Free Mind Switch by Lorne L. Bentley Page A

on the chief’s face was as if he just swallowed an egg, shell and all. The chief said, “No, why don’t you explain it, Jason? You are so much more articulate than I am.”
    Fred had to suppress a laugh. He knew the chief had moved into his present position directly from his experience as a hard nosed cop on the beat. He saw everything in black and white. Gradations were not his style, and his whole knowledge base was derived from his early work on the beat. The chief never put a foot in the courtroom, and to the best of Fred’s knowledge, never once took the time to explore the vagaries of the legal profession. In fact he was usually at war with the DA, who sought to obtain maximum prosecutorial data versus the chief’s desire to close cases quickly and get them over with.
    Cooper said, “Okay, I’ll be happy to. In this case it is especially important to discern motive since the defense might be able to claim that the defendant was not of sound mind at the time of the crime. Let’s face it, Slivers seems to have a very positive community background. And for him to commit murder for no apparent reason would lead one to believe that he might have been temporarily insane.
    “Now mind you, I don’t buy that garbage but a sympathetic jury just might. We need to collectively find the reason for his rampage; and the reason has to be solid and something that the jury can buy into.”
    Fred realized that the DA had already done his homework and very likely his staff had contacted Slivers’ employees and peers. But apparently, that research had not resulted in identifying any glaring character defect associated with the suspect, nor any deep seated reason for Slivers’ action.
    Fred found the DA’s admission revealing. From Fred’s experience, prosecutors needed to establish motive in order to lock up all the elements of a case. It didn’t matter if the motive was entirely valid or not, just that it had to be capable of being sold to a jury. It would help if there were supporting facts to back it up, even if the facts were totally derived from conjecture.  
    To Fred, crime solving requires a synergistic approach; all the pieces have to fit together to ensure the right person was accused. If a piece did not fit, it would forever cast doubt that the right man was arrested. In the bank murders, the DA understood that a motive that appeared to fit the situation was necessary to eradicate any consideration of insanity in the minds of the jurors. Both Fred and Cooper shared a common goal to look hard for the motive; but each was driven by totally different objectives.
    Cooper said, “A bond hearing will be held in a couple of days. The defense attorney wants a month to prepare his case before it goes to trial. Based on the savage nature of the crime, both of us know in advance that Slivers will be denied bail.”
    The meeting broke up, and each of the participants went in their different directions. Fred was becoming increasingly frustrated at the continuing presence of Paul in each of his meetings with the chief. After Fred received his promotion, he had thought that his selection by the board had been unanimous. But now he realized that his being picked for the job may have been based on a simple majority, and not a unanimous vote. If so, he suspected his chief did not vote for him at all, but in all probability had voted for Paul. This is great, Fred thought. Not only am I not respected by my subordinates, but I also most likely have no respect from my immediate superior!
    He briefed Jim on the meeting with the chief and DA. He told Jim he was going to assign a segment of the investigation to Paul. “As much as I hate to assign Paul any work on the case, I feel that by involving him it will keep him, in the short term, from being a constant critic. But I’ve decided not to tell Paul about our findings on the bank video. Any facts in that area will be kept between me, you and Jan.”
    At that point Fred called Paul