Seeking Truth: Part 2

Talking it Over

Lunch at the Prosecutors' Office was usually very chaotic. Typically, the attorneys would head to lunch whenever their respective judges called for a lunch recess, but on days when several attorneys were in the office all day, someone would order in from one of the local restaurants. The courthouse was right in the midst of the city's various ethnic areas. Mexican, Greek, Thai, Cuban...restaurants and events of every culture could be found within only a few blocks of the building. Lise, Luke, and myself had decided on Greek, so we walked two blocks over to the Laikon Cafe. Along the way, we mostly talked about mundane things like how the construction on the hotel across the street was going, the economy, gas prices...really basic topics. Once we had sat down and ordered our meals, however, Lise didn't wait a second before asking us, “So, what's this case about that's got you two so worked up?”

“Murder,” came Luke's response, “and unless there are a lot more mysteries out there, the guilty party is pretty obvious.”

Apparently she had been expected more, as it took her a few seconds to ask, “...where's the mystery then? That sounds like a pretty easy job to me.”

Pausing a moment to look around the restaurant in case anyone was listening in, my boss explained in a low voice, “Most of this crime was caught on tape, but the key moment, as you saw in that clip I played for you, is shrouded in darkness. There's also evidence that someone fabricated the recording as well, as you should have heard movement before those shots.”

The confusion on her face finally cleared up, “So now you're wondering who would've done that?”

“Right. Fortunately, the list isn't too long, and we can probably eliminate half of them by the end of the day.”

“We also need to find out what was removed from the recording,” I added, “the defendant said it was a gunshot sound, but it could've anything.”

“And whoever turned out the lights,” he finished.

“Sounds like you two have it under control then,” she replied with a nod, interrupted by the waiter bringing us our lunches. Once he had left, she continued, “What makes you so sure he did it?”

As Luke had his mouth full of rice, I responded, “Because he's the only other person in the room, and the gunshots came from his side of it.”

“That's means,” she observed, “but what about motive?”

I stopped, unsure about that one. Luke picked up the slack, “The boss had his ideas, but that's another thing we have to figure out. The defendant insists that the business he and the victim were discussing is unrelated to the case, and that the two of them didn't know each other before that evening.”

After a drink of water, she replied, “Hard to establish a motive if they didn't know each other. You're thinking second-degree?” She was referring to the varying degrees of murder charges. First-degree required is the premeditated act of killing. Second-degree murder is the same, except without premeditation, so while the person didn't create a plan to carry out the deed, there remained the desire to kill.

“I'm not sure yet...I'm fairly certain it's closer to manslaughter, but we don't know enough yet.” Manslaughter comes in two types, voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary typically refers to “heat of the moment” murder, where the person didn't intend to kill anyone, but through some provocation was driven to that act. Involuntary manslaughter is usually accidental or unintended, such as a death due to drunk driving. No matter the degree, the penalty remains harsh, and Hayes was looking at a long time in jail if convicted.

“Alright...so if I understand correctly, you've got five questions to answer...Who edited the recording and why, what was changed in it, why the lights went out, and why your defendant shot the victim.”

“That about sums it up,” he returned, nodding his head in agreement, of course, there are still a few unsolved issues beyond those, like how the police arrived so quickly, but with any luck we'll work those out on the way.”

“Which do you think you can get done today? After all, you won't have Mark here tomorrow.”

Unfortunately, she was correct. As I'm also a full-time student, I only attend my internship three days of the business week and go to class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I wouldn't miss the trial, since it was on Friday, but there wasn't much I could do about tomorrow and Thursday.

“I think our best bet is finding out who edited the recording,” he reasoned, “we'll probably have a lot more answers if we can figure that out.”

She nodded, then excused herself to the restroom, the waiter handing us the bill just after she left. Luke examined it and handed the waiter his credit card. “Don't worry,” he began, turning back to me, “I won't do too much work without you, don't want you to get to the trial date without understanding anything, eh? I'll keep you filled in by email.”

I was about to respond that he didn't have to worry about me, but Lise had returned along with the waiter, handing Luke the receipt to sign. Taking up our coats again, we returned to the offices, resuming the simple, everyday conversation of average citizens on the way.

Much to do

Wasting no time, Luke tossed his coat onto his chair and returned to the white board, erasing what he had written earlier and writing out the five questions Lise had posed. Speaking as he wrote, “Who would've wanted to edit the tape?”

“No reason for Hayes to,” I answered. “After all, removing the supposed gunshot hurts his case.”

“So it would probably be someone on Vell's side. Now, that could be quite a few people, so let's narrow it down a bit by...let's say opportunity. Who had access to the recording?”

As neither of us could answer that accurately, we returned to our desks and continued to look over the case file. Half an hour later, Luke looked up and stated, “According to the police report, the camera was seized within two minutes of Hayes's arrest. So it's highly unlikely someone could carefully alter it within that period of time.”

“And it's been held under police protection since then?”

He rifled through some of the papers on his desk, going over various reports and eventually responding, “There's nothing here that indicates otherwise...so whoever edited the tape probably did so within the police station. I highly doubt they would have been able to get it out, alter it, then sneak it back in.”

I looked through my own stack of documents, wanting to be sure he was correct, “People had access to it though, right? I mean, we found this inside Mr. Closeau's folder.”

Walking back to the board, he remarked, “That's correct. Whenever dealing with something electronic like a computer hard drive, the police make copies of the original, to avoid risk of corruption or tampering of the original piece of evidence. Take hard drives for example, they'll use a write-blocker to make an exact copy of the hard drive without the risk of writing anything to it, then take a hash value of both the original and the image to ensure they're identical.”

