Chapter 10

Jarrod started Archer off with the standard preliminary questions – name, address, occupation, employer. Then he asked Archer to describe his duties as Assistant District Attorney. After Archer did so, Jarrod asked, "As part of your job, were you until recently responsible for the prosecution of a man named Nathan Springer?"

"I was," Archer said.

"And you have been relieved of those duties?"

"As of yesterday, yes."

"Were you given any reasons for being removed from that case?"

"Only that the District Attorney was taking over the case himself."

"Did he tell you why?"

"No."

"Did you make any assumptions as to why?"

Archer hesitated. ""Mr. Springer is a well-known attorney from San Francisco. I just assumed Mr. Davison wanted the case against him."

Jarrod changed subjects. "Mr. Springer is accused of murdering a young prostitute named Mandy Peale, isn't that correct?"

"Yes."

"Describe how you became involved in that case in the first place."

Archer swallowed. "The sheriff's deputy found me as he was heading for the District Attorney's office and took me to the deceased's room."

"Which was where?"

"At Big Annie's."

"Which is where?"

"A few blocks up from the waterfront."

"And what is Big Annie's business?"

Archer took a deep breath. "She runs a house of prostitution."

Jarrod let go the fact that Big Annie's business was illegal – it wasn't pertinent to the case and had been a bone of contention politically in Stockton for quite some time. "Exactly where were you when the sheriff's deputy found you?"

"About three blocks further toward the courthouse from Big Annie's."

"And what time was this?"

"About nine forty, nine forty-five."

Jarrod abruptly switched topics again. "Had you ever met Mandy Peale before that night?"

Archer knew the way Jarrod often shifted like that, to catch a witness off guard, so he wasn't surprised by the tactic. He was surprised by the question. "No, I never met Miss Peale."

"This was the first time you'd seen her?"

"To my knowledge."

"Why were you in that part of the town, Mr. Archer?"

Archer hesitated but said, "I was looking for a witness in another one of my cases."

"What case?"

"The Strong case."

"What witness?"

"A saloon keeper near the waterfront."

"The name of that saloon keeper?"

"Auburn Toole."

"Did you find him?"

"I didn't have a chance. The deputy's sheriff came and got me."

Jarrod shifted again, this time completely unexpectedly. "Why were you washing your hands in a watering trough near where the deputy found you?"

Chandler looked surprised, and so did Davison. Archer turned pale. "What?"

"I spoke to a witness who saw you washing your hands not long before the deputy ran into you," Jarrod said. "Why were you washing your hands?"

"I wasn't washing my hands," Archer said.

"What were you doing at the watering trough?"

"I wasn't doing anything at any watering trough."

"Are you saying my witness was lying?"

"I'm saying your witness mistook me for someone else."

Jarrod shifted once more. "When you went into Big Annie's that night – was that the first time you'd ever been to Big Annie's?"

"It was," Archer said.

"How did you get in?"

"The deputy took me in through the front door."

"And then?"

"Then up the stairs to the deceased's room."

"Is that the first time you ever saw Mandy Peale?"

"Yes."

Jarrod kept at it for another half an hour, shifting his questions around, trying to nail Archer down on as many facts as he was willing to give him. Jarrod knew that some of them – like his washing his hands at the watering trough – were not true. He listed them in his notes, and the list was beginning to grow when Jarrod came to the end of his questions.

"Mr. Archer," Jarrod said, leveling a hard gaze on him, purposely as hard as Daisy's gaze had been, "are you absolutely sure of the name of the witness you were trying to find on the night Miss Peale was killed?"

"Yes," Archer said.

"And the case involved?"

"Yes." Then suddenly he added something. "I didn't have the witness's name in my notes yet so the file won't show it."

"Not in your notes?" Jarrod said. "Isn't it standard practice to make note of every witness, whether you interview him or not?"

Archer hesitated. "Yes, but I just hadn't gotten to it yet. I had just learned the witness's name earlier in the day."

Jarrod kept his glare on Archer, but Archer didn't flinch. "That's all I have," Jarrod said.

Chandler asked some clarifying questions that didn't do a very good job of clarifying. As this deposition went on, Jarrod believed more and more that Archer was tap dancing his way through, inventing answers and even lying a few times. Jarrod exchanged looks with Davison as Chandler finished up his questions. Davison declined to ask Archer anything.

With that, Archer and Chandler left, and when the court reporter had packed up and gone, Jarrod closed the door behind him. He and Davison looked at each other. "Sam," Jarrod said, "I don't like saying this, but Phil told several lies in this deposition, the worst being his denial that he was washing his hands in that watering trough just before the deputy found him."

"Jarrod, are you sure your witness couldn't have been wrong about that?" Davison asked.

"I'm sure," Jarrod said.

"Chandler's gonna want to know who that witness is, probably take a deposition of his own, if we implicate Archer in this killing."

"I know that," Jarrod said, "but Phil has implicated himself. If he doesn't come clean as to what his involvement is, you know how badly it could go for him."

"Who is the witness who saw him washing his hands?" Davison asked.

"A bar-keep at the Brown Gull saloon," Jarrod said. "He was taking some empty crates into the alley where he saw Phil."

"He couldn't be mistaken?"

Jarrod shook his head. "He was positive. He saw him in the light from a storeroom across the alley. He knew Archer because Archer had been in his saloon before."

"Phil? In a saloon near the waterfront? I find that hard to believe."

"So did I, but this bar-keep described Phil to a T."

"Did Phil see the bar-keep in that alley?"

Jarrod shook his head. "It doesn't look like it."

Davison heaved a sigh. "I'm going to have to suspend him, Jarrod. Suspend him and investigate this further."

"What about Nat Springer? Are you going to dismiss the charges?"

"I can't do that yet, but I can get the trial postponed."

Suddenly, they heard a commotion out in the street, men yelling – and a dog barking. It was Daisy. Jarrod recognized her bark. He ran to his window that overlooked the street, and he saw Nick holding onto Daisy's leash as she barked continuously at Archer and Chandler, all of them in the street.

Jarrod ran out of his office, wondering what in the world had happened out there and hoping Nick had a firm hold on Daisy.