Innocent or Guilty?

9.

THEN

“Mr Sampson,” the prosecutor says, Cole’s eyes snapping to his, locking in, “you were in attendance at the party Tyler Washington was at on the night he died, is that correct?”

“That’s correct, sir,” Cole says, keeping his eyes on the prosecutor, his face serious, earnest.

“And you saw Mr Washington leave the party?”

“Yes, I saw him as he was leaving.”

“And could you state for the record when this was?”

“It was around two o’clock, I think. I can’t remember exactly, but it was definitely around then. Could’ve been a bit before, could’ve been a bit after, but definitely around two.”

“On the morning of Sunday August 24?”

“That’s right.”

“Was he alone at that point?”

“Yeah, he was alone. I didn’t see anyone leave with him.”

“And where were you exactly when you saw Mr Washington leaving? Were you still in the house yourself?”

“No, I was out on the porch. The front porch.”

“And from here you could watch Mr Washington leave and walk down the street towards the entrance to the woods?”

“Yeah. There’s a little shortcut down there by the high school that everyone uses, and you can still see it pretty easily from Jessica’s porch.”

“And you saw him walk into the woods from your vantage point?”

“Yes, definitely.”

“And was anyone else with him at that point, when he entered the woods?”

“No, but a little while later I looked back around and saw someone on a bike go into the woods right in the same place Tyler had.”

“And you recognized that person as being Ethan Hall?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How could you be sure?”

“Well, I was pretty sure I recognized him anyway, as it really wasn’t that far, but he also rides a bike that has black and bright orange striping that’s pretty distinctive. I don’t know anyone else with that kind of bike.”

“And how much time had passed since you witnessed Mr Washington leaving the party and entering the woods?”

“I can’t be sure because it’s not like I checked the time or anything, but probably between ten and fifteen minutes.”

“So, that would make it about two ten, two fifteen a.m.?”

“I’d say so, yes, sir,” Cole says with a sharp nod of his head, and I wonder where all this sudden deference has come from.

“And do you think the two parties involved could have arranged to meet in the woods?” Curtis asks.

“Objection,” Ethan’s attorney calls, jumping to attention, “calls for speculation on the witness’s part.”

“Sustained,” the judge intones, eyes on the prosecutor, “please keep to the facts, Mr Curtis.”

“Yes, Your Honor. My apologies.” He places his hand over his heart as he says this, false sincerity leeching from him, before turning back to Cole.

“Did you see either Mr Hall or Mr Washington come back out of the woods at all, Mr Sampson?”

“No, but I went back inside to the party not too long after that. Also, they were both heading in the same direction, towards Winward Road, so there’s no reason why either of them would’ve come back to Hillier Street.”

“And you yourself didn’t then enter the woods later that night? Or morning rather?”

“No, I live in the other direction, so I just walked back along my usual route.”

“Thank you, Mr Sampson. I have no further questions.”

I hold my breath as the judge asks Ethan’s defense attorney if he’d like to question the witness, but he declines, and I can’t help but release a sigh of relief as he does so. Just watching Cole up there, taking the stand against my brother sets my teeth on edge.

I hear the voice in my ear, sweet and slow like honey, feel hands against my skin, hot and frantic, the not-so-artful addition of pressure, a knee between my thighs, pushing them apart. I shut my eyes against the court room scene, trying to push the memory away and out, shame cascading through me as I dig my fingernails into the palms of my hands forcing a new feeling. It’s just a memory I tell myself, it can’t hurt me here. It’s not Cole who’s on trial; it’s not even me. It’s Ethan. I open my eyes again, and Cole is gone from the witness box. He’s back in his spot across the aisle on the other side of the courtroom; like I’m here for the groom and he’s here for the bride. He’s safe back there though, and so am I. As long as he’s out of my eyeline I don’t have to see him and don’t have to think about him. I train my eyes again on the back of Ethan’s head, reminding myself why I’m here, and whose life, exactly, is on the line.

10.

NOW

“Olivia?” someone said. And even with the doubt and surprise lacing their voice, there was still something unmistakable, something achingly familiar about it.

Cole Sampson.

I turned around in my seat to see him standing there in coveralls, dark brown eyes full of confusion, arms full of empty crates.

“Hey, Cole,” I said, slipping on an old voice I barely recognized; bright, breezy, barely aware of herself.