“Alright, but when we asked Hayes about the fabrication, he didn't seem surprised. Do you think he knows about it already?”

Nodding, the wolf looked down at a yellow sheet of paper from the file, “Probably. I'm guessing he watched it with his attorney and noticed it then. Regardless of when he watched it, it would most likely mean that the original, and thus all of its copies, was fabricated shortly after it was brought in. Otherwise whoever did so would run the risk of a police officer seeing the unedited version and appearing as a witness in court.”

If the original and all of its copies were now fabrications, how could we know for sure what had been edited? Then again, if I remember those old crime movies, usually the bad guy who alters the evidence keeps the real thing locked up somewhere, blackmail purposes or some such. “Are there records of who looked at the original in the police station?”

“Indeed, or at least, there should be, unless those were tampered with as well. Kind of doubt it since that would be extremely difficult to conceal, not to mention the records are pretty secure.” His tail swished back and forth as he watched the words on the white board like a predator. He continued, “I'll make a few calls to the station, but it'll be a little while before they can get us any results.” It seemed like he was already running a list of potential suspects through his head.

Looking down at the remaining questions, I wondered just who could've done each of them, or if the same person had done all of them. My attention lingered on one of them a little longer than the rest: 'What was added or removed from the recording?' “How do we know something wasn't added to the recording? Maybe that code isn't supposed to sound like that?”

Sitting back down on his desk and raising his paws into a steeple in front of him, “A good observation. Unfortunately, whatever code it was in, we don't know how to decipher it, so it could be in just about any language and wouldn't make much difference. Also, Hayes was quite clear that he didn't want us to know what was talked about in there, so we probably won't be able to convince him otherwise. Still, there could have been other changes to it.” Although he didn't look like he enjoyed seeing it again, he did suggest, “let's have another look, shall we?”

Nodding, I moved my chair closer to his desk as he turned the screen towards me again. We then painstakingly analyzed every second of the recording, wondering at possible interpretations of the code and replaying it whenever something sounded out of place. More than a half dozen times we replayed it, each time looking at something different, hoping to catch something we had missed before. I can't say if it was a bad or good thing, but nothing except for that moment of silence seemed out of the ordinary.

Hearing a beep from my watch, I glanced at it and realized that it was almost time to leave. I took the bus to the office since parking costs were extremely high around this part of town, and I had to leave soon if I was going to catch it going home. Putting my coat on again, I took one last look at the video on Luke's screen.

“I'll send you an email tomorrow, let you know how it's going. Good work today.”

“Thanks. I'll see you on Wednesday.” Packing away my laptop, I stepped out of his office and past Lise's desk, waving to her and saying, “Have a good evening Lise, see you on Wednesday.”

“You too Mark. Don't work too hard now.”

I gave her a knowing smile. Similar to Luke, she could read people very well, and certainly knew that I would be thinking about this case until I returned here on Wednesday. Indeed, as I rode the elevator down, the bus home, and during school the next day, its questions floated lazily through my mind, each provoking me to concentrate on it. Of course, my essay popped up somewhere in there as well. As much as I'd like to focus on criminal matters, I'd better get that out of the way before I get too carried away.

News from the field

During criminology class the next afternoon, I was glad to receive an email from Luke. The news wasn't great, but he was certainly making progress on the case:

“Mark,

“Since you left yesterday, I've been on the phone for hours with investigators, internal affairs, and pretty much everyone in between at the police department. I also went to check on the victim and the crime scene. I guess the best way to present what I've gathered is in chronological order, so here goes. On Saturday, March 15th, around 10 PM, Hayes and Vell met for the first time outside the building. While they were inside talking, a very small explosive device had already been planted on the building's fuse box. Police are still working on analyzing the fragments, but they're getting close to a result. The detonator for the explosive was triggered remotely, probably through a radio or cellular device. The lights go out, a gunshot noise is made near Vell, Hayes shoots him, then tries to flee. Apparently the police officer who arrested him was in the area investigating reports of a burglary, but these reports were proven false. Because of this, they've erased the entry from their log and it's unlikely that we'll be able to find out who made the call.

“The following pieces of marked evidence were recovered from the crime scene: Hayes's handgun, two 9mm casings (ballistic fingerprinting makes it near-certain they came from Hayes's weapon), Hayes's cell phone, the recording, the camera, Vell's cell phone, and Vell's handgun. As of yet, there is no evidence of Vell's handgun having been fired, so I'm working on acquiring anything else Vell may have had on him that night. I think a new question for us is “what made the gunshot noise?” I've also made some inquiries as to Vell's and Hayes's personal files, but haven't received a reply yet. I have, however, gotten a reply from the evidence room as to who examined the recording. There were a total of five people who examined it on the record. I'll give you the list when you come in tomorrow. Lastly, I've contacted the precinct again and arranged for another meeting with Hayes tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have his and Vell's records by then and can ask him some new questions.

“I think that's all I've got so far. Have a good evening and I'll see you tomorrow. Luke”

So, it seems like Hayes had been telling the truth. Someone had been trying to set him up, and he had had no intention of killing Vell that night. After all, if I had been in the room, I'm not sure I would've acted differently. Talking to someone I've only just met, who is armed, then the lights go out without warning, and then I hear a gunshot...I probably would've shot in that direction too. There was also the question of motive. Obviously, Hayes didn't really have one, but what was the motive of the person setting him up? Why did that person want Vell dead? What would result from it? I suppose the answer to that one would have to wait until tomorrow, when Luke found out who these two really were.

Part 3: Seeking Truth: Part 3