The Closing: A Whippoorwill Hollow novel (The Whippoorwill Hollow novels) Read Free Page A

right-handed twist. It was made of hemp. It had been cut at both ends from a larger coil. The fraying at the ends and the discoloration of the rope indicated that it was not newly store-bought.”
    “The assailant used the stick to tighten the rope gradually by twisting it. The stick was ten inches long, three quarters of an inch wide, and flat on all four sides. There was a vertical indentation along one side with small shards of glass embedded in the crevice. In the warehouse I found several broken window mullions under the window where Deputy Jones found the victim’s body. This stick matched those mullions.”
    West had dusted the mullion for fingerprints. “There were prints along one end of the mullion that were too distorted to be identifiable. There was one clear partial print in its center. This print matched a portion of the defendant’s thumb print.” George Maupin’s direct examination of West left unclear the extent of the print that was found on the mullion.
    Nate thought Swiller should have attacked the reliability of the match on cross because its accuracy depended in part upon the portion of the print not recovered. He flipped ahead in the transcript to see what Swiller did with the issue. By then, he was not surprised to find Swiller’s familiar refrain: “No questions, Your Honor.”
    Nate grimaced and turned back to West’s direct testimony. West analyzed the blood evidence. Her tests revealed Updike’s blood type as B+ and Deatherage’s as O+. “There was a large bloodstain low on the front side of the defendant’s shirt. This blood was type B+. The scarf Deputy Jones found in the defendant’s pants pocket was also stained with B+ blood, and the blood on the rag Jones found on the floor in the back of the warehouse under an open window was the same blood type.”
    West said Somers found semen in Updike’s vaginal cavity and on her thighs. West testified that the semen was deposited by an O+ secretor. Secretors secrete antigens of their blood type into body fluids. Non-secretors secrete very little of their antigens. West determined that Deatherage was an O+ secretor. From his days as a prosecutor, Nate knew that about eighty-five percent of the male population is comprised of secretors and O+ is the most common blood type, about forty percent of the general population, but George did not ask West questions that revealed these statistics to the jurors and Swiller did not clarify these weaknesses on cross.
    West said she found on Updike’s corpse thirteen hair follicles, which appeared red to the naked eye. Under microscopic analysis she determined the follicles contained the pigment, pheomelanin, which is only present in red and yellow hair. Updike’s hair was black. Deatherage’s hair was red. West compared the follicles found on the corpse to samples of Deatherage’s hair. She observed a high degree of similarity in the thickness and presence of pigment in the cuticle, or outer layer, of the hair shaft. In the cortex, or middle layer, the organization, density, and distribution of pigment granules were also very similar. West opined that it was highly likely the hair follicles found on the corpse came from Deatherage.
    Nate knew that critics of perceived hair follicle matches argue that comparing the characteristics of hair is similar to comparing facial features and concluding that two people who look alike are in fact the same person. He assumed that Swiller could not have hired an expert witness within the state’s budget to present this criticism, but there were anti-death-penalty groups that provided private funding to attack this type of analysis. Nevertheless, Swiller had not called an expert to rebut the evidence.
    The prosecution rested after West testified. The defense rested without calling a witness. The court recessed for lunch.
    After the break, George Maupin delivered a powerful closing statement, pulling all the evidence together to tell a vivid story. George said