Mystery Writers of America Presents the Prosecution Rests (49 page)

“What if the judge believes him?”

“Like the DA said when I called to tell her how it all went down, squeezing the buttocks is
not
a recognized means of resuscitation in the medical community. Let him test it out in the Riker’s Island infirmary, Sami. I’ll
be taking Melvin downtown to his arraignment from here,” Chapman told me as he left me in the ER. “Call you later.”

The lieutenant had one of the guys drive me home, where I spent the rest of the afternoon napping off the anesthesia, nursing
my sore mouth, and calming my fatigued nerves after a sleepless night. I was too drained to bother with a can of soup. When
the pain hadn’t let up by dinnertime, I spent some time in front of the bathroom mirror, surveying the damage of the excavation.

Mike called me at eight o’clock. “Meet me in an hour at the Palm.”

“Let’s do it another night. I really don’t feel like—”

“Don’t be such a wimp, Sami. Bring an ice pack for your jaw and get over there.”

The cab let me off in front of the restaurant on Second Avenue. It was a New York classic, with lobsters so big you wouldn’t
want to meet them in a dark alley and enough beef to give a cardiologist nightmares. I walked inside to meet Chapman, who
was sitting at the bar with Sully and the team of detectives who had worked the case.

“I’m buying,” Mike said. “The judge just set bail for Trichner at fifty thousand dollars. He told the defense attorney that
if the videotape showed that his client’s hands were anywhere south of Ms. Atwell’s mouth during this dental appointment,
he didn’t want to hear any argument on the merits of the People’s case.”

“Why did you have to pick
this
place?” I asked, massaging my swollen cheek as I tried to ignore the incredible smell of the grilled sirloins, fried onion
rings, and hash browns the waiters kept bringing out of the kitchen to the surrounding tables. “The last thing I want to think
about right now is a thick steak.”

Mike bit his lip as he realized my problem. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. We just didn’t want any more courthouse quiche. I had
a real craving for red meat. C’mon, have a drink.”

“I can’t do that either. I’m on painkillers, remember?”

“Give her a Shirley Temple, straight up,” Chapman told the bartender.

The throbbing in my jaw was still intense.

“What are you still so crabby about, Sami?” he asked me, as the maître d’ told us our table was ready and we carried our drinks
over to sit down for the meal.

“You’re not gonna believe what that creep did, Mike. He pulled the wrong tooth.” An hour ago, when I had examined myself at
home, I had discovered that the tooth that had been giving me all the trouble was still there, surrounded by the inflamed
gum. In front of it was a gaping hole, where a perfectly healthy molar had been when I awakened this morning.

“The poor fool was in such a hurry to get his arms around you that his fingers must have slipped a bit, Sami. You thought
undercover work would be easy? C’mon, we’ve got something to take your mind off your discomfort, right, guys?”

In front of my seat was a serving platter with a domed lid over it, like they use in restaurants to keep the food warm when
it’s being served.

Sully reached across me and lifted the handle. More welcome than the choicest filet, there sat a blue-and-gold shield, with
my name engraved below the most beautiful word in the English language:
Detective.

“Cheers, Sami. Borelli says you’ll get the real one next Friday, at the promotion ceremonies. And Trichner, he’ll get a new
degree too. DDS—Dentist Desires Sex. I think they call it a conviction where I come from. You put that pervert out of business
for us. Welcome to the squad.”

I popped a couple of Tylenols with my drink and sat back in the chair, repeatedly stroking the smooth surface of the shiny
badge with my fingers and feeling no pain.

Phyllis Cohen
is a native New Yorker and a resident of Manhattan. After retiring from a thirty-five-year career in the New York City public
schools, she undertook a mini (micro?) second career as a freelance writer, writing nonfiction at first and then moving on
to fiction. About her fiction, she writes: “The short stories I have written are of many genres—crime, science fiction, relationships—but
there is a common element throughout them of character and human interest.” She is married to Herbert Cohen, a semiretired
electronics engineer and a member of MWA, whose published work includes several mystery stories and a science-fiction novel.

