Alex Cross: Cross Justice Part 41

In those same moments, Police Chief Randy Sherman was sending hard glances at me and Nana Mama, who sat beside me, and at Pinkie, Aunt Connie, and Aunt Hattie, who were in the row behind us.

The bailiff led my cousin into the court. Stefan Tate's facial swelling had gone down, but his skin was bruised a livid purple.

Patty Converse came in and took a seat next to Pinkie. I smiled. She nodded but wouldn't meet my gaze.

"Where were we at adjournment?" Judge Varney asked his clerk.

"Detective Frost," the clerk said. "Ms. Strong is still on direct."

The older detective, who looked as tired as I was, took the stand.

Varney said, "I remind you you're under oath."

"Yes, Judge," Frost said.

The district attorney let her a.s.sistant Matthew Brady take the lead in questioning the detective. Brady focused on other items gathered at the scene of Rashawn Turnbull's rape and murder. Those pieces of evidence included a broken bottle of Stolichnaya vodka with Stefan Tate's prints on it not ten feet from where the body was found.

During our first talk in the jail, my cousin said the bottle was probably his but that it must have been stolen from his apartment. The excuse was weak.

The weight of evidence against Stefan seemed overwhelming again. You could see it in the faces of many in the jury box. Stefan's s.e.m.e.n was at the scene of the crime. His prints were there. He killed that boy, deserved to fry.

"Detective," Matthew Brady said. "You went to talk to the defendant the day Rashawn's body was found."

"That's correct," Frost said. "We found Mr. Tate at his house that morning."

"How would you describe his condition?" Brady asked.

"Hung over. You could smell stale liquor on his breath."

"What did you tell him?"

"That Rashawn's body had been found," Frost said. "And that we found his ID there covered with blood."

"What was his reaction?"

"Went down on his knees and started sobbing."

Frost said they took my cousin in for questioning and sealed the apartment until it could be searched by a forensics team. Before they interrogated Stefan they took his blood alcohol level, which registered as .065. Not legally drunk in North Carolina, but a solid indicator that he'd been drinking hard the night before.

Brady took the detective through the interrogation, in which Stefan steadfastly maintained his innocence. Yes, he'd been drinking the night before. He and his fiancee had had a fight. He'd stormed out, gone for a long walk, and picked up a bottle. He ended up pa.s.sing out by the railroad tracks.

I glanced back at Patty Converse. She was staring at the floor.

"Did Mr. Tate say why he'd gone down by the tracks?" Brady asked.

"He said for no reason at all, and that made him hysterical," Frost said.

"Did you believe him?"

"The hysteria? The anguish at what he'd done? Yes. That he went down by the tracks and pa.s.sed out? No, I did not and do not. There was no evidence down there that put him anywhere near where he said he woke up."

Frost went on to describe leaving Stefan in a cell under suicide watch while he and Carmichael searched the duplex where my cousin lived along with Sydney Fox and Patty Converse. The older detective found the pruning saw with Rashawn's blood and flesh in the teeth on a shelf in the common bas.e.m.e.nt along with some turkey-hunting equipment and a vial of methamphetamine.

"Was the saw or the meth vial hidden?" Brady asked.

"Yes. In a pack."

"Odd that he would keep the weapon."

"Mr. Tate's blood alcohol level had to have been sky-high, and the brutality with which Rashawn was attacked suggests a berserk state," Frost said. "Coming out of it, he probably wasn't thinking too straight, dumped the saw where he found it."

"Objection," Naomi said. "The witness is speculating."

"Sustained."

Brady said, "Were Mr. Tate's fingerprints on that saw?"

"Five fingerprints."

"Anyone else's?"

"No."

Brady's questioning went on for another hour. Around ten thirty, the a.s.sistant district attorney said, "No further questions."

Judge Varney said, "Ms. Cross, you can choose to proceed with cross-examination of Detective Frost now or finish with Sharon Lawrence."

Sharon Lawrence's mother stabbed at her daughter's thigh with her index finger. Sharon Lawrence jerked, looked up from her cell phone in disgust.

Naomi looked back at me. I nodded.

She said, "The defense will start with Detective Frost."

CHAPTER 90.

AS NAOMI CAME out from behind the defense table, she glanced at me again, and I shot her an encouraging smile.

"She got something?" Nana Mama whispered to me.

"Maybe," I said, and gave her hand a squeeze.

"Detective Frost," Naomi began. "At what time did you arrive at my client's apartment the morning after the victim's body was discovered?"

"Nine? Nine fifteen?"

"How was Mr. Tate dressed?"

"Gray sweatpants, blue hoodie."

"His hair was wet?"

"Correct," Frost said. "Mr. Tate stated that he'd just gotten out of the shower when we knocked."

"Was the shower drain searched?" Naomi asked.

"It was."

"Any of Rashawn Turnbull's blood found in that drain?"

"No."

"Any blood evidence found in that drain?"

"Mr. Tate's."

"Did Mr. Tate tell you that he has a history of nosebleeds? That they often occur when he's exposed to hot water?"

Frost shifted, said, "He said that."

Naomi returned to the defense table, picked up a doc.u.ment, said, "The defense would like to introduce our exhibit A: medical records dating back to Mr. Tate's childhood that reflect this ongoing problem with nosebleeds."

Judge Varney took the doc.u.ments and nodded.

If the fact that my cousin suffered nosebleeds in any way contradicted the people's case, neither Delilah Strong, Matt Brady, nor Detective Frost showed it.

"So you found Mr. Tate's blood in the drain?" Naomi said.

"Correct."

"But not Rashawn Turnbull's?"

"Asked and answered, Counselor," Judge Varney said.

"Don't you find that odd?" my niece said to Frost. "I mean, the prosecution has spun this theory about my client entering a drunken, drug-fueled, berserk state to rape and kill Rashawn Turnbull, slashing at the boy's neck with a pruning saw. And we've seen photos of the blood-spatter patterns at the crime scene. So why no blood in the drain? If your theory is to be believed, the boy's blood should have been all over my client's clothes and body."

"We think Mr. Tate got rid of his clothes and washed off somewhere else."

"But there's no evidence to back that up."

Frost said nothing.

"Do you have my client's clothes with blood on them?"

"No."

"Did you find the victim's blood anywhere in that building other than on the pruning saw in the bas.e.m.e.nt?"

Frost shifted uncomfortably, said, "No."

"Did you find illegal drugs anywhere else in the house besides the vial of methamphetamine in the bas.e.m.e.nt?"

"No."

"In Mr. Tate's office at the school?"

"No."

"In his car?"

"No."

"And yet you'd have us believe that Mr. Tate is not only a habitual user of meth but a dealer whose wares may have resulted in two overdoses at the high school."

"Mr. Tate has a history of drug and alcohol abuse," Frost said. "He got thrown out of-"

"Objection, Judge," Naomi said.

"Sustained," Varney said. "The jury will ignore that."

But it had already been said. You couldn't take something like that back and expect the jurors to actually eliminate the information from their brains. Stefan had past issues. That was all they would care about. Naomi looked frustrated but pushed on.

"Was there any sign of methamphetamine in my client's blood the morning of his arrest?"

"Trace levels," Detective Frost said.

"Trace levels? I thought he was in an alcohol-and-drug-fueled rage that night."

"Large amounts of alcohol in the bloodstream can mask the presence of meth in certain tests."

"Really?" Naomi said. "I hadn't heard that. But again, you're no expert."

"Objection," the district attorney said.

"Sustained," Varney said before rapping his gavel. "We'll take a lunch break and resume at one o'clock."

CHAPTER 91.