Defiance County by Jay Brandon

Author:Jay Brandon [BRANDON, JAY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-12-14T22:00:00+00:00

11

It already seemed late in the day when Kelsey called her second police witness. It was a surprise to remember that this was still the first day of trial. She was already getting into the heart of her case.

Sgt. John Zuniga was the fingerprint examiner for the Galilee police and a general evidence technician. His testimony was going to be about guns—not Kelsey’s field of expertise, as she had never fired one. She had practiced holding one, though, so that she could do this: walk up to the witness, pick up the pistol from the railing in front of him, and hold it casually, not betraying the shock it was to pick the thing up, the impression it made all the way up Kelsey’s arm.

“This is the gun you examined, Sergeant Zuniga?”

“Yes, it is.” Zuniga was shy of forty by a year or two. He had curly black hair and a mouth made for smiling. The breadth of his shoulders and chest were rather out of keeping with the relative fineness of his features. Zuniga sat unmoving on the witness stand, watching Kelsey carefully.

“Could you describe this for the jury, please?”

He said briskly, “It’s a thirty-eight-caliber semiautomatic handgun.”

“Semiautomatic? You mean it can fire a lot of shots at once?”

“No, ma’am, it just means there’s not a hammer you have to cock in order to fire it You just pull the trigger. It still only fires once each time you pull the trigger.”

Kelsey continued to study the gun as she asked questions about it She wanted the jurors’ attention fastened on that weapon. She was not pretending her own fascination. The gun was heavier than she had expected. No one could wave it around casually or forget that he was holding it. Its weight announced its purpose.

The gun was hungry. Kelsey could feel creeping up her arm and shoulder the desire to aim and fire it. The gun only had one purpose. Holding it she could feel that purpose.

“How did you come into possession of this gun, Sergeant Zuniga?”

“Officer Dial brought it to me.”

James Dial had already testified to finding this gun close to Ronald Blystone’s hand. It was the murder weapon.

“Did you ttr to obtain fingerprints from it?”

“Yes, I lifted three sets of prints.”

“From the grip?” Kelsey offered him the gun and felt relief and loss when Zuniga took it from her and held it easily in his large, thin-fingered hand.

“No, ma’am. You see this grip? It’s plastic, with a very rough surface. This textured pattern. It’s good for gripping, but terrible for retaining a usable fingerprint I need a smooth surface to lift a print”

“Where did you find a good surface?”

“Under here.” He indicated the front of the grip, which was steel, unadorned by the plastic plates on the sides of the grip. “And two here on the barrel.”

“None on the trigger?”

“No, it’s too thin. I need a certain amount of flat surface to retain a whole print, one large enough to compare. This trigger is just too small.”

Kelsey took the gun back from her witness.

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