"No, sir."
"What was the result of your case?"
"I was convicted and sentenced to death."
"Where did you spend the next two years?"
"On death row at the Oregon State Penitentiary."
"Why aren't you still on death row?"
"The Oregon Supreme Court threw out my case."
"It reversed your conviction?"
"Right."
"And the Multnomah County district attorney's office elected not to retry you?"
"Yes."
"Shortly after your release from prison, did the defendant contact you?"
Geddes asked.
"Yes, sir. She sure did."
"Did that surprise you?"
Deems laughed and shook his head in wonder. "I would have been less surprised if it was the President." The jury laughed.
"Why were you surprised?" Geddes asked.
"When a woman spends a year of her life trying to get you executed, you start to think she might not like you."
Deems smiled at the jury and a few jurors smiled back.
"Tell the jury about the conversation."
"Okay. As I recollect, she asked me how it felt to be off death row. I said it felt just fine. Then she asked how I was fixed for money. I asked her why she wanted to know. That's when she said she had a business proposition for me."
"What did you think she had in mind?"
"I knew she didn't want me to mow her lawn."
The jurors and spectators laughed again. Tracy could see them warming to Charlie Deems and it worried her. She glanced at Reynolds, but he seemed completely unperturbed by Deems's testimony. Tracy marveled at the way he kept his cool.
"Did you ask the defendant what she wanted?" Geddes continued.
"I did, but she said she didn't want to discuss it over the phone."
"Did you agree to meet the defendant?"
"Yes, sir."
"Why?"
"Curiosity. And, of course, money. I was dead broke when I got off the row and she implied there was a lot of money to be made."
"Where did you meet?"
"She wanted me to come to a cabin on the coast. She gave me directions."
"Do you remember the date?"
"I believe it was Friday, August twelfth."
Abbie leaned toward Reynolds. She was upset and Tracy heard her whisper, "These are all lies. I never called him and we never met at the cabin."
"Don't worry," Tracy heard Reynolds say. "Let him hang himself."
"What happened when you arrived at the cabin?" Geddes asked.
"Mrs. Griffen was waiting for me. There were some chairs on the porch, but she wanted to sit inside, so no one would see us.
"At first she just made small talk. How was I getting by, did I have any jobs lined up? She seemed real nervous, so I just went along with her, even though it didn't make any sense."
"What do you mean?"
"I knew damn well she wasn't concerned about my welfare.
Hell, the woman tried to get me lethally injected. But I figured she'd get to it soon enough."
"And did she?"
"Yes, sir. After we'd been talking a while, Mrs. Griffen told me she was real unhappy with her husband and wanted a divorce.
But there was a problem. She was very rich. Justice Griffen's divorce lawyer was asking for a lot of money and she was afraid the court would give it to him. I asked her what that had to do with me. That's when she led me out back of the cabin and showed me the dynamite."
"Where was this dynamite?"
"In a toolshed behind the house."
"Describe the shed and its contents."
"It's been a while and I only looked in a minute, but it seems like the shed was made out of weathered gray timber. The dynamite was in a box on the floor. I know there were some gardening tools in the shed, but I can't remember what kind."
"What did Mrs. Griffen say to you when she showed you the dynamite?"
"She said she knew I was good with explosives and wanted to know if I could use the dynamite to kill her husband. She told me she had a workshop in her garage and I could make the bomb there. She also said no one would suspect us of working together since she was the one who prosecuted me."
"What did you tell her?"
"I told her she'd made a big mistake. I said I didn't know anything about making bombs and that I hadn't killed any of the people she thought I'd killed. But even if I had, I wasn't going to kill the guy who was responsible for taking me off death row.
Especially when that guy was a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.
You'd have to be an idiot. I mean, every cop in the state would be hunting you down if you killed someone important like that and they'd never give up."
"What did the defendant say to that?"
"She offered me fifty thousand dollars. She told me I was smart and could figure out how to do it without being caught."
"How did you respond?"
"I said I wasn't going to do it."
"What did the defendant say then?"
"She got real quiet. I'd seen her in court like that. It made me a little nervous. Then she said she was sorry she'd troubled me. I didn't want to hang around any more than I had to, so I took off."
"Did you go to the police after you left?"
"Are you kidding? She warned me about that. She said no one would believe me if I accused her, because the cops still thought I killed that kid and her father. She also said she'd have dope planted on me and send me away forever if she even heard I was in spitting distance of a police station or the DA's office."
"Was that the last time you had any contact with Mrs. Griffen?"
"Yes, sir."
"Despite her warning, you did come to the district attorney and explain what happened."
"Yes, sir."
"Why did you come forward?"
"Self-preservation. As soon as the judge was blown up, I knew she was trying to frame me. Hell, she did it once with that phony confession, and the newspapers said the bomb was similar to the one that killed Hollins and his kid. Then I heard the cops were looking for me. I figured my only chance was to go to the DA and hope he'd believe me."
"No further questions."
Deems had stared at Reynolds frequently during his testimony, growing frustrated when Matthew refused to pay any attention to him. The slight had been intentional. Matthew wanted Deems angry and combative.
"Did you know a man named Harold Shoe, Mr. Deems?"
Matthew asked.
"Yeah, I knew Shoe."
"Was he a drug dealer?"
"So they said."
"Did 'they' also say he was a rival of yours in the drug trade?"
"I don't know everything people said about Shoe."
"Did you know that Mr. Shoe was tortured to death?"
"I heard that."
"Did you also hear that Larry Hollins was prepared to identify you as the man he saw putting Mr. Shoe's body in a Dumpster?"
"My lawyer told me that after Hollins was killed. That's the first I knew of it."
"While you were awaiting trial for the murder of Larry Hollins and Jessica Hollins, his nine-year-old daughter, did you have a cellmate named Benjamin Rice?"
"Yeah. The cops planted him in my cell."
"Did you tell Benjamin Rice that Shoe was 'a worthless piece of shit who couldn't even die like a man'?"
"I never said that. Rice made that up."
"Did you tell Mr. Rice that it was 'tough that the kid had to die, but that's the risk a snitch takes'?"
"I never said that either."
Tracy cast a quick look at the jurors. They no longer looked amused by Charlie Deems.
"What time of day did you meet with Mrs. Griffen at the coast?"
"Late afternoon."
"Can you be more specific?"
"She said to come out around four."
"The sun was still shining?"
"Right."
"And this meeting was arranged during the phone call you received from Mrs. Griffen?"
"Right."
"Where were you when you received the call?"