After Dark (24 page)

"I do care," Matthew said, very quietly. "You know I care."

"Yes," Abbie said. "And I know you'll win. I know you'll make me free."

Chapter TWENTY-TWO

"The state calls Seth Dillard," Chuck Geddes said. Tracy checked off Dillard's name on the defense witness list. Dillard followed Mrs.

Wallace, who told the jury about Abbie's hysterical appearance at her door on the evening of the attack at the coast.

"What is your profession?" Geddes asked.

"I'm the sheriff of Seneca County, Oregon."

"Sheriff, if I wanted to buy some dynamite to clear stumps on property in Seneca County, what would I have to do?"

"You'd have to come to my office and fill out an application for a permit to purchase explosives. There's a fifteen-dollar fee. We'd take a mug shot and print you to make certain you weren't a felon. If everything checked out, you'd go to the fire marshal, who'd issue you a permit. Once you had the permit, you'd take it to someone who sells explosives."

"Did Justice Griffen secure a permit from your office for dynamite to clear stumps on his property?"

"Yes."

"When did he do that?"

"Middle of the summer. July third."

"Now, Sheriff, a week or so before Justice Griffen was killed did you investigate a complaint by the defendant that she had been attacked by an intruder in her cabin?"

"I did."

"Can you tell the jury what the defendant told you about the alleged attack?"

"Early Saturday morning, August thirteenth, I interviewed Mrs. Griffen at a neighbor's house. She claimed that a man broke into her cabin close to midnight on the twelfth and she escaped by jumping from her second-story deck. According to Mrs. Griffen, the man chased her and she hid in the woods until she thought he was gone. About three-thirty A. M., she woke up the neighbor, Mrs. Wallace, by pounding on the door."

"Did the defendant see the face of this alleged intruder?"

"Mrs. Griffen said the man wore something over his face."

"I see. Now, Sheriff, did the defendant tell you about another alleged attack that occurred two weeks before this alleged attack at the coast?"

"Yes, sir. She said she thought the same person tried to break into her house in Portland."

"Did she report this alleged break-in to the police?"

"Mrs. Griffen said she didn't."

"Did she see who attempted this alleged break-in in Portland?"

"She told me that the man also wore a mask in Portland, so she didn't see his face."

"Now, Sheriff, despite the fact that Mrs. Griffen never saw this person's face, did she suggest a person for investigation?"

"Yes. She said she thought her attacker might be a man she put on death row a year or so ago, who just got out of prison."

"Charlie Deems?"

"Right, but it wasn't much of an ID. More like a guess."

"She was the one who brought up the name?"

"Yes."

"Sheriff Dillard, did you find anything at the crime scene linking Charlie Deems to the alleged attack?"

No.

"What did your investigation turn up?"

Dillard weighed his answer carefully. Then he told the jurors, "Truthfully, we haven't found much of anything."

"I don't follow you."

"We don't have any evidence that anyone besides Mrs. Griffen was there.

We did not find Mr. Deems's prints in the cabin. There was no sign of forced entry and nothing was taken. Mrs. Griffen says that she and the intruder jumped from the deck. Well, someone did jump from the deck, but the ground was so churned up we can't say if it was one person or two. When it got light I walked the trail along the bluff where she said she was chased by this fella and I searched the woods. I didn't find anything to support her story. Neither did my men."

"Thank you, Sheriff. No further questions."

Matthew Reynolds reviewed his notes. The jurors shifted in their seats.

A spectator coughed. Reynolds looked up at the sheriff.

"How did Mrs. Griffen seem to you when you questioned her?" Matthew asked.

"She was shaken up."

"Would you say her behavior was similar to other assault victims you've interviewed?"

"Oh, yeah. She definitely acted like someone who'd been through an ordeal. Of course, I wasn't looking for deception.

After all, she's a district attorney. I naturally assumed she'd be telling the truth and she didn't do anything that raised my antennas.

