“He had a gun? Is this the same story that you were telling me before?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s not. He had a gun, and he pointed it at my mom, and he clicked it. But it misfired. She was able to get the gun away from him, and she found out that it was loaded, but it misfired. Which means that he was going to come over and kill her. And he would’ve killed her, if the gun wasn’t defective. If the gun was working, she would be dead right now.”
“Okay. It sounds like, so far, you have a good case for…”
“For what? I can’t just kill the man. Unless he’s actually threatening me or somebody around me at the time. You know that. I can’t just go down and gun him down, not unless he’s actually threatening me or my mom at that moment. Trust me, I wish that weren’t the rule, but I know that it is, and I respect that. So, my mom, of course, got a restraining order, but that did no good. He made sure that he still came over. He would be outside the house, looking in at us. From across the street. My mom was terrified of him. She knew what he was capable of. And she had all these threats against her. And then, one day, he came over and set fire to her porch. She was able to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher, and she called the cops. They came over and took a report, and they arrested him. They arrested him for violating his restraining order, and for setting fire to the porch, but he got out on bail again. He got out on bail, and then he really threatened her. He came over again, and I thought he was going to kill her.”
“What did he do when he came over the second time?”
“He just told her that the next time he came over that he wasn’t going to be so nice, and that he was going to kill her. He said that he felt that she was the reason why he was arrested in the first place, because, after all, it was her testimony on the stand that gave the cops enough probable cause to arrest him. He was dangerous. And I knew that it was a matter of time before he actually killed my mother, and me.”
I took a deep breath. “So what did you do?”
She looked around the room, as if she was afraid that somebody was going to come out of the walls and kill her. She blinked rapidly. “My mom, she got an inheritance recently. You see, her parents were pretty well-off. They died recently in a passenger plane crash. It was a small Cessna that crashed into the Pacific Ocean. So my mom, she got $100,000 from this inheritance. She told me that she would give me that money, ever penny of it, to hire somebody to take care of Reverend Scott.” Heather shook her head. “I guess that mom did her homework and found out that $100,000 was the going rate for a decent, clean hit. She was willing to spend all of her inheritance on this, every penny. It was that important to her that the Reverend Scott be taken care of.”
Oh, boy. “Who did you find for that? And how did you find him?”
“I asked around. But I didn’t find anybody who would know something about that, but I had the money. So I arranged a meeting with Vincent Sharpelli. I heard on the street that he had men who would do something like that.” She took a deep breath. “And he did. He sent one of his men out to kill him. And that’s what happened. And that’s where Beck was involved as well. That’s how I got to know him.”
I drummed my fingers on the desk. “How was Beck involved with this?” I hoped and prayed that Heather was not going to tell me that Beck was actually the person who killed Reverend Scott. Then again, that made no sense that he would’ve been the one who killed the Reverend Scott, because, if he was, there was no way that he would be able to threaten Heather with it. In that case, he would have much more liability than her. She would be dangerous to him.
“Beck is the cleanup guy for Vincent Sharpelli. Not all the time. He just does a few jobs for him, here and there. His AB brothers on the outside forced him into doing helping Vinnie out. But that’s all Beck does for Vinnie - cleanups. He was the one who did this job. He was the one who got rid of the body. I don’t know where he got rid of the body. All I know is that he did. And he apparently did a good job of it, because nobody knows where the Reverend is. He’ll probably never be found. I think that Beck does his job well because I think he knows exactly how to get rid of a body.”
Well, this was great. Just great. “Heather, you do understand that there’s a good chance that Vincent Sharpelli was involved in the murder of Adele. You do know that, don’t you?”
“No. I don’t know that.”
“Well, he has to be looked at. I mean, when Adele stole money from Jordan, she was also stealing from Vincent, because Vincent was Jordan’s boss. If anybody would have been in a position to kill her, it would’ve been Sharpelli. He would be the most likely suspect in this case.”
“Listen, I want you to look anywhere but at him. Anywhere but. I know that I can’t dictate how you approach this case, but, trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to mess with that guy. Seriously. He’ll kill you and your whole family, without even blinking an eye. You can’t just casually bring him in as a suspect, and expect things to go well. I don’t think he had anything to do with it. He never knew that William became Adele.”
“How do you know he never knew that?”
“I just know it. Besides, it doesn’t make any sense that he would have done that. Beck worked for him. Did jobs for him. In fact, Beck is probably one of the best cleaners in the business. Even if Vincent Sharpelli was going to kill Adele, he wouldn’t do it in that way. I think it’s clear, and you know it’s clear, that the person who killed Adele, either it was a rando or it was somebody who had it in for Beck as well. Because he or she obviously wanted Beck to take the fall for it. Now, if Vincent killed Adele, he wouldn’t have done it that way. He would’ve killed her and had a cleaner come in and take care of the body, just like he does with every other murder. He wouldn’t have been so sloppy about it. Vincent, if nothing else, is a professional. It’s not his style just to kill somebody and dump their body, not unless he’s trying to frame somebody for the murder.”
