“Would it matter if I said no?”
“What’s going on with Mary?”
Miller folded his short arms over his thick chest. “Why do you think anything’s going on with her, Amos?”
“We know each other. Something’s off.”
“Youkneweach other. It’s been a couple of years. People change.”
“People don’t change that much,” replied Decker.
“Then ask her.” Miller wagged a finger at him. “Just be prepared for whatever answer she has. You up for that?”
Decker didn’t answer, and Miller didn’t look like he had expected a response.
“I appreciate your letting us work on the case.”
“Well, I want to get to the bottom of it as much as you do. If we messed up, we have to make it right. You have my full backing.”
“Thanks, Mac,” said Jamison.
“I’ll leave you to it, then.” He disappeared back inside his office.
They proceeded to the room and Decker put the twin boxes down on the metal conference table. He took off his coat and slung it over a chair back.
Taking the top off one box, he said to Jamison, “I’ll take this one. You go through the other.” He slid it over to her.
“What exactly are we looking for?” she asked, opening the box.
“Hopefully you’ll know it when you see it.”
She sighed, sat down, and lifted out the first few files.
***
Four hours later they had each gone through both boxes.
“Not a whole lot here,” noted Jamison.
“This is the defense’s side of things. I’ve asked Mary to have someone pull the department’s files.”
“They keep things that long?”
“Probably only because nobody had the time to throw them out.”
“Ken Finger didn’t seem to have much evidence to go on.”
“That’s why the jury convicted his client after only two hours of deliberation. And an hour of that was spent at lunch.”
“He was pretty tough on you on cross-examination,” said Jamison, holding up a transcript of Decker’s time in the witness box.
“That was his job.”
“But you were quite firm in your statements.”
“Because I believed them to be true.”
“Meaning you no longer do?”