Face of Betrayal (28 page)

“I need to get ahead of Fairview on this, Cassidy,” Allison said. “Every step of the way, he has misled us. All of us. Well, he can’t with this. Not if we don’t tip our hands. This is the evidence I need to get the grand jury to indict him. This guy’s as slippery as a seal. With this tape, I can finally pin him down.”

“I need the tape just as much as you do. If I don’t keep coming up with scoops, the station is going to pull me off this story. They keep pressuring me to let Madeline McCormick take over the coverage.”

Cassidy scrubbed her face with her free hand. She looked like an overtired child.

“Even though I’m the one who broke the story. I’m the one who made this story happen.”

Allison knew she had the subpoena power to force Cassidy to turn over the tape to the grand jury. But the reality was that red tape would make it nearly impossible. The Department of Justice would have to green-light the idea, and by that time it would be too late. The station would air the tape now and claim freedom of the press later. The best she could do was to work out a deal.

“Cassidy—this is about a murder. Isn’t that more important than ratings? I’m begging you—you have to hold on to this until after we arrest him. Once that happens, I’ll give you a twenty-four-hour window before we give it to anybody else.”

There was a long pause.

“Forty-eight,” Cassidy said finally. “I need it to be forty-eight. With forty-eight I can tell the management and Maddy to take a flying leap.”

Allison gritted her teeth. She didn’t have many options. “Okay. Forty-eight. But you have to promise me it won’t run until after he’s arrested.”

Cassidy finally seemed to come alive. “Thank you, thank you, I promise!”

She leaned in to give Allison a hug, and Allison could smell the wine on her breath and in her glass. Cassidy always had something to drink when the three of them were together, but even for Cassidy, a water glass full of wine seemed a bit much. But they were all under so much stress from the Katie Converse case that maybe it was understandable.

Cassidy pulled back, a smile on her face. “Are you going to have him arrested right away?”

“I’d like to, but it’s probably not feasible.” Allison ticked off the reasons on her fingers. “One, Fairview is a public figure. Two, he’s shown no indication that he is likely to flee. Three, there aren’t any allegations that he’s a serial killer or in any way a danger to others. It’s not like we need to get him off the street before he kills again. I’ll take this to the grand jury first thing Wednesday and get him indicted.”

“Wednesday? Why not tonight?” Cassidy’s smile fell from her face like a plate from a shelf. “This man needs to be locked up. He killed a beautiful young girl.”

“The only way I could do it tonight would be to take it to a judge. And a judge’s standard is ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.’ Fairview knows all the judges in town—do you think any one of them is realistically going to say this tape is proof beyond a reasonable doubt? It doesn’t show him with Katie. There are no marks on his hands, no pine needles on his clothes. Nothing to connect him to what happened. Michael Stone will say that all it shows is that his client was late for a meeting or something. Stone could even argue that the date in the corner is wrong. We all know that half the time the date on a video camera isn’t right. But I can show the grand jury the tape, and it will establish his opportunity. Katie’s blogs establish his motive. And the medical examiner has told us the means—that blow to the throat. Once we get the indictment from the grand jury, a judge will
have
to sign off on it. By this time Wednesday, Fairview will be locked up.”

“And then they should throw away the key. That’s what Rick says.”

Allison said patiently, “Rick’s been around the block enough to know that even once Fairview’s arrested, he won’t stay in jail long. He’ll post bail.”

“But he killed that girl. We all know he did it. I thought this would finally be enough to prove it.” The glass slipped from Cassidy’s hand and shattered into a dozen pieces. She started to cry. “I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t think.”

Cassidy wasn’t a pretty crier. Her eyes immediately turned puffy, and snot leaked from her nose.

“Why?” Allison asked. “What’s wrong?”

Was it Allison’s imagination, or did Cassidy hesitate?

“Like I said, the station is pressuring me to step aside for Maddy. I’m making enemies, but if I don’t hold on to my turf, I’ll be nobody.” She bent down and started to pick up the pieces of glass that lay around her bare feet.

“Here, Cass, let me,” Allison said. “You’ll cut your feet.”

