Chapter 5
"You were D'Arto's apartment on the night of the murder weren't you?" Gil Grissom's accusation hung in the air.
"That's impossible!" Catherine cried, the mother winning out over the criminalist. "Lindsey was at a sleepover at her friend Emma's house. I picked her up from there when I left here after Sam confessed."
"Forensic evidence doesn't lie Catherine." Grissom reminded her without taking his eyes from Lindsey's face, "The LVPD began processing Lindsey after she interrupted Braun's hearing and we matched her fingerprints to a partial from a broken vase in D'Arto's apartment. She was there."
Catherine looked from her daughter to Grissom, clearly conflicted. The mother in her wanted to tell Lindsey not to say anything, at least until after they'd had a chance to speak to a lawyer, the Crime Lab supervisor accepting the evidence and wanting to discover the truth. Finally, her voice low and hesitant, she asked, "Lindsey, is this true?"
Lindsey's eyes flickered around the room, moving from Grissom to Brass and finally resting on her mother. Her defiant attitude disappeared and Catherine saw relief in her eyes. She nodded confirmation.
"But why?" Catherine asked. Then a dreadful thought struck her, "Lindsey, you're not using drugs, are you?"
"Of course not," Lindsey replied, with just a trace of her previous attitude, "I tried pot once and it made me feel sick but Emma started smoking it a couple of months ago, just at weekends. No big deal I thought. I'd hang around outside D'Arto's apartment while she went in to score. Only it didn't stop at weekends or at pot and about a week ago I caught her in the bathroom popping some pills. I tried to persuade her to get help but she wouldn't listen."
"Tell us what happened on the night of D'Arto's murder, Lindsey." Brass said gently.
"After school we hung around with some other friends and went for a burger and coke. On our way back to her house, she wanted to stop off and buy drugs. She tried to persuade me to give her some money because she didn't have enough. I refused but I went into the apartment with her anyway. D'Arto was horrible! When he heard she didn't have the money he made suggestions about how she could pay him in other ways – you know?" Lindsey's voice wavered as she remembered the scene.
The three adults nodded, they knew the kind of thing D'Arto was likely to have suggested to a fourteen year old girl.
Lindsey began crying as she went on with her story. "Emma begged for some pills but D'Arto insisted she pay for them, one way or another. It looked like she was going to give in but I pulled her out of there. D'Arto tried to stop me so I threw the vase at him. I took Emma home but she just kept getting more and more strung out. I didn't know what to do. Finally she seemed to settle down and go to sleep. Her parents were out at some fundraiser so I went into the lounge to think. When I went back up to check on her, she'd disappeared. I thought she'd gone back to D'Arto's so I went there. I knocked but I got no answer, the door was unlocked so I went in. D'Arto was lying on the floor, there was a knife stuck in his chest and blood everywhere. I ran and when I got back to Emma's place, she was waiting for me. She said she'd woken up and gone for a walk to think things over. She said she realised she was hooked and wanted to get help. We decided to see the school councillor the next day, then went to sleep. The next thing I know, Mom was banging on the door and telling me Sam had killed D'Arto."
"You think Emma killed D'Arto?" Brass asked.
"I don't know what to think." Lindsey gasped through her tears. "But if she did I wouldn't blame her. I know that Sam couldn't have done it. He wasn't in the apartment when I got there so he must have arrived after I left."
"What time did you discover D'Arto's body?" Gil enquired.
"10:45ish, give or take a couple of minutes either way." Lindsey replied.
"You didn't see anyone else about?" Brass added.
Lindsey shook her head.
"Lindsey, why didn't you come to me with all this?" Catherine cried.
Lindsey tear filled eyes were amazed as she looked at her mother. "Because you're a cop. I didn't want to get Emma into trouble. "
"Alright." Gil intervened, "Catherine, can you take Lindsey outside while Jim and I discuss this further?"
Catherine nodded, put her arm around her daughter and gently escorted her out of the room.
Once they were alone, Brass turned to Grissom, "Whatever Lindsey might think, this doesn't prove Braun is innocent. He could have heard someone approaching and hidden in one of the other rooms. When he recognised Lindsey he wouldn't have wanted to hurt her, I'll give him that much. And she's provided him with the one thing we've been missing, a motive for murdering D'Arto. If he'd heard his granddaughter had been seen coming out of the apartment of a drug dealer he could have thought D'Arto had got her using."
"Lindsey's also provided us with an alternative suspect." Grissom pointed out, "And a reason why Braun was prepared to plead guilty. If he saw Lindsey running away from the scene he could have jumped to the conclusion, she killed D'Arto and be protecting her."
