21st Birthday by Patterson, James (mystery books to read txt) 📗

“But the killer is not on trial.

“The murderer is a serial killer who is still at large. If Ms. Castellano had him in the dock she’d be telling a different story. She would say that this killer has been sought by the FBI for decades. That he is a psychopathic killer. That he was the subject of a manhunt for killing his own wife and daughter, as well as many other innocent young women.

“And the person he hates most in the world is my client.

“His vanity is at stake. His narcissism is in a fury. He may have other reasons for his actions, but we can’t begin to understand a man like this. Top law enforcement have sought him for decades, always missed catching him by a hair that he has never left behind. He has military training. He’s adept at killing by hand.”

Gardner paused to look around at the spectators and swung back to face the jurors.

“In the last twenty years or so, this murderer has been known by many names: the Ghost of Catalina. Quicksilver, for the liquid metal we call mercury. You can’t grab mercury. It slips out of your hands. The killer has had other names but the most powerful one, that one that will grab your heart and squeeze it, is the name my client has called him his whole life.

“Lucas has called him ‘Dad.’”

There was a lengthy rolling gasp throughout the courtroom. Cindy took it all in, the shock on the judge’s face, the way the defendant collapsed onto the counsel table as Yuki sat stone-faced.

Time went by until Judge Passarelli said, “Mr. Gardner?”

“Sorry, Your Honor.”

Gardner walked to his table, lowered his mouth to his client’s ear. Lucas Burke nodded, wiped his face with a pocket handkerchief, and, gripping the arms of his chair, sat more or less erect. Cindy wrote, “Lucas Burke seems broken.”

Newt Gardner went back to the podium and said, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’m not making up this shadow individual. He is real in every way, and according to my contacts with government investigators we don’t know a fraction of the women this man has killed.

“But for the purposes of this trial, we are concerned with three individuals. Tara Burke, Lorrie Burke, and Melissa Fogarty, an eighteen-year-old high school girl who loved Lucas, and who loved her, too.

“I swear to you. Lucas didn’t kill any of them. He’d rather have killed himself.”

CHAPTER 80

YUKI WAS BOTH shocked and awed by Gardner’s presentation.

He made sure when he looked around the small courtroom, to look directly at her, to unnerve her, to loosen her grip.

He was asking the jury to believe that Evan Burke, who did not even appear on the witness list because he was in the wind, was guilty of murdering three actual people.

Yuki knew where Gardener was going with his theory, but she was counting on the jurors to see through the flash of smoke and mirrors to the real flesh-and-blood killer sitting only yards from them and to find him guilty, guilty, guilty.

Tara. Lorrie. Melissa.

Means, motive, opportunity, and a murder weapon with his prints on the handle.

Gardner went on.

“The prosecution has, of course, provided the defense with the same videos they will show you.

“First, you’ll see the images of Lucas leaving his house one Monday morning after a fight with his wife. Thirty-two minutes later, his wife, Tara, leaves with the baby. As ADA Castellano told you, she is carrying some belongings and likely plans to spend the night away from home.

“Later, past dark on that same day, the camera will record Lucas coming home around eight thirty and leaving again the next morning at seven. Tara’s car is not in the driveway. On Tuesday, he is questioned by SFPD in his office and cooperates fully. The next morning, he gets the horrifying news that his baby daughter is lying dead in the surf of Baker Beach.

“A police sergeant drives him to this very building, where he is questioned and held as a material witness, released the next day. He goes home, and several hours later police cars pull up, several inspectors come to the front door and hand Lucas a search warrant. He is asked to stay outside while they search his premises and Lucas, nearly deranged with grief, gets into his car and drives clear to Sacramento.

“After the police and CSI enter Dublin Street, there is no more video from the Burke house surveillance camera. CSI disconnects the receiver and takes it back to the lab.

“But the most important piece of information in this case is on the video. We see Tara Burke leaving the house and she does not lock the door. My client has told me that his wife never locked the doors, front, back, or side. And so if you were planning to kill her, you would be aware of this, and you would have had access to the Burke house from the rear, where there was no camera.

“This fact will come up again. Tara never locked the doors.

“The prosecution will show you video of Ms. Melissa Fogarty, known as Misty, Lucas Burke’s girlfriend. The video was taken on Friday, two days after Lorrie Burke’s body was found at Baker Beach. This video was taken at 8 p.m. in the parking lot of the school where Luke taught English, and Misty was in the senior class. These two often met at this time in the empty parking lot, but on this night, Lucas Burke was not coming to meet Misty. He had left town, driven from his house to Sacramento, where Alexandra Conroy, his ex-wife, suggested they both travel to Carmel-by-the-Sea for his health.

“The two of them drive to Carmel the next morning. Only a day later, on Saturday, while Lucas and ex-wife are having breakfast in the hotel, Lucas sees a newspaper