Silent Witness (51 page)

‘What happened then?' Seed was asking.

‘I panicked. “That's crazy,” I remember saying, and then got ahold of myself. “Look,” I said, “we can't do this. You're sixteen, and I'm responsible for you. It's not the kind of thing people should ever do.” Then I told her if she really cared about me, she'd think about the trouble this could be for me.
And
Sue.

‘Marcie started crying. She just sobbed, couldn't even talk.' Suddenly Sam's voice was swollen with regret. ‘I should have realized how troubled she was, Jack. But I was so scared for my own ass that I just waited for a minute and then put my hands on her shoulders and said, “We have to go, Marcie. Really, we need to leave here. Before someone gets the wrong idea.”'

At last, Stella Marz caught Tony's gaze, eyebrows raised in an expression of weary disgust. Behind her, the grocer's face closed, and the warehouseman stared at his hands.

‘How did Marcie react?' Seed asked quietly.

Sam's voice was tired, flat. ‘She pushed open the door. Before I could stop her, she was running away toward the lake. I started after her. . . .' The words trailed off.

‘And then what?'

‘I stopped, and got back in the car. I was too afraid of being seen.' Sam's voice was nearly inaudible. ‘I let an upset, emotionally troubled girl run off into the night, alone. And now I can imagine her, stumbling over that cliff. . . .'

In the courtroom, tears began running down Sam Robb's face.

The nutritionist stared at him in bewilderment. Sam held his head rigid, not wiping the dampness from his face, as if he did not notice it.

Astonished, Tony watched him. If this was a simulation of grief, Tony thought, then Sam Robb was truly a man to fear. But other than his actress wife, Tony knew almost no one who could cry on cue. And this part of the story – Marcie vanishing – was exactly as Sam had told it to him: with respect to the charge of murder, it was the part that truly mattered.

‘I drove off,' Sam was telling Seed. ‘Just left her there. For a second, my front beams caught a car that had parked behind us, and then I saw a head above the dashboard. I can't tell you if it was a man's head or a woman's, or what kind of car it was. I just wanted to get away.' Faltering, Sam's voice filled with grief and shame. ‘Marcie could get back to her car, I told myself. After all, it was only a quarter mile. . . .'

There was a long silence. Gently, Seed asked, ‘Have you told Sue now?'

‘No.' Sam's voice broke altogether. ‘No . . .'

As if Sue's name had awakened him, Sam wiped the tears from his face. And then Stella Marz switched off the tape.

Quickly, she was on her feet. ‘Shortly afterward, Detective Seed, did you visit Sam Robb's home?'

Jack Seed paused a moment, as though still reflecting on the tape, its damning portrait of a man Seed once thought he had known. ‘Yes. With Detective Talley.'

‘And what did you do?'

‘We impounded the Volvo he'd been driving. To search for physical evidence.'

‘And what, if anything, did you find?'

Seed looked at Sam. ‘A smear of what appeared to be blood,' he answered, ‘on the steering wheel.'

‘And did you send a sample to the county coroner's office for analysis? Along with a sample of Mr. Robb's blood?'

‘Yes.'

‘Did the blood type of the sample from the steering wheel match that of the defendant?'

He could object, Tony knew. But the coroner would only confirm it, and Tony would appear to be another tiresome lawyer, quibbling about the truth. Silent, he watched Seed shake his head. ‘Mr. Robb's blood type was O. The blood in the car was AB.'

Stella put her hands on her hips. ‘And what was Marcie Calder's blood type?'

‘The same.' Seed's voice was flat. ‘Type AB.'

‘And during your investigation, did you take anything else that belonged to Mr. Robb?'

Slowly, Seed nodded. ‘We took the clothes Sam told us he'd been wearing that night. And a pair of tennis shoes, to compare to the footprints we'd found by the edge of the cliff.'

‘What size were the footprints?'

‘Size eleven.'

Stella paused. ‘And Mr. Robb's tennis shoes?'

Tony knew the size. But the jury did not. And so, for the first time, Seed looked at them.

