Sam Kincaid 01 - The Commission

inmates. Knowing that it would be extremely time-consuming to interview all of them, I narrowed the search by removing those not currently serving sentences for forgery. That reduced the size of the list by more than half. I then scanned the remaining prisoners, focusing on prior criminal history. I was searching for inmates who appeared to be skilled forgers and those for whom forgery was their primary criminal occupation. This allowed me to further narrow the list so we could begin by interviewing the most promising suspects.
    The task looked daunting. It was conceivable that we might have to interview all of them. If that were the case, I’d have to call in reinforcements. At least by starting with the most likely candidates, we might get lucky.
    Patti informed me that Kate had just cleared security and was on her way to my office. I used the brief interlude and called Aunt June to explain that I wouldn’t be home in time for dinner. I talked briefly with Sara, and told her that reading a bedtime story would have to wait until another evening. She wasn’t happy. I glanced up just as Kate entered my office, closing the door behind her.
    She looked tired, like maybe she hadn’t slept much the night before. No surprise.
    “Hi, Kate. How are you?”
    “I’ve had better days. How about you?”
    “Okay, I guess. Look, I know I’ve said this before, but I had no business dropping by your place unannounced yesterday.”
    “No big deal. Well, on second thought, it was a big deal. But I didn’t come out here so you would have to apologize again. After you left, I leveled with Tom. I told him that our relationship had become personal and that I thought there might be some chemistry between us.”
    “Ah, shit,” I said. “How’d he take it?”
    “Pretty hard, I’m afraid. We agreed to break things off for a while until we both have a chance to think things over. I take full responsibility for what happened.”
    “I’m sorry for the problem this has caused you and Tom, but I don’t have any regrets about what happened between us. I wanted to be there. It felt right to me. And I haven’t felt that way about anybody since my divorce. I hope I didn’t ruin it. I’d like to believe that when things finally settle down, we can see each other. I know you and Tom have issues, and I’ll stay out of the way. And God knows, in the meantime, we’ve got plenty of work to do. And speaking of work, do I have news for you.”
    I filled her in on the news regarding Allred. It piqued her interest sufficiently to offer additional personnel for the surveillance. Burnham would be happy to hear this, I thought.
    “Since you’re here, I might as well put you to work.” I showed her the list of forgery inmates requiring interviews. “Any ideas about how we approach the people on this list?”
    She considered this. “Well, we need their cooperation, and since time is of the essence, how about using an electric cattle prod?”
    I laughed. “I can see you haven’t lost your sense of humor. That approach would make you the instant poster girl for every jailhouse lawyer we have in the system, not to mention the American Civil Liberties Union. Next idea?”
    “Seriously, I think we need to stress the possible danger the forger is in, and offer protection in exchange for their cooperation.”
    “I think that’s the right approach, but I think we need to consider offering an additional carrot,” I said. “I’m afraid that appealing to their sense of potential danger by itself won’t provide sufficient motivation for them to cooperate. These guys live in a dangerous environment to begin with, and they’re smart enough to understand that if the word gets out that they snitched somebody off, they’re as good as dead.”
    “So what do you propose?”
    “I think we should offer to make a positive recommendation to the parole board—something that might shorten their prison sentence. We could also arrange a transfer out of this prison to a different facility. And what about offering immunity from prosecution?”
    “I’m okay with all of it except the immunity offer. We’ll have to get the approval of the D.A.’s office on that one. I’ll speak with Tom about it.”
    ***
    A prison inmate turned snitch almost always made a lousy witness in court. Defense attorneys love to get them on cross because it’s easy to destroy their credibility. By the time an experienced defense attorney reveals the inmate’s prior