James Patterson - 12th of Never

But I had gotten a compelling, nearly irresistible call from my former partner, Warren Jacobi, now chief of police. He had said, “I’m not saying drop-kick the baby and come in right away. It’s like this. Brady is short-staffed and over-whelmed. He needs your help.”

My old blue Explorer was parked a half block down from our apartment. I got in, turned the key in the ignition, and the engine started right up, almost as if it had been waiting for me.

I pulled out onto Lake Street and the car shot away from the curb, tires screeching. I could not wait to get to the Hall.

Chapter 20

BRADY’S GLASS-WALLED OFFICE is about the size and shape of a votive candleholder. He was sitting at his desk, dwarfing it with his bulk, his head bowed over an open file, phone clapped to his ear.

I no longer felt steamed that this once was my office when I was squad lieutenant. I had wanted to work hands-on, on the street, and I wanted that badly enough to ask for a demotion to sergeant. I rarely regretted that decision.

I knocked on the glass door and Brady looked up, said into the phone, “I’ll call you later.” He hung up, got to his feet, reached across the desk, and shook my hand.

“Good to have you back, Boxer. You feel okay? Want desk work for a couple of weeks? Kind of ease back into things?”

“I’m good, Lieutenant. I’ve been running. Doing tai chi. I’m good.”

He nodded, said, “Sit down. I think the chief told you—Peters asked for time off. Oxner transferred to Vice, so I’m down a team. I’ve been working with Conklin but he needs a real partner. I have to manage the bullshit going on around here.”

“Sure. I understand.”

As Brady sat back down and began patting down his desk, I thought about how much we’d been through since he joined the squad a year and a half ago. His first day, he told me to my face that I was nowhere on my current case. That I was sucking swamp water. He wasn’t running for office, that’s for sure, and I didn’t like him.

About a week after that, we were bringing down a freaking serial psycho killer together. Bombs went off and Brady took a stance in front of a moving car and unloaded his gun.

Six months ago—another killer, a different day—Brady took two bullets during another act of profound bravery.

Jackson Brady didn’t give good eye contact. He didn’t sugarcoat anything. I didn’t love his management style. But I did respect him.

He was a good cop.

He found the file he was looking for and started filling me in on the death of Faye Farmer, former Project Runway winner and late, great designer to the stars.

“Take a look,” Brady said. He handed me a sheaf of crimescene photos of the victim in the driver’s seat of a late-model Audi, slumped against the car window. Close-ups of the gunshot wound made it look to me like the shot had been delivered at close range.

Brady said, “You and Conklin are on this case. He’ll bring you up to speed.”

“Sure thing.”

“I wish it was a sure thing,” said Brady. “Conklin will tell you. The DB has vanished from the morgue.”

“Vanished how?”

“Vanished—poof,” Brady said. “The case of the purloined corpse. The media is going to go nuts when they find out. Claire says doors were opened with keys. Surveillance disk was jacked. It had to be an inside job, so talk to her. We find out why her body went poof, we’ve got a lead into who killed her. It goes without saying I want to be kept posted.”

Brady was already back on the phone before I left his office to find my partner.

Chapter 21

MARIA ORTEGA WAS a naturalized American citizen, but she looked scared, as if Immigration were waiting to deport her when she stepped off the witness stand. Yuki knew that Ortega was timid, but even if Kinsela crushed her on cross, her story would be on the record and firmly in the jurors’ minds.

Yuki smiled at the young woman in the demure navy-blue dress and walked toward the witness box.

“How are you today, Ms. Ortega?”

“Fine,” she said in a near whisper. “Thank you.”

“Will you tell us where you worked in December of last year?”

“I work for Mr. and Mrs. Sean Murphy on Lopez Avenue.”

“And what did you do for the Murphys?”

“I clean their house every day.”

“And is the Murphy house near the house where Keith Herman lived with his family?”

“Yes. They live three houses away.”

“Okay. Mr. Kinsela, you mind if I borrow your overhead view of Lopez Avenue?”

“Since you’re unprepared,” Kinsela said.

“Thank you, Counselor,” Yuki said, smiling for the jury. She pointed to the house three doors north of the Herman house. “Ms. Ortega, is this the Murphy house?”

“Yes.”

“So can you tell us about a certain conversation you had there with Lily Herman? And please speak loud enough for the jury to hear you.”

“I was sweeping the walk and Lily was riding her bike on the sidewalk. She stopped to say hello.”

“What made this conversation memorable to you?”

Ortega wrung her hands. “Lily looked like she had been crying. She got off her bike and it fall to the ground. She ran to me for comfort. Into my arms.”

“Please go on, Ms. Ortega.”

“I hugged her and she started to cry some more. She said her father shook her. She pulled up her sweater. She showed me bruises on her arms,” Ortega said. “They look like they were from fingers. Squeezing hard.”

“She had these bruises on both arms?”

“Yes. And on her neck. I saw marks.”

Yuki counted to ten, letting Ortega’s words soak into the room before she spoke again.

“And did you ask Lily about these marks?”

“Oh, yes.”

“And what did Lily say?”

The witness followed Yuki with her eyes, as if Yuki were a clock and Maria was desperate to know the time.

“Lily told me that her father grab her. And that he shake her. And that he tell her he would like to kill her.”

“Objection, Your Honor. This is hearsay and it is prejudicial. I move that the testimony be struck and the jury be instructed to disregard it.”

Nussbaum said, “I’m still the judge, Mr. Kinsela. Both you and Ms. Castellano come here so that we can have a quiet chat.”

Yuki and Kinsela crossed to the bench and Yuki said, “Your Honor, the witness reported this incident to the police on the day Lily spoke to her. It’s in the police report. Opposing counsel knows this and the sole purpose of his objection is to intimidate the witness.”

“No more shenanigans, Mr. Kinsela. Ms. Castellano, continue with your direct.”

Yuki went back to the witness and asked Maria Ortega if she had called the police to report the incident. Ortega said she had. Yuki asked her the name of the police officer and she said, “Officer Joseph Sorbera.”

“When Officer Sorbera came to the Murphy house in response to your call, what happened?”

“I talked to him for a minute, then Mr. Murphy told the officer that I was confused. That I was … ‘hysterical.’”

“What happened after that?”

“They fire me,” she said.

“Did they give you a reason?”

“I not supposed to make Mr. Herman mad.”

Yuki said, “Were the Murphys afraid of Mr. Herman?”

Kinsela said, “Objection. Leading the witness and also inappropriate as hell.”

“Sustained.”

Yuki said, “I withdraw the question. Ms. Ortega, did you ever talk to Lily again?”

Ortega burst into tears. Yuki handed the young woman a tissue, and after a moment, asked her if she could continue.

Ortega nodded and regained her fragile composure. She said, “I never saw her again.” She said it more strongly the second time. “I never saw her again .”