‘Size eleven,' he answered.

Facing Jack Seed, Tony reflected that he seemed the kind of cop that Tony himself, were he living in a small town, would want – capable, straightforward, concerned. ‘Just for the record, Detective Seed, you knew Sam Robb prior to Marcie Calder's disappearance, correct?'

Seed nodded. ‘That's right. He's lived in Lake City all his life, I'm pretty sure, and he's been vice principal at the high school for years.'

‘Before Mr. Robb appeared at the police station, did you consider asking him where Marcie Calder might be?'

Pausing, Seed glanced at Sam with puzzlement. ‘No.'

‘In fact, you were unaware of
any
connection between Marcie and Sam Robb.'

‘That's right. Except for his job, like with any student.'

‘Nor did you have any idea where Marcie had been that night.'

‘No.'

‘In fact, you found her body
when
you did because Sam Robb took you to Taylor Park?'

Seed frowned. ‘It was only a matter of time, and not very much time. But yes, that's true.'

Tony made his voice slow and quite deliberate. ‘Since you found the body, Detective Seed, has anyone in Lake City – other than Sam Robb himself – come forward to connect him with Marcie Calder?'

Eyes narrow, Seed seemed to consider this. ‘No one has.'

Tony glanced at the jury, noting their attentiveness, and then saw that Stella Marz was already poised to object. ‘So,' he went on, ‘the only reason Sam Robb is sitting here, charged with Marcie Calder's death, is because
he
came to
you
when Marcie was reported missing.'

‘Objection,' Stella said at once. ‘The question calls for speculation. We can only know what
did
happen – not what
would
have happened given a different chain of events.'

Karoly nodded. ‘Sustained.'

Tony was prepared for this: he had made his point with the jury and was ready with a question to which Stella could not object. ‘But you've found
no one
in Lake City who can link Sam Robb, by name, to the events surrounding Marcie's death?'

Seed slowly shook his head. ‘No, sir. We have not.'

‘No one else has even placed Sam Robb in Taylor Park that night, correct?'

‘That's correct.'

‘So even now, you still have no other witness who could tie Mr. Robb to the events surrounding Marcie's death.'

‘No.'

This was more than enough, Tony thought, to suggest Sam's candor with the police, and to belabor it created a problem: if Sam Robb was the only witness, he could imagine the jury wondering, should he not testify on his own behalf? Promptly, Tony moved to his next point. ‘Based on your knowledge of the law,' he asked, ‘did you consider that by coming to you, Sam Robb might damage his career? Even lose his job?'

‘Objection,' Stella called out. ‘There's no foundation for assuming that this witness knows
what
the consequences might be. Also, it calls for speculation.'

Karoly, Tony saw, looked curious. But the objection was a good one. ‘Sustained,' he said to Tony. ‘Maybe you can ask some other way.'

‘Thank you, Your Honour.' Tony turned back to Seed. ‘Sam Robb came to you, voluntarily, to tell you where and when he'd been with Marcie Calder.'

‘Yes.'

Tony paused. ‘Doesn't it make sense to you,' he asked, ‘that Sam Robb wouldn't want to admit to the kind of relationship which would end his career?'

‘Objection,' Stella said with asperity. ‘What makes sense to this witness might
not
make sense to Mr. Robb.'

‘Sustained,' Karoly ruled. But this was what Tony had anticipated; once more he had made his point with the jury.

He faced Jack Seed again. ‘After Mr. Robb's voluntary statement, you asked him for a blood sample, correct?'

‘Yes.'

‘And Mr. Robb also gave that voluntarily?'

‘Yes.'

‘And, as you've already mentioned, let you visit his home.'

‘One or two days later, yes.'

‘At that time, Mr. Robb also gave you the clothes and shoes he'd worn that night.'

Seed paused. ‘The ones he said he'd worn, yes.'

‘Until the time that
I
stepped in, Sam Robb had no lawyer, correct?'

‘Not that we saw.'

‘And not until after you impounded his car.'

‘That's right.'

‘That period was roughly a week?'

‘Yes.'