"You've testified that you haven't found any evidence to corroborate Mrs. Griffen's story. If the intruder wore gloves, you wouldn't find fingerprints, would you?"

"That's right. And I don't want to be misunderstood here. I'm not saying Mrs. Griffen wasn't attacked. I'm just saying we haven't found any evidence that there was an intruder. There could have been. She sure seemed like someone who'd been attacked. I just can't prove it."

"One thing further, Sheriff. About a week or so after Justice Griffen was killed, did you receive a call from Mr. Geddes's investigator, Neil Christenson?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did he ask you to go to the Griffen cabin and check in a shed behind it to see if there was a box of dynamite in the shed?"

"Yes, ' " sir.

"Did you find any dynamite?"

"Well, there was a cleared space on the floor of the shed big enough for the kind of box that holds it, but there wasn't any dynamite there."

"Nothing further."

"I have a few questions on redirect, Your Honor."

"Go ahead, Mr. Geddes," Judge Baldwin said.

"Did you or your men look in the shed on the day Mrs. Griffen reported the attack?"

"No sir. There wasn't any reason to."

"Did you post a guard at the Griffen cabin?"

"No reason to do that either."

"So there was plenty of time and plenty of opportunity between the day of the alleged attack and the day you searched the shed for someone to remove the dynamite, if there was some in the shed on the day of the attack?"

"Yes, sir."

Barry Frame was waiting in the courtroom when Matthew Reynolds returned from lunch. As soon as Reynolds walked through the door, Frame broke into a grin.

"Bingo," he said, handing Reynolds a thick manila envelope.

"What's this?"

"Charlie Deems's bank records."

"You found an account?" Reynolds asked excitedly.

"Washington Mutual. The branch across from Pioneer Square."

"Have you reviewed the records?"

"You bet."

"And?"

"See for yourself."

Geddes's next witness was the neighbor who called 911 to report the explosion that killed Justice Griffen. He was followed by the first officers at the crime scene. Then Geddes called Paul Torino to the stand.

"Officer Torino, how long have you been a Portland police officer?"

"Twenty years."

"Do you have a special job on the force?"

"Yes, sir. I'm assigned to the bomb squad."

"What is your official title?"

"Explosive Disposal Unit Team Leader."

"Officer Torino, will you tell the jury about your background and training in police work with an emphasis on your training in dealing with explosive devices?"

"Yes," Torino said, turning toward the jury. "I enlisted in the Army immediately after high school and was assigned to an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit. I received training in dealing with explosive devices at the United States Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal training center at Indian Head, Maryland. Then," Torino said with a grin, "I served four years in Vietnam and received more practical experience in dealing with explosive devices than I really wanted."

Two male jurors chuckled. Tracy noted that they were both veterans.

"What did you do after the Army?"

"I went to college and received an AA from Portland Community College in police science. Then I joined the force. After three years, which is the minimum experience you need, I qualified for the monthlong course run by the FBI at the Hazardous Device Division of Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama."

"Did you graduate from that course?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you have any more formal training in dealing with explosive devices?"

"I'm a graduate of a two-week post-blast investigative school run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. I'd estimate that I have a total of more than fourteen hundred hours of formal education in bomb disposal through the military and the government."

"How long have you been doing post-blast investigation for the Portland police?"

"Around twelve years."

"Did you go to the home of Oregon Supreme Court Justice Robert Griffen in your capacity as Team Leader of the Explosive Disposal Unit?"

"Yes."

"Were you the first unit to arrive at the scene?"

"No, sir. A Fire Rescue Unit and uniformed officers were the first to respond. As soon as it was determined that an explosive device had been detonated, they secured the scene, notified us, the medical examiner and the homicide detectives, then backed off until we checked the scene to make certain there were no more unexploded bombs.

"We made a determination that it was safe to proceed with the investigation. Before the victim was removed from the car, my people photographed the area to make a record of the scene."

"What did you do then?"

