Silent Witness by Michael Norman Page A

afraid we can’t do that, Robin. You’re a material witness in a murder and armed robbery case. You’ve got to come in, or we have to keep looking for you. It’s that simple.”
    â€œIt’s never that simple.”
    â€œTell me something, Robin. What are these guys looking for? They’ve searched your apartment and your car—they’re looking for something. And I think you know what that something is.”
    That pissed her off. “Up yours, you son of a bitch. Leave me alone, and I mean it,” she shouted into the phone. And then she hung up. So much for rational and unemotional behavior I thought.
    â€œWhat did she have to say?” asked Kate.
    â€œOther than an unflattering reference to my family lineage, very little, I’m afraid.”
    We sent Michael Baker on his merry way with a promise that he would contact Kate or me if he heard from Joiner again, something I thought highly unlikely. She probably felt betrayed by his cooperation with us. I didn’t bother to tell him that I’d be waiting for him at the start of his class later in the afternoon. I wanted to interview the rest of Joiner’s study group. And, I thought, why spoil a nice surprise?
    After he left, I gave Kate my impressions of the abbreviated telephone conversation I’d had with Joiner. “Two things stood out. The first was how freaked out she became when I asked her if she knew what these guys were looking for when they broke into her apartment and her car.”
    â€œWhat do you make of that?” said Kate.
    â€œI can’t be sure, but I think she’s hiding something. I just don’t know what it is or why she’s doing it. What I can tell you is that she didn’t want to talk about it. The other thing is that it seemed that when she asked if I really thought she was in danger, she was fishing for information.”
    â€œYou mean she was trying to get you to provide her with information that she didn’t already know.”
    â€œYeah, it seemed like that.”
    â€œWell,” said Kate, “nothing’s changed. All we can do is continue to try to find her and hope, in the meantime, that she changes her mind and comes in on her own. Now, let me bring you up to speed on a couple of things you don’t know.”
    â€œGood news, I hope.”
    â€œAbsolutely. I just heard from the crime lab on the suspected murder weapons. We came up empty on the tire iron, but on the knife, we’ve got a partial thumb print. They found it on the handle. It’s not complete, but they tell me it is sufficient for comparison. I’ve asked them to run the partial against Bradshaw’s fugitive family members.”
    â€œAnd that would include…”
    â€œBoth of Walter’s sons, Albert and Joseph, as well as the two cousins, Randy and Robby Allred.”
    â€œThat is good news. Has the lab confirmed the tire iron and knife as the actual murder weapons?”
    â€œBlood samples from both weapons match the vic’s blood type. The DNA test results won’t be available to confirm it for at least another week, but we’re ninety-nine percent sure we’ve got the murder weapons. They’re a close match to what the medical examiner told us to be looking for.”
    â€œWhat about the vic’s car and wallet?”
    â€œNothing yet, but guess what? Joseph Bradshaw and Randy Allred left their fingerprints all over Joiner’s apartment. Joseph’s were also found on the handwritten note left in the apartment.”
    â€œNo big surprise, I guess. Just what these guys need—more new criminal charges,” I said. “That certainly removes any doubt about who’s trying to find her.”
    ***
    â€œCome on,” I said to Kate. “We’ve got a lunch date downtown and we’re supposed to be there in ten minutes.”
    That was news to her. As it turned out, the lunch date I’d arranged was with