Together, Allison and Nicole picked up the biggest pieces of glass. In the kitchen, Allison opened the cabinet underneath the sink. Instead of table scraps, the garbage can was heaped with a half dozen silk bras and panties in shades of turquoise, silver, and pink.

Allison and Nicole exchanged a look. Allison set the pieces of glass on the counter and picked up a sky-blue bra. It had been sliced in several places.

Dear God,
Allison prayed,
something feels very, very wrong about this. Help me to find the right words to help Cassidy.

She took the bra out to the living room. Nicole followed after grabbing a broom and dustpan.

“Cassidy, what’s this?” Allison held out the cut-up bra. “Your garbage can is filled with your underwear.”

Cassidy bit her lip and looked away. “Oh, Rick says I dress too slutty. If I want to be taken seriously as a professional, he says I need to look more buttoned up. He says I’m insecure, and that’s why I’m always flaunting myself.”

There was more than a grain of truth to what Rick said. Still, wasn’t it up to Cassidy to determine that?

“So he cut them up?” Nicole demanded.

“Of course not! I did it! He said if I was serious, I would cut them up. Then he would know that I meant it.”

“But that’s the kind of thing you should decide for yourself,” Allison said.

“Rick loves me, and he doesn’t want anyone to see me as a whore.” Cassidy straightened up, although the bathrobe detracted from the effect. “I’m a professional broadcast reporter, not some little tart on an entertainment news program. I’m a serious journalist.”

“And serious journalists can’t wear pretty bras?” Nicole said with a deadpan expression.

“Not if they expect to be taken seriously.” Cassidy sounded like she was parroting Rick.

What was happening to Cassidy was right out of the brochures they kept at the front desk of Safe Harbor: name-calling. Excessive possessiveness. Destruction of personal property.

And from experience, Allison didn’t think it would stop with Rick making Cassidy get rid of her sexy underwear.

“Cassidy,” Allison said carefully, “you have to promise me you’ll think twice next time Rick wants you to change some part of your personality. It makes me nervous that he doesn’t like you the way you are.”

As she spoke, Nicole nodded.

Cassidy shook her head. “He likes me the way I
should
be.” She managed a teary-eyed smile. “And isn’t that better?”

“No,” Allison said. “Frankly, it’s not. You should only change for your-self. Not because someone tells you they won’t love you unless you do. Let me ask you something, Cassidy, and you have to promise to tell me the truth.”

“Okay,” Cassidy said slowly.

“Has Rick ever hit you?”

“No.” Cassidy laid her hand over her heart. “I promise you, Rick has never hit me. Ever.”

Watching her, Allison felt sick. She had known Cassidy long enough to know when she was lying.

MARK O. HATFIELD UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE

January 12

A
llison had faxed a target letter to Stone. It told the lawyer that not only was his client the subject of a grand jury investigation, but Allison believed she had substantial evidence to link him to a crime. Fairview was now compelled to leave rehab and testify before the grand jury. He could still take the Fifth to any and all questions that might incriminate him, but he’d run a higher risk of being indicted because the grand jurors might think he was hiding the truth. And once you were indicted, the public decided you were guilty. As a politician, his life would be over.

And did Fairview even have a life outside of being a politician?

Allison figured that Fairview and Stone had to be weighing the odds. Did Fairview need to focus on saving his career—or on saving his skin?

What they didn’t know was that she had a videotape that would be nearly impossible to explain away.

Although they would probably have rehearsed Fairview’s testimony a dozen times, Stone would not be allowed to accompany his client into the grand jury room. Instead, he would be forced to sit in the hall, twiddle his thumbs, and hope that his client didn’t open his mouth and hang himself. Inside the grand jury room, it was only the prosecutor, the jurors, and the witness. Grand juries were supposed to hold a prosecutor in check—but they also gave a prosecutor a lot of power.

Allison could have skipped the grand jury indictment and gone right to a probable cause hearing in front of a judge. But in that case, the defendant and his lawyer were on hand to hear every word of her argument. And then the balance of power was tipped the other way. A probable cause hearing gave the defense an early crack at the case, and an opportunity to cross-examine the FBI agents who testified to the evidence.

Allison began by bringing the grand jury up to speed on the events of the last few days. She put Leif on the stand to set the scene by testifying about what the ERT had found in Forest Park. But just as important, she had him identify a photo of Katie’s body. Behind her, she heard the jurors gasp as the photo was passed from hand to hand.

