“Right.” Lou’s tone turned tense, and everyone fell silent again.
Mary held her breath, watching the video and realizing that what they were about to see was Machiavelli, or his thug, after having killed John. The very thought made her sick to her stomach, and she glanced at Judy.
“I’m fine,” Judy said, anticipating Mary’s question.
Mary watched as in the next moment, a small, shadowy silhouette appeared in John’s office window, backlit by the lights in John’s apartment. “Is that him?”
“Yes,” Lou pointed at the darkness. “By the way, there’s no motion-detector lights out back. I checked again today.”
Mary and the others lapsed into a tense silence as in the next few moments, the silhouette got large, closer to the window, clearly visible in outline. The killer’s face was in the camera’s view, but it was completely obscured by darkness, and Mary prayed for better detail, but it was too grainy. Together, they all watched as the shadow did something at the window, presumably opened it, lifting one arm up while the other held something the same size as a laptop, and then climbed outside, lowered the window, and vanished into the darkness around the fire escape. A few moments later the shadow reappeared on the backstreet behind the row of houses, then took a right turn and left the camera view.
Mary groaned. “Ugh, you can’t tell if it’s him or whoever he sent. It’s not enough proof, is it?”
Bennie shook her head. “No, not unless we can get it enlarged or enhance the image. It’s not enough to charge him or even question him.”
“This is awful, this is just so awful.” Judy’s voice sounded choked, and Mary reached for her hand and held it tight. The numbers changed at the bottom of the video screen, and Mary realized this was when John lay on his living room floor, bleeding to death. She felt tears come to her eyes, wishing she could turn the numbers back, make them rewind to zero so that John wasstill alive, William and the Hodges were happy again, and Judy had a future with a man she had finally found, after so long.
Bennie broke the silence. “Lou, when does he come in the apartment?”
“He doesn’t, according to this video. I watched the whole video. He doesn’t enter by the window, he only leaves by it. He musta entered by the front door.”
“So what does that tell us?” Bennie asked, thinking aloud. “It tells us that John knew who he was and let him in, or at least John wasn’t afraid of him. But after the killer kills John, he leaves by the back.”
“It doesn’t tell us much.” Mary hit Stop, and the screen froze in grainy stillness. “You could say that it tells us that the act was impulsive, that he’s panicky and he leaves by the back. But it doesn’t really tell us that, logically. There could’ve been a lot of people on the street and he wanted to avoid detection. He knew he’d just killed John, so he leaves by the back. Even a professional would’ve done that. If he’d put on a suit, John would’ve let him in. He could’ve even said he’d been sent by Machiavelli to talk about the reverse-discrimination case, for that matter. Because the killer knew he would kill John, so John wouldn’t be alive to testify.”
“Poor John.” Judy withdrew her hand from Mary’s, wiping her eyes.
Bennie sighed, and everyone went stone silent, their expressions uniformly grave as Mary looked around the table. Judy dabbed at her eyes with a napkin and straightened her shoulders, turning to Lou.
“Lou, that was good work. Thank you.”
“I’m happy to help, honey.” Lou patted her hand, and something about seeing his lined wrinkled hand, with its age spots, resting on top of Judy’s small girlish hand with its funky pink nails, touched Mary’s heart.
She sighed. “I wish the focus could have been better.”
“It’s okay.” Bennie shrugged. “It establishes that the killer left on the fire escape. It corroborates what we already know, and it does fix the time of the murder.”
Mary looked over. “Bennie, don’t you think it exonerates Judy somewhat? In terms of timing, she was gone, and why would she leave by the fire escape? That makes no sense. She had a key and she could go back and forth out the front door.”
“Right,” Judy chimed in, brightening. “Doesn’t this mean I’m off the hook?”
Bennie looked less certain. “No, you can’t tell it’snotCarrier by this video, and there’s too much give on the time of death. She could react the same way the real killer did, go out the back to avoid detection.”
Mary remained unconvinced. “I would still argue that it does, when we give the cops the tape. We have to give them the tape, don’t we?”
“Lemme think.” Bennie looked at Lou. “Do you think they had it already? What do they say at the massage parlor? Had the police been there?”
“Yes, but I know the cops don’t have the tape. The manager told me that the police came by and asked about cameras, but the manager wasn’t in so nobody would let them in the back. I don’t know if they’re going back, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable sitting on this.” Lou patted Judy’s hand again. “They are not going to let you off the hook until they like somebody better.”
Mary’s thoughts were racing. “But wait, on second thought, that puts me in a difficult ethical position, as Judy’s lawyer. This is our work product, and I don’t have an ethical or legal obligation to turn over work product that would inculpate my client. On the contrary, I have an obligationnotto.”
Bennie nodded. “You’re right.”
Lou frowned in disapproval. “Maybe we take our time in turning it over? Can we do that?”
Mary looked at Lou. “Let’s table it for now. Judy’s right, you did a great job. Maybe our guy can get something out of it and we can see more of the face. We also have to check if there are any cameras on the front of the house or the street, because that will show somebody entering.”
Lou pocketed his phone. “I can double-check and maybe it’ll have a better view.”
