The Lincoln Lawyer

Detective Booker. Just try to answer the question I ask.”
    “I was.”
    “If you looked for no other explanation because you believed the word of Ms. Campo, is it safe to say that this whole case relies upon her word and what she said occurred in her apartment on the night of March sixth?”
    Booker deliberated a moment. He knew I was leading him into a trap of his own words. As the saying goes, there is no trap so deadly as the one you set for yourself.
    “It’s not just her word,” he said after thinking he saw a way out. “There is physical evidence. The knife. Her injuries. More than just her word on this.”
    He nodded affirmatively.
    “But doesn’t the state’s explanation for her injuries and the other evidence begin with her telling of what happened?”
    “You could say that, yes,” he said reluctantly.
    “She is the tree on which all of these fruits grow, is she not?”
    “I probably wouldn’t use those words.”
    “Then what words would you use, Detective?”
    I had him now. Booker was literally squirming in his seat. Minton stood up and objected, saying I was badgering the witness. It must have been something he had seen on TV or in a movie. He was told to sit down by the judge.
    “You can answer the question, Detective,” the judge said.
    “What was the question?” Booker asked, trying to buy some time.
    “You disagreed with me when I characterized Ms. Campo as the tree from which all the evidence in the case grows,” I said. “If I am wrong, how would you describe her position in this case?”
    Booker raised his hands in a quick gesture of surrender.
    “She’s the victim! Of course she’s important because she told us what happened. We have to rely on her to set the course of the investigation.”
    “You rely on her for quite a bit in this case, don’t you? Victim and chief witness against the defendant, correct?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Who else saw the defendant attack Ms. Campo?”
    “Nobody else.”
    I nodded, to underline the answer for the jury. I looked over and exchanged eye contact with those in the front row.
    “Okay, Detective,” I said. “I want to ask you about Charles Talbot now. How did you find out about this man?”
    “Uh, the prosecutor, Mr. Minton, told me to find him.”
    “And do you know how Mr. Minton came to know about his existence?”
    “I believe you were the one who informed him. You had a videotape from a bar that showed him with the victim a couple hours before the attack.”
    I knew this could be the point to introduce the video but I wanted to wait on that. I wanted the victim on the stand when I showed the tape to the jury.
    “And up until that point you didn’t think it was important to find this man?”
    “No, I just didn’t know about him.”
    “So when you finally did know about Talbot and you located him, did you have his left hand examined to determine if he had any injuries that could have been sustained while punching someone repeatedly in the face?”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    “Is that because you were confident in your choice of Mr. Roulet as the person who punched Regina Campo?”
    “It wasn’t a choice. It was where the investigation led. I didn’t locate Charles Talbot until more than two weeks after the crime occurred.”
    “So what you are saying is that if he’d had injuries, they would have been healed by then, correct?”
    “I’m no expert on it but that was my thinking, yes.”
    “So you never looked at his hand, did you?”
    “Not specifically, no.”
    “Did you question any coworkers of Mr. Talbot about whether they saw bruising or other injuries on his hand around the time of the crime?”
    “No, I did not.”
    “So you never really looked beyond Mr. Roulet, did you?”
    “That is wrong. I come into every case with an open mind. But Roulet was there and in custody from the start. The victim identified him as her attacker. He was obviously a focus.”
    “Was he
a
focus or
the
focus, Detective Booker?”
    “He was both. At first he was
a
focus and later-after we found his initials on the weapon that had been held to Reggie Campo’s throat-he became
the
focus, you could say.”
    “How do you know that knife was held to Ms. Campo’s throat?”
    “Because she told us and she had the puncture wound to show for it.”
    “Are you saying there was some sort of forensic analysis that matched the knife to the wound on her neck?”
    “No, that was impossible.”
    “So again we have Ms. Campo’s