Hard Evidence

Andy Fowler had hired him by telephone on February 20. Turkel had some other business to clear up, but he made it out to San Francisco by the next Wednesday, February 26, met with the judge at ‘some fancy pizzeria -hey, what you folks out here put on a pizza!’

It had taken him, Turkel said, only a few days to find out why May Shi

Hardy had objected and been sustained, but the damage was done. None of Turkel’s testimony, covering Fowler’s relationship with May, his efforts to hide his activities, and his character in general, put the defendant in anything like a positive light.

Still, Hardy had at least known what was going to be coming. Turkel didn’t present anything in the first two hours that he hadn’t prefigured in his taped interview with Peter Struler months earlier. No surprise, but definitely no help.

Pullios had introduced the March 2 page from Fowler’s desk calendar showing Owen Nash’s name and had it marked as Exhibit 7. Turkel said that had been the day he had informed Fowler of the results of his investigation.

Pullios asked him if Mr Fowler had given Mr Turkel any indication of what he was going to do with the information.

‘No, not then,’ Turkel said.

‘Did he at any time?’

‘Nah, not really, he was just kidding like, you know?’

‘I don’t know, Mr Turkel. I’ll repeat the question – did Mr Fowler say anything about Mr Nash at any time to you after you’d told him he was Ms Shi

‘Yeah, well, we talked again sometime around April, May – I called him, just keeping up contact, you know, and I ask him does he still have his problem with this guy Nash, did he want I come out and clear it up for him?’

‘Clear it up?’

‘Yeah, you know.’

‘You asked Mr Fowler if he wanted you to kill Mr Nash?’

‘Well, you might take it that way, but -’

‘Can you tell us Mr Fowler’s exact words, please?’

‘But I’m telling you, we was kidding. You know, people kid all the time.’

‘Nevertheless, Mr Turkel, if you could tell the jury what was said.’

Turkel glanced at Fowler and shrugged theatrically. Chomorro slammed his gavel and told him to refrain from the gestures and answer the question.

Turkel sighed. ‘I said “Hey, I’m doin’ nothin‘ the next couple weeks, I could use a vacation, fly out there, do this guy.” The judge said, “No thanks, if I want the man disposed of, I’ll do it myself.” ’

‘That’s clear enough,’ said Moses McGuire. ‘No jury would buy that -’

‘You never know what juries are going to think,’ Hardy told him.

‘Yeah, but Turkel was right. People talk like that all the time, it never means anything.’

‘Except when it does.’

It was Wednesday night. Not exactly date night, but Fra

His plan had been to keep reading, reading, reading -the dailies would be in later tonight, probably also May Shi

Suddenly he realized enough was enough. Fra

And now Moses was here. Fra

The real problem,‘ he said, ’is that Turkel’s in it, period. It’s not so much his testimony, although that’s bad enough, but the fact that Andy hired him at all.‘

‘What’s the matter with that? He wanted to find out what had happened, why May dumped him.’

‘So he hires a private eye? Would you hire a private eye?’

Moses shrugged. ‘He was a working judge. Maybe he didn’t have the time personally. I don’t know… what did he tell you?’

‘That’s what he told me. But what am I supposed to sell to the jury? I mean, we’ve all had relationships end, right? Do we go three thousand miles for a private eye to keep chasing it?’

Fra

She’d gone all out. The soup was a rich consommé with tapioca and sour cream. The lamb, stuck with garlic and rubbed with rosemary and lemon juice, was served with potatoes and a spinach dish with nutmeg and balsamic vinegar. She even had a half glass of the outstanding Oregon Pinot Noir. They talked about Christmases past, Moses’s memories of his and Fra

After Moses left, Hardy and Fra

‘Would you think I was a terrible human being if I didn’t work tonight?’ Hardy asked.

Fra

‘How about if I got up early?’

‘How early?’

‘Real early.’

Fra

‘Maybe go to bed, get a little sleep.’

‘Which one?’

53

Real early turned out to be four o’clock, but he woke up refreshed, the growing sense of panic he’d been feeling somehow dissipated. He got into some ru

By quarter after five he had showered and dressed and was at his desk with yesterday’s dailies and the transcript of May Shi

It was every bit as bad as he’d feared.

Q: You had stopped seeing Mr Fowler by this time, isn’t that right?

A: Yes, I think it was early in March. He just caught me at home. Normally I screen my calls but I was expecting Owen so I picked it up.

Q: And what did Fowler say?

A: He said he was worried about me.

Q: Why?

A: He said he’d heard I was seeing Owen. I guess he’d heard bad things about him or thought he had. He said he wanted to make sure I was all right.

Q: What did you tell him?

A: I mostly tried to say he was being silly. Look, I didn’t want to hurt him. Then he said if Owen ever hurt me in any way I should come to him, I could always come to him. So, you know, I was trying to keep it light, I told him, if anything, Owen made me feel safer than he ever had. At least Owen had taken the gun.

Q: Which gun, Ms Shi

A: The gun. I never liked to keep it around and I’d asked Andy to take it home with him -I hated it in the house. But he wouldn’t do it, being a judge…

Q: Then what?

A: I told him we put the gun on board the Eloise in the desk right next to the bed in case there was an emergency and I needed it, but at least it wasn’t at home anymore. It made me feel safer.

Q: And what did the judge – did Mr Fowler – say to that?

A: Nothing, really. Then he asked me why I had stopped seeing him. It was really hard, but I told him… I was in love with Owen.