Chapter 31 #2
“On the stand, she said dark. Couldn’t remember if it was black or blue.”
“What does Everett say happened after he drove to Cait’s?”
“Upon arriving at her house, he found the front door ajar and was at first confused to find flowers strewn on the floor amidst shards from a broken vase. Then he found her in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. He called nine-one-one in a panic, and when the uniforms arrived a few minutes after his call, they found him distraught and cradling her body against him.”
“No blood spatter evidence on him?”
“None. But they argued he either covered it up by holding her body against him, or he changed. Thing is, there was no spatter in his hair or on the back of his shirt. Nowhere you’d normally find it if you kneeled over somebody and stabbed them over twenty times.”
“Hmm. I always assumed she was stabbed standing up, since she was fighting back.”
“The first few blows came while she was standing. But one struck her heart early on and she died instantly. Again, though, if Shane had killed her, there would’ve been spatter on his shoes at that point.
They know the other blows came after she fell, based on gouges in the wood floor from the tip of the knife.
As if some of the strikes missed or glanced off her body and hit the floor.
Prosecution introduced the possibility he changed his clothes, but no way could he have changed, showered—somewhere else since there was no water or blood in either of her bathrooms—discarded the items outside of her residence and returned in time to make the nine-one-one call. ”
“And no foreign DNA at the scene?”
“Only Shane’s, which tracks since he was there almost every day.
None of his DNA in blood, though, but also no blood found with anybody else’s.
I assert they missed it with there being so much of Caitlyn’s blood.
And there weren’t any cuts on Shane’s hand, so I believe they just didn’t try very hard to find foreign DNA.
I’m sure John would argue with that, protecting his brothers in blue, but I’ve seen this too often to not be cynical.
Police making a snap judgment. The body cams from the uniforms at the scene recorded them already referring to Shane as the killer.
“But I’ve never seen a stabbing with so many blows where the assailant didn’t cut himself. Blood is slippery, and once it’s covering the knife, it’s pretty much impossible to strike that hard and not have your hand slip down onto the blade.”
“Agreed. What was the story with the flowers, then? Are you thinking that’s how the killer got her to open the door?”
“Yes. The prosecution asserted he brought them with him, along with the card, she spurned him, and it enraged him. But none of the glass fragments had Shane’s fingerprints.
If he carried a vase of flowers into that house, his fingerprints would be somewhere.
But the only prints they found were Cait’s and the florist’s. ”
“I sincerely hope the defense hammered on that.”
“I wouldn’t say hammered, but they did a pretty decent job of pinning down the forensic expert into stating it was inconsistent with what they found on-scene.
Which was that Shane was bare-handed. But the prosecution then introduced the theory Shane had worn gloves, explaining how he left no fingerprints or cut his hand during the crime.
All conjecture since they could never produce the gloves. ”
She put her fingers to her chin. “I think that’s where I actually rolled my eyes, sitting there in court listening to that. I’m stunned the jury didn’t give more weight to the fingerprint and blood spatter evidence, but you never know what they’re going to give value to.”
“What do you think they valued more?”
“Judge Mulaney’s influence and providing the motive. And the flowers charged in Shane’s name with a card that said, my dearest Caitlyn, Please give me another chance. I can’t live without you. Yours forever, Shane.”
“Which, on its face, is condemning.”
“It is. But Shane told the uniforms, and later repeated many times in his interrogation, he never picked up any flowers. They checked the credit card he carried with him and verified there was no charge. However, after checking the florist’s records, they found there was apparently another card in his name. ”
“A card he didn’t have with him at the time he was picked up?”
“Right. And the flower purchase was the only transaction on that card. Which, again, his defense attorney didn’t bring to light.
Said he didn’t feel it was pertinent. The card was new.
In his opinion, it made sense there would be only one charge on it.
The jury never heard Shane didn’t have the card on him at the time of his arrest, and it wasn’t found in a search of his home.
The only thing tying him to it was his name, and the fact the statement was mailed to his home a couple of weeks later. ”
He sat back down in his chair. “You know what I find odd? If you order flowers to be picked up, why have the florist fill out the card with such a personal message? Give me a second chance? Who tells someone else to put that on a card?”
“Precisely. And it isn’t outside the scope of believability someone could have taken out a credit card in Shane’s name.”
“Happens all the time.”
She leaned in and crossed her arms on the table. “My frustration has been that nobody we’ve talked to, not even Shane, can think of one person who would want to harm Caitlyn. Much less kill her. But it struck me after we realized the creep is the one sending me the messages and calling …”
“The messages trying to warn you off this case.”
“Exactly.” She swallowed hard. “What if the creep is the guy? What if he killed Caitlyn?”
A big what if, but not without merit.
He folded his arms on the table and leaned toward her.
“Then maybe the question shouldn’t be who had it in for Caitlyn, but who had something against Shane.
Someone willing to murder the woman he loved and frame him for it.
That’s a lot of hate to want someone in prison for most of their remaining life.
Almost as if they wanted to punish him for something. ”
She sat up straight. “I never thought to ask him that. I’ve always wondered who would want to kill Cait, but I’ve never asked if anybody had anything against him.”
“Wouldn’t hurt to see what he says.” His eyes narrowed.
“Slight of face but bulky in build. In a suit. The creep could have disguised himself, like he’s been doing the past three weeks.
If he is the guy, he planned that whole thing down to a T, but then got messy in carrying out the actual murder.
Makes me wonder what happened to change up his plan. What made him so mad?”
She nodded. “Cait’s fingerprints were on the knife. Not where they would be if she were using it for its intended purpose—”
“But where they’d be if she was pointing it at someone.”
“Right. What if he had something else in mind? Something hands-off, like a gun. Or cleaner, like strangulation.”
“But Caitlyn grabbed the knife.”
“That’s my theory. The flowers were scattered in the living room. Maybe she threw them at him and made a run for it. Got as far as the kitchen and grabbed the only weapon she could find.”
“Then he took it from her.”
“And maybe she said something. Something that angered him. Cait was no shrinking violet. I could see her getting in his face, even if she was terrified.”
He rubbed his hand over the stubble on his chin. “That all fits.”
“Now, if we only had a name to go with all those faces.”
True that.
Suppressing a shudder, he said a quick prayer of gratitude that Drew Hudson had had the presence of mind to order protection on his daughter immediately following that failed grab. Otherwise, Riley may well have suffered the same fate as her friend.
A fate he wouldn’t—he couldn’t—let happen on his watch.