the middle of the rear seat.
“Seems reasonable enough, based on the trace we’ve uncovered so far. The
blood spray patterns, fiber and print evidence would certainly support
that conclusion,” Liz said.
“Okay, looking at where the body ended up, Brophy was most likely
sitting facing the rear. You say he may have turned his head and that
accounted for the heavy residue on the rear seats. Right?”
“That’s right.” Liz was nodding her head as she followed Sawyer’s
reconstruction.
“Now, Brophy’s wound was of the contact variety, there’s little doubt of
that. How far would you say that it?” Sawyer was pointing to the space
between the front and rear seats of the passenger area.
“We don’t have to guess,” Liz said. She walked over to her desk, pulled
out a tape measure and came back over. With Jackson’s assistance she
measured the space. Liz looked at the result on the tape and then
frowned as she now saw where Sawyer was headed with his analysis. “Six
feet six inches from the middle of one seat to the other.”
“Okay, based on the absence of residue on the rear seats, Archer and
Goldman were sitting there, their backs flush against the seats, you
agree?” Liz nodded, as did Jackson. “All right, is it possible for
Sidney Archer, if she was sitting with her back flush against the rear
seat, to have perpetrated a contact wound on Brophy’s right temple?”
Liz answered first. “No, not unless her arms dragged the ground when
she walked.”
Sawyer was eyeing Liz carefully. “How about Brophy was leaning toward
Archer, very close, and she pulls the gun and fires. His body falls on
her, let’s say, but she pushes him off and he lands on the floor. What’s
wrong with that picture?”
Liz thought for a moment. “If he was leaning forward–and he really
would have had to almost leave his seat–then given the distance, the
shooter would still have to be doing about the same thing: They would
sort of meet in the middle, so to speak, for the contact wound to be
possible. But if the shooter is leaning forward, then the spray
patterns would be different, more than likely. The shooter’s back is
not flush with the seat. Even if her body caught most of the residue,
it would be highly unlikely for some not to have ended up on the seat
behind her. For her to remain flush against the seat when she fired,
Brophy would most likely had to have been almost in her lap. That
doesn’t seem too probable, does it?”
“Agreed,” Sawyer said. “Let’s talk about Goldman’s wound for a minute.
She’s sitting next to Goldman on his left side, okay?
Wouldn’t you think his entry wound would have been to the right temple
and not in the middle of the forehead?”
“He could’ve turned to face her–” Liz started to say, and then stopped.
“But then the blood spray patterns wouldn’t make sense.
Goldman was definitely looking toward the front of the limo when the
bullet hit him. But it could still be possible, Lee.”
“Really?” Sawyer pulled up a chair, sat down in it, held an imaginary
gun in his right hand, coiled it around and pointed it backward as
though he were about to shoot someone sitting on his left, in the
forehead as that person stared directly ahead. He looked at Liz and
Jackson. “Pretty awkward, isn’t it?”
“Very,” Jackson said, shaking his head.
“It gets even more awkward, guys. Sidney Archer is left-handed.
Remember, Ray, her drinking coffee, handling the pistol? Left-handed.”
Sawyer repeated his performance, this time holding the imaginary firearm
in his left hand. The result was almost laughable as the bulky agent
contorted his body.
“That would be impossible,” Jackson said. “She’d have to turn and face
him to inflict a wound like that. Either that or she pops her arm out
of the socket. Nobody would fire a pistol in that manner.”
“So, if Archer is the shooter, she somehow shoots the driver in the
front seat, jumps across to the rear seat, blows away Brophy, which
we’ve already shown she couldn’t have done, and then supposedly nails
Goldman using a completely unnatural–in fact impossible–firing angle.”