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“What do you mean?”
Roy rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Yeah. I’m not even sure what to make of it. It’s kind of a Monica Lewinsky thing, if you know what I mean?”
I did a double take. “What?”
“Underwear,” he said. “Corrine brought in a pair of underwear she swears she had on the last night she spent with Woodson. She says he… that she thinks they have his DNA on them.”
The Lewinsky reference made sense. “Oh,” I said. Then, “OH!”
“Yeah.”
“There can’t possibly be. Can there? She’s talking about a night that happened five years ago. She kept a pair of underwear? What? Like a souvenir?”
“They’re some of the clothes she says he gave her to wear,” he said. “Remember she said he gave her a blue nightie.”
“Sure.”
“Well, she says when she got dressed and demanded he take her home, she didn’t have a chance to change back into the underwear she had on at the start of the date. She was still wearing the ones from during their… uh… encounter.”
I held a hand up in a stopping gesture. “I get it. No need to draw a picture, Roy.”
“It’s a long shot. But if there’s even a chance she’s blanking on the ID because of trauma…”
“Which is likely,” I said. “I’m no psychologist, but we both saw how she reacted during that lineup. Something scared her.” Was I just trying to rationalize it for myself now?
“She admitted that today. Said maybe she got it wrong. I offered to let her have another look. She wouldn’t do it. She said we should just test the clothing.”
“Roy,” I said. “I want to be really careful how I ask this question. And I want you to be even more careful in how you answer it. But… you said she admitted she might have made a mistake in the lineup. Is that right?” I felt like I was two people. The suspicious wife and the hard-nosed prosecutor. I steeled myself against the suspicious wife.
“That was the gist, yeah.”
“Did you record the conversation?”
He frowned. “No.”
“I have to put a defense attorney hat on. Don’t take it personally. But is there any chance you might have suggested to her that she made a mistake?”
“What? No, I don’t think so. And I wasn’t the only one in the room. Heller was here. You can ask him.”
“I’ll have to. And it’s the first thing you’ll be asked on the stand if Corrine’s case gets tied to the rest of Palicki’s victims. As it is, I’d never put her on the stand even if that underwear has Palicki’s DNA on it. Her identification would be tainted.”
“But the DNA wouldn’t be.”
I wasn’t so sure. “Maybe not. But I just don’t want this case coming down to a five-year-old pair of dirty underwear. If it gets to that point, we’re sunk.”
“It’s not gonna come to that. Corrine’s story and whatever that clothing shows… it’ll just be gravy. The real jackpot is what we found at Palicki’s house. Let’s not forget that.”
“You’re right,” I said, as if there were any chance I could forget. “But keep me in the loop on those lab tests either way. I want to be able to wrap this case in a bow before we hand it over to Washtenaw County or federal jurisdiction.”
Roy and I stood up together. He held the door for me. I walked through it and we headed to the elevators.
“That’s gotta be driving Gilchrist crazy. He was hoping that whatever we found would stay in Benton County.”
“Oh, he’s made that quite clear.”
“Don’t you want that too? I’d think you’d be salivating to try Palicki. To be honest, I’d feel a lot better if you were.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m not looking to poach this from anyone.” Even as I said it, I had that little voice in my head that contradicted my words. I would love to try Palicki for murder. I’d like to be the one to nail that psychopath to the wall. Then I could finally slay my own worst enemy. My own intrusive thoughts.
