Sexy Bastards Anthology: Bad Boy, Biker, Alpha, Motorcycle Club, Contemporary Romance Collection (101 page)

“Come on, I’ll give you the tour,” Tanya told them with one more hateful glance in Crystal’s direction.

Chapter 3

Crystal and Joe followed Tanya around the two story building as she hastily pointed out each office, elevators, restrooms, and conference rooms. It was a busy place and everyone seemed to be rushing in or out of somewhere. There were a lot of cops around, both in uniforms and in suits and ties with their gold shields attached at their waists. Crystal was happy that the offices all seemed to have names on them because the huge cement building was shaped like a horseshoe and one office looked almost the same as the next. She showed them where the law library was and informed them that a lot of their work would be done from there, researching case law for John. She took them into the kitchenette area and introduced them to several paralegals who were there having their breakfast. She pointed out the executive dining area and Eric Steel’s suite of offices. She looked directly at Crystal as she said, “Stay away from him. You’ll have no need to be down here.”

Even knowing Eric Steel’s reputation, the way that Tanya said it was slightly offensive to Crystal. She shook it off however by the time Tanya led them back towards John’s side of the building. They stopped in front of a small office that said, “Intern” on the door. It was two doors down from John’s office.

“Joe, this will be yours. It should be stocked with everything you’ll need and I left some casefiles on the desk with notes on them. Most of it is research like we talked about earlier in the library. When you finish with it, bring the files back up to me, my office is the one just outside John’s door.”

“Thanks,” Joe said. He pushed open the door and Crystal looked inside. There was a small window along the back wall that had thick, frosted glass in it. The desk was dark oak and looked well used and there was a black leather chair behind it. The computer, printer and fax machine also all looked used and possibly even out of date. In the center of the desk was a small stack of files. Joe grinned at her and went in and took a seat behind the desk. Crystal suppressed a smile as she thought about her friend Debbie. The difference in pay and benefits was one of the reasons Debbie told her she wanted to be a defense attorney rather than a prosecutor. If she saw this office and the equipment still from the nineties in it she would say, “I told you so.”

Tanya was halfway down the hall when she stopped and turned to look at Crystal. “Are you coming?” She spat the words out. Crystal smiled again and hurried along after her. She thought about asking the woman what her problem was, but she didn’t want to have words with her boss’s assistant the first day on the job. She followed her to the office next to John’s and with a roll of her eyes Tanya said, “John requested that I put you in here. I suppose that way you and he can share memories about your mother and what not.”

Bingo! That was her problem. She knew who Crystal’s mother was and assumed that was the only reason John gave her the internship. Crystal smiled at her again. That seemed to bother her a lot. Good! She didn’t have to explain herself to this woman, or feel bad that her mother made good connections through her own hard work. “This will be perfect, thank you, Tanya.” Crystal said it in a dismissive tone of voice and Tanya set her jaw as it fought back a retort.

“There are files on your desk with notes on them as well,” she said. “I’ll expect them all back before you go this evening and John expects all of the tasks to be completed.”

“Thank you,” Crystal pushed open the door to the tiny office that was almost a duplicate of the one they’d left Joe in down the hall. The desk in here was a little larger and the equipment looked a little newer…but none of it was state of the art. The most shocking thing about it was the stack of files on the desk. Apparently when John asked Tanya to split them, she gave Joe one-quarter and Crystal three…With a resigned sigh she stepped inside the office and sat down behind the desk. She was going to finish every one of these if it took her all night. She wasn’t going to give that…Tanya any more ammunition than she thought she already had.

Crystal took off her jacket and literally rolled up her sleeves and started to work. She separated the files according to “tasks.” Each file had a post-it note that said things like, “Call witness and ask…” the question would be there as well. Some of them said “Find comparable case law in the past five years.” Others of them said, “Organize file tabs so information is easier to find.” Crystal got the feeling that this work had actually been meant for Tanya. A lot of it seemed like “assistant” type work…but this was her first day and she was going to do what she was told. She finished separating them and started on the phone call pile.

Three hours later she had either contacted each person or she’d left a message for them. When she finished with the last one, she sat back in her chair and rubbed her neck. Of course, that was the moment that Tanya chose to stick her head in the door. Crystal thought she may have seen her shake her head slightly before she said,

“John is back from court. He has a meeting in conference room B that he’d like you to attend.” Before Crystal could respond, she walked away. Crystal’s stomach growled. It was almost noon and no one had mentioned a lunch break. She tidied up her desk and as she was stepping out into the hall she heard Joe’s voice call her name. She turned around and waited for her as he rushed as fast as he could go with his limp to meet her.

“Hey! Are you going to the meeting with John too?” he asked her breathlessly.

“Yes. How’s it been going for you with the files?”

“Good, I’m almost finished, how about you?”

She laughed. “Not even close. I don’t think our dear Tanya likes me very much.”

“Jealousy?” he said.

Crystal laughed again. “No…I’m not sure. It seems like she is resentful of me because my mother worked with and was friends with John, but whatever. I’m not going to let her ruin my first day.”

“Good for you,” he told her. They walked together to the conference room. John was already there with another man when they walked in.

“There they are. Crystal and Joe this is Detective Alan O’Dell. He’s one of the investigators assigned to the office.” Crystal and Joe told him it was a pleasure and John asked them to have a seat. When they’d sat down John said, “Detective O’Dell has been working on a case with me that we’re taking to trial beginning tomorrow. It’s one that I’m sure the two of you have heard about. The press dubbed it, “The 5th Avenue massacre.” Crystal and Joe both winced as if on cue. They had both obviously heard about it so John went on. “I hope while you’re here we’ll get something in of this magnitude so you can see how it evolves from the beginning…” Crystal concentrated on keeping a neutral face. She was sure John had no idea how it sounded for him to say he “hoped” there was another “massacre,” just not in so many words. He went on to say, “Today was the last day of jury selection and the trial begins tomorrow. I think it would be a good one for you two to follow from at least the beginning of trial. I have two legal assistants assigned to me but I could use even more help if you two think you’ll be up to it?”