In a way, it was overkill to show these photos to the jury. Given the evidence of the videotape, Allison knew they would indict Fairview with-out them. But at the same time, she wanted to hear their reactions, gauge how everything would go when it really came for trial.

Next, she called Nicole to the stand. Nicole testified about how the Converses had taken the news that their daughter’s body had been found. While this was hearsay evidence that couldn’t be used at trial, it was permissible at a grand jury hearing. At this point, with the facts of their daughter’s murder still fresh in their mind, it would be too volatile—as well as too cruel—to call Wayne and Valerie to the stand. Nicole also identified autopsy photos of Katie’s throat and the injuries it had received. By the gasps Allison could hear coming from the jurors, these photos were just as powerful as the previous ones. And Nicole explained that the autopsy results meant that Katie had definitely been murdered.

Finally, Fairview was brought into the room and sworn in by the court reporter. His face wore an expression that Allison was sure had been practiced in front of a mirror. It mingled equal parts sorrow and righteous indignation.

Allison got up to turn on the TV-VCR unit she had requested. “Senator, I am going to show you a tape that was shot on December thirteenth. The day Katie Converse went missing. The day, we now know, that she died.”

Something in Fairview’s eyes flickered, just for a second. The rest of his face remained impassive. As the tape began to play, he made his disinterest obvious, at one point even yawning as seconds ticked by and nothing happened.

But then the woman appeared with the dog. The jurors leaned for-ward in their seats. And finally, there he was, Senator Fairview, running in a panic. In a panic from the mess he had just left behind.

When the tape ended, Fairview was slumped in the witness chair. He looked, Allison thought, broken. In a voice so small she had to strain to hear it, he said, “I would like to consult with my attorney.”

“All right, Senator.” She turned to the grand jurors. “Okay, people, we’ll take a ten-minute recess.”

Allison remained at her table, although she could hear the excited babble of the grand jurors’ voices as they took their chance to grab a snack and gossip about what they had just seen and heard.

When the break was over and Fairview had returned to the stand, she said, “Senator, would you care to explain what we just saw?”

He put his palm over his heart. “I swear to you, I am innocent. I did not kill Katie Converse. She was already dead when I found her.”

Allison said, “Why do you expect us to believe that?” She would have loved to have leaned into his face when she asked the question, but in a grand jury trial the prosecutor always remained seated for the questioning.

Most people’s inclination was to explain and convince and to try to make the prosecutor see it their way.

But Fairview said simply, “I expect you to believe me because I am telling the truth. I panicked when I found her body, and I ran away. You look at that videotape and you can tell that I was startled and afraid. But I did not kill Katie Converse. She took her own life.”

They had not released the results of the autopsy publicly for this very reason—to help them flush out a killer. Katie’s parents knew the truth, as did the investigators—and now the grand jurors—but no one else.

“Then tell us what happened,” Allison said. “Tell us what really happened.”

He sighed and pressed his hands against his face. “It’s true that Katie and I had developed a relationship while she was a page. I didn’t seek it out—it just happened. It was really more her idea than mine.”

Behind her, Allison heard an angry hiss. Was Fairview testing his strategy for the future trial just as she was testing hers? Because if he was, it had just backfired.

“We met each other at that spot in Forest Park a couple of times over Thanksgiving break, when we were desperate to see each other. Katie knew the park well—she grew up only a few blocks away, and she and her dad went for walks there all the time. She had found this clearing that was off the main trails.

“But this time, instead of going there together, she called and demanded that I meet her there. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. She was very angry. She threatened to tell my wife what had happened between us. So finally I agreed. The other times, we had walked there together. At first I thought I was lost. I couldn’t see Katie anyplace. I was calling her name. And then the dog ran up to me. I wasn’t even sure it was hers at first. It didn’t have its leash. It was barking and running around in circles, all excited. And then it started racing up the path and stopping to look at me. Like it wanted me to follow. And so I did.” Fairview’s voice shook. “And—and there she was. Lying on the ground with a noose around her neck. Katie had killed herself. She had wanted me to find her like that. She was hell-bent on punishing me.”