Torn [J.Barber]

[15] VIOLENT

"You and Mr. Barber have worked together on many cases. Is that right?" Neal asks Ms. Duffy. "We go back, yes." She nods.

It was still day three, though now Dan has left, leaving only May and her mother. May refused to let go of the woman's hand. She knew how hard this was for her.

"Would you describe him as diligent when it came to his work?" Neal adds. "More than that. He was relentless." She corrects.

"Was that relentlessness on display when you were attempting to cut through the school's red tape?"

"He didn't feel the classmates were a priority. We'd already interviewed Ben's close friends." Ms. Duffy states.

"Once you did interview the students, finally, was there anything useful that came out of that?" Neal inquires. "After the initial meetings, nothing much." She shakes her head. "But with some follow-up, we came to learn that there was an ongoing beef between the victim and the defendant."

"Meaning Ben has been bullying the defendant." Neal clarifies. "For some time, yes." The woman nods.

"Was this around the time that you started to view the defendant as a suspect?"

"It was."

"Even his father was still running the investigation?" He continues. "Certain aspects of the investigation had to be carried out without Mr. Barber's knowledge." She tells.

"What did that reveal?"

"That the defendant supposedly had a knife consistent with the wounds." She sighs. "That he had sufficient motive, and he had opportunity, in that his movements the morning of the attack placed him near or at the scene."

"Did you arrest him at this time?" Neal raises his eyebrows. "Not until the fingerprint came back. We then obtained a warrant and searched the house, trying to find the knife, which we did not." She states.

"Did you seize the defendant's computer?"

"We did, but we found nothing directly incriminating."

"Detective, are you aware of a program called Disk Scraper?" Neal checks. "I am. It's a program that wipes hard drives, deletes files, that kind of thing." She confirms.

"Was that program on the defendant's laptop?"

"It was."

May sighs, pursing her lips, and squeezing her mother's hand. "Is it possible that there was incriminating evidence on the laptop, and it was removed by the defendant?" Neal suggests.

"Objection. Calls for speculation." Joanna calls out. "Sustained" Judge French states. "What about pornography?" Neal adds.

May turns to look at Jacob for a moment. "Objection. Relevance." Joanna repeats. "Sustained."

"Let me be more specific. Did you find any violet pornography on the defendant's laptop?" He asks again. "I think all pornography is violent." Mrs. Duffy says, ignoring the question.

"Of course. I mean, specifically, images glorifying abuse or torture." Neal explains.

"Objection. Relevance." Joanna cuts in. "Overruled. The witness will answer." Judge French instructs.

"Some, Yeah." The woman responds hesitantly. May clenches her fists, keeping herself from showing anything, any emotion.

The court begins to whisper amongst each other, Jacob turning back to look at May, who slowly shakes her head.

"No further questions." Neal returns for his spot. "Detective, I assume you have executed countless search warrants in your career, yes?" Joanna cuts in immediately, switching the topic.

"Sure." Ms. Duffy shrugs. "Seized a lot of laptops." She adds. "Yes."

"Have you ever found one that didn't have some pornography on it?" She lightly smiles, causing a few slight laughs. "I don't think so." The detective chuckles.

"Detective, is it true that you were the first to identify Leonard Patz as a person of interest and not Mr. Barber?"

"Yes, I brought Patz to Andy's attention, and we agreed that he was someone we should be looking at." She tells.

"One last question." Joanna states, turning to look back at Jacob. "At any point in the investigation, did Andy Barber behave in any way to suggest that he suspected his own son?"

"No, not in the slightest."

"No further questions, Your Honor." Joanna concludes. "Mr. Loguidice, redirect?" Judge French asks.

Neal turns to look at Andy, the two staring at each other for a moment. "Detective..." he stands.

"... have you ever known Mr. Barber to be violent?" He inquires. "No." She responds. "Are you sure? Never seen him grab somebody by the jacket, push them into a wall?"

"Objection. Relevance." Joanna shouts. "Overruled." Judge French responds, interested. "Once. You. After you provoked him with that crack about his father doing time for—" she pauses.

"Doing time for murder?" Neal finishes for her. "Objection! Your Honor!" Joanna cuts in.

"Sustained. I'll see counsel at sidebar, right now." He instructs. The two follow through, speaking to the man silently once again.

The both of them take their seats. "Ladies and gentlemen, there's a saying in the law, 'You cannot unring the bell.. but I am going to insist that you do just that with regard to the last question.'" Judge French explains.