The next couple of weeks passed in a blur of interviews, phone calls and staff meetings. Cary and Kalinda worked against the clock, trying to find someone, anyone, with a grudge against John Patterson, or alternatively, someone who might have been in the woods on the day in question. After several fruitless interviews, they finally happened upon a teenage boy who had been driving down an adjacent road that evening and who claimed to have seen a tall man coming out of the woods and getting into a car parked along the side of the road, a mile or so from the Patterson home. It wasn't much, but at least it gave them something to work with.
Diane reluctantly hired a new ballistics expert, an older gentleman with a commanding presence and adequate credentials, who was prepared to testify that the killer had been over six feet tall. He dismissed outright her tentative question about the body being moved with a wave of his hand and a condescending smile, implying his predecessor had a reputation for needlessly complicating matters.
Diane forced herself to smile in return, and thank him for his assistance, while trying not to think about Kurt shaking his head in disgust. He's the one who left, she reminded herself. She'll do what she has to do for her client..
The incident in the woods - the incident, that was what she called it in her head - was never far from her mind. Most of the fear had faded with time, leaving her with only an all-consuming curiosity. Had they actually seen a ghost? John Patterson's ghost? And if that was indeed what it was - what had it been trying to tell them? It felt important for reasons she couldn't put into words, not even to herself.
She called Kurt once, only once, about three days after he quit. The call went unanswered and she disconnected halfway through his voicemail greeting when she realised she had no idea what she even wanted to say. She didn't want to convince him to testify; she respected his ethical position, even if it was one she didn't share. She didn't want to force him to talk about their experience in the woods when it so clearly made him uncomfortable, no matter how much she wished she could. Mostly she just wanted to go back in time and somehow meet him outside of this case, but he couldn't help her with that. She had to let this go.
"Diane, are you ready?" Cary poked his head into her office, jacket on and attache slung over his shoulder. They had an appointment to meet with Karen at her home to bring her up-to-date on the recent developments in her case.
"Yes," she said, standing up and crossing the room for her coat. "Do you have the drawing from the sketch artist?" They had commissioned a drawing based on the young man's description of the person he saw leaving the woods. His memory was spotty and his glimpse brief, but something was better than nothing. The main takeaway was the man was described as being tall, probably over six feet. Kalinda would check with the neighbours and they would show the drawing to Karen and Daisy and see if anything shook loose, but it was almost better for them if nothing did. As long as the man remained unidentified, he couldn't be alibied out. Of course, she wouldn't mention that thought to the client, who, quite understandably, wanted to know who actually killed her husband.
"I do. You know, I feel like things are finally coming together." Cary grinned at her as she passed him in the doorway.
As they walked down the hall to the elevators, Diane in the lead with Cary trailing behind, she wished she shared her associate's optimism.
"This could be anyone," Karen sighed, tossing the artist's rendering across the kitchen table where she was having tea with her two lawyers. "I could probably give you a dozen names just off the top of my head, including several that live in this area and might have a perfectly logical reason for being in the woods."
"Our investigator is talking to the neighbours," Cary said. "If it was one of them, we'll find out. What about the description of the car?"
"Dark, late-model sedan? Could be my car," she said glumly. "Look, I'm sorry, I know I'm not being very helpful, but it's just such a generic description." She leaned back in her seat and wrapped her arms around her middle. "I thought when you found this kid that maybe we'd finally caught a break, but it looks like I was wrong."
It's too soon to lose hope, Karen," Diane said, reaching across the table to pull the drawing towards her. It was a very generic drawing, depicting a tall man in a suit with close cropped, light coloured hair, standing next to a dark car. It really could be almost anyone. "We're just getting started tracking him down." She tapped her fingernail against the man's pencil-shaded face. "Kalinda, our investigator, is extremely good at her job. Give her some time, okay?"
Blowing out a breath, Karen nodded and straightened up in her seat. "So you said you hired a new ballistics expert? What happened to your friend?"
"He had a scheduling conflict. A case he was already committed to was moved up in the court schedule." She picked up her tea and took a sip, steadily meeting Cary's gaze across the table. There was nothing to be gained by upsetting Karen by letting her know Kurt thought she was probably guilty. "But I found someone else and he agrees with Mr. McVeigh's original assessment that the killer was over six feet tall. That will mesh well with this new witness' testimony."
"And the body being moved?"
She paused. They had no indication that the prosecution held to any such theory either, but it was a potential weakness in their case. She didn't like the loose end. "He disagrees on that point," was all she said, but she had already requested the new expert at least be prepared to refute the ideas he disagreed with, if in fact they ever came up.
They wrapped up their meeting shortly thereafter, with Karen promising to create a list of names of anyone she could think of who could fit the description of the man seen emerging from the woods.
"Have you shown this to Daisy?" Karen asked as she was seeing them to the door.
"Not yet," Cary replied. "She's meeting me at the office after she's done at work. In fact, I'd better get going or I'm going to be late. Don't worry, Karen. Things are looking up. Really."
Diane nodded her approval at his reassurances. Cary's boyish sincerity went a long way toward putting clients at ease, and he had both the intelligence and the mettle to back up his words. Her faith in him had not been misplaced, and if they won this case it would be a nice feather in his cap as well as a boon to the firm's reputation. She almost smirked imagining Will's chagrin.
She and Cary had taken separate cars, so after he left she took a couple of moments to provide her own reassurances before saying goodbye to Karen and walking to her car. From her parking spot in the driveway, she couldn't see around the house to the trailhead in the backyard, but in her mind's eye it loomed large, more imposing and sinister than it had ever been in person.
You're being foolish, she told herself as she settled in behind the wheel and fastened her seatbelt. There's nothing out there. Sliding the key into the ignition, she started to turn it, meant to turn it, but her hand soon fell away and the engine remained silent. She leaned back in her seat, her hand slipping down to touch the buckle of her seatbelt, her fingernail scratching lightly at the button that would free her.
She blinked, and she was outside the car, hand trailing across the engine bonnet and falling away as she stepped off the driveway and onto the lawn. The too-long grass was damp with dew, and moisture seeped into her expensive, but not waterproof, shoes. She had to walk carefully on her toes to keep her stiletto heels from sinking into the soft earth.
Most of the backyard lay in the shadow of the two-story house and Diane shivered slightly as she carefully made her way past flower gardens, water features, and an abandoned bucket of gardening tools left lying on its side next to a pair of brightly coloured gardening gloves. They had probably been there since the day of the murder; the interrupted chore long since forgotten.
The edge of the yard was lined with towering trees. Evergreens mixed with leafy deciduous: spruce and maple, pine and oak; all surrounded with low-growing ferns and scratchy brambles. The opening to the trail seemed to rise up in front of her, the shadow from the house finally coming to an end and allowing the sun to hit the path beyond as if nature was highlighting it for her. It almost seemed to glow.
Diane stopped about five feet from the trailhead, still not sure why she was even there. She didn't have her boots, and walking through the woods alone didn't seem wise in any case. But she needed to know, needed to understand what had happened the last time she was in there with Kurt. She took a careful step forward. And then she took another.
And then her phone rang.
