Are you OK? Missed you at dinner.
She replied.
Just shy. ;-)
He replied:
One of my favorite things about you.
Then:
Want company?
Ren punched in:
Are you fucking high?
She deleted it. And replied:
Working...
She deleted it. And replied:
Working...
He typed back.
Sure youre OK?
Sure youre not just looking to get laid?
She sent:
Yes, honestly. Sleep well. And thanks. XX
I should just send him a text:
I am wearing my dead boyfriends T-shirt.
She touched her hand to her heart.
Ben Rader, I miss you so much.
Work. Forget.
She sat up, propped against the pillows and opened a photo of Caleb Veir.
Where are you? Did your daddy kill you? Did your mommy? Did you run from a home you didnt love? Why did you fall out with your mother? Did she do something to you? Did your daddy come home after work, bitching about the inmates at BRCI, calling them psychos, or did he make sure they were humanized? You knew Seth Fuller had been at BRCI... did you allow him to befriend you to provoke your father? Did it provoke your father?
Were you a trusting kind of kid? Would an adult buying you comics and candy just seem like kindness to you, seem unthreatening? Or what if a man like Franklin J. Merrifield approached you? Would you have been afraid of him? Could he have mentioned your father to earn your trust? What made you afraid? Who made you afraid?
Ren opened a new document and started typing.
John Veir lost his temper and killed Caleb accidentally...
John Veir killed Aaron and Caleb because he is a pedophile and was abusing them.
Teddy Veir lost her temper and killed Caleb accidentally...
Teddy Veir killed both boys to get back at John and Shannon for having an affair.
Teddy Veir killed her son to get the same attention her husband gave his mistress when her son died.
Franklin J. Merrifield killed Caleb Veir.
Franklin J. Merrifield abducted Caleb Veir, but has not killed him.
Another former inmate from BRCI abducted/killed Caleb to get back at John Veir for something.
Seth Fuller killed Aaron Fuller and/or Caleb Veir because he is a pedophile.
Aarons death and Calebs disappearance are not connected.
Caleb Veir ran away to see if his parents really cared about him, to give them a fright.
Caleb Veir ran away to bring his parents closer together, because he knew his father had been having an affair.
Caleb Veir ran away because he was disgusted about his fathers affair and thought his mother was weak.
Caleb Veir is still alive, being held by person(s) unknown.
Rens eyes started to close.
Its all too depressing.
Make it go away.
34
Ren woke up with a start at midnight. Her laptop had slid on to the bed beside her. She sat up, pulled it on to her lap and re-read her list. She added Alice Veirs name at the bottom with a string of question marks. She re-read everything again. She stopped at Merrifield.
Hold on... Merrifield... claims he was wrongfully convicted. Alice Veir... is on a wrongful conviction case. Calebs last phone call was to... Alice Veir. Alice Veir has no children. Caleb is the only child in her life. Could he have been seen as a weak spot? Could Merrifield have wanted Alice Veirs help on his case? Would he have gone to any lengths to get it?
Ren went to YouTube and searched for the TV show that Alice Veir had appeared on. She pressed Play.
Ahead of next months International Innocence Program Conference in Portland, Oregon, tonight our panel consists of four lawyers working in the field of wrongful conviction. Its a hot topic right now, following the recent success of Netflix documentary, Making a Murderer, which seems to have gotten the entire world talking...
The presenter introduced the guests. Alice Veir was striking in her sternness, stiff posture, and conservative dress. Her deep brown hair was wavy, cut in a short, unflattering style. She had the same broad lower jaw as her brother, the same dark, steely eyes.
You are the kind of lawyer who is hired to be unleashed.
The presenter turned to Alice: Let me start with you, Alice Veir. You are the odd one out here tonight, in that you are not affiliated with the Innocence Project, and this is, in fact, your first wrongful conviction case. Why dont you talk to us about your client, Anthony Boyd Lorden? He was jailed for life back in 1995 for the murder of sixteen-year-old high school student, Kevin Dunne, who he had picked up hitch-hiking...
If I may, said Alice, Id like to begin by saying that Anthony Boyd Lorden is an innocent man, who has spent twenty-one years in prison for a crime he did not commit. There was not one piece of evidence that linked my client to the body of Kevin Dunne.
But what you havent mentioned is that your client confessed, said the presenter.
Alice nodded. Yes, she said, and I know this is one of the toughest things for people to wrap their brain around why someone would confess to a crime they didnt commit. Let me try to explain: theres a type of false confession called coercion-compliant. Its when people confess because they are so broken down, so desperate, so exhausted, so lied to, that they will say anything to get out of an interview room. Sometimes, it can be as simple as that. Many suspects or witnesses believe that because they didnt commit the crime, there will be no evidence to back up their confession, therefore they couldnt possibly be convicted. But, of course, sadly, as everyone on this panel knows, thats not how it works.
