Tracy waved her hand. “No, not the witnesses or the case or the evidence or anything. I’m talking about before that even started. Judge Hendrick’s opening remarks-when he held up the newspapers and bawled Vaulding out about the headlines?”
“What about it?”
“I was watching you when it happened. Considering the prosecutor was getting himself reprimanded by the court, that should have been just fine. But you were not happy at all. And suddenly I knew why. It’s not the fact that Vaulding’s young or good or that all the evidence is going against you or your client’s lying to you or the whole bit-what really got to you was that Vaulding had reversed fields on you. He was the bad boy, pulling all the quasi-legal shit and pissing off the judge. Having the judge reprimanding him and protecting you was more than you could bear.”
Steve looked at her, grinned. “Tracy, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but what the hell has all this got to do with the gun?”
“It’s got everything to do with it. You’re happy now. Why? Because you’re about to switch guns and be the bad boy again.”
“That’s very interesting, Tracy. But as it happens, no one has asked for this gun. So I’m not switching it with anything. I’m merely locking it up in the safe.”
“In which there happens to be an identical gun, which happens to have fired the bullets you have there on your desk.”
“Well, isn’t that a coincidence?”
“I know it’s been some time,” Tracy said, “but aren’t there also duplicates of those bullets in your safe?”
“You could be right.”
“In addition to the third test bullet, fired from the gun Mark bought. The gun you carved the R in the handle and filed the serial number off of. The gun you gave to Timberlaine.” Tracy pointed to the gun on the desk. “The gun that is presumably that gun.”
“‘Presumably’ is well advised, Tracy,” Steve said. “After all, we have only Timberlaine’s word for the fact that he did switch guns.”
“Imagine if he didn’t,” Tracy said.
“Yeah? What then?” Steve said.
“Well, in that case,” Tracy said, “this gun is the gun Timberlaine bought. And the bullets from it won’t match anything. Not the bullets in court. Not the bullets in your test tubes. Nothing.
“In that case, the gun in court, the murder weapon, will be Mark Taylor’s gun. In which case, you would have a test bullet in your safe that would match absolutely with the fatal bullet, which was fired before the gun barrel was altered.”
“Right,” Steve said. “Unless Timberlaine switched guns on me before he came to my office.”
“There’s always that,” Tracy said.
“If so, what’s the situation then?”
“Well, then we have two more possibilities. One, when Timberlaine left the office he switched guns again. Or at least thought he did, since he didn’t know you’d switched guns with the one Mark Taylor bought. Anyway, in that case he’d switch guns again, switching Mark Taylor’s gun with the gun he originally found substituted. In that case, this gun, the gun he put in the safe-deposit box, would be Mark Taylor’s gun, and the gun in court would be the gun he originally found, from which you had never fired any test bullets. The gun you had fired test bullets from, the gun in your safe, would then be the gun Timberlaine bought.
“Same thing if he didn’t switch guns again. I mean about the gun he bought being in the safe. As to the other guns, if he didn’t switch back, then this gun here is the gun he found. Which we can’t prove, because no test bullets were ever fired from it. And in that case, the gun in court, the murder weapon, is Mark Taylor’s gun, and the test bullets in your safe will match it.”
“Right,” Steve said. “So that covers all the eventualities.” He ticked them off. “One, Timberlaine brings me the actual gun he found. I switch it for Taylor’s gun. Timberlaine switches it for the gun he bought. The gun he bought is the murder weapon in court, Taylor’s gun goes into the safe-deposit box and is therefore the gun on my desk, and the gun he found is the one in my safe.
“Two, Timberlaine brings me the gun he found, I switch it for Taylor’s gun, he doesn’t switch it, in which case Taylor’s gun is the murder weapon, and the gun he bought is this one and the gun he found is in my safe.
“Three, Timberlaine switches guns before and after coming to my office. In that case I have the gun he bought in my safe, he had Mark Taylor’s gun in his safe-deposit box, and the gun he found is the murder weapon.
“And four, Timberlaine switches guns only before coming to my office. I have the gun he bought in my safe, Mark Taylor’s gun is the murder weapon, and this is the gun he found substituted.”
Tracy exhaled, shook her head.
“Yeah,” Steve said. “Through all that, there is only one constant.”
“What’s that?”
He pointed to the bullets on the desk. “This bullet. The one marked RT-SUB. Whatever gun Timberlaine may have brought me, either the gun he bought or the gun he found substituted, whatever gun that was, this bullet came from it. That we know for sure. This bullet came from it, and therefore had absolutely nothing to do with the murder. Absolutely nothing to do with any of the exhibits in court. Because the gun it came from-whichever gun it is-is in my safe, and has been ever since Timberlaine first came to my office.”
Steve pointed. “So this bullet-which Vaulding has made such a big deal of and which I’ve been ordered to produce in court-is the one thing in this case that is utterly meaningless and has nothing to do with anything.”
Steve smiled. “So you talk about me being happy. If it weren’t for Timberlaine pressing me to turn over the gun, turning over these bullets would be an absolute pleasure. Because Vaulding’s going to choke on ’em. He’s gonna compare ’em and come up empty. Be left with egg on his face. And it will be all his own doing.”
“I can see you’re crying all over.”
Steve shrugged. “Hey, those are the breaks.”
There came a crash of the outer office door flying open and Mark Taylor burst into the room, wide-eyed and breathing hard.
“Shit’s hit the fan!” he gasped out.
“What the hell?” Steve said.
Taylor held up his hand, waved it while he caught his breath. “I just got a call. That reporter.”
Steve’s mouth dropped open. “Vaulding held another press conference?”
Taylor waved his hand. “No, no. Not him. Timberlaine.”
“Oh, good lord.”
“Right. He spilled the beans.”
“About what?”
“Everything. You name it, he said it. About testing the bullets. About buying the gun. Once he got started he just couldn’t stop.”
“Shit. What, specifically, did he say?”
“Well, first he confirms everything Walcott said. About finding the gun and bringing it to you and having the bullets tested. Then he confirms everything that other witness said. About buyin’ the other gun.”
“And grinding the number off and carving an R in the handle?”
“Yeah.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Hey, I don’t make the news, I just bring it.”
“Yeah, I know,” Steve said. “But what else? Did he say he switched guns and put the one I tested in a safe-deposit box?”
“Oh, sure.”
“Did he say he wrote me out a power of attorney and told me to get it?”
“Yeah. The way I hear it, he was really worked up over that.”
“Shit,” Steve said. “Then we haven’t much time.”
Taylor frowned. “Time? Time for what? I don’t want to-Say! Is that my gun?”
“Is what your gun? Oh, good lord!”
There came a sound from the outer office.
Steve whirled around as if at a gunshot, lowered his voice and barked out orders. “Someone’s here. Tracy, get out there and stall him. Mark, go with her, but whoever it is, just keep on going. If it’s the papers, no comment. If it’s the cops, same deal; if they hold you, I’ll be there. Now go.”