sixty

Iced tea only seems like it would be easy to make. Most people either brew it too long or dilute it so it’s too weak. Some put it in a coffee maker and wind up with a nasty mixture of coffee and tea flavoring. But Thelma Detweiler’s iced tea is outstanding. She even pours your tea over ice cubes with slices of lemon and a sprig of mint in them.

Emily joined us. Bits of hay stuck to her plain black skirt. She had wandered out to the barn to feed the many cats that Thelma kept rescuing and neutering.

“How are you?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Sad.”

“You have every right to be,” I said. “It’s a sad day.”

“How’s Anya? Can she come visit soon?”

“I hope so,” I said. “I know she enjoys spending time with you.”

Sensing that the girl needed a task, Thelma asked Emily to cut and serve slices of homemade apple pie, while she doled out the cinnamon ice cream. The conversation about Milton Kloss and his daughter had dampened everyone’s spirits. Of course, my last visit to the Detweiler home left me somewhat subdued, but despite my hasty exit before, I felt welcome here.

“What’s the game plan, counselor?” Louis turned to Schnabel as he loosened his tie with all the gusto of a man ripping a noose off his neck.

That lawyer sure could pack away the food. I hadn’t finished my iced tea but he was on his second piece of Thelma’s excellent pie topped with two scoops of cinnamon ice cream. “First we’ll try to get a dismissal on the basis that there’s not enough evidence. If that doesn’t work, we’ll try to discredit the evidence. I hope by the time this goes to court, if it does, we’ll have an alternate story to tell. My investigators are busy collecting information. I have experts looking everything over for us.”

“What about phone calls?” I asked. “Brenda had to go somewhere after the shooting. She must have called someone. Was it her mother? Carla Kloss was at home alone when the State troopers came to tell her about finding Brenda. Right?”

“Carla says she didn’t see her daughter after the altercation at the slough. I plan to question that. I have subpoenaed phone records for the Kloss parents, and Brenda’s records as well. Of course, the phone company is dragging their feet. As per usual.” Schnabel mixed his ice cream with his pie.

“Were Brenda’s injuries consistent with those caused by a 9 mm Beretta?” I wondered.

“What do you mean?” Louis turned to me, questioningly.

“As I understand it, different bullets cause specific sorts of damage. I’m wondering if Brenda’s injuries match those that would have been caused by a 9 mm Beretta. The newspapers reported that several of the crime labs in Illinois have been taken to task for all sorts of goof-ups. I realize this might be obvious, but I thought it worth asking,” I said.

A slow grin spread across Schnabel’s face. “I wondered the same. I’m not sure how carefully the autopsy results were compared to the bullet typing. Here in Illinois, our coroners are elected officials.”

“Right,” I said. “That means they don’t have to have any formal training, do they?”

“Correct,” Schnabel said. “However, they are expected to apply for the training course within 30 days of assuming office. After they apply, they have six months to complete said training. As per your question, I have called in an expert to review the coroner’s findings. I suspect the bullet type and the wound will not be a match.”

“In other words, if you hadn’t done something, we might be relying on an elected official with no formal training at all!” Ginny said with a huff. “And even if he or she had gone through that course, goodness knows how extensive that training really is!”

“That’s just jim-dandy, isn’t it?” agreed Louis. “Gives me a whole lot of confidence in the system.”

“Then you’ll feel even worse when I tell you that in this case, they rushed to match the ballistics to Chad’s gun because of an anonymous call to the state police.” Schnabel’s tone was as serious as his expression.

“You have to be kidding,” Ginny said. “So who made that call?”

“We don’t know,” said Schnabel. “It was traced to a phone booth at a convenience store along Highway 55.”

I toyed with the last chunk of apple on my plate. “Why would someone make that call? Think about it. The person making the call had to be the killer.”

I took Detweiler’s hand. “He or she must have wanted to incriminate you. And the killer wanted you fingered right away. Otherwise, how long would it have taken for the authorities to check those particular casings against your service revolver? The one you’d quit using on a daily basis?”

“They always look at the husband or wife or any family member, but considering this gun had been retired, it might have taken a while for them to point the finger at Chad,” said Schnabel.

“Why would anyone have wanted to incriminate Chad so quickly?” Thelma finally sat down to a cold cup of coffee.

“I have done work for nonprofits, helping with their fundraising and public relations,” Ginny said. “One of them brought in an expert who lectured us on positioning our services. She said that the group or individual who puts the story out there first usually wins the day. Her point was that the first rendition has the most sticking power. We don’t always hear the correction or the rebuttal. And if we do, it might not matter because we’ve already framed the debate.”

“That’s true in the courtroom as well.” Schnabel pushed his plate away. “That’s the purpose of opening arguments, to posit your story, to frame all the evidence in light of your supposition.”

“So, you’re saying that someone, possibly the killer, wanted to create a narrative that cast Chad as the killer. And that this person was sharp enough to work the system. That means that the killer was a person who knew how the coroner’s office worked, how to encourage the state police, and also knew that Chad had recently changed out his gun. Plus, this particular person had to have access to Chad’s spent casings. So, Brenda’s murderer has to be someone fairly close to you,” I said as I took Detweiler’s hand and looked into those gorgeous green eyes. “Because the person who set you up must have known that you kept your retired gun. Otherwise this whole scheme wouldn’t have worked.”