I thought about it. What Heather was saying was true. She made a good point. Granted, Vincent Sharpelli was the kind of guy who would do something like this – kill somebody and dump their body, because he wanted somebody else out of the way. Somebody who would take the fall for it. It’s like that scene in The Godfather Part II where the senator woke up with a dead hooker in his bed. It was clear, in that case, that the senator was the target, not the hooker. So, if Vincent Sharpelli was the one who did it, he would have been doing it to target Beck.
I was going to have to look into his relationship with Beck and see if I could find anything that would tell me that Vincent Sharpelli had a problem with him. If that was the case, I was going to have to go ahead and make him an alternative suspect. That was a dangerous thing for me to do. I knew that. But I needed to win the case. And if I could win the case by showing that there was a nexus between Vincent Sharpelli, Beck, and Adele, then I would do it.
I only hoped that was not the case.
“So you’re nervous that if I finger Vincent, he’s going to come after you?”
Heather nodded her head. “You’re goddamn right. Listen, he can get me in trouble, even while keeping his own hands clean. Trust me on this. He could bring me down. Beck can, too. I got too many fingers in this pie.” She shook her head. “I should’ve just done it myself. I shouldn’t have gone to a professional. But I didn’t want to do it myself. I’ve never killed a man before. I mean, I killed my mother, but that was a different thing – it was self-defense. But I’ve never killed somebody in cold blood. But I knew that the Reverend Scott had to be killed. He was hurting too many people, and he was going to kill, or rape, my mother. He threatened her enough times, and I knew that one of those days he was going to succeed in killing her. I had to take care of him. I just had to.”
Chapter 27
That night, I decided to go ahead and call Sarah and confront her with her shenanigans. Beck’s case was bothering me, so I knew that I needed to get Amelia’s case out of the way so I could concentrate on doing what I needed to to defen
d Beck. Heather was certainly getting it from all sides on this case.
That couldn’t be helped, though.
I called Sarah. My plan was to be as casual as possible. I was gonna tell her I knew what she did, and that if she didn’t want to go to prison, she better drop the case.
“Hi, Damien.”
“Hello, Sarah.”
She was silent for a second. “I don’t know if your attorney told you this, but we have a court date for the paternity case.”
“Actually, no you don’t. I mean, I’m sure you do have a court date, but you’re going to dismiss the case. You’re going to dismiss the case, and I’m going to tell you why you’re going to dismiss the case.”
She was very quiet. “Damien, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You got the paternity petition in the mail. You know what we’re asking for. A judge is going to decide this.”
“No, actually a judge won’t decide this. Oh, wait, maybe a judge will decide this, but, trust me on this, it won’t be a paternity judge. It’s going to be a criminal court judge, because that’s who throws the book at people who doctor up official records for fraudulent purposes. And maybe you’re also going to have to answer to a civil court judge, when I sue you and Baron for emotional distress and seek punitive damages due to your criminality in falsifying a DNA test. Did you really think that you were going to get away with this? Honestly?”
Sarah was silent. Then, with a weak voice, she said “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, don’t you? Don’t you? Trust me, when I get through with the two of you, Baron’s going to be holding a sign begging for money by the highway, with a barrel covering his ass. That is, if he, and you, aren’t in prison for this.” I was milking this for all it was worth. Of course those two bozos wouldn’t go to prison over something like this. They would both get a slap on the wrist. But Sarah didn’t know that. At least, I hoped that she didn’t.
As for suing her for emotional distress, that wouldn’t fly, either. You generally have to have some other kind of negligent tort to anchor a good suit, and then add emotional distress into your damage claim. Again, however, Sarah didn’t know this. What she didn’t know would hurt her.
“Damien, I-“
“You, what? What? I mean, really, Sarah, I knew that you hated me, but filing a phony paternity action just to get some money? I never thought that even you would stoop that low, but apparently I was wrong about that.”
“Damien, you aren’t Amelia’s father.”
“Oh, I know that. Amelia and I had a talk about that, but I told her that she’s staying with me and that her biological father won’t come for her. Because that’s true, isn’t it? Jake Brillis, my half-brother at that, won’t come for Amelia, because Jake has no interest in her. Yeah, I found out the truth. Now, you’re going to dismiss that paternity action, and we’ll all just move on. I won’t even come after your sorry and greedy ass, and Baron’s neither, if you file a dismissal today. Otherwise, I’m going to the police plus I’m going to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit against both of you for emotional distress.”
Sarah was very quiet. She knew that she had been beat. “I’ll dismiss it today,” she said in a very small voice.
“I thought so.”
“Damien?”
“What?”
“I’m very sorry for all this.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you are.”
And I hung up the phone.
Later on that day, I got on the court database and found out that the paternity petition had been dismissed.
It was over. The damage hit Amelia and me like a freight train, but she was going to stay with me, and that’s all that mattered to either of us.
Amelia and I were going to be okay.
Chapter 28
The person who possibly wasn’t going to be okay was Tina. That was another issue that I had to button up so that I could give my full concentration to Beck’s case. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find anything that would make the prosecutors dismiss the case. They offered Drug Court, but Tina said that she didn’t want that.
