Denial by Beverley McLachlin

Author:Beverley McLachlin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25

FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, JEFF AND I are back in our boardroom.

“Okay,” I say. “Time to lay our case out. I’m not working tomorrow, neither are you. We need to salvage that much of our new rule.”

Jeff reaches for a pad of paper and a pen.

“Proposition Number One,” I say. “We go with Vera. Accept her thesis. She didn’t do it, and she has no idea who did. She slept through it all. It isn’t up to us to show she didn’t do it—the burden is on the Crown to show she did. Beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“Fine,” Jeff says. “But we need to give the jury at least the hint of someone else who could have done it—otherwise, the jury will never buy Vera’s innocence. That bugbear of defence lawyers—the rule in Hodge’s Case.”

“Agreed. Proposition Number Two—we throw out a rational explanation for Vera’s death that does not involve Vera.

“We call our window expert to establish that someone else could have got into the house that night,” I continue. “We cross-examine the security expert to establish that the alarm wouldn’t have gone off, once the motion detector had been deactivated. We point vaguely in the direction of people who could have killed Olivia but whom the police have not bothered to investigate. All we need is a suggestion that someone else could have killed Olivia Stanton. It’s not up to us to finger the person.”

“Unless we put a name on our alternate killer, it’s not likely to stick,” Jeff says glumly.

“True,” I concede. “Maria has an alibi—of sorts—a neighbour saw her come home and no one saw her go out after that. But more importantly, killing her boss would mean losing her job. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Joseph—if one could imagine why he might want to kill Olivia—has an iron-clad alibi. His home security cameras show him parking his car in front of his house around nine and no further movement until the morning, when he returned to it. No way he could have walked out either, without the cameras detecting it.”

“Elsie Baxter doesn’t have an alibi. She could have come back and performed the mercy killing Olivia had been asking for. But on the other hand, she had reason to hope that Olivia was going to change her will and leave a large donation to the Society for Dying with Dignity. Why would she kill Olivia before the will could be changed?”

Jeff drops the pen, slides the paper toward me. “None of the alternative hypotheses work, except Nicholas. And it’s too late for new theories—we’re on the eve of the trial.”

“It’s never too late,” I remind him. “Anything could come out at trial.” I draw a line under Jeff’s alternative hypotheticals. “But you’re right, Jeff. Right now, Nicholas is our only plausible alternative explanation.”

“Then we go with Nicholas,” says Jeff.

“Vera won’t let us push it in argument,” I say slowly, “but I suppose we can lay out all the pieces so the jury sees an alternative possibility. That’s all we need.

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