Cole was having trouble keeping hold of his stack of crates while processing my presence in his brewery tap room, and Daniel jumped up just as the stack was about to fall, taking a few out of Cole’s arms, relieving his load. Cole’s gaze swerved to him quickly and he gave a nod of thanks just as Daniel said chirpily, “Let me help you out here, man.”

“Uh, thanks … thank you,” Cole said, clearly still wrapping his head around what was going on. “Olivia, what the hell are you doing here?”

Easy lies, little white ones used to lubricate awkward social situations, slid through my mind, a whole pantheon of them, but in the end I decided the truth was probably the easiest of all. “This is Kat Thomas, and Ray Mackenzie,” I said gesturing to them behind me, “they’re doing a podcast on my brother’s case.”

“Your brother’s case?” Cole said, eyes suddenly twice their normal size, “you mean Tyler’s murder, right? You couldn’t possibly be here to try and exonerate your brother.”

“Ethan didn’t kill Tyler, Cole. He’s serving a sentence he doesn’t deserve.”

Cole shook his head, his eyes not leaving mine. “Unbelievable. This is unbelievable. You’re unbelievable. Do you have any idea how long it’s taken people to get over his death, and now you’re coming back here to drag it all back up again. Morgan still gets nightmares, did you know that? She hasn’t been back in those woods since.”

“Morgan?” I said, summoning up a picture of Tyler’s pretty older sister.

“Yeah, we’re … we, uh –” Cole trailed off, his gaze finally pulling away from mine as he shifted from foot to foot.

“Oh. You’re together now. You and Morgan. Wow.”

“Who’s Morgan?” Daniel asked, and I was surprised to find him still there, standing next to me, his arms almost as full as Cole’s with empty crates. The tap room had dwindled down to me and Cole for a minute as I crashed my way through long lost memories, but Daniel’s voice brought me back to the present. Cole gave him a look that said he wasn’t going to bother answering his question and proceeded to clumsily retrieve the crates Daniel had previously taken from him. I only sat down again once Cole had left – without saying another word to any of us – and proceeded to tell the others who Morgan was.

“She older or younger?” Kat asked.

“Older. Just by a year. She took it hard,” I said.

“Well, her brother did die, Liv,” Daniel said in a low voice, as if he had to remind me.

“I’d like to talk to her,” Kat continued, “but I guess you’re not the best person to put me in touch with her.”

I shook my head, “I wouldn’t even know where to begin with Morgan. The same goes for pretty much everyone else in this town.”

Kat and Ray shared a look that was worth an entire sentence. “Yeah, I’m starting to pick up on that,” Kat said, “having you around might be more of a hindrance than a help.”

“Is that going to be a problem?” I asked, and Kat gave me a quizzical look. “I mean, will it affect your decision on whether or not you do Ethan’s story for the next season?”

“Oh,” Kat said, taking a sip of her beer and then placing it carefully back on the table between us again. “We’re definitely doing Ethan’s case, don’t worry about that. I was just hoping you might be able to help grease the wheels a little bit, but it looks as though we’ll have to go with a different tactic. We’re obviously not about to record anything with Cole, so how about we go somewhere a bit quieter and get some intro stuff with you on tape, and then we can take it from there? We might find that it’s easier getting on with things with you back in Portland, but we may as well get an interview with you while you’re here, right?”

In some ways, this was exactly what I wanted to hear. I didn’t want to be here, not really. I felt safest, and most myself in Portland, but I also didn’t want to just leave Kat and Ray here on their own, here where the story could be told any way they wanted, any way the town wanted it to be told. If they stayed here without me, I felt sure something would go wrong and the story would get mangled, led astray again, and Ethan would stay stuck in prison.

“Okay,” I said, nodding slowly, and taking a long pull on my beer so that when I put it back down, it was practically drained. “Can I just ask … what made you decide to definitely do Ethan’s story? You didn’t seem so sure back in Portland.”

Kat raised both her eyebrows at me, and then I watched as her whole face tightened into a strange grimace. “It’s hard to explain what draws us to a story and what doesn’t … it’s just a feeling, I guess? That something’s wrong? We can’t be sure what we’re going to find here, but the fact that we filed a request for the police files over a week ago, and we still haven’t got them … Well, that tells us there’s probably something in those files they don’t want us to see.”

I nodded, able to follow Kat’s logic. But really, all my attention was on the thought of those old police files. Of what was in them, of what they revealed, of what long held secrets they might hide inside.