The other panelists nodded.
Its my view, said Alice, that the investigation into Kevin Dunnes death was fast-tracked for political reasons. It was not carried out in the interest of justice. The lack of evidence is staggering. She raised a finger for each item on her list. No DNA not a hair, a fingerprint, a droplet of sweat, blood spatter nothing. There was no motive. There was no weapon. Let me make this very clear: Im not denying that my client stopped on the side of the road and picked up Kevin Dunne, who was hitch-hiking on a dark, rainy night. Anthony admitted that from day one. What I am saying, though, is that when Anthony let Kevin Dunne out by the side of the road, Kevin Dunne was very much alive and well. That he was not seen by passing motorists can be explained by the fact that it was raining, it was a rural road, therefore, extremely dark, and he was dressed in dark clothing: he would have been almost invisible.
What do you believe happened to Kevin Dunne? said the presenter.
I believe he was beaten to death, consistent with the autopsy findings, said Alice, but I know that my client had nothing to do with it.
Your client was the last person to see the victim alive, said the presenter.
With all due respect, said Alice, the last person to see Kevin Dunne alive was his killer.
Ooh. Nice one.
Ren expected that was Alice Veirs parting shot she had delivered the facts of the case, she had delivered a memorable closing line. But the presenter wasnt ready to let her go just yet.
Now, said the presenter, glancing down at her notes, there was also an eyewitness who placed Anthony Boyd Lorden close to the location where Kevin Dunnes body was eventually found one year after he disappeared.
Eyewitness testimony is notoriously flawed, said Alice, and thats been proven time and time again. There are a huge number of parameters that impact on its reliability: the lighting, the distance from the eyewitness to the suspect, how the selection of suspects is shown to the eyewitness, what is said to the eyewitness. To give you one example: if Im a police officer and I show you six faces on a sheet of paper and I ask you which one of these men did you see on XYZ road?, you will deduce that the suspect is among those men, right? However, if you are asked, Is the man you saw that night one of the men on this page?, then, thats a whole different matter. You cannot underestimate the factors that can lead to misidentification. As human beings we want to please, we want to help, we want to give the right answer. While I do believe that the eyewitness was acting in good faith, this was a case of mistaken identity, affected by various other factors. And one year on how could this eyewitness have been sure?
Why did you take on this case, Ms Veir? said the presenter. After all this time?
It was in 1991 that Anthony Boyd Lorden stopped to pick up Kevin Dunne, said Alice. At that time, I was a young law student at the University of Washington. I was studying the law so I could help people, so I could make a difference. And thats exactly what Im going to do here: make a difference in Anthony Boyd Lordens life. She paused. Or what remains of it, after this travesty of a conviction.
I wouldnt want to be on the other side of a courtroom to you, Alice Veir.
Alice was resisting the presenters attempts to move on to the next panelist. As she was thanking her, Alice interrupted.
For any of your viewers who are interested, said Alice, Id like to direct you to Anthonys interrogation video, which has been posted on the website justiceforanthony.com. Remember, this boy was seventeen years old, and this was a seven-hour interrogation without a break. The video has been edited in a fair and unbiased manner down to three hours just in the hopes that people might watch it. If you do, what you will witness is the brutal, relentless, and devastating abuse of a young man. Those two detectives knew exactly what they were doing: they knew the power of their words, they chose the volume at which they delivered them. They knew the power of their physicality, their facial expressions. They knew the effect of their threats, the delivery and withdrawal of praise... She paused. Anthony Boyd Lorden was one of the unlucky ones someone who put himself in the frame, who volunteered to become a part of our justice system, a system that has drastically failed him, that has robbed him of the best years of his life. Anthony came forward to give information he thought would aid in a homicide investigation. He drove twenty miles to do that, because he remembered that boy who died, he had met him, he had kindly offered him a ride on a dark, wet night. And he let him out on the side of the road where he had asked to be let out. Anthony reluctantly watched Kevin Dunne walk away into the darkness: he had urged him to wait until they reached the next town where there would be more light. And one year later, when Anthony learned that the boy had been found dead, he was devastated. He went straight to the investigating officers to offer help again. And one year after that, he was rewarded by being robbed of the next twenty-three years of his life. Where is the justice in that? I believe in justice. And I will do everything in my power to make sure that not another moment of Anthony Boyd Lordens life is taken away from him.