"A bomb breaks up when it explodes and parts of the bomb are propelled to different areas of the crime scene. My people have a routine we follow. We roped off the area around the car and divided it into search areas. I had two men working at the seat of the blast, the place where the bomb was located. They examined the radius around the car to pick up pieces of the car and the bomb that were thrown off by the blast. I had other men working in other sections of the roped-off area. Whenever a piece of the bomb, or other relevant evidence, was found, an officer recorded where on the grid it was located and another officer took possession of the item and logged it in."

"Officer Torino, can you tell the jury a little about how this bomb was constructed?"

"Certainly. All bombs have four things in common: explosives, an initiator, a power source and a switch or delay. When you look for a bomb, you see if you can find these components.

This bomb consisted of a piece of pipe two inches in diameter and ten inches long that was filled with smokeless powder. A nine-volt battery was the power source. End caps sealed in the powder. These end caps flew off like they'd been shot from a rifle when the bomb exploded. The back end cap was found in the trunk, lodged in the frame of the car. The front end cap went through the garage door and was found embedded in the door of a refrigerator that was in the garage.

"The metal tube that made up the body of the bomb shattered into three pieces. One large part was found in the interior of the car lodged in the rear seat. Two other parts went through the roof of the car and were found on the lawn."

"What set the bomb off?."

"A flashlight bulb was placed inside the body of the bomb in contact with the powder. The glass of the bulb was shattered.

Wires from the bulb were threaded through one of the end caps and attached to a nine-volt battery. The wires were peeled back and the copper ends were wrapped around the teeth of a clothespin. Then a strip of plastic from a Clorox bottle was placed between the teeth of the clothespin, preventing the teeth from closing. The bomber attached a lead sinker to the strip of plastic.

When Justice Griffen moved the car, the sinker held down the plastic strip and the strip was pulled out from between the teeth of the clothespin. That permitted the copper wires to touch, completing the circuit. A spark from the exposed wires in the lightbulb ignited the powder and caused the explosion."

"How do you know all this about the bomb?"

"We located two short pieces of copper wire and the remains of the lightbulb embedded in the end cap we removed from the refrigerator door in the garage. A wooden clothespin was found in the front yard on the south side of the car. The plastic strip, monofilament fishing line and a lead sinker were found on the ground near the right front wheel. We also found a shattered battery, mostly intact."

"Officer Torino, how was the bomb attached to the car?"

"We found chunks of magnets and nuts and bolts that had been bent and twisted from the blast. These did not match anything in the car, but I was familiar with them already, so I knew they were part of the bomb."

"We'll get to that in a moment. Would you explain to the jury how the magnets were used?"

"Yes. A strip of metal eight inches long and two inches wide and a quarter inch thick was used. Holes were drilled in it and four magnets were affixed to the strip with nuts and bolts. Black electrical tape was then used to tape the strip to the bomb. When the bomb was ready to be used, it was pressed against the undercarriage of the car and the magnets held it in place."

"Officer Torino, you mentioned that you were familiar with this bomb.

Explain that statement to the jury."

"A bomb of almost identical construction was the murder weapon in a case tried approximately two years ago."

"Who was the defendant in that case?"

"Charles Deems."

Geddes paused for effect, then faced the jury.

"Who was the prosecutor?"

"Abigail Griffen."

"The defendant in this case?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did the defendant know how to construct the bomb that killed her husband?"

"Yes."

"How do you know that?"

"I showed her how to make one. We went into great detail so she could examine me about the construction of the bomb on direct examination.

Then I told the jury the same information in court. It's in the record of the case."

Geddes walked back to his table and picked up several plastic evidence bags. He returned to the witness stand and handed one of the plastic bags to Torino.

"This has been marked as State's Exhibit 3 5. Can you tell the jury what it is?"

Torino opened the plastic bag and took out a charred and twisted strip of metal approximately six inches long, one and a half inches wide and a quarter inch thick.