Back at the B&B I watched as Ray set up the equipment, and Kat looked over her notes. I was starting to regret the beer: my brain felt on the verge of fuzzy, my blood a little too warm, and my heart was beating a little too loud, a little too fast. I swallowed, thinking of all the interview requests my family and I had refused ten years ago. What was I doing, agreeing to this? I licked my lips, so sure they were beginning to crack open, they felt so dry, and Kat silently handed me a large glass of water. I swallowed it down, almost desperately, and when I looked over to thank her, she smiled.

“It’s normal to be nervous, Olivia. Just take a few deep breaths and try to forget about the microphones.”

I looked pointedly at the microphone Ray was at that moment setting up in front of me, and Kat laughed. “Well, I did say try to forget.”

* * *

Extract from transcript of Season 3 Episode 1 of Shadow of a Doubt:

Ethan Hall: If I’d taken the plea, and pled guilty to manslaughter, I’d be getting out right about now. I think about that all the time.

But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t admit to killing someone when I hadn’t done it, not even accidentally.

It’s weird – how many people do you think have perjured themselves just to take a plea? To be sure of a lighter sentence? Our justice system is … it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. And I’m testament to that.

Kat Thomas [voiceover]: And it’s this system that put Ethan Hall behind bars for a crime he claims he didn’t commit that we’re about to investigate.

I’m Kat Thomas, you’re listening to Switchblade Media, and this is the third season of Shadow of a Doubt.

Musical interlude with snippets of dialogue overlaid between Kat Thomas, Ethan Hall, Kevin Lawrence, Morgan Washington and Olivia Hall as well as news caster announcements.

KT [continued]: Ten years ago, on August 24, in the city of Twin Rivers in Oregon, 18-year-old Tyler Washington was found dead in the woods that surround the town. Son of the mayor, captain of the basketball team, and set to start college in Southern California in just a few short weeks, Tyler’s death shocked not just his many friends, and his loving family, but the town itself, and even the entire state. His death didn’t remain a mystery for long however, as less than a week later, Ethan Hall, a classmate of the dead teen was arrested for Tyler’s murder. Prior to arrest, Hall had been interviewed without an attorney present for almost seven hours and during this time confessed to his classmate’s murder, only to recant and plead not-guilty.

If there’s anyone who knows the ins and outs of Ethan Hall’s case, it’s his twin sister Olivia. Olivia now works under a different name at a law firm in Portland, a career she says she felt called to after her twin was – she believes – wrongly imprisoned.

Olivia Hall: I just think the system failed him at every turn. I remember thinking, the whole time during his trial and even before that – the trial didn’t actually take place until almost a year after Tyler was killed – something has to happen. Something has to happen, something new has to come to light, because surely he’s not going to be convicted of this.

KT: But nothing ever did.

OH: No. And it’s not like he didn’t have the resources and support, you know? His defense attorney was a friend of our father, we were there for him the entire time, but it just shows how easy it can be for appearances to dictate beliefs.

KT: What do you mean by that?

OH: Just that Ethan was something of an easy mark. He was different from everyone else in town, he didn’t have many friends.

KT: You weren’t particularly close at the time of his arrest, were you?

OH: No. We spent most of high school not talking to each other.

KT: Do you regret that now?

OH: I don’t know. It’s hard to say … we’re much closer now. Closer in some ways than we’ve ever been, but I like to think that would have happened as we got older anyway. As a teenager you’re stuck in this weird dichotomy where you’re constantly trying to figure out who exactly you are, while simultaneously trying to figure out how to fit in. You want to be different, and special, and to stand out, but you also want to be part of the crowd. Ethan never had any of that, to be fair. I’m talking about me more than anything. Ethan was always just so distinctly … Ethan, and teenagers don’t always respond all that well to people who are actually being themselves, you know? I do think as we got older we would’ve figured out a way to be friends again, though. Even without all this.

KT: But it’s fair to say your brother’s arrest and conviction threw you back together? Made you closer?

OH: Yeah, I guess it’s kind of ironic, right? We’ve become closer even though, physically, we’re separated.

KT: So, Tyler’s death, Ethan’s arrest – it really did change your life, didn’t it?

[pause]

OH: Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. It definitely did.

KT: Do you think you would’ve become a lawyer if it hadn’t been for your brother’s case?

OH [laughs]: Definitely not. It wasn’t even on my radar. I didn’t even have a major picked out at that point, I don’t think, but pre-law definitely wouldn’t have been on the shortlist.

