Part 4 (2/2)
”Welcome to a small town. His mother was Nelson Abbott's sister.”
”Really,” said Tess. ”And does he agree with his uncle? Does he think Lazarus was guilty?”
”Everyone around here does,” said Jake.
As if he could hear their conversation, Rusty Bosworth turned his basketball-size head and studied them. Tess immediately looked away and met Chan Morris's gaze. Channing excused himself from the governor. He loped over to where Tess and Jake were seated and bent down to talk to them.
”Would you two like to be seated up here at the table?” Chan asked. ”It seems to me that you have as much right as these others-”
”No, really,” said Tess before Jake could give some hostile answer. ”Thanks anyway. We'll stay put.”
”Okay,” said Chan. ”Thought I'd ask.” Stepping over wires and cables, he made his way back to the table.
”That was nice of him,” said Tess to Jake.
”Yeah, he's a peach,” said Jake disgustedly.
”I thought it was nice,” said Tess.
”He just wants to plaster our picture on the front page to sell newspapers,” Jake scoffed.
”Does everybody have to have an ulterior motive?” Tess asked.
Jake slid down in the chair with his feet extended and crossed, his arms over his chest. ”Yes,” he said.
The governor turned to the audience, stood up, and tapped on the microphone in front of him, lifting it off of its stand. The noisy conversations in the room immediately ceased and the governor invited the a.s.sembled newspeople to come in closer. ”Can everybody hear me?” he asked, speaking into the mike.
A murmur of a.s.sent pa.s.sed through the crowd.
”Okay,” said Governor Putnam. ”Now, we all know why we are here today. Nearly twenty years ago in this very town, a young girl”-he stopped and clarified-”an innocent young girl named Phoebe DeGraff, who was visiting here on a vacation with her family, was raped and murdered. Lazarus Abbott was convicted of her murder and ultimately put to death for the crime. His mother, Edith...” The governor leaned over and indicated the woman in the purple suit. ”Even long after her son's execution, hoped to prove his innocence. Her attorney, Mr. Ramsey, knew of my feelings about the death penalty. He insisted we get together and discuss the case. He pointed out to me, very cogently during that meeting, that Lazarus Abbott was convicted mainly on the eyewitness testimony of a child. And it is now a well-established fact that eyewitness testimony is often unreliable.”
Tess's face flamed. She thought she could feel Ben Ramsey's gaze on her, but she deliberately did not look at him. She kept her eyes focused to a point over the governor's head.
”Mr. Ramsey convinced me that I should order a retesting of the evidence. Fortunately, the evidence in this case had been preserved by the Stone Hill Police Department...”
”Fortunately?” said Tess under her breath as the governor continued to explain the course of events. She felt a little frisson of anxiety.
”Don't worry about it,” Jake whispered. ”He's just a politician enjoying the spotlight. He's going to drag this out for all it's worth.”
”...and despite their obvious reluctance to reopen this case, the police were finally prevailed upon to produce this evidence for testing,” the governor continued.
Tess glanced over at Chief Bosworth, who was staring at the people seated at the microphones with narrowed eyes. His face appeared to be flushed with anger and he looked as if he were ready to explode.
Tess looked back at the governor, who was taking a deep breath.
”Now, as you know, there has never been a case to date in the United States where a person executed for a crime was later proved innocent of that crime by virtue of DNA evidence. But many people have walked free from death row. And those of us who oppose the death penalty have always feared that such a day would come. We are here to determine if this is, indeed, that dark day.
”The results of these tests, which were delivered to me yesterday in the strictest confidence from the Toronto lab that tested the DNA, can now be revealed to you. This was the report which was sent to me.” He held up a few pieces of paper stapled together in the upper right-hand corner. ”I'm going to read it to you now.” He cleared his throat and began to read aloud. ”'The evidence in this case which was presented by the prosecution at the trial, namely the s.e.m.e.n and the traces of blood on Phoebe DeGraff's undergarments, and the skin collected from beneath her fingernails, has partially degraded over the years because of the conditions of storage...'”
A groan of frustration traveled around the room. ”All this c.r.a.p for nothing,” Jake said to Tess in disgust. The governor held up his hand for silence and, when the noise in the room simmered down, he continued. ”Because of this decomposition, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to definitively call this sample an exact match to a suspect's DNA. However, the DNA samples from the evidence are more than adequate to rule out a particular suspect. We have determined that all of these samples belonged to the same person. An unidentified male.”
The governor lowered the report he was reading, cleared his throat, and looked slowly across the audience of people a.s.sembled there. His expression was grave. Then he lifted the paper again and resumed reading. ”The DNA did not, in any particular, match the sample from the man who was convicted and executed for this crime-Lazarus Abbott.”
CHAPTER 5.
There was a wail from Edith Abbott as she rose from her seat and, with a feeble cry, collapsed. A cl.u.s.ter of people surrounded her, trying to revive her.
”NO,” Tess whispered. The room had erupted into chaos with reporters shouting and shoving. While the people in the room surged around her like a wave, Tess sat immobile, frozen in shock, remembering the face of the man who had ripped the tent open those many years ago. Ripped their lives apart. Her heart was racing out of control.
Edith came around quickly, although the color of her skin remained pasty. Clutching her attorney's arm, Edith resumed her seat at the table. The police chief, Rusty Bosworth, was on his feet, demanding to be heard. The governor recognized him.
The chief lumbered up to the table and took the microphone from the governor. He glared out at the a.s.semblage. ”All right. As many of you already know, Lazarus Abbott was my cousin. But I never questioned the verdict in his case. Neither did anyone else in this town. Everyone figured he was guilty.”
A murmur of disapproval went through the crowd.
”Now if these results are right, it seems maybe Lazarus was railroaded. I'm not making excuses for the police work involved because I wasn't chief at the time. I wasn't even on the force when this crime happened,” Bosworth continued. ”But I personally want to a.s.sure everyone here that this case will be reopened, and the police department will not rest until we get to the bottom of this.”
”Thank you, Chief Bosworth,” said the governor as the chief took a deep breath and appeared ready to elaborate on his promise. ”That's very rea.s.suring.”
The florid-faced chief frowned and gave the microphone back to the governor, then resumed his seat.
Tess stared straight ahead. Her hands were clammy and her face felt stiff, as if it were not real, but a plaster cast set over her human face. The noise around her scarcely registered. She felt light-headed and her stomach was churning.
”The chief is quite right to remind us, and the officers of the police department of Stone Hill, that this case is now offically unsolved once again. I want to turn this over,” said the governor, ”to the woman who worked so hard to bring this day about, and I refer, of course, to the mother of Lazarus Abbott, Mrs. Edith Abbott.”
”This is bulls.h.i.+t,” Jake muttered. ”Pure bulls.h.i.+t.”
The governor tried to hand the microphone to Edith, but she was holding a large, white handkerchief to her face and was shaking her head. The governor looked to the attorney in the navy pinstripe suit. ”Mr. Ramsey?”
The silver-haired attorney stood up and took the mike from the governor.
”Thank you, Governor,” said Ben Ramsey. The mike amplified a deep voice that was perfectly modulated. ”I want to thank the governor for having the courage to allow these tests to go forward, so that the truth, as terrible as it is, could finally come out. Our worst fears have been realized. The wrong man has been executed and there is no way to bring him back. With all due respect to the good intentions of the police department, this wrong can never be righted. There will be no justice for Lazarus Abbott.”
”No justice, my a.s.s,” Jake swore.
”I think I'm gonna be sick,” said Tess.
Jake looked at her. ”Really? Like, puke?” he asked.
Tess nodded.
”You don't look good. All right, hang on. I'll get you out of here.”
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