “We are.”

“I fail to see—”

“You just said that five million dollars was a plausible motive,” Harrity interrupted. “I suggest you find out what Stoker, Shelley, and Bynes received as primary beneficiary. I suspect it was substantially more. And for a failing business, I believe you could consider that an even more plausible motive.”

“People don’t kill for money,” Matsuda said. “They kill for passion.”

Hinote closed his eyes briefly in frustration. “In my experience, people commit murder for all sorts of reasons. Emotional reasons tend to dominate the spur-of-the-moment killings. But planned events, like this one?” He shrugged. “Money is just as likely a motive.”

Matsuda pressed his lips together into a fine, white line, but he didn’t reply.

Hinote turned his attention back to Harrity. “Is there more?”

Harrity nodded, and motioned for me to continue.

“Someone’s been following me,” I said. “At first, I thought it was a cop. I believed that right up until he attacked me in an alley yesterday.” I glanced at Kinkaid. “Even then, I wasn’t completely sure.”

Kinkaid scowled slightly but didn’t reply.

“He assaulted you?” Hinote asked.

I pointed to the scrape and bruising on my face, then at my throat. “That’s part of what he did.”

“He was not one of my detectives,” Kinkaid assured him.

“No,” I said. “I don’t think so, either. But he wanted the same thing Cole did. For me to stop investigating this case.”

“Detective Cole wanted you to stop interfering with our official investigation,” Kincaid corrected.

“Let’s not bandy semantics,” Harrity said. “The point is that the motivation of Stef’s attacker was to stop his further investigation into this matter. Your assertion is that this individual was not a member of RCPD?”

“Absolutely not,” Kinkaid said through gritted teeth.

“That being the case, who else would benefit from such a cessation of activities? Surely not my client, who knew that Stef was investigating on my behalf.” He looked over at me. “But if someone else committed this murder, it only stands to reason that whoever that person is would want to end Stef’s efforts at uncovering additional facts that were initially overlooked by the police.”

I noticed Richie Matsuda twitch slightly. His face turned red again, but he said nothing.

“Even accepting your premise, which I don’t necessarily, that doesn’t mean it was someone at Stoker, Shelley, and Bynes,” Hinote said. “And your client is still the most likely suspect. There’s motive, and physical evidence.”

“The vehicle damage, you mean?”

“Yes.”

Harrity shook his head. “It’s inconclusive. Did you find any human hair when you searched it? Blood?”

Hinote didn’t reply, but I saw Katie shake her head behind him.

“I thought not,” Harrity continued.

“The damage is not a smoking gun,” Hinote admitted. “But I’ll let a jury decide what it means.”

“And if you fail to check into the facts that Stef has uncovered, I will point that out to the same jury. We’ll have a literal slide show of police mistakes and leads not followed. When I’m finished, my client will appear to be very much the victim she actually is.” Harrity stared at Hinote pointedly. “I will pummel you on this, Patrick. And you know it.”

Hinote sat perfectly still, meeting Harrity’s gaze. Everyone else sat quietly, watching and waiting. Kami Preston completed scratching out a sentence, and stopped, her pen poised over the yellow paper.

Finally, Hinote spoke in a slow and clear voice. “If you and your associate would give us the room, please?”

Harrity nodded immediately. He rose and headed toward the door. I stood and followed him, limping slightly.

Outside, he gave me a confident nod. “Good job.”

“Did it work?”

“Of course,” he said. “It isn’t a matter of working or not. I gave him the facts. Patrick is an intelligent man. He knows that even if Marie Brassart did kill her husband and even if she acted alone, if he fails to explore reasonable investigative leads that might prove exculpatory, he will lose in court, and badly.”

“Then what’s there to discuss?”

“Nothing. He asked us to leave the room in order to preserve some of the dignity of the detectives in the room. Theirs is a continuing relationship, and he can’t afford to alienate them. But right now, he is doubtlessly instructing them to conduct exhaustive follow up on the matters we’ve put before them this morning.”

“That shouldn’t take long.”

“It won’t.”

Sure enough, within five minutes, the door opened and the reverse procession tramped past us. Matsuda was first, striding so quickly that he was almost running. Katie followed, refusing to look at me as she walked past. Kinkaid exited the room with Hinote and Preston.

“I appreciate the information,” Hinote told us. “The police will be conducting further investigation to make sure we have a comprehensive picture of this…situation.”

“Can I expect updated discovery information?” Harrity asked.

“Of course.”

We shook hands all around. Kinkaid walked us out, closing the glass doors behind us wordlessly.

“Now what?” I asked Harrity.

“I’ll be in touch,” he said. “And I’ll have my office cut you a check. Again, nice work.”

I wasn’t so sure he was right, but it sounded good all the same.