Avery closed her eyes momentarily. “I had an immature moment of panic. I should’ve told you I was leaving. Look, Walt, if you haven’t already guessed, I’m not the greatest at this. And I’m mortified to admit that it’s been . . . quite a while since I’ve been in this sort of situation.”
“I’m not sure that’s something to be mortified about. And the same is true for me. I’ve been hiding in Jamaica for three years. Plus, I’m twice divorced, so I’m no better at this than you are.”
Avery moved her hands back and forth between them. “Then can we agree that this greeting has been awkward enough? Let’s just get back to normal?”
“Done.” Walt held up the box. “We’ve got a lot to cover.”
“Good. Come on in.”
Walt followed Avery into the room. It consisted of a king-sized bed and, on the far end near the windows, a coffee table in front of a small sofa, as well as a desk and chair.
“Ignore the mess,” Avery said, motioning to the bed, where stacks of papers stood in distinct piles on top of the comforter.
“What’s all this?”
“Research.”
“Looks like you’ve been busy.”
“You too,” Avery said as she sat on the sofa. “What did you find?”
Walt sat next to her and placed the box on the coffee table.
“It’s a long story. But I made some calls and managed to track down some more files on the Cameron Young case.”
“In addition to what we went through last night?”
“Yeah. This was stuff only the DA had. I want to show you something.”
Walt reached into the box and riffled through the folders until he found the one he wanted. He placed it on the table and opened it. Inside were photos of Victoria Ford from her initial interview with detectives. Walt fingered through them so they spread across the table.
Avery leaned closer to the photos. “What am I looking at?”
“These are photos of Victoria Ford during our first formal interview with her. They were taken two days after Cameron Young was killed when we brought her into BCI headquarters to question her.”
“Intake photos?”
“Yes.”
Intake photos were counted as evidence and taken of potential suspects in the early hours and days of an investigation. They were meant to document the presence of wounds, cuts, or bruises a person of interest may have had on their body that would suggest they had been in a recent struggle or altercation. The photos on the table showed Victoria in her bra and underwear. The first showed her standing with arms bent at ninety degrees, as if surrendering at gunpoint. Another captured her in a wide stance, feet shoulder length apart, and her arms straight out to the sides, crucifix style. Other photos were close-ups of her shoulders and neck. The photo Walt pointed to was of Victoria’s hands, posed with her fingers spread apart.
“I don’t see anything,” Avery said.
“Exactly. Your argument last night about the lack of blood on the rope got me thinking. How could Victoria have cut herself badly enough to drip so much blood on the carpeting, but leave no trace of blood on the rope?”
Avery slowly moved her gaze back to the photos of Victoria’s hands. “She didn’t cut herself.”
“It doesn’t look like it, and you’re looking at the proof. These photos were taken two days after the murder. There’s no way a wound would heal that quickly.”
“So where did the blood come from?”
“It’s a very good question,” Walt said. “One that I don’t have the answer to.”
CHAPTER 46
Manhattan, NY Sunday, July 4, 2021
AVERY CONTINUED TO LOOK THROUGH THE PICTURES. “WHERE DID these photos come from? Why weren’t they in the original file?”
“That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. Something’s been bothering me ever since I dove back into the Cameron Young case and stirred up the memories of that investigation.”
“What is it?” Avery said.
“When I was tapped to investigate this homicide, I was young. I wasn’t dumb, but I was inexperienced in running a homicide investigation. I was well trained and had been part of other homicides for the BCI, but never as the lead detective. The Cameron Young investigation was my first solo case. And, even looking back now, I don’t think I would change much. My job was to present the evidence I found to the district attorney’s office. I didn’t offer opinions or speculation. I just followed the evidence and then turned it over. I was good at procedure. Find the evidence, log the evidence; get the warrants, apply the warrants. I did everything by the book.
“What I was bad at were the politics involved in our criminal justice system. The DA was a woman named Maggie Greenwald. She had a reputation as a fierce prosecutor who was on the rise. She was aggressive, demanding, and had political aspirations far beyond the district attorney’s office. Rumors had her pegged for the next attorney general or governor. But to get that kind of shot, and gather the support needed to forge a serious run, she needed to make headlines as the DA. Headlines come from quickly resolving cases. And if a high-profile case comes your way, even better. Maggie Greenwald was all over the Cameron Young case from the very beginning and wanted things done quickly. She chose me to run the investigation. I was handpicked and quite proud of it. And I took the responsibility seriously.”
“Roman Manchester, Victoria Ford’s attorney, told me that Maggie Greenwald had a knack for . . . how did he put it? Fitting square evidence into round holes.”
“I didn’t know that about her at the time she tapped me to run the Cameron Young investigation. I found that out only after I left the BCI to join the Bureau. She got herself into a little trouble.”
“She was disbarred for suppressing evidence, so it was more than a little trouble.”
Walt nodded. “One of her biggest convictions got overturned when new DNA evidence was found. The defendant had served years in prison. And it wasn’t just new evidence that surfaced. It was evidence that had been there from the beginning. Greenwald suppressed it. The only reason the truth came out was because her ADA grew a conscience and blew the whistle on her.”
“She withheld evidence?”
“Yes.”
“How could she live with herself knowing that she put an innocent man in prison?”
“Prosecutors, some of them, believe the deck is and always has been stacked against them. They see guilty defendants getting off on technicalities. They see rock-solid cases go the other way because of reasonable doubt, despite how unreasonable it sounds to them. So, some of them try to even the playing field.”
“By lying? Or hiding evidence?”
“Sometimes. And Maggie Greenwald was determined to make a name for herself. Since the whistleblower came forward, some of her biggest cases have been overturned after evidence was found that had been suppressed. The US Attorney’s Office from the Southern District of New York got involved and began a formal investigation. They subpoenaed all her cases and all her records. They found four other cases where she tried to make evidence disappear, or where she withheld evidence during discovery. It was enough to get her disbarred and end her career, legal and political. The Innocence Project and other wrongful conviction advocacy groups have taken up all of her convictions and are taking a hard look at them.”