Catherine sat in the break room, cradling Lindsey in her arms. The sobbing had ended now and Lindsey was laying quiet and still in her mother's arms, her eyes closed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd comforted her daughter in this way but it had been a long time ago, before she had entered her teens. Catherine's heart went out to her daughter. For the last two days she'd faced pressures and dilemmas no fourteen year old child should be forced to deal with. At the same time, she felt she had failed as a mother. Lindsey hadn't felt able to confide in her. She wondered where she had gone so wrong that Lindsey felt she would place her duties as a member of the LVPD before her responsibilities as a mother. I know I couldn't spend as much time with her as I wanted when she was younger she thought, but I had to work, we needed the money. Then she wondered what it must have looked like to Lindsey. The constant call outs, the broken promises. We need to have a proper talk she decided.
Lindsey opened her eyes and looked up at her mother.
"Mom, I'm sorry for causing you all this trouble." Her tone reminded Catherine of when she had been ten years old.
Catherine hugged her tighter. "It's alright honey. I'm just sorry you felt you couldn't tell me about Emma's problems before all this happened. There are people I know who could have helped her."
"I was worried you'd arrest her for possession or something," Lindsey explained. "And she's my friend. I was scared you'd stop me from seeing her anymore, like you did with Sam."
"Honey, Emma's made some bad choices but she's young and it doesn't sound like she's too far down the addiction road yet. She can be helped. That's what I'd have tried first in a case like hers. Believe me, criminal prosecution would have been the last resort!"
"But you were going to be a prosecution witness against Sam and you told me I couldn't see him anymore!" Lindsey protested.
"There's a world of difference between using drugs like Emma and bank robbery and murder like Sam Braun!" Catherine said, sharper than she intended.
Lindsey draw away from her mother, "But isn't there something about hating the sin but loving the sinner?" she asked. "Why couldn't you have done that with Sam? You had to do your job, Grandma explained that to me, but that's no reason to treat Sam the way you did. He's my grandfather, your father, yet you tried to shut him out of our lives!"
Lindsey sounded confused rather than accusing but her words slammed into Catherine like a pile driver and forced her to evaluate her attitude to Sam Braun, once again. He had lied to her by omission from the day she'd been born. Not only was he her biological father, he'd committed murder and looked her in the eyes as he'd tried to cast the blame on to a dead man. She had to wonder what other secrets he'd kept from her. On the other hand, he'd been there for her, vaguely paternal, distantly affectionate and protective, always willing to bail her out financially. For the first time she considered what her mother had said about Sam being a complex man. Had trying to deny their relationship and cast him out of her life been the right decision? Could you really hate the sin but love the sinner? If so, how? She needed more time to think through these concepts.
"Let's take you home now Lindsey." was all she said, "Your Grandma will be worried and I think we need to have a family talk."
"…so there is now a credible alternative suspect in D'Arto's murder and further investigation is needed." Gil Grissom concluded his presentation to the Sheriff and District Attorney.
They stared at him, their faces set and unresponsive.
"Let's just back up a bit here." the D.A. said, "As Captain Brass has pointed out, nothing in this new information actually exonerates Braun and he's already pleaded guilty. If you open this line of investigation you're saying the LVPD isn't convinced of his guilt. That would give his lawyers the opening they need to nullify the conviction and enough reasonable doubt to take to a jury. How do we know this wasn't his intention from the beginning? We could be playing right into his hands!"
"And this friend of Lindsey Willows, Emma Greyson. Her parents are very prominent socially and big contributors to good causes within this city. Look Gil, who's more likely to be D'Arto's killer, a known murderer and associate of gangsters like Braun or the daughter of respectable folks like the Greyson's? Braun admits killing D'Arto. Why shouldn't we take his word for it?" added the Sheriff.
Gil set his shoulders as he looked back at them. "I'm a forensic scientist." he replied. "My loyalty is to the truth and I don't think we've discovered what that is in this case yet. Braun may be guilty but the forensic evidence is ambiguous at best. Now we have another suspect. I have to investigate her, if only to rule her out as the killer."
The District Attorney turned to the other man in the room. "Conrad, what do you think?"
The slim, balding figure of Conrad Ecklie took a deep breath before he spoke, "Dr Grissom is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Practitioners. He is required by the Academy to follow through on all possible leads in a case. Failure to do so could result in him being expelled. Given the facts as presented, Grissom has no alternative but to check out Emma Greyson."
The Sheriff glared at him. This wasn't the reply he'd been hoping for. "OK." he said grudgingly, "Follow up the damn lead!" He looked hard at Gil, then added. "But understand this, if Braun walks as a result of your investigation and no-one else ends up being convicted, your future with the LVPD Crime Lab… well let's just say, questions will be asked. Understand?"
Grissom nodded as he left the room, followed by Ecklie.
"And that's the reason I make a better Lab Director than you would have." Ecklie observed once the door had shut behind them, "Because I can play politics. There are ways of managing upwards without telling the bosses they've made fools of themselves by moving so fast against Braun. You'd better hope you come up with something definitive, one way or another, if you want to stay with the Crime Lab."
TBC