Corrupted (44 page)

“But that's
not
Jason's pattern. That's not who he is. I know his pattern is different. Jason's pattern, or his characteristic, is that he
helps
. He
protects
. Like Mary. Like Richard the Strong.”

“Richard the what?”

“This little guy.” Bennie held up the Lego toy. “Think about it a minute, Lou. Jason's roommate told us that he protected her from the next-door neighbor, who gave her a hard time for being gay. And he started that cafeteria fight because he was protecting his mother's reputation. That's why this toy meant so much to him when he was little. It's a protector, a knight who protects a family.”

“Okay, what's your point?” Lou pulled out the chair next to her, listening intently.

“So what do we know from this?” Bennie reasoned aloud, not knowing where it would take her. “We know that Jason can be violent, but only when he's protecting someone. You follow?”

“Yes.”

“So that night in the alley, what if he was protecting someone? What if there was someone else in the alley that night?” Bennie felt her heart leap at the notion, whether it was hope or folly. “Remember my first instinct was that somebody could've been in the alley and gotten out the other side? Out the back? Remember we looked at it, and we saw that you could scale that wall?”

“Yes.” Lou lifted a gray eyebrow.

“What if Jason killed Richie to protect somebody? What if there was a third person in the alley that night?”

“Why wouldn't he tell us that?”

“Because he's protecting them.” Bennie turned to the laptop and started searching through the video files that Martinez had turned over to them.

“But who? Why?” Lou rolled his chair over, peering at the laptop.

“I don't know.” Bennie scanned the directory for the video files, locating the one from Yearling Street, around the block from Dunbar. There had only been one, and she and Lou had watched it together, just to see if there was anything relevant, but there hadn't been.

She clicked the file, and a dark and grainy videotape popped onto the screen, showing a deserted city street around the corner from the alley. There was only sparse traffic on Yearling, which was one-way, and all she could see were blurry headlights in the darkness and the outlines of the cars, with only poor resolution. It was hard to see the sidewalk because there was only one streetlight providing any illumination, and Bennie assumed the other streetlights were broken.

“I remember this, we watched this.”

“Yes, we wanted to see if there were any witnesses, or anybody doing anything suspicious, like running down the street, as if they were running from the alley. We were trying to substantiate Jason's story that he was framed, too.”

“Right.”

“But we couldn't.” Bennie watched the numbers of the time clock running at the bottom of the frame, before the murder. A shadowy figure appeared on the screen and started walking down the street, away from the camera, but the picture was so grainy, it was hard to tell what they looked like.

“So there's somebody, but that's before the murder.”

“Right.” Bennie remembered having gone over this and why they rejected it before. “And we dismissed that person as a witness, because Jason said there was no shouting during the fight. There was nothing to hear, so there was nothing to follow up on.”

“Right.”

“Now, watch. I think I remember there was somebody.” Bennie and Lou watched the screen and stopped the video when 11:15 passed. “So this is roughly when the murder occurred. We can double-check it later and run the videos side by side, but I can't run two videos at the same time on the same screen and I want to keep going.”

“You don't need to, I follow you. Jason enters the alley at eleven fifteen and he's in there right now.”

“Correct.” Bennie watched the screen, and another shadowy figure appeared. “There we go. Who is that person? What's that about?”

“It doesn't look like somebody running away from a murder or any kind of fight in an alley. That's why we didn't think it mattered. Someone walking calmly down a street.” Lou leaned away from the screen to see it better. “I wish you could enlarge that.”

“Let me try.” Bennie enlarged the video as much as she could, but they still couldn't tell what the figure looked like, except that it appeared to be carrying something.

“Doesn't look like they were in the alley, Bennie. Not with a package.”

“We don't know that. It's at least possible. Something could be in the package, something relevant, for all we know.”

“So ask Jason. Confront him with it.”

“He'll lie. He's a knucklehead, like you said. I'm just trying to save him from himself.”

Lou paused, thinking it over. “So how exactly do you think it went down in the alley?”

“I don't know, but we need to find some better videotape.” Bennie turned to him. “You have buddies on the force you can call, don't you?”

“You know I do.”

“So maybe you could get us some new videotapes. Go call a few of them. We got videos from Dunbar, but ask them which traffic cams there are on Yearling, around the block from Dunbar. Or ask them which of the stores on Yearling have good surveillance video cameras. See if you can rustle up any more videos that show Yearling at the relevant time.”

“I suppose I could ask around.” Lou rose, hitching up his pants.

“Also stop by the Mayfair Bar & Grill and ask some questions. See if you can find out if Richie made any enemies there, like maybe that guy he pulled the paring knife on.”

“You really believe in this kid, don't you?”

“Yes. He's Richard the Strong.”

“Well, okay.” Lou reached for the bag of takeout. “I'm Lou the Hungry, and I'm taking my lo mein.”

 

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Darkness fell outside the conference room, but Bennie forked garlicky sautéed vegetables into her mouth and watched the video of the figure walking down Yearling, for the umpteenth time. The more she watched the video, the more she thought she was onto something. Maybe there really had been a third person in the alley, but she had no idea who. She kicked herself for missing it before, but she hadn't come up with her revelation about Jason's pattern of behavior until she'd heard Doreen's testimony. She fought the impulse to go see Jason and ask him, but she wanted more information before she confronted him. If she went prematurely, he'd just deny it, and she'd have shown her hand.

She slurped down a peapod dripping in sauce, eyeing the video files that filled up her laptop screen. The Commonwealth had turned over seven videos from Dunbar Street, and Lou had managed to get ten more via blue magic. Bennie thought again that if people knew how often they were filmed in public, they would never leave the house. She wondered if any of the other videos showed the unidentified figure entering the alley, but there was only one way to find out. She dropped her fork inside the take-out container, set it aside, and got to work.

