Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
Amanda and Trent had left the Mannings’ farm before Crime Scene had arrived.
On the drive back to Central, Amanda left a message for CSI Blair, desperate for updates on forensic findings and ballistics.
A quick follow-up text she’d sent to Briggs hadn’t netted a response, and she was starting to obsess.
Why was it so much to hope everything would fall into place against Hernandez sooner rather than later?
After all, that man deserved to be locked up for the rest of his life.
“The only reason Hernandez left them alive is because he’s sadistic.
He wanted them to suffer even more than they already had. ”
“On the upside, we found them alive. It will take time, but they will heal and move forward. At least they have that chance.”
“It won’t be easy, though.” A knot in her chest had her closing her mouth.
Just like it wouldn’t be for Zoe. Just like it hadn’t been for Amanda.
Grief was twisted and sadistic too, making one think the worst of it was over, then boom it resurfaced with a vengeance.
But it was best not to dwell on this. It didn’t get them any closer to getting Hernandez off the streets.
Nor did it tie up another lingering question.
If they could answer that, it might accomplish the former.
“I want to know the name of the judge who dismissed Abigail’s witness statement all those years ago.
Presumably, Hernandez paid them off. This judge might have something to incriminate him.
We find this judge, have a conversation with them, sway them to talk out against Hernandez. ”
“Except you mentioned a key point. Paid off. And for a judge to be bought, Hernandez must hold something on him or her too. They’d have something to lose if they spoke out, aside from their life.”
If this week confirmed anything, it was that Hernandez killed anyone he perceived as a threat against him.
He also had a long memory. But something Trent said sparked an idea.
“What if we used that to our advantage? We find out what this judge is hiding, what made them vulnerable to a bribe, and they’ll have nothing left to protect. ”
“One, we’d have to figure out what that was, and two, what do you suggest we do with that information? Blackmail the judge?” Trent looked over at her, brows raised.
When he puts it like that… “I don’t know then. What do you suggest?”
“I’m with you in that we can’t ignore the judge angle altogether. Why did they dismiss Abigail’s testimony? It’s not like Marshal Holden provided any clarity on the matter. And it obviously seemed credible enough in the beginning or she wouldn’t have been taken into WITSEC.”
She was the first to get out of the car when Trent parked in the lot at Central, and she hustled to her cubicle.
Sitting at her desk, she rolled her chair in and searched the court docket, or case management system.
She could have looked before, but finding the Archers took priority.
But now that this judge could be the same one holding up the search warrant for Hernandez’s residence, delaying justice, it flew to the top of the list.
She found the case number against Hernandez associated with the fatal raid on his warehouse. When she saw the name of the judge assigned the case, her breath froze. This judge was a man she respected, who she and Trent had as their first choice of contact for securing warrants.
“Amanda?” Trent looked at her, then her screen. “Shit. Judge Gene Anderson.”
“Looks like.” There must be some mistake…
“Why did he dismiss Abigail’s testimony?”
She shook aside the feelings of betrayal, for the moment, focused. “Hernandez’s attorney, Wilson Duran, who we’ve met, filed a motion to suppress on Abigail’s testimony being nothing but an assumption.”
“But she was there. She overheard him.”
“Enough of this.” She pulled out her call history and selected the number for the US marshal, putting her phone on speaker.
“Deputy Marshal Holden,” he answered.
“We found Valerie and Brooke Archer.”
“You did? That’s great.”
He didn’t make it sound great. If anything, he came across as both surprised and disappointed by the news. “That was the outcome we were hoping for.”
“Yes, of course. Where were they?”
Amanda told him.
“Well, that’s quite the investigative work.”
Her insides set ablaze with rage. She didn’t need praise from him, nor did she welcome it.
There was something off about the marshal.
In retrospect, there might have been from the moment he’d shown up tight-lipped and interested in Abigail.
“Trent and I looked up who dismissed Abigail’s testimony against Hernandez eight years ago. ”
“You said Abigail heard Hernandez tell someone to kill them all,” Trent put in.
“Sure, but there was no context.”
“It was during the time of the raid on his warehouse,” Amanda kicked back.
“I know none of it seems to make sense, but he was right to dismiss the testimony.”
“You thought Abigail’s statement had value when you admitted her to WITSEC,” she said, an accusation enclosed in her statement. If it wasn’t for the marshal service lining her up as a key witness, she might still be alive.
“As fun as this has been, I really need to get going.”
“Where?”
“Back to Texas.”
“Was it Judge Anderson who you approached for a search warrant on Hernandez’s residence?” She choked on the judge’s name, though she longed to believe there was an innocent alternative to him being corrupt.
“I’ve gotta go.” With that, he hung up.
“Safe travels,” she said sarcastically to an empty line.
“Anderson? Holy hell,” Trent said.
“Yeah, so I take it he lied to us and returned to Anderson, probably knowing that he’d reject the search warrant on Hernandez’s home.”
“Which we’re assuming, but he approved the one for his rural property. If he is paid to protect Hernandez, why do that?”
“He didn’t figure he had a choice without drawing attention to himself.” She hated she came up with that answer so fast. “The evidence against Hernandez was strong.” She checked the system and confirmed the record showed the search warrant was requested of Anderson. She didn’t want to believe it.
