“I want to,” she answered. “I knew you’d all be here. I want to help. And I can. I’m the one who found Maisy for you, remember?”
Eric didn’t hesitate. He took the coffees and passed them out. “You might as well brew some here too,” he said.
Emma gave him a quick salute and left for the kitchen.
“How do we prove Tom put a key in that box?” Jeanie asked.
“We can’t,” I said. “We can only prove that he might have. Eric, we’re putting you on the stand. We have the photos. You’re not officially a cop, but you can prove chain of custody for the key box. You can tell them what you found and how you found it. We attack the thoroughness of Sharon’s crime scene investigation. It’s big.”
“As far as Katy knows,” Jeanie said. “Tom never used that spare key.”
“She doesn’t know anything. And she’s not testifying. All we have to do is prove the possibility. Put it in the jury’s mind that there could have been a way for someone other than Katy to get into that house without breaking in.”
“If Katy’s innocent,” Eric said. “Then somebody had to have known about that key. I don’t believe it was just there for years without anyone knowing. That brick had been moved. I noticedit in the pitch dark with a flashlight. In broad daylight, it should have been obvious.”
I had the crime scene photos spread out on the table in the corner. DePaul’s team had taken very little from the back porch. Most were focused on the sliding door, not the surrounding brick. There wasn’t a single one depicting the area where Eric had found the key box.
“Who else besides Tom and Katy would have needed access to the house?”
“Jenna,” I said.
“But she testified she never had access beyond the garage code,” Eric said. “And she wouldn’t have needed it.”
I tried to play Jenna’s testimony back in my mind. I’d asked her about alternate access. She had a ready, plausible answer. The most likely reason for a garage door malfunction would have been a power outage. But if that had happened, she wouldn’t have been able to work inside anyway. She needed electricity to do her job just like the automatic garage door did.
“She had an alibi,” I said. “She was at the vet clinic until five thirty that morning. That’s provable. They have overnight caretakers who can corroborate that. Then we’ve got her on video arriving at Tom and Katy’s just before six.”
“And like you said, she had the garage code. Even if she had access to that missing key, she wouldn’t have needed to use it.”
“A neighbor?” Emma said as she rejoined us. “I gave a spare key to my condo to a friend of mine who lives two units over. She gave me hers too. I’ve let maintenance people in for her and she has for me.”
“It’s worth an ask,” Jeanie said.
“The police already asked them that,” I said. I had DePaul’s report in front of me. Neighbors on all sides of the Loomis house were asked if they knew of any other access to Tom’s house. None did.
I needed to be on my feet. To move. Who would have that key? “It might just be enough for reasonable doubt to prove it might have existed. But if I could show who had actual knowledge of it …”
“You can’t even prove Tom had knowledge of it,” Emma said. “I’m sorry. You know that’s what Addison Quick will say in closing.”
I walked from one end of the room to the other. The others watched me wear a path into Jeanie’s plush carpet.
“It would benefit Katy to know,” I said. “But she didn’t. We know that. The only other person it would benefit to know is Jenna Rodney.”
“Who has the tightest alibi of all,” Jeanie said. “And no motive to kill Tom Loomis. She already had full access to that house. She knew where he kept everything. If she had wanted to steal something, she’d have just taken it. Plus, what motive would she have to kill Tom?”
“And we know she didn’t,” Eric said. “It would have been impossible unless she snuck into the house while Katy was sleeping. Slit Tom’s throat. Went to work at the animal hospital, went about her business as usual, then came back to work for Tom as normal. It makes no sense. And it isn’t supported by the physical evidence or the time of death window Trainor testifiedto.”
Jeanie’s words struck me. She knew where Tom kept everything. If she had wanted to steal something, she would have just taken it. I tried to replay everything she said to me on the stand. Was there something? Some slip? Some hole in her testimony I hadn’t caught?
I stopped pacing. “What do we really know about her?”
“What do you mean?” Jeanie asked.
“Jenna Rodney. Nothing was stolen from the house. But what if that’s because there wasn’t time?”
Eric furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“Jenna knew Tom and Katy’s schedule. She knew where Tom kept everything of value. She knew when the house would be empty every day. What if she told someone else so they could gain access to the house when nobody was home?”
