Stephen Penner - Presumption of Innocence

The guard laughed. "Congrats, you've got a trial buddy. Now get in there."

He half-pushed Karpati into the small, windowless room, and secured the door. Then he turned down the hall and yelled, "Sandholm! Cell four!"

***

Lizzy walked confidently down the cement hallway to cell number four. Brunelle was impressed. Chen not so much.

"You sure this is a good idea?" he asked as they both hunched over the monitor. "She looks awful young."

"She is awful young," Brunelle answered. "But damn, she sounds just like Holly. If she sticks to 'Uh-huh's and 'Mm-hmm's, Karpati should buy it."

Chen nodded. "Welles is gonna be pissed."

Brunelle laughed a bit. "Good."

***

The cell door slammed behind Lizzy and now all they could do was listen, and hope Karpati said something stupid.

The whole gambit was based on some dubious psychological profile Brunelle had attributed to Karpati. Karpati was a control freak-among other things. That's why he'd hired Welles, the best of the best, and a control freak himself. As long as he was getting three hots and a cot and Welles was at his side for every court date, then he was in control. Like the psychopath in the movie, straight-jacketed and a hockey-mask over his mouth to protect the young cop. He couldn't move, but he was still in control. Polite and courteous and prepared to eat your throat out if the opportunity presented itself.

But control is all about knowing what's coming next. Take the psychopath out of his element, sever him from his expected lines of information ( Why hadn't Welles told him about this hearing? ), and the discomfort level rises. Control freak wants control back, and after all, he's still a freak.

"Arpad?" Lizzy whispered. Smart. A whisper would be harder to recognize as not Holly.

Karpati didn't reply.

"Arpad?" she whispered again, but louder so it was more of a raspy yell.

"Shut the fuck up," Karpati replied.

Lizzy waited a few seconds. "Sorry, I thought you'd know what's going on."

Nice. Appeal to that control freak vanity. Girl had a future as a detective.

Karpati only hesitated for moment before replying, "I mean shut the fuck up about the case. Don't say shit. They're trying to scare you into testifying against me."

"I am scared, Arpad." The whisper was working. She kept it up. And short sentences. Excellent.

"Don't be. You'll be fine. Just don't snitch me out."

If Brunelle had been impressed with Lizzy so far, he was amazed by the next level. She turned on the water works. Fuck detective, the girl had a future in Hollywood.

"My lawyer says I'll get life!"

"Shut up, damn it. Shut up!"

Control freak doesn't like crying. Brunelle filed that away.

"Just don't say shit and we'll both be okay."

"My lawyer says," Lizzy half-whispered, half-sobbed, "if I don't say anything, you'll be fine. But I'm going to prison for the rest of my li-li-life!"

Brunelle leaned toward the monitor. If this was gonna work, here was where it would work. Moment of truth. Chen leaned forward a bit too.

"Listen to me, Holly. You don't say shit. I tell you what to do and you do it. Period. That's how it's always been. You agreed to that. And nothing changes just because I'm in here. I say knock on the door, you knock on the door. And I say shut up, you shut up. Got it?"

Lizzy paused, being sure to produce a few audible sniffles.

"Got it," she whined. Then, improv-style, "I love you."

Brunelle saw Karpati's mouth curve into a smug grim. "Damn right you do. Now shut the fuck up."

Brunelle leaned back in his chair and gave Chen the thumbs-up to get Lizzy out of there. After Chen hung up with the corrections officers, he turned back to Brunelle. "So, what do you think?"

"It wasn't a confession," Brunelle smiled. "But it'll do. If nothing else, I've got an iron clad case of witness tampering."

Chen raised a finger. "Ah, but Lizzy's not a witness."

Brunelle's smile faded just a bit as he considered his inevitable conversation with the assistant medical examiner. "She is now."

"You did what?! Are you fucking crazy?"

Brunelle had decided to tell his co-counsel first, figuring she'd take the news better. Apparently not.

"You sent a state agent to entrap an in-custody defendant who is represented by counsel and had specifically invoked his right to an attorney?"

Yamata shook her head, sending silky black bangs across her eyes. "My briefs may be exquisite, but even those can't cover your ass on this one."

Brunelle smiled. It was genuine, but he had to prop it up a bit in the corners. "The defendant-who is a murderous psychopath, by the way. Don't think that won't go into the judge's thinking. No one wants to run for reelection as the judge who let the girl-killer back on the street-the defendant made spontaneous statements to a confidential informant. They were not in response to questioning and therefore no Miranda warnings were required."

"Confidential informant?" Yamata laughed. "That's what you're going to go with? She was a C.I.? Okay, well, he was still represented by counsel."

"That's an ethical issue," Brunelle countered, "not an evidentiary one. The bar association may care, but it doesn't suppress the evidence."

"Well, I'm going to care too," Yamata answered, "when you get taken off the case because the bar pulls your license."

"I care too, Dave." It was Duncan. He was standing in the door, arm against the door jam, looking casual, except for the tired frown on his face. "We need to talk."

Yamata jumped to her feet. "I'll be going now," she chimed. She made no effort to conceal her 'I didn't know he was going to do this' gesture from Brunelle as she slipped past Duncan. Duncan just nodded. Then he sat down across Brunelle's desk.

"She's right, you know," he started. "I can't let you try this case if you get in trouble with the bar."

Brunelle nodded. "I know. I think I threaded the needle, though. She didn't ask any questions. Only statements. Everything he said was voluntary, so it didn't need Miranda and I wasn't really contacting him for the purposes of the professional conduct rules."

Duncan frowned. "Do you really believe all that?"

Brunelle shrugged. He almost did. "I'll have to. Karpati was gonna walk. Now I've got an inculpatory statement. And at a minimum, I've got him on a witness tampering charge."

"Attempted witness tampering," Duncan laughed. "It wasn't really the girl." Then Duncan frowned. "Who was it really? And how did you get her parents to agree?"

Brunelle's smile was now fully artificial. "Yeah, about that…"

What bothered Brunelle the most was what wasn't happening. His phone wasn't ringing. He'd left messages for Kat at her work and cell numbers, but no call back yet. He hadn't been explicit in his voicemails, and he didn't know whether Lizzy had even told her, but the lack of a return call was eating away a bit at his stomach.

The other person who wasn't calling was Welles. There was no doubt that Karpati had told him what happened. It would take a minimal amount of checking to discover that no such hearing had ever been set, and that Holly Sandholm had never left the juvenile detention facility across town.

Brunelle had expected Welles to excoriate him the moment he found out. The fact that he hadn't meant the defense lawyer was using his time and talents on drafting up some impressive paperwork. A motion to dismiss, no doubt. Maybe a bar complaint. Probably both.

The day ended with neither person calling him. Brunelle checked the message light one more time on his desk phone, then stepped from his office.

He needed a drink. And a pretty face.

***

Darkness was about the same as last time, maybe a little slower. It was Tuesday after all, not Friday. Instead of three businessmen sharing a table, it was two. And instead of Faust, it was some young guy with a burgundy faux-hawk.