Playing Dead_ A Novel of Suspense - Allison Brennan [102]
Confirmed his tenure with UC Davis.
Six years with Madison, Bergstrom, Truedell & Smith. Three years with Johnson & Mather. One-year internship with Young, Blaine, Forsyth & Associates. Graduate USC law school, 1990. Graduate UNLV, 1987. Born 1964 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Her eye went back to Johnson & Mather. She recognized all three law firms, but that one . . .
Her hand started shaking as she typed in another search.
George Prescott with Johnson & Mather was her father’s defense counsel. During the same time that Don Collier was on staff.
Don Collier had been responsible for reviewing her father’s case file for the Project, and rejected looking into it. Don Collier had been Oliver Maddox’s advisor. Had Maddox known that Collier had been with the same law firm that represented her father at trial? Claire had to assume he did . . . he was a law student. He would definitely have known who represented her father. And if he was doing research, he would have figured out that Collier was there at the same time. That there was a huge conflict of interest. Collier knew more about the case than he’d admitted.
She dialed Randy Sizemore at the Western Innocence Project. It took several minutes, and a threat to come by and sit in the office until closing, before he came on the phone. “Ms. O’Brien, I don’t see how I can help you any more than I already have.”
“One question. Please.”
“One.”
“Do you allow the attorneys reviewing case files to assess cases they’ve worked on, or where one of their colleagues worked on it?”
“Of course not. That would defeat the purpose of our checks and balances system.”
“Do the attorneys know this?”
“Of course they do. They simply recuse themselves from reviewing the file. It’s not a problem. I have dozens of attorneys who review files for me.”
“Thank you.”
“May I ask why?”
“You told me that Don Collier reviewed State of California v. O’Brien and deemed it a just conviction.”
“Yes.”
“Collier worked for the same law firm as my father’s attorney. Johnson & Mather.”
“That’s not possible.”
“It’s not? Why?”
“Don would have told me.” Randy Sizemore didn’t sound so sure of himself.
“So you didn’t know.”
“Ms. O’Brien, I don’t know what you’ve found, but there must be a logical explanation.”
“Thank you for your time.” She hung up. She didn’t think that Sizemore had known about Collier, but since they were friends, she didn’t want him to tip Collier off that she was onto him.
“Claire?”
She jumped, turned, and saw her friend Jayne standing in the doorway.
“You scared the hell out of me.”
“What are you doing?”
“Background check.”
Jayne frowned. “J.T. called me this morning about you. Asked me to monitor your database usage. He’s a little worried.”
Claire straightened. J. T. Caruso was one of the principals of her firm. “Worried? Why?”
“He didn’t say, but, well, I did a little research and I think he found out your dad is in Sacramento.”
Claire’s stomach dropped. “How could he know that? How did you know?”
“The FBI has a surveillance tape of your dad in Redding. And then there’s the buzz around the D.A.’s office that he’s surrendering today. J.T. knows people there. And in the FBI.”
“I’m not doing anything illegal,” Claire said.
“Just watch yourself, okay?”
Claire didn’t want to be fired, she loved her job, but her father’s innocence and safety were more important than her career.
“I’ll be careful.”
Jayne nodded. “If you need me for anything, you know how to reach me.”
“I have a question. A computer question.”
Jayne sat down on the corner of Claire’s desk. “What?”
“How could a digital file disappear?”
“You need to be more specific.”
“Don’t ask me why.”
“All right.”
“There’re two missing coroner’s reports. They are archived digitally and kept in a data warehouse. They are in the log, but not on the tape.”
“Is there other data on the tape?”
“I think so.”
“Well, if there isn’t, the tape was corrupted. Someone didn’t check once they burned the tape or the disk