Page 153 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Jury-rigged

documentation supporting business expenses taken as tax deductions,
in case of an audit).
Labelle used photomicrography of the two tickets’ punch hole
edges to show points of difference: they were sufficient to
substantiate the prosecution’s claim that the conductor’s punch had
not been used on the outbound ticket. The railway was indeed
missing a ticket punch. The state further alleged that Sherman had
stolen a car the evening of the murder. After sneaking off the
platform in the station here and doing in Downs a few hours later, he
had driven at high speed to pick up the return train. Labelle’s
research also produced reports from both cities of vehicles lost and
abandoned, identifying the same Mercedes at times and places
matching that scenario.
The D.A. wisely kept her off the stand, knowing that jurors would
be turned off by her lack of charm. But Pershing, Rommel,
Napoleon, Alexander and Hannibal Simulian had made their
presence felt in court. At first they showed up in nicely-tailored
Italian suits and presented the picture of rectitude; then, as the
testimony mounted to an Everest of damning evidence, they reverted
to type, a cadre of glaring thugs in leather jackets. The meaning of
their glances at the jury could not be misunderstood, but the implied
threats were too little, too late. Sentencing took place just a couple of
days before Labelle left town. I don’t think she would have gone if
the verdict had been acquittal.
Now she was at the computer. She had ways of using that thing
that nobody else ever thought of: uploading, downloading, cross-
tabbing databases I didn’t know we could legally access. In an instant
the printer pushed out a single sheet of paper. It had to be for my
use; she could keep it all in her head. I picked it up from the output
tray and took it back to my desk. It was a matrix of names and dates
and places. This was like detecting for dummies, from her point of
view. I wish I’d thought of it; my organization of the pertinent facts
was limited at that time to a sheaf of handwritten notes, photographs
and lab reports. Of course, once I had an open-and-shut case against
Hannibal I intended to bring a neatly-typed report to Captain
Nimeau. All I needed was one more day. Now she had come back
early and I would have to justify every step I’d taken—and share the
credit if I’d missed anything of even the slightest importance.

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