Chapter Five
While Oscar Vanderlasky was dealing with Ian Mowry, Muriel Lujack returned to the Multnomah County district attorney’s office.
Muriel had been co-counseling the Post case because she had just been promoted to the unit that prosecuted felonies.
Vanderlasky was supposed to be mentoring her, but very little mentoring had gone on.
Vanderlasky’s answers to her questions were terse and not that useful, and he resented any suggestions she made, especially when she’d pointed out the problem with the lamp.
Muriel was reading a file in a case she was going to try on her own when Vanderlasky stormed into her cubicle.
“Why did you run away when that idiot got on me?” he demanded.
“I thought you could handle him without my help.”
“Well, I definitely didn’t get much help from you during that fiasco.”
Anyone who had been berated by nuns for twelve years was difficult to intimidate. “I told you that you should’ve dismissed the case as soon as I read the police reports and talked to the cops who were at the scene. They thought you were going after the wrong person.”
“Yeah, well, I disagree. Post was guilty, but that bitch Wyatt twisted everything around.”
“She didn’t have to. I told you about the unplugged lamp. And why do you have it in for Karen Wyatt after what she went through?”
“She got what she deserved for undermining this office and the police force.”
“You’re kidding, right? She was framed, spent a year in prison, and lost her license to practice law. No one deserves that.”
Vanderlasky realized that he didn’t have a good comeback to Lujack’s point, so he switched gears.
“This isn’t about Wyatt. This is about you not supporting me at the trial and bugging out when that asshole Mowry started in on me.
I decided to prosecute Post. That’s all you needed to know. I needed to know that you had my back.”
Vanderlasky turned on his heels and walked away. Muriel decided that Ian Mowry hadn’t been the only asshole in the courtroom that day.
An hour after Vanderlasky stomped out of her office, Muriel was summoned to the office of Ellen Kaufman, the chief criminal deputy.
Kaufman was a shade over six feet with long, black hair and a muscular build.
Kaufman had never married, and she lived alone on a sailboat that she took out any chance she got.
Her skin was tanned and weathered by the sun that beat down on her when she was on the water.
Kaufman had been raised by a single parent in a crime-ridden neighborhood. After working her way through college, she’d joined the police force and had been on a SWAT team when she graduated from law school, which she had attended at night.
“Shut the door and take a seat,” Kaufman said when Muriel entered her office.
Kaufman’s summons had made Muriel nervous, and the chief criminal deputy’s serious tone did nothing to ease her tension.
“I just finished a postmortem on the Post case with Oscar,” Kaufman said. “He had some uncomplimentary things to say about you.”
The piercing blue eyes she aimed at Muriel were intimidating, but Muriel met Kaufman’s stare and did not flinch.
“Did he have an explanation for the not guilty verdict?” Muriel asked.
“He did.”
“I bet he didn’t talk about the lamp.”
Kaufman looked confused. “What lamp?”
“The one I tried to tell him would kill our case. Do you know the facts in Post?”
“Why don’t you tell them to me.”
Muriel told Kaufman about the photographs of Laurie Post that showed her injuries and the importance of the lamp. She also mentioned that the arresting officers thought that they might have arrested the wrong person.
“Thank you for filling me in,” Kaufman said when Muriel finished. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
“Am I in trouble?” Muriel asked.
“Absolutely not. By the way, every other person I’ve talked to has given you high marks. You have your first solo felony prosecution tomorrow, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then I think you should be prepping. Good luck.”
Muriel waited until she shut the door to Kaufman’s office before taking a deep breath.