“All right, backing up a bit here,” Trent began. “If Holden went to Anderson knowing he’d reject the second search warrant, why go to him?”
“I’m telling you, there’s something off about Deputy Holden. Think about it. Holden shows up, gives us nothing about Abigail, when he could have spoken up days ago and saved her life.”
“And why did Holden sound so surprised we found Valerie and Brooke Archer alive?”
“And why was he in such a hurry to get off the phone? Is Holden dirty? He could have expected that Anderson would deny the search warrant for Hernandez’s Haymarket house.”
“And if he is dirty, he only turned up in Woodbridge to see if we knew where she was, so he could pass the information along to Hernandez.”
“Nothing much would surprise me at this point.” Not after Anderson…
“Unfortunately, we don’t have anything more than our suspicions here. And it still leaves us at a dead end with getting that search warrant on Hernandez’s residence.”
“Trust me, I’m well aware. We just need fresh evidence.”
“Yeah, that’s all.”
“And Deputy Holden needs to be investigated.” She called Malone and ran him through everything.
“I hope you’re wrong about all of this,” he said.
“That makes both of us.” Even more so about Anderson…
“Well, I’ll reach out to the director of the US Marshals Service. Let him handle Holden. It’s his house to clean up.”
“That’s all you’re going to do? Just pass this along?”
“You know how things work, Steele. We just need to trust that Deputy Holden will be held accountable if he is corrupt.”
Do we need to trust? She knew despite the best of intentions, sometimes there wasn’t justice. “And Judge Anderson?”
“You don’t accuse a judge of wrongdoing without having a solid case to back it up. And from what you’ve told me, his reasoning for turning down Abigail’s testimony doesn’t completely flag for me. You know the man. He’s respectable. He must have seen room for reasonable doubt.”
“The entire case against him hinged on her testimony. And Hernandez’s phone records would have proved he was on a call with one of his men at the time Abigail heard him telling him to ‘kill them all.’” She paused, chilled by another thought, then said, “Access to them would have been authorized, surely. That was the day of the raid.”
“From what I remember, yes, it was a full-blown war between the PWCPD and Hernandez and his organization.”
“Then…”
“Amanda, all I’m asking is that you keep an open mind unless you can prove Anderson is dirty.”
“He denied the search warrant for Hernandez’s residence. It should have been straightforward,” she argued.
“Amanda.”
“Fine. I’ll let it sit for now.” Her entire being soured, and she ended the call.
“Don’t hate me for agreeing with Malone, but there is a small possibility that Judge Anderson made his decision based on information we don’t have,” Trent said.
“How I’d love to believe that.” Her phone rang, and it was CSI Blair. “Detective Steele,” she answered on speaker.
“Isabelle and I are still processing the well, and we’ll be going to the hospital for their clothing to check for any particulates that might lock up this case. Though I’m sure Valerie Archer is all too happy to testify.”
“Not exactly,” Amanda said and told her how that had gone.
“Huh. Well, I guess we need to do our jobs more than ever then. I have a couple of updates for you. I received a call from a lab tech. The bullet fragments taken from Abigail McGee were from a forty-five-caliber round.”
“Which Rideout told us,” Amanda said, disappointed if that was all Blair had to share.
“Right, well the ballistics isn’t giving us anything else to narrow things down, unfortunately.”
Amanda turned to Trent. “He must have used a different gun than he was accused of using in a past trial.”
“What trial?” Blair asked, and Amanda filled her in.
“Can’t say the accusations against this guy surprise me, but moving on…
The blood from the basement in Hernandez’s rural property puts Paul Archer and Abigail McGee there.
Other forensic trace ties to Valerie and Brooke Archer.
This should give you more than enough to throw Hernandez in jail for life. ”
Amanda wished she could believe that. But the man’s record of getting off scot-free destabilized her faith.
If anyone else had a body found on their land, with a connection to the victim, they’d have been charged with murder already.
Meanwhile Hernandez was walking free. “We’ll get there. We can only hope.”
“You’ll do it,” Blair encouraged her.
“I was curious about that blue piece of fabric you found near Paul Archer’s body. Anything more on that?” Amanda asked.
“It wasn’t anything special. Light cotton.”
Not exactly Christmas… “Okay.”
“Chin up.” With that, Blair ended the call.
Trent looked over at her. “That should be enough for a warrant.”
She was about to point out that Hernandez walked when a dead body was found on his property. What had changed? The only difference was the violence was indicated in the house itself. Her phone rang again, and she answered at the sight of Briggs’s name and put him on speaker.
“We’ve got him, Amanda. Hernandez isn’t going to get off this time.”
Tingles ran through her entire body. “Tell me you found some valuable video.”
“Oh yeah. It shows him, Nina, and another man, leading Abigail out of the house toward the back of the barn. I assume that’s where she was shot?”
“Jacob, you have no idea what you’ve just done. Forward that video to me. Trent and I will be getting a few warrants, including one to arrest Hernandez, thanks to you.”
“I’m sure I can’t take all the credit. Well, I’m heading home. I’m whipped.”
“I bet.”
The email from Briggs followed the end of his call by a few seconds. His message summarized the timestamp was from Thursday at 11:13 AM. Amanda clicked on the video and watched it play with Trent standing over her shoulder.
When it finished, she said, “Now, we have enough to nail him.”