Bennie began with the videos that the Commonwealth had turned over and clicked through video after video, freeze-framing when she was unsure of what she was seeing. All of the videos were the same. None of them even started videotaping before nine o'clock, which made sense. The detectives would have focused their investigation on the time of the murder and worked backwards, and they would have stopped as soon as they had seen video of Jason entering the alley.

Bennie reached for her cell phone, scrolled to F
AVORITES
, and pressed Lou, who picked up after one ring. “Hi, did you find out anything?”

“Not yet, I'm working on it,” Lou answered, over traffic noise in the background.

“Okay, but I forgot something.”

“Milk, eggs, butter?”

“Find me some video from before Jason goes into the alley. Go back as far as you can.”

“You mean earlier in the day?”

“Yes. Whoever went out of the alley had to go into it.” Bennie flashed on something that Stokowski had said on the witness stand. “Remember, Stokowski testified that Richie always parks in the alley? If somebody knew he was going to park in the alley, then they could've gone in there to meet him, or even to ambush him.”

“Okay, will do.”

Bennie heard a beep on her phone, signaling that another call was coming through, and she checked the screen. “Lou, hold on, I'm getting another call, it's DiNunzio.”

“Take it. I gotta go. I'll catch you later.”

“Thanks. Bye.” Bennie swiped E
ND
C
ALL
&
A
CCEPT
with her thumb. “DiNunzio, what's up?”

“Bennie, have you been online recently? I'm just giving you the heads-up.” Mary sounded nervous. “I have us on Google Alert, and that reporter Karen just posted a story about your murder case.”

“Great.” Bennie simmered. “If she reported anything that hurts my client, I'll sue. The jury isn't sequestered, and the last thing we need is a mistrial.”

“The story isn't about your client. It's about you, personally.”

“About
me
?” Bennie felt her gut tense as she navigated out of the video. “I thought she liked me. I gave her the interview.”

“I'm really sorry John talked to the reporter. He's sorry, too. He's going to apologize to you.”

Bennie's heart started to thump. She went online, pulled up the front page of the paper, and spotted the Court News column. The headline read,
HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A LAWYER SCORNED
. The lede began:

Superlawyer Bennie Rosato is defending her first murder case in years, and it may just be a coincidence, but the murder victim, Richie Grusini, happens to be the nephew of an old flame of hers, who ditched her over a decade ago, fellow barrister Declan Mitchell. Reliable sources reveal that the famously single Rosato had a romantic relationship with Mitchell, which he ended when things got dicey, since she was then representing his nephew's bully, Jason Lefkavick, in a previous juvenile action.

“Oh my God.” Bennie felt mortified. She'd had the press take shots at her before in print, but never about anything private. Now Mary would know about Declan and so would all the associates. Her friends would know. She'd never felt so embarrassed.

“Bennie, don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. I know you took that case for the right reasons, and nobody's going to believe a word of this, least of all me.”

“I did take it for the right reasons!” Bennie shot back, stricken, as she read on:

Lefkavick and Grusini have gone public as being caught up in the notorious Kids-for-Cash scandal that arose in Luzerne County. Lefkavick is currently standing trial for first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Grusini. When questioned by this reporter, Rosato admitted to having represented Lefkavick in the juvenile action, but neglected to reveal that she had been romantically involved with his uncle and ultimately rejected by him.

“Bennie, if there's anything I can do to help you, I'll do it. If you're still at the office, I can come over.”

“No, I'm fine.” Bennie felt her face aflame. She realized what must have happened. Karen must have started digging, then Doreen had spilled the beans, or the other way around. Either way, Bennie's love life, or lack thereof, was online. She thought of Declan, then unaccountably, of their baby. That must be why the story rattled her. Thank God nobody knew about that. She hadn't told a soul.

“Bennie, this is just gossip, nothing more. You know that, right? I mean, really.”

“But if the jury reads it, it could affect the merits of the case.”

“No it can't. How?”

“Because it compromises my credibility.” Bennie felt heartsick. “I have to stand up in front of them and tell them that my client killed Grusini in self-defense.”

“Bennie, you've talked to tons of juries in your time. You have credibility for miles, and the jury doesn't decide a murder case based on what they think of the lawyers anyway.” Mary's voice turned uncharacteristically authoritative. “We both know they decide on the facts and the witnesses. You've told me that yourself.”

Bennie knew it was true. She'd given all the associates that lecture. Still, she fell silent as she read:

Rosato has gone to great lengths to conceal her motivation for taking the murder case. She told her partner and associates at her law firm that she was court-appointed on the case. Yet a subsequent search of court records reveals that Rosato was not appointed to the case, raising major questions. Why is Rosato lying to her own employees? Is Rosato using the court system for revenge at her ex-boyfriend? If so, isn't that a violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility, which lawyers are required to abide by?

“Bennie, I can tell you're reading it. You shouldn't even bother.”

“But the jury will know, and so will the judge, the prosecutor, and everyone—”

“What will they know? So what?”

Bennie swallowed hard. The initial shock of the exposure was subsiding, and she regained her footing. “You're right. This isn't about the case. I don't think it will affect the case. It's just juicy gossip.”

“Exactly. It doesn't affect the merits, even if the jury reads it.”

“True, right.” Bennie couldn't tell if she felt better or worse. She felt better because DiNunzio had made her feel better, but at the same time, she couldn't believe she had gotten herself into a position in which she was being comforted by DiNunzio, whom she'd raised from a baby lawyer. “DiNunzio, listen, I didn't keep it from you or the associates for any nefarious reason. I took the case to do right by the client, because I hadn't before.”

“You don't have to explain it to me or anybody else. You want me to come back to the office? Everybody needs a girlfriend now and then.”