to submit in support of my motion to exclude the evidence of the
Zimmerman case.
When I reached the eighth floor, I went straight to O'Donnell's office.
Luckily he was still in.
"Thank God you're here. Did Alice tell you what's happening in Lesh's
courtroom?"
"Yeah. I figured you'd want to talk as soon as possible, so I told the
guys to go running without me."
I was glad enough not to hear him say I told you so. But missing an
opportunity to run on a sunny day in Portland is huge around the DA's
office, where running is essentially our religion. I suspect I got my
job more for my mile times than my educational pedigree. "Thanks. I
need the help. I know close to nothing about the Zimmerman case, and
Lopez is dumping it with no notice right in the middle of the Derringer
trial."
He looked at his watch. "Unfortunately, the Zimmerman case was pretty
fucked up, and this anonymous letter just makes it look worse. It'll
take awhile for you to get up to speed, and I don't have long."
A date, no doubt. Good to know the head of the major crimes unit had
his priorities straight. "Well, start by giving me what my detectives
can say and where they might be weak. The only good thing about Lopez
springing this thing on me is that she boxed herself in on witnesses.
She's basically got to get the defense in through my witnesses. I've
got Walker, Johnson, and Forbes. They were all involved in Zimmerman,
right?"
"Yeah. I can tell you right now that, if you've got a problem, it'll
be Forbes. Let me give you some background." He explained what I
already knew, that Forbes got involved in the case by happenstance when
Taylor's probation officer, Bernie Edwards, called him in to follow up
on Landry's reported suspicions.
He then filled in the details leading up to Landry's confession. "You
got to understand that when Edwards and Forbes went out to Landry's,
they were already pretty sure she was full of shit. It was basically a
CYA house visit in the event Landry actually knew something. It was
about a month after Zimmerman's body was found, and the Oregonian
printed a short Crime Watchers column with a picture of the vie and a
bare-bones description of the crime, asking people to call in if they
knew anything. Landry told Edwards and Forbes that she read it and
started thinking that maybe Taylor had something to do with the
murder.
"She said she remembered Taylor coming home drunk unusually late around
the time of the crime and taking a shower, which was not typical for
him at night. When she woke up in the morning, he was doing a load of
laundry already, which was also strange. She said that about a week
later she overheard Taylor talking on the phone, saying something about
how someone named Jamie had flipped out on him. She assumed Jamie was
a guy at the time, so didn't think too much of it. But, according to
her, she put all this together when she read the article and then
called Edwards."
I took a second to process the information. "Huh? Even if she was
telling the truth at that point, why would she connect Taylor to a
murder based on that?"
"I know. It didn't make sense to Edwards or Forbes either. They
shined her on a little bit and then left. But then Margaret figures
out that they're blowing her off, so she calls Edwards the next day and
tells him she was poking around in Taylor's stuff and found a matchbook
from Tommy Z's that said Jamie Z with a telephone number on it. Edwards
runs a reverse trace on the number and it comes back to Jamie
Zimmerman's mother's house."
"Did Jamie live with her mother?" I asked.
"As much as she lived anywhere for any substantial period of time, I
guess. Before she was killed, she'd been out of her mom's house for
about six months. Hey, I know what you're thinking, and, trust me,
Edwards and Forbes thought it too. They figured she looked the number
up in the book or something. But Jamie's mom had a different last name
I can't remember what it is now and the paper never printed it. That
phone number was a big piece of evidence for us down the road, when
Margaret was backing out of her confession. We looked at the case up
and down, and we just couldn't figure out how she could've come up with
that number other than through direct contact with Jamie."
"So what happened after Landry came forward with this name and phone
number?" I asked.
"Like I said, Edwards does the reverse trace and figures out it's
Jamie's mother's number. My recollection is that Forbes contacted MCT
at that point to let them know what he and Edwards had and to see
whether Margaret could've gotten the number from the paper somehow. The
case was getting cold, so MCT had cut the investigation down to one
team Johnson and Walker and they weren't working it very actively. In
any event, they decided the Landry lead was worth following up on, so
they went out and interviewed Taylor and confronted him with the Jamie
Z matchbook.
"Now, you got to understand, Jesse Taylor is an absolute freak. Tell
you the truth, I don't know how a guy like that even lives to be
thirty-five. Unless his whole presence is an act, the guy doesn't know
which end is up. Never knows what's going on. Talks in circles, non
sequiturs. Drinks himself into a blackout about every day. Basically
a gigantic human id."
"But a court found him competent for trial?"
"Don't they always?" O'Donnell's smirk was irritating, but I tolerated
it for the sake of the briefing. "So, when Walker and Johnson do the
interview, they assume Taylor's playing dumb, because they can't
imagine that someone's actually as stupid as this guy really is. Taylor
denies anything having to do with the murder. But then Walker and
Johnson confront him with the matchbook. He says that for all he
knows, he might've met Jamie Zimmerman and gotten her number. He can't
really say because he can't remember anything that happens from one day
to the next."
"Sounds like a real winner."
"Hey, who the hell else would be shacked up with some
sixty-five-year-old cow? Old Margaret's not exactly a looker." He
could tell from my stare that I didn't have time for this right now, so
he resumed his summary. "Based on Margaret's info and Taylor's
wishy-washy statement, we got a warrant for his house and his car."
"I thought you said he shared a house with Landry. She wouldn't just
consent to the search?"
I should've known not to let my guard down and ask a question of
O'Donnell. Predictably, he used it as a chance to belittle me and make
himself look knowledgeable. "You know how it goes," he said, even
though I obviously didn't. "Court says a roommate can only consent to
a search of the parts of the house they actually share. You and I know