"You know, I was hoping to surprise you by pulling a rabbit out of my pocket, but I seem to have left all my magic tricks back at Caesars Palace."
The crowd in the courtroom tittered, as did several of the jurors. Gale's eyes twinkled.
He rubbed his graying goatee, then slowly let his eyes travel around the courtroom. Gale had a flair for creating suspense. It didn't really matter what the facts were. What mattered was who told the most convincing story to the jury. With his commanding size and talent for drama, Gale was a natural.
"I have been in this courtroom many, many times over the past few decades," he began softly. "We have had some very newsworthy trials take place here. But I don't recall ever seeing such a crowd and such intense interest in a trial before today. Why do you suppose that is?"
He let the jurors think for a moment.
"Because what we have here is a mystery. Everyone wants to know how the last chapter ends. A girl has vanished. What happened to her? Did someone do violence to her, or did she run away, like tens of thousands of unhappy teenagers do each year? If something did happen to her, what was it? And why? Was it really the fault of her stepfather, as the prosecutor contends? Or did one of the other people in Rachel's life, who had reason to be angry and jealous of her, let their emotions become violent? Or did a brutal serial killer, who is still at large in our city, claim another victim?"
Gale nodded thoughtfully.
"I'd like to promise that when we're done here, you'll know what happened to Rachel. But you won't. Because we don't know. Graeme Stoner doesn't know. And neither does Mr. Erickson. All you'll end up with is questions and doubts. But that's all right. You may want to find the truth yourself, but it isn't your job in this courtroom to pick an ending to a mystery story."
He cocked his head. "Yes, I know what you may be thinking. There he goes again. The magician. Isn't that what the prosecutor told you to watch out for? That I'd be twisting his nice little facts and trying to make you go off on some improbable flight of fancy? Well, no, I'm not asking you to take my word. The difference is that Mr. Erickson plans to show you some of the facts, and I want to make sure you see all of the facts. When you do, you'll realize that Graeme Stoner is innocent of the crime of murder, and you'll send a message to the police that they need to go back and find out what really happened to this strange, unhappy girl."
Gale leaned over and grabbed the railing of the jury box. "Mr. Erickson says you should pay attention to the evidence. I agree. I want you to watch the evidence closely, so you can see what the prosecution isn't telling you.
"They're not telling you that Graeme was in his van with Rachel on the night she disappeared. Because they have no evidence that he was.
"They're not telling you that the Stoners' van was at the barn on the night Rachel disappeared. Because they have no evidence that it was.
"They're not telling you that they know Rachel is dead. Because they don't.
"They're not telling you that they can prove Graeme Stoner was having sex with his stepdaughter. Because they can't.
"Instead, they want you to make a leap. They're going to give you little unrelated facts and stitch them together to try to make you believe what they can't prove. That's not evidence, circumstantial or otherwise. That's fiction. That's guesswork."
Stride felt his insides go soft. Bang bang bang, Gale was punching at the weaknesses in their case. Of course, he was right. They really couldn't prove any of those things. All they could do was lay out the pieces of the puzzle and hope the jury was smart enough to put it together.
"But there's more," Gale continued. "You'll also see that the prosecution, in its zeal to package a neat ending to the mystery, has ignored many other possible solutions. I'm afraid that Mr. Erickson is the kind of man who would find a lot of parts left over after he put his engine back together and conclude they must not be very important."
He winked at the jury, then grinned at Dan.
"Let's look at a few of those extra parts," Gale said. "Another teenage girl named Kerry McGrath, who lived within a couple miles of Rachel and who went to her school, disappeared the year before Rachel did. She, too, has never been found. The circumstances of her disappearance are remarkably similar to Rachel's. The police know that Graeme Stoner had nothing to do with Kerry McGrath's disappearance, and yet they ignore the grim possibility that a serial killer could be stalking the young girls of this city.
"Extra parts. On the night she disappeared, Rachel was behaving strangely. Why? Did she know something? Was she meeting someone? Was she planning to run away?
"Extra parts. Who else was with Rachel on the night she disappeared? Who else had reason to be happy if she vanished forever?
"Extra parts. What was the real source of Rachel's unhappiness? Was it her relationship with her stepfather? No. It was the miserable, bitter, violent relationship she had with her mother. Remember that word. Violent."
Stride glanced at Emily and saw a tear slip from her eye. She looked down at her lap, weeping silently.
Gale continued. "Questions and doubts. You'll have many at the end of the trial. But there will be no question, and no doubt in your minds, as to the right action for you to take. And that is to find my client not guilty of the crime of which he has been wrongfully accused."
Gale held the stares of the jurors for a few long seconds. Then he returned to the defense table and sat down.
Stride examined the jurors' faces. He figured it was a tie ball game heading into the first inning.
Batter up.
22
Stride took his place in the witness stand. He had done so hundreds of times before, so many that the chair felt familiar, as if he had worn an impression in it so it clung to his body. He made eye contact with the jurors.
Duluth jurors believed the police. He saw it in their eyes. This wasn't an urban jury pool, where the citizens felt the police were sometimes an enemy. He saw them studying his craggy features, the strands of gray in his dark hair and his sturdy physique, and concluding they could trust him.
Dan took him through introductions and allowed Stride to talk about his history on the force, his years of experience, his expertise on crimes and crime scenes. Only after the jury had gotten to know him did Dan begin to talk about Rachel. Stride explained how he had first been notified of the girl's disappearance and then, step by step, led the jury through a reconstruction of the evidence from Rachel's last night.
He described the bank video showing Rachel's car gliding by shortly after ten o'clock. Dan played the video for the jury. Then he held up a grainy, enlarged photograph, showing a girl's face behind the wheel. Despite the blurry image, everyone could see it was Rachel. She was smiling. She looked happy.
It was the last image, Dan reminded the jury, that anyone ever saw of Rachel Deese.
"Lieutenant, what is Rachel wearing in this photograph?"
"A white turtleneck," Stride said.
Dan returned to the prosecution's table and retrieved an exhibit-a receipt neatly packaged in a plastic bag. "Can you identify this item?"
Stride nodded. "It's a receipt found in a Gap bag found on the floor in Rachel's bedroom. We discovered it during our initial investigation."
"What is the receipt for?"
"It's for an item of clothing sold the Sunday prior to Rachel's disappearance. A white Gap-brand turtleneck."
"Did you find any white turtleneck during your search of Rachel's bedroom?"
"No, we did not."
Dan nodded thoughtfully. "Lieutenant, please tell us how you and your officers conducted a search for Rachel."
"We mounted an immediate and exhaustive statewide and region-wide search. My officers interviewed all neighbors within twelve blocks around the Stoner house. We checked the bus station, the airport, the train station, and all taxi companies in both Duluth and Superior. Throughout the state, police checked every service station and convenience store along the major highways, distributing Rachel's photograph and interviewing clerks. We posted a notice on our Web site and faxed information to police across the country. These efforts generated hundreds of leads, which were methodically researched by our officers and our fellow officers in other states. We had excellent photographs of Rachel to use with witnesses. We conducted literally thousands of interviews. Nonetheless, we did not receive a single verified sighting of Rachel after the videotape at the bank. Not one. Not anywhere."