The Lies that Bind Read Online Free PDF Page A

of type were obvious, an e with a loop that didn’t quite close, a p that was missing part of its tail. “Thanks,” I said.
    â€œSpooky, isn’t it?”
    â€œVery. This note wasn’t typed on Martha’s typewriter, you know.”
    â€œSo the report says.”
    â€œMartha said it was in a sealed envelope.”
    â€œIt was.” Saia leaned back in his chair. “So you want to know how I call it?”
    â€œ Dígame .”
    â€œIt’s the anniversary of Velásquez’s death, and Conover’s distraught. She invites Virga over to talk and runs her down in the road. Willful, deliberate and premeditated murder in the first degree.”
    A smart criminal would never show premeditation; crimes committed in the heat of passion get lesser sentences. The García case had recently made it more difficult to get a first-degree conviction in New Mexico; now you had to prove deliberate intent. But Saia would have had trouble getting first degree for a case like this even before García. He knew it, and so did I. In some states juries will convict an intoxicated person of premeditation, but New Mexico is more tolerant of substance abuse than that. Here they believe a person under the influence isn’t rational enough to premeditate, and Martha appeared to have been under the influence. Saia had said so himself. The only way he’d get a first-degree conviction out of a DWI fatality would be to prove depraved mind murder. He’d have a hard time convincing a jury that a woman as proper as Martha was depraved. “You don’t have a chance,” I told him.
    â€œOn the other hand, maybe Virga’s feeling guilty,” Saia continued. “Okay, Velásquez’s death wasn’t her fault, but she was driving the car, and from all accounts, she loved the guy. She’s afraid of Conover, but she needs to talk to her, tell her she’s sorry, ask for forgiveness, maybe, so she goes to Los Cerros. Conover sees her in the road, steps on the gas, does her, takes some pills, gets in bed and tries to pretend it didn’t happen. Murder in the second degree.”
    â€œYeah,” I thought, “or Justine hates Martha. She’s depressed, full of guilt and suicidal. She goes to Los Cerros, sees Martha’s car, jumps in front of it, kills herself and ruins Martha’s life at the same time. Vehicular suicide.”
    â€œOr else Conover’s been getting into the Halcion,” Saia said, “and it’s making her crazy. She has a few drinks at the AWC meeting, joins the Point One O Club, gets even crazier, sees Justine in the road and runs her down in a drunken fog. Vehicular homicide.”
    The maximum sentence for vehicular homicide is three years, second degree will get you nine and first degree is life. If you’re looking to get off easy, running someone down when you’re drunk is one way to do it. Of course you’d have to be sure you’d complete drunk what you planned when sober. Most people refuse to take a Breathalyzer because they don’t want to be found drunk, but a person might refuse who didn’t want to appear sober. Under the influence? Sober? Martha was the only one who knew for sure. I looked at Saia. He smoothed his hair and looked at me. We were in the same business, we practiced in the same town, we’d gone to the same law school. If we were thinking the same thing, we both had our reasons not to admit it.
    â€œAny way you look at it, there’s no clear precedent for this case in New Mexico,” Saia said. “So much depends on the state of those two women’s minds. If you ask me, there is nothing harder than getting inside a woman’s mind, and one of them is dead anyway.”
    I wasn’t sure that getting inside my client’s head would solve anything. It could be a labyrinth, with a stone wall blocking every twist and turn. Who knew whether Martha herself remembered what