Steve added a number twelve to his list of possible claims for relief. Steve believed Judge McClintock’s decision not to allow the testimony of Matthews regarding blood on the assailant’s clothes was an error. The officer should have been allowed to give his lay opinion about the subject.
Will it be enough to win a new trial? Steve scrutinized the transcript. He didn’t know if it was enough, but he did know that, at this point, he needed to look for even the slightest issue that might turn out to be the winning argument. He knew that in this line of work, it was his job to throw everything possible at the federal court and hope something triggered a favorable decision from the court. He remembered one case, when he was a clerk, where the judge he was working with made him thoroughly research an argument he himself did not think was very strong, but the judge ended up being right.
It was now late Sunday night, and Steve’s review of the second stage of the trial would have to wait until another day.
A little over two weeks had passed since Steve had filed for the Court to appoint him a private investigator. As he sat in his living room hoping he would hear something soon, his doorbell rang.
“Mr. Thomas, what are you doing here? And how did you find my house?”
“First, did you forget I’m a private investigator? Moreover you don’t cover your tracks at all. It took me about two minutes to find your address.”
“Second, after you left thoughts of your case have been rattling around in my brain. This weekend I finally had time to do a little independent research. Once I discovered that racist asshole Deputy Blackburn was the investigative officer, I decided to take the case. Nothing I would love more than to show the world how incompetent he was in his investigation. You will be getting the order with my official appointment tomorrow, but I decided to swing by and get started.”
Steve grinned widely and reached his hand out to welcome him to their new team. Booger entered and Steve started the process of bringing Booger up to speed on everything he had found.
The next morning Steve was able to amend his appointment request with Deputy Warden Gilcrease to add Booger to the list. Once she heard she was going to get to see Booger, she acquiesced immediately.
The team was now almost to the prison for their visit. “How many times you been to death row?” Booger asked as they veered right off of the Indian Nations Turnpike and followed the exit ramp that led to the prison.
“To be honest, this is only my second time. My last meeting with Scottie was my first time ever.”
“Pretty amazing how they can legally keep these fellas in a modern-day dungeon. Everything but a stretching rack, huh?”
“Yeah,” responded Steve, recalling the dismal conditions of H-Unit. “I know they call it a bunker, but I agree ‘dungeon’ seems to fit a lot better. I was more than a little disturbed by the conditions when I was last there. I can’t imagine living in a cell underground, with the only sky you ever see being through those overhead grates for only an hour a day.”
“Well, that is a legal fight for you to have another day. Today, we need to get Scottie’s story and see how the pictures, testimony, and other evidence fits in with his version of what happened. I want you to do all the talking; that way, I can observe his body language freely. When I told you I can spot a lie a mile away, I wasn’t kidding.”
Steve nodded in agreement. There was no doubt in Steve’s mind that the retired investigator was the equivalent of a human lie detector.
CHAPTER 16
When Steve and Booger arrived at the gate, the guard set his clipboard down, walked up to the window, and smiled broadly. “Booger! Haven’t seen you here in a while. I saw your name on the list this morning and got excited to see you again. Thought you’d committed fully to your body shop?”
Booger smiled back. “Clarence, been a while. You still have that old Javelin? I don’t recall you bringing it by my shop in the last few years.”
“Yeah, well, that thing was a labor of love, and at some point, the labor exceeded the love. Sold it off to some guy from Texas.” The guard shook his head before continuing. “Well, you know the drill, Booger. Park over there.”
“Thanks, Clarence. Shame about the car.”
Steve and Booger went through the same checkpoints, searches, and waivers that Steve had done the last time; but this time, instead of cold stares and little to no conversations, they got smiles and chit chat from at least one guard at each checkpoint. Booger greeted them with a smile and friendly conversation. Deputy Baldwin offered to catch up with Booger over some coffee, but the two of them wanted to get in with Scottie as quickly as possible so they declined.
Eventually, Steve and Booger were escorted into the same small room where Steve had met Scottie for the first time. Soon thereafter, the lock on the door clicked open, and Scottie Pinkerton walked in with his official escort; his hands and feet were free of chains, and he had a smile on his face. He became even happier when Steve introduced Booger, realizing the court had appointed
an investigator to his case.
“So,” Scottie said enthusiastically. “Maybe you aren’t just another lazy, court- appointed lawyer. Getting an investigator is more than anyone else ever done.”
