“That would save me a lot of time and effort. It might also help Mr. Hawkins avoid the death penalty if he confesses and clarifies President Farrington’s role in his criminal enterprises.”
“Do you have any other evidence that leads you to believe that Mr. Hawkins is a modern-day Al Capone?”
“You bet, and I’ll give him a preview of our case so he can make a reasoned decision about cooperating. Of course, the investigation is ongoing, so we’ll get more evidence soon, but here’s some of what we have right now.”
“We’re all ears.”
Evans directed his words at Hawkins, who listened without expression.
“When Mr. Hawkins got out of the army, President Farrington was practicing law and having sex with a high school girl named Rhonda Pulaski. Pulaski was not only underage, she was also a client. If any of that ever came out you can imagine what would have happened to our commander in chief. He’d face prison and disbarment, not to mention a big fat civil suit. And those possibilities were looming on the horizon because Farrington had screwed Miss Pulaski in the back of a limousine driven by Tim Houston, a man who was so appalled by the president’s behavior that he went to the police.
“Mr. Hawkins owed the Farringtons a lot and he was extremely loyal. We think he made the problem go away by buying off the Pulaski family and killing Rhonda Pulaski and Houston.”
“Can you prove any of this?” Bischoff asked.
“We’re working on it.”
The lawyer returned the smile. “Why don’t you tell us about something you can prove?”
Evans ignored the taunt. “When Farrington was practicing law he had a secretary named Marsha Erickson, who had a daughter named Laurie. Farrington brought Marsha with him to the governor’s mansion when he was elected governor of Oregon. Laurie was in high school and was about the same age as Rhonda Pulaski. Farrington started noticing her, and not in a good way. Soon, he was coming on to her. Are you starting to see a pattern, Gary?”
“Go on,” Bischoff answered blandly.
“My pleasure. Eventually, Farrington had sex with Laurie. That’s when she became a threat to Farrington’s political future. One evening, the governor was scheduled to attend a fund-raiser at the Salem Library. Laurie was babysitting the governor’s son. Your client returned to the governor’s mansion on the pretext of getting some notes for the governor’s speech and murdered Laurie Erickson.
“A serial killer named Clarence Little was killing women in the Salem area at this time. Your client had access to police reports that detailed Little’s MO, and he made the murder look like Little’s work. Little was convicted of murdering Laurie and sentenced to death. We now have forensic and other evidence that strongly suggests that Little did not kill Laurie Erickson.
“Mr. Hawkins testified at Little’s trial that he was with Laurie around the time she went missing. By his own admission, he’s the last person who saw her alive. No one else was seen entering the grounds of the mansion after Mr. Hawkins left.”
“Is this man Little still on death row because of the Erickson case?” Bischoff asked.
“He is.”
“So, you have no proof that my client murdered Pulaski, and a jury found Little guilty of killing Erickson,” the attorney summed up.
“Yup.”
“You know, this would make a great movie-Mission Impossible XII say-but I’m more interested in hearing the type of evidence that would be admissible at a trial.”
“Okay, I’ll talk about a case I’m sure you’re familiar with. It’s the reason an independent counsel was created. Charlotte Walsh was a student at American University who was very attractive and about the same age as Laurie Erickson and Rhonda Pulaski were when Farrington was involved with them. Walsh was majoring in poli-sci, and she went to work at Farrington’s campaign headquarters. We think Farrington had your client bring Walsh to Chicago to convince her to become a spy in Senator Maureen Gaylord’s campaign. We think that the president had sex with Walsh in Chicago, but we know she quit the Farrington campaign when she came back to D.C. and promptly volunteered at Maureen Gaylord’s headquarters.
“On the night she was murdered, Walsh stole documents from Gaylord’s campaign headquarters and arranged to give them to the president at a farm in Virginia that the CIA uses as a safe house. Walsh was instructed to park in the lot at the Dulles Towne Center mall. A Secret Service agent picked her up and took her to the farm.
“Farrington was supposed to appear at a campaign fund-raiser in the Theodore Roosevelt Hotel, but he talked his wife into going in his place. Just before he was leaving the White House, the first lady told him she was pregnant. Farrington told Mr. Hawkins to go to the event with Dr. Farrington.”
Evans looked directly at Hawkins, who met his eye without flinching.
“You know Dale Perry, don’t you, Mr. Hawkins?”
Bischoff held up his hand and addressed his client. “Don’t answer that, Chuck.
“Mr. Evans, I instruct you to desist from asking Charles Hawkins, my client, any questions,” the lawyer said, making certain that the stenographer got the prohibition on the record. “If you want him to answer a question, please direct it to me first and I’ll advise him whether he should answer it.”
“That’s okay with me,” Evans answered, “but it doesn’t matter what your client says about his relationship with Perry. They were in the same class at Oregon State University. We have several witnesses who’ll confirm that Perry, Christopher Farrington, and your client were friends. After college, Mr. Hawkins went into the army and President Farrington went to law school in Oregon. Mr. Perry went to law school at the University of Chicago. After law school, he went to work for the Kendall, Barrett law firm.
“A client hired Dale Perry to make arrangements to have Miss Walsh followed. By hiring a lawyer, the client could use the attorney-client privilege to shield his identity. Perry hired Dana Cutler, who is a PI, to tail Walsh but didn’t tell her who she was working for. The client wanted pictures of everyone Walsh met, and he wanted Cutler to give him a running report when Walsh went somewhere or did something. To facilitate the reporting Perry bought two cell phones. He gave one to the client and one to Cutler. Cutler was ordered to leave voice messages when she had something to report.
“On the evening that Walsh was murdered, Cutler followed her to the Dulles Towne Center parking lot and reported the position of Walsh’s car in the lot. That means that the client was one of a small group of people who knew the exact location where Walsh would be after she left the farm. Cutler followed the Secret Service agent and Walsh to the farm where she met President Farrington. Cutler reported to the client when Walsh left the farm to return to the mall, but a guard spotted Cutler, and she couldn’t continue following Walsh.
“Dana Cutler hung on to the cell phone Dale Perry gave her. She also gave us the number she called to leave the voice mail messages for the client and she gave us the date and time she called the client with the information about the location of Walsh’s car. Once we had the client’s number we were able to identify the cell phone provider. The cell phone provider stored the voice mail messages from Ms. Cutler on a backup computer and gave them to us along with the time they were retrieved.
“When a person wants to retrieve voice mail messages that have been left on his cell phone he dials a remote voice mail retrieval number for the provider’s voice mail system from his cell phone. The system will ask the caller for a password. After the person punches in the password he’s given his messages. The cell phone provider was able to give us the mystery client’s remote voice mail retrieval number, but the provider did not have a record of telephone calls to the client’s voice mail system between the time Cutler left the message explaining where Walsh was parked and the time she was murdered. They had no record because there was bad reception that night. Bad reception is common, and it can be intermittent. In this case, the client couldn’t use his cell phone to call for his messages and he was forced to use a landline to retrieve them.