Free Panther's Prey by Lachlan Smith

and getting up every time they knock me down, but for straight shooting. I’ve reviewed every piece of paper in that file, and I’ve scanned every document the two of you saved on the shared drive. There’s nothing there that could possibly assist the prosecution. I called the DA and told her that myself.”
    â€œAnd she’s taking your word for it.”
    â€œKeep in mind that Rodriguez’s acquittal and Jordan’s murder were every cop’s worst nightmare. The first tendency is to blame the defense lawyers, and we’ll have our share of that. But among those whose opinions matter, it’s understood you and Jordan couldn’t have won the trial if Cole and Saenz hadn’t lost it first.”
    This was basically what I’d told Chen as I was leaving our interview after I’d discovered Jordan’s body. Hearing it from Gabriela was powerful reassurance. But I couldn’t ignore the fact that shewas trying to play me in the hope of keeping me from becoming an obstacle to Rodriguez’s speedy conviction.
    â€œShe was one of us,” Gabriela now said. “I’m going to do everything I can to bury the son of a bitch who killed her, and right now the odds are on Rodriguez.”
    Whatever my doubts, I had no desire to assist in Rodriguez’s defense. I wanted him right where he was, behind bars until further notice, and I told Gabriela as much. “I just want the same thing her father wants, which is to make sure the police are right about Rodriguez this time.” I then corrected myself: “Or to make sure Jordan was wrong.”
    Gabriela shook her head. “You need to worry about yourself, about getting your head on straight. We’re bystanders. We watch and wait. And we trust in the workings of our justice system. As of now, you’re on leave. If I see you in the office before Rodriguez pleads guilty, you won’t have to worry about bringing me a doctor’s note. You’ll be fired.”
    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but her attitude made it clear she didn’t want any more questions or opposition from me. She began writing at the top of a fresh page. I rose to leave.

Chapter 10
    I had no intention of giving Rodriguez’s lawyer our case file, and was dismayed Gabriela might suspect me of wanting to do so. The actual physical file was no longer in my possession, but all the documents, exhibits, and notes were still on my hard drive. In about ten minutes I could have put together a complete packet for Alex Ripley, including a number of points that hadn’t seen the light of the courtroom. After my meeting with Gabriela, I went to my office and burned all the documents from the Rodriguez case onto a CD. She could force me to take leave but she couldn’t stop me from looking into Jordan’s murder.
    In every trial, there are pieces that don’t get used, leftover trial exhibits that never emerge from our box behind the defense table. Then there’s the other stuff that doesn’t even make it into that box, ideas that never advance past the stage of brainstorming and perfunctory Google-search fact-checking. In the Rodriguez case, one of these was our theory that a serial rapist was at work in San Francisco.
    We’d played on this possibility at trial, though we hadn’t presented any evidence to back it up. Rather, we simply argued that if Rodriguez was innocent, the guilty man must still be out there, waiting to strike again. Originally, I’d toyed with the more ambitious plan of taking the jurors on a tour of unsolved sexual assaults. My idea had been to identify crimes similar to the Janelle Fitzpatrick rape, then call the investigating detectives as witnesses.
    I still had the notes I’d made during my first weeks on the case, before Jordan had brought a second set of eyes to bear on the problem of Rodriguez’s confession. Initially I’d seized on indications the rapist