Twenty-four

By now Terry Hadley could assess the case against his client.

The cache that investigators seized from the storeroom cabinet on January 2—the ammunition and spent hulls, the blue towel from Curtis Dunaway's car, and a grocery bag with Zeigler's palm print—certainly suggested Zeigler's guilt, but did not prove it.  The same was true of the evidence from the Dunaway Olds.  The blood on the car's headrest, the tissue with his fingerprint, and the unfired Smith & Wesson revolver on the backseat all suggested his guilt, but did not prove it.

Zeigler's fingerprints, predictably, were found throughout his store.  But none incriminated him.

Don Frye and the prosecution believed that Zeigler had worn rubber surgical gloves to commit the crimes, and had lost a glove tip in the struggle with Perry Edwards.  But no fingerprints were recovered from the nipple of latex found near the northwest corner of the showroom. (Zeigler was prepared to testify that he had gotten some surgical rubber gloves while he was in the Army Reserve, and that he kept them in the store to use while polishing or retouching furniture.)

The insurance policies were suggestive, but Hadley believed that they could be explained at trial.

Only one witness, Thomas Hale, supported the state's claim that Zeigler had driven Eunice to the store on Christmas Eve.  Hale's identification of the wrong automobile would compromise his testimony, and Hadley believed that he could impeach it even further.  Felton Thomas's testimony was vague; Hadley thought that he was vulnerable to a strong cross-examination.

By far the most damning evidence against Zeigler was the testimony of Edward Williams.  It was mostly uncorroborated, and Williams could hardly be called a disinterested witness: his truck was found at the murder scene, and he had ended up in possession of the principal murder weapon, the Securities .38.  And the paper trail to the RG revolvers, one of which had killed Eunice Zeigler, led to Williams's friend Frank Smith.  Yet Williams had been an effective, convincing witness at the preliminary hearing, and apparently once more before the grand jury.

Zeigler and Williams could not both be telling the truth; their versions of what happened when they arrived at the store together were irreconcilable.  Unless unfinished tests from the FBI Lab produced some startling evidence, the trial verdict could swing on the conflicting testimonies of Tommy Zeigler and his former handyman.