‘During that time, did Mr. Robb ever refuse any request for information?'

Seed's lips thinned. ‘No, sir. He did not.'

‘After you impounded his car, Mr. Robb told you he'd called a lawyer, right? Someone who also was an old friend.'

‘Yes.'

‘And, for the record, that lawyer was me.'

‘That's what he said.'

‘Did Sam Robb also tell you that I'd advised him that, in the future, I should speak for him?'

‘He did.'

Tony cocked his head. ‘As of that time, Detective Seed, were the Lake City police investigating any other suspects?'

Seed folded his arms. ‘We were considering any possibility that the facts suggested.'

‘Including suicide? Or accident?'

‘Yes.'

‘But was there any other individual you considered to be a suspect should this become a murder case?'

Seed considered this. ‘What I'd have to say, Mr. Lord, is that no other individual ever
became
a suspect.'

It was a skillful answer. For a moment, Tony hesitated, and then he saw his next question. ‘Isn't it true that once you found the blood on the steering wheel of Mrs. Robb's Volvo, and further found that Mr. Robb's shoe size matched that of the footprint by the edge of the cliff, you focused on Sam Robb as the
sole
suspect in a potential murder prosecution?'

Seed paused, and then Tony saw him decide on candor. ‘Certainly the primary suspect. But we also had his statement, placing him at the scene.'

‘Precisely. But based on your experience,
and
the files of your department, aren't there a fair number of people who pass through Taylor Park at night?'

‘Yes.'

‘You've had a problem with drug dealers there, correct?' As well as transients and homeless people who stay in the park at night?'

‘That's true.'

‘In the course of investigating the death of Marcie Calder, did you make inquiries with respect to violent crimes in other nearby localities?'

‘Not specifically.'

‘Or review records of sex crimes occurring in Lake City, or nearby, within the past few years?'

‘We did not.' For the first time, Seed sounded defensive. ‘From the evidence as it developed, we were satisfied that this was not a random event and that Sam Robb had motive, means, and opportunity.'

Tony paused for a moment. ‘Are you familiar with the last homicide which occurred in Lake City?' The murder of Alison Taylor?'

Tony felt a stirring in the gallery; to his side, the
Vanity Fair
reporter looked up sharply from his notes. Seed appraised Tony with open curiosity. ‘Not personally,' he said at last. ‘The Taylor case was before my time, and there's no one still on the force who worked on it.'

‘But you're aware that no charges were brought?'

‘Yes, sir.' Seed's tone was dry. ‘Recent events have brought that to my attention.'

‘Then you must also be aware that one suspect in that case was a transient, Donald White, with a prior record of sexual assaults and
no
prior connection to the victim, Alison Taylor?'

‘I'm aware of that, yes.'

‘Are you further aware that what first focused attention on Donald White was a search of police records in other jurisdictions?'

‘Objection,' Stella said. ‘There's no foundation that this witness has any personal knowledge.' Pausing, she glanced at Tony. ‘Moreover, the facts of the Taylor murder – whatever they might be – are irrelevant to this one. Except in counsel's mind.'

‘The
facts
are irrelevant,' Tony said to Karoly. ‘But the methodology is very relevant. My question, Your Honor, is whether the Lake City police considered the methodology used in the Alison Taylor murder to investigate the death of Marcie Calder. As we believe they should have.'

Judge Karoly frowned at Tony, clearly befuddled by this flirtation with the facts of Tony's own life. ‘On that basis,' he said finally, ‘you can have your answer.' Turning to Seed, he asked, ‘Did you contact other jurisdictions for information about similar crimes?'

It could not be better, Tony thought – for the jury, the question now bore the imprimatur of the judge. ‘No,' Seed answered. ‘Based on the facts of this case, we were absolutely satisfied that we knew who was responsible.'

‘So,' Tony put in quickly, ‘you did not investigate anyone other than Sam Robb, whether known to Marcie Calder or not?'

‘We certainly made inquiries about other people Marcie knew, including friends or boys she may have dated. But nothing resulted which gave us reason to suspect them.'