Jo Dereske
is originally from western Michigan, but has lived in Washington State since 1978. She is the author of seventeen books,
including the Miss Zukas mystery series set in Washington and the Ruby Crane mystery series set in Michigan. She currently
lives in the foothills of Mount Baker.

Charlie Drees
admits that when it comes to his literary preferences, he’s a mystery-genre snob. “Chances are, if someone doesn’t die, I
won’t read it.” “By Hook or by Crook” is his first story accepted for publication. (Everyone remembers the first time, right?)
A licensed psychotherapist with over twenty years’ experience, he lives with his wife in Manhattan, Kansas—the Little Apple.

Eileen Dunbaugh
currently makes her living in the publishing industry, where over the years she has worked at a variety of jobs. She is a
dedicated mystery reader who decided it was time to try her hand at writing the type of fiction she loves.

Linda Fairstein
, one of America’s foremost legal experts on crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence, led the Sex Crimes Unit of the
District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan for twenty-five years. A Fellow at the American College of Trial Lawyers, she is a
graduate of Vassar College and the University of Virginia School of Law. Her ten best-selling crime novels have been translated
into more than a dozen languages. The eleventh book in her series,
Lethal Legacy
, was published in February 2009. Her nonfiction book,
Sexual Violence
, was a
New York Times
Notable Book of the Year. She lives with her husband in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard. For more information, visit her
Web site at
www.lindafairstein.com
.

Kate Gallison
lives in Lambertville, New Jersey, with her musician husband and their cat. She has three private-eye novels and five traditional
mysteries to her credit. The
New York Times
called her writing “excitement of an off-beat variety”;
Booklist
, “superb black comedy”;
Kirkus Reviews
, “Well-bred work.” Her Mother Lavinia Grey stories were the talk of the Episcopal Church. Under the name of Irene Fleming,
she writes a series about a woman producing silent movies in the early days of the industry. She is descended from a convicted
Salem witch.

Joel Goldman
is the author of the Lou Mason series of legal thrillers, which have been nominated for the Edgar and Shamus awards.
Shakedown
, the first book in his new series featuring FBI agent Jack Davis, was published in 2008. Joel lives in Kansas City. Learn
more about him and his books at
www.joelgoldman.com
.

James Grippando
is the national best-selling author of sixteen novels, including
Born to Run
, the eighth installment in the acclaimed series featuring Miami lawyer Jack Swyteck. “Death, Cheated,” is the never-before-published
short story that transformed Jack Swyteck from a stand-alone hero in
The Pardon
(1994) to a recurring character in
Beyond Suspicion
(2002). James is also the author of “Operation Northwoods,” another Swyteck short story, and
Leapholes
, a novel for young adults that was a finalist for the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award. James’s books are enjoyed worldwide
in twenty-six languages. He lives in South Florida, where he was a trial lawyer.

Agatha Award–winning author
Daniel J. Hale
is a past executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America. Hale holds an MBA from Cornell University and a JD from
Arkansas’s Bowen School of Law. He teaches creative writing at Southern Methodist University, his alma mater. Learn more at
www.danieljhale.com
.

Diana Hansen-Young
was born in Bellingham, Washington, in 1947, into a community of depressed Mormon Swedish farmers. In 1966 she moved to Hawaii,
ran for the State Constitutional Convention in 1968, and won a seat by ninety-three votes. She went on to run for the Hawaii
State House of Representatives and won. After losing a congressional race, she started painting scenes with Hawaiian women.
For the next twenty-five years, she turned her paintings into a business of postcards, clothing, books, and children’s videos.
In 1996, she developed severe arthritis in her right arm and hand and could no longer hold a paintbrush. For years she had
also been writing plays, novels, and short stories, and tossing them in boxes. Now she dusted them off, closed the business,
and traveled to New York, where she earned an MFA in musical theater writing from New York University. Her Off-Broadway musical,
Mimi Le Duck
, starring Eartha Kitt, premiered in New York City in 2006. A member of Mystery Writers of America, she now writes full-time.