“You said you would tell me what happened that day if I convinced you I believed you were innocent,” Steve said as he reached into his briefcase. He pulled out the three photos he’d used to persuade Booger to join the case.
“Looking at these pictures is what made me believe you. As you can see, the bedroom door is still intact, which means you never kicked it in, which means if Ashley lied about that, maybe she lied about everything on that call.”
“Ah!” Scottie exclaimed as he slammed his hand on the table. “You’ve got it! I tried to explain that I never harmed my wife to that bum, Hixon, but he wouldn’t listen. You are exactly right, and Hixon would have found that out if he’d been paying attention. I told you I’m innocent.”
“Well, now that I know you didn’t bust down the door, tell me what happened the day your wife was murdered.”
Scottie sat up in his seat and began to talk calmly. “I got up early that morning and went to the golf course for my usual Saturday morning round of golf. After I was done, I went straight home and—”
“That’s a lie, Scottie!” Booger interrupted sharply. “If you lie to us one more time, I will drop this case. Don’t you understand we are trying to save your life here, young man? The only chance we have to win this is if we know everything you know. Everything down to the smallest detail.”
Booger stood up, as if he was going to leave, but stopped and glared at Scottie. “Do you understand?”
“Yes…” Scottie lowered his head. “Okay, okay. Please just sit back down. I will tell you the whole story, but I’ve never told
anyone some of this, not in my whole life.” Booger sat back down.
Scottie’s eyes fixated on his own shoes. “After I finished nine holes of golf, I went to see a woman. I was having an affair when all this happened.”
“My entire adult life, I had a Saturday morning routine of playing a round of golf. For several months before Ashley was killed, I would meet this woman when I was supposed to be golfing. A round usually takes four hours, so I would play nine to make sure people saw me at the golf course and then meet her for the last two hours before I went home. I had rented a motel room the day before; we hooked up Friday afternoon and again that morning
since checkout wasn’t until noon.”
Booger looked knowingly at Steve.
No one is truly innocent. The words Booger had spoken, when they first met, echoed in Steve’s head as Scottie continued to speak.
“When I returned home from my little rendezvous, Ashley was on the phone with her brother. She was mad as all fuck. He’d gotten her all worked up. When she saw me, she immediately got off the phone and confronted me about the affair. She asked if I had been playing golf or been gone all morning to meet the other woman. I couldn’t even answer before she was yelling and screaming and throwing stuff at me. She came at me and scratched my face and neck all up. I was scared she was going to hit me, or worse. It wouldn’t have been the first time; she’d attacked me before, but I swear I never touched her. Not that day, not ever.” As Scottie said this last statement, he looked up to meet their watchful eyes.
Steve looked at Booger, who nodded to signal he believed the statement was true.
“She scratched me up pretty good, and then she got on the phone,” Scottie said. “She screamed that she was going to punish me for cheating on her, that she was going to get me thrown in jail for the weekend. She called 911 and acted like I had attacked her. She ran to the bedroom with her phone in her hand and slammed the door, all while screaming hysterically to them that she was in danger.”
Scottie took a deep breath “I just stood there in shock; I didn’t know what to do. So, I left. I went to the hotel room and took a shower. The shower is where I like to think. Sitting in there with the hot water beating down on my head and just sort of letting everything go… it’s how I focus on my problems. I planned on giving her time to calm down before going home to talk to her. I decided that I was going to end the affair and try to save our marriage. Ashley and I had drifted apart over the years. ‘Maybe this is rock bottom,’ I thought—the event that would wake us both up and get us back on track. The next thing I knew, the police were knocking on the door. When I opened it, they threw me down and arrested me for murder.”
Steve asked, “Anything else you can remember from the fight?” “No, not right now,” Scottie responded.
“Who was the lady you were having relations with?” Booger asked.
Scottie squirmed and then looked up at Booger. “Heather Walters.”
“The same Heather Walters who testified against you at trial?” Steve asked as his voice rose.
“The same one,” Scottie mumbled.
“Okay, so we have our first suspect,” Booger mused. “Anyone else you can think of who could have done this?”
“Suspect?” Scottie started shaking his head. “There is no way Heather killed Ashley.”
“Well, the fact she was your mistress is reason enough to make her a suspect. Any other ideas?”
