Page 13 of Jason's Justice
“This is where things might get dicey for us.”
“How?” Jason demanded harshly, and scowled at her. He liked that she didn’t flinch.
“While I was visiting Katherine in the hospital, the responding police officer arrived and handed me a flash drive. He openly admitted that he probably shouldn’t have done it, but he said he’d made a copy of the dash camera footage for two weeks before the accident, and the events leading up to the accident. I think that flash drive is what was able to get Katherine exonerated.”
“Why?”
“Because the video the DA played in court was out of sequence, and it was copy and pasted in placed. With Lyle’s instructions, I made three copies of that flash drive. When he played his version, he made sure there was a video photographer on the stand and asked in his opinion, which was the real one, he picked ours, pointing the differences around the edges of the fake one. That line of questioning went on all day. At the end, when the jury went out for deliberations days later, they asked if they could watch both videos again. I later found out my daughter was exonerated based solely on the video.”
“Do you have a copy with you?”
“I do. Thank goodness I had those three copies. The copy used in Katherine’s case conveniently came up missing when Michael was taken to court for the attempted murder of Katherine, and the murder of Stephanie.”
“How did it come up missing?”
“Someone took it out of the file for Katherine’s trial. Everything we submitted as evidence was put where the courts put it, but the flash drive with what actually happened was missing.”
“What did you do?”
“Told Lyle I had another copy, and I made another one out of the two I had left, and he took it to the new guy thatwas prosecuting Michael. The guy and his boss that went after Katherine mysteriously disappeared. Right around the time Kevin showed up to tell me that my life might be in danger, I had heard a new report that two male bodies were found in the woods with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. They had to wait for dental and DNA records because their bodies had been burnt.” She shook her head and when she saw his shock, she reached over and put a hand over his. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know how else to say it.”
“No, that’s fine, and if it is the men that went after Katherine, then that’s two charges of murder we can add to the list.” He wrote it down, along with some other things, then nodded to the file she had retrieved earlier. “What’s that?”
“Do you know Hank Patterson with Brotherhood Protectors?”
CHAPTER 6
“Yes,he’s the one that came to talk to me to see if I could do anything. What does he have to do with anything else?”
“Okay, don’t quote me, because this is second hand knowledge and a she said, he said, he said, he said situation.” She wrinkled her nose at him when he grinned at her.
“I’m listening.”
“Okay, it’s my understanding, as we’ll have to talk to them later for clarification, but it’s my understanding that when Katherine arrived here, she told her story. She said she was being hunted by George Babcock, and Larry Mason. George is Michael’s father, while Larry is my now ex-husband.”
“Hunted how?”
“One night, around midnight, George, showed up drunk at my house, demanded that Larry take him and two other men with him to Katherine’s apartment. To quote Babcock, he said, ‘they needed to teach the bitch a lesson for getting his boy in trouble with her lies’.”
“I’m assuming here, but he’s talking about Michael going to prison? But, in all actuality, it’s Michael’s own lies and deceit that got him thrown in jail?”
“Yes, but they didn’t know that Katherine was asleep upstairs in her old room, and not at her apartment. I waited until they left before I went upstairs to wake her. A couple of days earlier, I had packed a go bag for her with clothes she’d left there. Since the accident and trial, she had lost a lot of weight, and I knew she could fit in those clothes again. I had also called Lyle and he told me what to do. We used burner phones. Anyway, I woke Katherine, told her what was going on. We went to the bank across town to withdraw money, then got a hotel room close to the meeting place with Lyle the next day. She paid cash for a motel, and before I left her there, she handed me all her ID except for her driver’s license and social security card. When I left her, she had close to twenty-five hundred dollars on her. I gave her what I had. I told her to come to Fool’s Gold to my best friend growing up. I knew her married name was Riceman. I don’t know how she got here, or what her meeting with Lyle went like. He wouldn’t tell me, he only told me that her car was safe, her phone had the battery removed, and he hid the car on his property. He also told me he gave her some cash. I hadn’t heard from her until she called me three weeks ago on my birthday. The last time I saw her was three months ago.”
She jumped up and refilled their cups again, and shook her head as she remembered what she had been asked.
“Anyway, again, we’ll have to talk to Duane and Katherine, but it’s my understanding that after Katherine told her story, about how George Babcock was after her, he, Duane, reached out to his former director with the FBI. They set up to meet up in Colorado Springs. Turns out when Duane pointed to his Director Grayson, Katherine flipped out and started swearing at him. She calmed enough to tell him that it was George Babcock and not Grayson.
“Duane left, he had Caleb and Laurie with him, and was several miles away when Grayson called him and asked wherethey were, he said something came up, and he couldn’t make it. Oh, and Larry was there with Babcock. On the way back here, it’s roughly an hour or more drive, Katherine and Duane talked. Once they arrived back here, Duane contacted Jake Cogburn with Brotherhood Protectors over in Fool’s Gold. He, Jake, reached out to his boss, Hank Patterson, and I was told a couple of weeks ago that Hank contacted you.”
She looked down at the folder she had her hand on and slowly moved it toward him. “This is what Hank, Jake, and Duane were able to dig up on Babcock.” As soon as she lifted her hand from the folder, they looked up at the sound of a vehicle, and Jason jumped to see who it was. “It’s Kevin. How much does he know about this case?”
“He’s read everything, but he hasn’t seen the video yet. He was going to view it when he got home from work, but he brought you home with him.”
“Okay, let’s go help him with the groceries, make some dinner, and talk. I’d like to see the video before I read what you have. My files are so redacted that it’s impossible to read.”
“Why?”
Jason shrugged as he stuffed the folder on Babcock in the top of the box and hurried out the door. It took them each three trips to get all the groceries in and when Jason questioned him, he gave him a funny look.