Edward D. Hoch
(1930–2008) was a past president of Mystery Writers of America and winner of its Edgar Award for best short story. In 2001
he received MWA’s Grand Master Award. He was a guest of honor at Bouchercon, twice winner of its Anthony Award, and recipient
of its Lifetime Achievement Award. The Private Eye Writers of America honored him with its Life Achievement Award as well.
Author of more than 975 published stories, until his death he had appeared in every issue of
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
for the past thirty-five years.

Paul Levine
is the author of four legal thrillers featuring Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord, squabbling Miami trial lawyers.
Solomon vs. Lord
was nominated for the Macavity Award as best mystery novel of 2005 and also for the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
The Deep Blue Alibi
was nominated for an Edgar Award in 2006, and
Kill All the Lawyers
was a finalist for the 2007 Thriller Award. His most recent book is
Illegal,
a thriller set in the world of human trafficking. The winner of the John D. MacDonald Award, Levine also wrote the Jake Lassiter
novels and
9 Scorpions,
a thriller set at the U.S. Supreme Court. Levine was co-creator and co-executive producer of the CBS television series
First Monday,
starring Joe Mantegna and James Garner. He also wrote twenty-one episodes of the military drama
JAG.
More information at
www.paul-levine.com
.

Leigh Lundin
, a Florida resident, has lived and worked in both the United States and Europe, and only recently turned to writing. Leigh
was honored with the Ellery Queen Readers’ Choice Award in April 2007, the first time it has been won by a first-time author.

Michele Martinez
is the author of the critically acclaimed thriller series featuring Manhattan federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas. Her books—including
Most Wanted, The Finishing School, Cover-Up,
and
Notorious
—have won awards, been named to numerous “best” lists, and been published in many languages. Her short fiction has been published
in several anthologies. A graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School, Michele spent eight years as a federal prosecutor
in New York City, specializing in narcotics and gang cases. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and two children.

Anita Page
’s short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in
Murder New York Style
and in the journals
Word Riot
,
Mouth Full of Bullets, Mysterical-e
,
Ball State University Forum
,
Jewish Horizons
, and
Heresies
. While working as a freelance journalist in upstate New York, she learned about the events that would later inspire the story
“Red Dog.” Anita Page and her husband live in the mid Hudson Valley, where she taught and now writes full-time. She recently
completed her first novel, a dark-edged traditional mystery set in the Catskill Mountains.

Barbara Parker
used to practice law, but she gave it up to create fictional attorneys who make more money, have more fun, and never lose
their cases. Best known for her “Suspicion” series of legal thrillers set in Miami (the first was nominated for an Edgar Award),
she has penned nonseries novels as well. Her latest project,
The Dark of Day
, published in 2008, features a high-profile murder among the rich and decadent on South Beach. Before becoming a
New York Times
best-selling author, Barbara earned an MFA in creative writing from Florida International University (Miami). She has previously
published one story, for the anthology
Miami Noir.
Doing “A Clerk’s Life” reminded her why she left the profession: it is far easier to write about lawyers than to be one. She
lives in South Florida, a few blocks from the ocean.

A Stanford graduate and former plaintiff’s trial lawyer,
Twist Phelan
writes critically acclaimed short stories, suspense novels set in the business world, and the legal-themed Pinnacle Peak
mystery series. Find out more about Twist and her work at
www.twistphelan.com
.

John Walter Putre
is a former academic, teacher, and administrator who began writing full-time in 1984. His two mystery novels,
A Small and Incidental Murder
and
Death among the Angels
, were published in 1990 and 1991 respectively. “The Evil We Do” is Putre’s first venture into the short-story genre. He lives
with his wife and feline companion on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, where he is currently at work polishing the final draft of
a suspense novel, tentatively titled
Treason
, set in North Africa and Spain during the Second World War.