Part 5 (1/2)

Chapter 16.

I GUNNED MY CAR along Columbus Avenue to Montgomery Street and past the Transamerica Pyramid, my siren whooping to clear a lane in the dinner-hour rush.

Beside me Cindy clung to her armrest and told me about Laura Rizzo, a woman who might have been drugged and a.s.saulted the same night Avis Richardson was found wandering under a moonless sky fifteen miles north of the city.

I had to check out Cindy's ”wonky story.”

Two girls had been a.s.saulted now, maybe three - and none of them had memories of the a.s.saults? Could there be a connection to Avis Richardson? Or was I just wis.h.i.+ng for a lead - any lead?

I brought Cindy up to speed on the Richardson case as I reached the intersection of Montgomery and Market streets. I came close to clipping a big-a.s.sed Lexus and ran onto the trolley tracks along Market. I jerked the wheel again and put the traffic jam behind me. Cindy was pale, but I just kept driving.

”A teenage girl was brought into Metro ER by pa.s.sersby a couple of nights ago,” I told Cindy. ”That's off the record.”

”Okay.”

”Okay? Seriously.”

”Yes, Lindsay. O. Kay. It's off the record.”

I nodded, took a hard right, and turned onto Mission on two wheels, flying past Yerba Buena Gardens on my left. You almost had to get promises from Cindy in writing. She's honest, but what can I say? She's a reporter. And we weren't ready to churn the waters with a kidnapped baby story.

I still didn't know what we had. Was Avis Richardson a victim of multiple savage crimes? Or had she killed her own child? I kept my foot on the gas as if that would actually bring the Richardson baby home.

”This teenager had recently given birth,” I went on, taking the car through the heart of the Hispanic area of town. We pa.s.sed check-cas.h.i.+ng holes-in-the-wall and cheap souvenir vendors selling T-s.h.i.+rts out of the old 1920s theaters under their cracked and faded marquees.

I turned right onto 26th, still talking. ”But the thing is, Cindy, no baby was found. The girl didn't remember the delivery, and now that the shock is wearing off and she might be able to talk to us, she won't do it.”

”Why the h.e.l.l not?”

”I swear I don't know.”

Cindy made me promise to tell her whatever whatever I could, I could, whenever whenever I could, I could, on on the record. I nodded yes as I turned left on Valencia and parked my old heap in front of the hospital. the record. I nodded yes as I turned left on Valencia and parked my old heap in front of the hospital.

Chapter 17.

CINDY AND I entered the crowded lobby of Metropolitan Hospital and found Cindy's friend, Joyce Miller, waiting for us at the main desk. She was a dark-haired woman, maybe thirty-five, wearing a nurse's uniform.

She pumped my hand with both of hers.

”Thanks for coming, Lindsay. Thanks so much.”

We followed Joyce down a number of branching linoleum-tiled corridors, around corners, and then through the ER, an obstacle course of gurneys and wheelchairs, before we came to a part.i.tioned stall where we met Anne Bennett, a possible rape victim.

Ms. Bennett was a travel agent in her early forties. She looked as fatigued as if she'd been running on a treadmill for the past eight hours.

Her voice quavered as she said that she remembered taking a cab to her office this morning but she woke up behind a Dumpster in an alley a block from her house.

”I don't remember a d.a.m.ned thing,” Ms. Bennett told me. ”My blouse had been b.u.t.toned wrong. My pantyhose were gone, but I was still wearing my black pumps with the gold buckles. My handbag was on my chest and my phone and my wallet were still in it. Forty-four bucks. Just what I'd had.”

”And you remember nothing of the ten hours between leaving for work and waking up?”

”It was as if someone had turned off my lights,” Anne Bennett said, looking up at me with bloodshot eyes.

”The doctor said it appeared I'd suffered s.e.xual trauma. The last time I had s.e.x with my boyfriend was four days ago. And there was nothing traumatic about it. We've been together so long, it's no-drama s.e.x, and that's just the way I like it.”

Anne Bennett was telling the story straight and clearly, but panic flashed in her eyes. It was like she was searching her memory - and finding nothing there.

Chapter 18.

HOFFMAN STOOD AS COURT was called to order and the jury filed in. He retook his seat, thinking about juror number three, Valerie Truman, the single mother who worked at a library and earned a thousandth of what Candace Martin made in a year. And he thought of number seven, William Breitling, a retired golf pro with a ton of charisma. Breitling wasn't the foreman, but Hoffman believed he could influence the jury.

When Judge LaVan asked Hoffman if he was ready to present his case, he said that he was and walked from his seat beside Candace Martin directly to the jury box.

He rested his hand on the railing, greeted the jurors, and began.

”Yesterday, the prosecution gave their opening statement. I think Ms. Castellano did a pretty good job, but she left out a couple of important points. For starters, Dr. Martin is innocent.”

William Breitling smiled with a full set of veneers, and Hoffman felt the ice melt in the jury box.

”Here's what happened on the evening of September fourteenth,” Hoffman said. ”Dr. Martin had just come home from the hospital. She had successfully repaired a man's heart that day and she was satisfied that her patient was going to recover completely.

”She said h.e.l.lo to each of her children, then went down the hall to her home office to call the patient's wife.

”Dr. Martin had removed her gla.s.ses so she could rub her eyes and was about to make the call when she heard what sounded like shots coming from the foyer.

”The shots startled her and she knocked her gla.s.ses to the floor. This is one of those important points I mentioned.”

Hoffman walked the length of the jury box, touching the rail now and then for emphasis. The jurors followed him with their eyes as he described how his client had found her husband lying on the floor, saw the blood, and, after checking, discovered that Dennis Martin had no vital signs.

”When she looked up, she saw someone, an intruder, who was in the shadows of the foyer. Dr. Martin couldn't make out the intruder's face and she was terrified. She shouted in surprise, and the intruder dropped his gun and ran. My client picked the gun up and ran after him, through the front door and out onto the front steps.

”Dr. Martin had never fired a gun before, but she let off a couple of shots into the air. She hit nothing. That is how she got gunshot residue on her hands.

”Immediately after firing those shots, Dr. Martin went back into her house and called the police. That is the act of an innocent person,” Hoffman said.

”The prosecution says that Dennis Martin was a philandering rat but that being a rat isn't a crime punishable by death. Well, that's true. And Dr. Martin knew it. She also knew that her marriage was going through a bad spell. She, too, was having an affair.