KT: And at the same time that your brother was arrested, you were also dealing with the death of a friend. Because, and this is kind of a weird twist of fate – you were good friends with Tyler weren’t you?

OH: We were friends, yes. I … I don’t know if I’d describe us as ‘good friends’. He was best friends with my boyfriend at the time, and we hung out a lot, but kind of just in that way you do as a big group of friends and acquaintances when you’re a teenager, you know? I never spent any time with him, just him and me. It never would’ve even occurred to me. We weren’t calling each other up to go to the movies together, or anything, let’s say.

KT: And it was your boyfriend Cole, who found Tyler’s body that morning, right?

OH: I actually think it was their friend, Nick. Nick Green. The three of them – Tyler, Cole, and Nick – were all very close, and from what I can remember, Tyler’s parents called both Cole and Nick up that morning to see if he was with either of them – they used to end up spending the night at each other’s houses all the time. But he wasn’t, and they all got a little worried, so they went out to look for him. Nick, and Cole, and Tyler’s dad and uncle. But it was Nick who actually … actually spotted him first, and told the others. I’m pretty sure.

KT: It sounds like you remember that morning pretty well, Olivia.

OH: I do. It’s impossible not to. You’re not likely to ever forget the moment your best friend calls you up to tell you your friend has been found dead, and that he’s probably been murdered.

KT: And was it around this time that your friends started distancing themselves from you?

OH: Yes. Well … no, not immediately, I guess. It was a very strange, strained time, that whole week. It already had this surreal quality to it, because we were all getting ready to leave for college. And then, suddenly Tyler was dead, and my brother was arrested, and all of that … all of that just disappeared. And because I stuck by my brother, and refused to believe he could’ve killed Tyler, I ended up losing all my friends too.

KT: That must’ve been difficult.

OH [quietly]: Yeah. It was tough. I don’t like to talk about it much – except to my therapist – because so many people have had it so much worse. Tyler’s family lost him, and my brother is in jail for something he didn’t do, so falling out with your high school friends and breaking up with your boyfriend kind of pales in comparison, but it was definitely a hard time. For a lot of reasons.

KT: And what about media attention? Did the case generate much?

OH: It did, yeah, although it was mostly local, and a few state-wide news stories. But it was enough. More than enough. Tyler was the mayor’s son, so within Twin Rivers at least, he and his family were pretty high profile, which impacted the media coverage, as well as the … attitude and atmosphere. Towards Ethan. And us. His family.

KT: In a case like this, with quite a lot of media coverage – some would say biased media coverage – as well as the inherent bias within the city against the defendant, I would expect the court to decide to bring in jurors from outside. Did they do that at all?

OH: I think at one point they were going to, but in the end, they decided not to.

KT: Do you know why?

OH: I honestly couldn’t tell you. Knowing what I know now, I think it was a pretty extraordinary decision.

KT: And you’ve never wavered in your belief in your twin?

OH: Never. He’s innocent, I know it.

KT: If he is innocent, then that means whoever did kill Tyler Washington is still out in the open, living their life, possibly still in Twin Rivers, while your brother sits behind bars. Do you ever think about that, about who did actually kill Tyler?

OH: I think about it all the time. I go to bed thinking about it, I wake up thinking about it, I have nightmares about it. But, and this is going to sound so incredibly selfish: My main concern is with getting Ethan out of prison. Getting him a retrial, having him exonerated, clearing his name. I can’t tell you who killed him, but if there’s one thing I’m sure of it’s that Ethan Hall did not kill Tyler Washington.

11.

THEN

Ethan’s lawyer is done questioning Kevin, and the judge asks the prosecutor if he’d like to cross-examine the witness.

Unsurprisingly, he does and as he stands up from his chair, buttoning up his suit jacket as he does so, he says to Kevin, “What exactly is your relationship to the defendant, Mr Lawrence?”

“We’re friends?” Kevin says, giving the prosecutor a quizzical look.

“You don’t sound completely sure of your answer, Mr Lawrence.”

“No, I mean we are friends. I just … we’re not related or anything.”

“No, but you have known one another for quite some time have you not?”

“Since kindergarten, yeah.”

“And would you describe yourself as Mr Hall’s best friend?”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

“You suppose?”

“I’ve never really thought about it, if I’m honest,” Kevin says shrugging, “I guess he’s my best friend. He’s kind of my only friend.”