Then they offered me a Suspended Execution of Sentence, and I wanted to jump at that offer. What that meant was that Tina would stay out of prison. With a Suspended Execution of Sentence, known as “SES,” you’re technically sentenced to prison, but that sentence is suspended in favor of probation. As long as you walk down your probation, which meant that you didn’t catch another case or otherwise run afoul of the rules, you could avoid prison altogether. On the other hand, if you violate probation for one reason or another - maybe you dropped dirty, which meant flunking a random drug test, or you cavorted with other felons, or you caught another case - you had an automatic prison sentence that you would have to end up serving. So, a “3 SES 5” meant three years probation, with a five-year prison sentence hanging out there if you violate.
An SES was contrasted with an SIS, which was a “Suspended Imposition of Sentence.” With an SIS, you wouldn’t have a prison sentence attached to your probation. If you violated an SIS, you typically would end up with an SES, and then, if you violated your SES, you would end up in prison. It just stepped up from there. A violation of an SES typically meant that you could go for a 120-day callback, which meant that you could serve 120 days in prison and then you’re called back in front of the court, who would decide if you have to go back to prison or if you could serve the rest of your time on probation. Violate probation on a 120-day callback, and you served the rest of your prison sentence, albeit you typically would serve only 20%, which meant that, with a 5-year sentence, which was being offered to Tina on the back-end of her probation, she would only have to serve an extra 240 or so days before she would be paroled.
The only problem with the SES was that Tina would have a felony on her record. This wasn’t the case with an SIS - since the sentence was never imposed, a felony doesn’t go on your record.
Still, I felt that an SES would be a good deal for Tina, considering the prosecutors were offering her prison time. I went to visit her to bring that offer to her.
She shook her head when I informed her that she would be a convicted felon with the SES. “No fucking way,” she said, and I just wanted to smack her. “I’m not taking no felony. How am I supposed to get a job or an apartment or anything else with a felony on my record? That shit’s gonna follow me wherever I go.”
I sighed. “Tina, they were offering you five years in prison. With the SES, you won’t have any prison time to serve. I know, it’s tough having to take a felony, but come on - you were caught with 5 kilos of coke, with a street value of $70,000. There’s not a prosecutor’s office in this country who would offer you an SIS for that much coke. They were going out on a limb to offer you Drug Court, but you let it be known that you want nothing to do with all that. If you rolled on Larry Rodriguez, then I might be able to get your case dismissed, best-case, or get you an SIS. But an SES is the best I can do.”
I looked into her stubborn eyes, and I felt anger rising up inside of me. Not just at Tina herself, but at Connor. He was the one who roped me into representing her, making it my second pro bono case in a row. I was doing this for her, free of charge, as a favor to a friend, and doing the best I could to get her the best sentence possible. She wasn’t cooperating, at all. She apparently thought that I was a miracle worker, which was common enough. That was the thing with many criminals - they did the crime, but they don’t want to do the time, and, unless you come at them with an outright dismissal of their case, they’re going to blame you, the defense attorney, for their plight. It just drove me insane.
Clients like Tina were the ones who made me question my line of work. The ones that really boiled my blood weren’t the hard-core criminals charged with serious felonies, but the whiny low-level drug dealers who felt that they were entitled, entitled to have their case dismissed or offered an SIS that they’re going to violate anyhow the second they walked out of the courtroom. The ones
who caught case after case after case and somehow expected that they’re never going to end up in prison.
I patted my knees and stood up. “Well, okay, then. Good luck to you. I’m going to withdraw from your case. You’re going to have to somehow scrape up enough money to pay for private counsel, or go with the Public Defender’s Office. You qualify for the PD’s office with your income, so I suggest that you hire one of them. However, I can guarantee you one thing - if you don’t take this offer, you’re going to end up with something much worse. I happened to catch your prosecutor at a moment of weakness. She’s preparing for a big murder trial, and she doesn’t want to deal with your case, which is why she gave me this fire-sale deal. But, as soon as her murder trial is finished, and she has more time for the rest of her cases, she’s going to ask for prison time on your case again. And, guess what? You’re going to deserve it.”
I walked towards the door, when Tina called my name. “Damien, wait.”
Just as I thought. She’s going to get religion now. “Yes?”
“I’ll take the goddamned SES.”
“I thought you would. I’ll tee this up for a plea next Tuesday at 9. I’ll see you then.”
The following Tuesday, she obediently showed up to plead guilty to a felony in exchange for an SES.
I was relieved, because that meant that I had that much more time to spend on Beck’s case.
Chapter 29
December 2, The First Day of the Trial
The first thing I had to do, on the day of the trial, was to get my motion in limines heard by the judge. I knew that when I found out that Beck and Adele were lovers, back in the day, when Beck was William, there was no way that his past as a white supremacist was going to be at all relevant. It wasn’t relevant anyway, but it really wasn’t relevant because I could show that Beck and Adele knew one another and that they had a relationship with one another, therefore it was going to be very difficult to show that this was some kind of random hate crime. That would be a good outcome.
The Hate Crime Page 15
