Nancy Grace - Death on the D-List

“I know, sometimes we’d end up laughing at anything while we were waiting on a verdict. You know, the courtroom staff, the court reporter, the sheriffs, the cops who work the case hanging around for the verdict. I guess that’s what they mean by gallows humor. You can get so overwhelmed with it all, sometimes you just laugh at anything.”

The two got quiet again, looking down at the body. Fallon Malone’s beautiful face was nearly gone, blasted out of her head with a single bullet from behind.

Even if she could talk, she likely couldn’t name her killer.

She never saw it coming. He shot from behind.

“Hailey, you said you don’t trust politicians. I have a question for you. Could you ever trust anybody? Anybody at all?”

Hailey looked up at Kolker, taken aback. It was an intensely personal question. Since Will’s murder, it wasn’t so much she didn’t trust anyone… She just couldn’t risk getting close again. To anyone. Losing love again, be it friend or lover, was just too much for her to even consider.

Instead of lashing out at him with a biting or sarcastic comeback, like she normally did whenever someone brought up anything that touched on her and Will, she actually smiled. “That’s a good question, Kolker. Tell you the truth, I haven’t even considered trusting anybody for so long, I’ll have to think on it and let you know.”

The room got quiet again.

“So guys, ready for CSI techs? Plus, the morgue guy is here. They brought the whiz kid with them.” A uniformed cop broke the silence from the doorway.

“Who’s that?” Hailey asked. Who else would want to come see a dead body?

“He’s the rising star over at the Medical Examiner’s Office. Did the initial autopsy on Prentiss Love and then did a second autopsy on Leather Stockton for Suffolk PD. He’s the one who managed to find just enough of a bullet sliver in Prentiss’s brain cavity to get a bullet match, God bless him.” Kolker had heard a lot about this guy. All good.

“That’s odd. The actual MEs hardly ever come out of the office.” Hailey thought it out loud.

“Wish more of them would. It couldn’t hurt. We just called him over because he did the report on Prentiss Love and a second autopsy on Leather Stockton. I’m beginning to think he’s starstruck, a little over -enthusiastic. But he’s certainly making a name for himself,” Kolker responded. As a second thought, he threw back over his shoulder, “Send him in now! But make sure he’s got on booties, gown, and gloves.”

“Don’t worry, Lieutenant, I think the kid actually brought his own!”

I’M SO EXCITED. DON’T YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?”

“Why?” Hailey asked into the phone, knowing full well Tony Russo would tell her whether she wanted to know or not.

“We just got exclusive video. A two-year-old smoking pot! Can you believe it? A two-year-old smoking pot! I died and went to heaven! TV heaven!”

“TV heaven?”

“Yes! Don’t you get it by now? It’s guaranteed ratings!!! The viewers won’t be able to take their eyes off it! I can’t stop watching it! I’m playing it again right now on my monitor! You should see it! But that’s another conversation. That can wait. Right now, we have to have you on the Fallon Malone show.”

Hailey said nothing and continued reading the Post .

“You have to do it! Please? It’ll be flat without you. Nobody on the show will have the guts to challenge Harry or that obnoxious defense attorney, Derek Jacobs. He’s so sleazy.”

“If he’s so sleazy, then why do you have him on the show?”

“Sookie makes me. Plus, he just called his own press conference to announce that he’s representing all three victims’ families.”

“Representing them for what?”

“He didn’t say. But knowing Derek Jacobs, he’ll find somebody to sue.”

“I didn’t know the women had children.” Hailey couldn’t believe she’d missed that fact.

“Oh, none of them do. Jacobs will sue on behalf of parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents. You know, loss of a family member. Wrongful death. Maybe the yoga studio or the apartment building or the Hamptons mansion should have had better security. I don’t know how he’ll sue… but he’ll find a way… Trust me!”

“That is so wrong. It gives lawyers such a bad name.”

“So, come on, please ? You’ll like it because we have video of Fallon’s apartment from Harry’s last interview with her.”

“Please what? What did you say about an interview?” Hailey was no longer paying attention. She was reading an article about a mugger stalking little old ladies all over the East Side.

“Please do the show! The interview… Harry did it about six months ago. Hailey, listen! I don’t think you’re paying attention to me!”

“Okay, I’m listening.” Hailey kept reading the article about the mugger. The mugger’s MO was to loiter around apartment building elevators, waiting until a little old lady with her arms full of groceries stepped on, then smash up her face and take her pocketbook.

“So, Hailey… you have to do it! I’ve already got this great banner for the lower third of screen! It’ll be right under your face! It reads Inside Fallon Malone Murder Apartment!

“Then we run video of Harry’s tour of Fallon’s Manhattan apartment when she did the interview! I was there with Sookie. The apartment was fabulous. We got raw footage of every square inch of the place, although we didn’t use it all originally… We will today! It’ll be perfect!”

“But it wasn’t a ‘murder apartment’ then. When you did the interview and the tour of her place.” Hailey hated to rain on his parade, but she felt compelled to point out the obvious.

“ It is now .” He said it as if it made perfect sense.

Hailey was taking a long, hard look at the composite sketch of the East Side mugger. He sure looked familiar.

“Come on, Hailey… do the show this afternoon. We need the numbers. Our numbers nearly double every time you’re on the show and we talk about the serial killer. Plus, you won’t even have to be on the set with Harry or that sleaze-bucket Derek Jacobs.”

“Hmm. Not remotely tempted yet.”

Russo acted like he didn’t hear her. “It’ll be fantastic. Fallon had Harry over for a one-on-one about her movie career.”

Even over the phone Hailey could picture Tony, sitting at his desk, pumping out sincerity. All the while he’d be typing furiously into his desktop computer and sending messages over his BlackBerry.

Hailey was still processing everything she’d observed at Fallon Malone’s apartment. She’d stayed for a couple of hours, going over evidence with Kolker at some diner where they all seemed to know him pretty well, brought them both lemon meringue pie, and then refused to let him pay.

It had been a long time since Hailey had had lemon meringue pie. She ate the whole piece. It reminded her of home, in Georgia. It tasted just like her grandmother Lucy’s.

Prying her mind away from her grandmother, home, and lemon pie, Hailey said, “Listen, I’d love to do the show. I would, I really would. But I have to see two patients, starting in about ten minutes.”

“Hailey, give me a break. Did I tell you I had to go set up a live shot in Boston last night and the hotel put me in a room next to a dog? A dog, Hailey… a dog.”

“So? What’s wrong with a dog?”

“Well, first of all, I could smell it.”

“You could smell a dog through the walls?”

“Yes. I could. I could definitely smell something shaggy. But even after I asked for a quiet room, they put me next to a dog. I called the front desk at 2 a.m. and held the phone to the wall so they could hear the yapping. Of course, I had them move me to the Presidential Suite. So, is it true you were at the Malone crime scene today?” he asked suddenly, tossing a little bomb into the conversation.