“Absolutely,” they both said at once. Crystal was excited. She hadn’t thought they’d be doing much more than what she’d done today for a while.

“Great! Detective O’Dell has kindly agreed to go over the case file with you. That’s going to take most of the rest of your day. I’ll have some dinner sent in for you. I have to get back to court to finish jury selection so I won’t be back until after five.”

They thanked him and when he was gone the detective took out a large cardboard box and said, “This is only a small portion of the evidence and the case file. John has most of it with him at the courthouse already. I can speak on this one from the beginning however from memory. I was one of the detectives called to the scene that morning. All of the adult members of the Ricci family were murdered as they slept. The family was gathered for a wedding that was taking place the next day so there were the parents, Robert and Gayle Ricci…Gayle’s parents, Vicki and Mike Stanton, Vicki’s sister Rachel and her boyfriend Dan, Robert’s brother Sam and his wife Elizabeth. The apartment is a five bedroom so each of the couples was in a separate bedroom and there were three children age’s five to eleven in the fifth room. The teenage son of Sam and Elizabeth Rizzo, Tony, was sleeping on the pull-out sofa in the den according to his story. He reported that the shooters burst through the front door and ran past him. He was asleep…he said and too confused to realize what was going on until he heard the gunshots. He says he took cover behind the sofa until he heard the two men leave the way they’d come in. That was when he discovered everyone was dead except for the children who somehow had slept through it all.”

“Wow,” Joe said. “Did he call 911?”

“He did eventually but by that time the neighbors on both sides and downstairs had already called. Police arrived on scene within five minutes of the first call and found young Mr. Rizzo fully dressed still and covered in blood. My partner and I arrived and questioned him. According to him everyone was asleep when he got home just after midnight. He fell asleep promptly in his clothes and that was his reason for still being dressed. He claims that after the rehearsal dinner for his cousin’s wedding that he went out with some friends. Mr. Rizzo was taken in for questioning, the children were taken by social services and the surviving daughter of the couple who owned the home was notified. The first thing she asked when she was told what happened was, “Did my cousin Tony do this.”

“I’m sorry detective, how old is Tony?”

“At the time of the murders he was sixteen. He’s a few weeks from his eighteenth birthday now.”

“He was ultimately arrested for the murders, right?” Joe asked.

“Yes. His “friends” that he was supposedly out with that night decided lying to the cops wouldn’t be as much fun as it sounded like. They rolled on him quickly. The motive was money. The kid stood to inherit millions. The only problem we had was no murder weapon.”

“That had to be a big problem,” Crystal said, “I mean, if he was still in the apartment when the police got there, where did he put it?”

“It was a big problem,” the detective said. “But, I’m an amazing detective.” Crystal and Joe laughed and he said, “I found it on the roof.”

“The roof? How did he have time to get it up there?”

“Apparently there was a rope tied to a post on the roof and draped over the side. Mr. Rizzo attached the gun to it and tossed it up. He was of course hoping we wouldn’t look up there. When we did however, his fingerprints weren’t on it and there was no gunshot residue on his hands either.”

“Gloves?” Crystal asked.

“I’m sure of it…but we never found them. So we’re going to trial after a year and a half with only the testimony of a couple of juveniles who say he told them he was going to do this and some really good gut feelings.”

“Who did the gun belong to?” Crystal asked.

“Good question. It belonged to Mike Rizzo. Mike and his family including Tony came into town from Jersey for the wedding. Tony claims he had no idea his father brought the gun. It’s one of those cases where the snot-nosed kid is smart enough to know the burden of proof is on us…and he’s taking full advantage of it.”

“What about his attorney?” Joe asked. “Is he or she any good?”

“Gus Wayne is representing him!” Crystal remembered seeing that on television not long before. “He’s a shark.”

“True story!” Detective O’Dell wrinkled his nose and curled his lip. “He is a shark…or a piranha, whichever you’d like to call him. He smells two things: blood and money. He chases the blood until he finds the money. He took this case pro-bono, telling the community that he was doing it out of the goodness of his heart for this young boy who’d lost his entire family. He’s doing it for the money this kid will inherit as soon as he gets him acquitted.”

The detective filled them in on a few more important areas and then he left them to look through the files and the bagged evidence. They ate the dinner that John had sent in and by the time Crystal made it back to her office, it was after five. She sighed and sent Art a text letting him know she wasn’t going to make it for drinks. Then as an afterthought she text: “So is your boss as good looking in person as he is on TV?”

A few minutes later she got one back that said, “He’s freaking gorgeous.”  She laughed and got back to work.

Chapter 4

Crystal lost track of time until there was a knock on her door that startled her back to reality. “Yes?”

The door opened. It was John. “Crystal what are you still doing here? I saw the light on under the door and hoped you just forgot to turn it out.”

She smiled at him and said, “We spent so much time with the detective that I got behind on what you wanted me to do today…” John laughed and shook his head, “Oh dear…those were supposed to be busy work for the week. There is no way I would put that much on you for a day. I’m sorry if Tanya misunderstood.” Crystal smiled. That bitch understood perfectly…that’s why she gave her so much more than Joe.

“It’s okay…they’re finished now.”

He laughed again, “You’re a go-getter like your mother, that’s for sure. She’d be really proud of you. Come on, I’ll walk you out. It’s eight o’clock.”