I felt the ring before I heard it.
‘Christine?’ I said.
Running. Panting. She was barely able to speak. Pushing hard.
‘I’m okay. I don’t see them. Driver is okay. What do I do?’
‘Are you still on Baxter?’
‘Yes.’
‘Run back the way you came, past the accident. Cross the street and jump into the nearest cab. Don’t look behind you. Just run.’
Feet pounding. Soft flutters in her throat.
‘I’m across the street. I see a cab waiting.’
‘Stop running. Put your shoes on. Get in. They’ll be trying to cut you off. They’ll hit Baxter by heading toward Canal Street, making a left, and coming toward you from Hester. They won’t be able to get down Baxter Street because of the accident. Get in the cab and tell the driver to make for the Manhattan Bridge.’
Nothing.
A car door opening. Christine getting in, giving instructions to the driver.
‘I’m in. We’re moving.’
My head sank against the cool wall. It felt good, easing my system down. I let Christine catch her breath. When she did, she called me out.
‘You wanted the driver to crash,’ she said.
‘I did. I knew they wouldn’t follow you. I guessed they’d want to loop around and cut you off at Hester. They can’t now. Traffic is backed up on Baxter now because of your accident. Is Ahmed okay?’
‘Yeah. I think so. We hit another cab. Pretty low speed. Everyone is okay, but the cars are totaled. Will they hurt him?’
‘No. Too many witnesses now. This is New York. There’ll be twenty people around that accident scene already.’
I checked the phone I’d taken off Gill and found that it had locked itself. It asked me for a four-digit code. Placing the phone in my pocket, I breathed in and closed my eyes. She told me there was no sign of the sedan. She’d made it.
‘I have to get Amy,’ she said, and broke down.
‘Listen to me. Call your sister. Tell her to get Amy from school right now. Find a motel in Red Hook, close to the freeway.’
‘I have to call the office, tell them I won’t be back today.’
‘No. You can’t. Listen to me. This is gonna sound crazy …’
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I told her everything. I told her about the share agreement with her signature on it. She half remembered witnessing the agreement for Ben Harland, who’d told her that he had a family emergency – something about his daughter – and could Christine witness the signature. She’d thought nothing of it at the time. I told her about Dell and the task force. I went into basics about the firm, their history, their financials, and then David. I didn’t tell her about the evidence against him. No need. I told her I believed he was innocent. That was enough.
When I’d finished, I could hear her swallowing down the tears, the nerves vibrating through her throat. She whispered into the handset, keeping the conversation from the cab driver.
‘A guy followed me today in the courthouse. His name is Gill. He’s the firm’s head of security. I bumped his phone, which had a text message on it, ordering him to kill you. Your bosses are scared, and they don’t want me representing David Child. I suppose they figured if they murdered you, I wouldn’t be able to continue with the case. Seems a hell of a way to take out the competition.’
She breathed out again, the tension sending a trembling whistle through her breath.
‘They’d kill me to get you off a case?’
‘This guy can hurt them. They want to be able to control David, make sure he doesn’t make a deal with the cops that would shorten his sentence in exchange for bringing down the firm,’ I said.
‘What does he have on the firm?’
‘One of the firm’s money handlers, Farooq, got caught by police in the Cayman Islands. The firm had been laying off the personnel that do their laundry; they’d found a safer way to clean the cash. The firm killed the informant before he could testify. A federal task force found out the firm is using David Child’s anti-hacker security system to clean the money. They can push a button and millions disappear from their client accounts, spiraling through thousands of accounts, in hundreds of banks, before it lands, clean, in a secure account.’
‘This is all my fault. He told me they’d already completed due-diligence checks,’ said Christine.
‘I’m not blaming you. I mean, your boss, who’s a goddamn blue-chip legend, sets a document in front of you and tells you it’s kosher – well, anybody would just accept that. It’s not your fault. It’s Ben Harland and Gerry Sinton’s fault. We’ve just got to deal with it.’
‘What have I done? I’m sorry. I’ll go to the FBI. I’ll testify.’
‘No. Let me handle it. You stay low with Amy and let me figure this out. I think there’s a way to get the information Dell wants. David says he might be able to trace the algorithm that moves the money. I don’t know. If he can’t, I have to rethink things.’
‘If you believe he’s innocent, you can’t let him take a plea. Not for me. Promise me you won’t do that, Eddie.’
‘I promise. I need time to think.’
‘My battery is getting low,’ she said.
‘Look, you can’t go back to work. And I know that means Harland and Sinton will believe you know something, but that doesn’t matter anymore; they’ve already called the hit.’
‘And what is it you’re going to do?’
My head fell forward, my eyes taking in my shoes, like I was bringing this thought up from the floor.
‘I’m going to help David in whatever way I can. I’m going to try to help him get what Dell wants, then I’m going to make a deal with the feds for your immunity and his.’
‘But it’s murder. They can’t let him walk if they think he shot and killed his girlfriend.’
I rubbed my chin and said, ‘I think there might be a way around that, but you’re my priority here.’
‘I can’t have an innocent man in jail because of me. Could you live with that?’ she said.
Right then I didn’t have an answer, but I knew it might come down to that choice. My father was a bookie and a grifter, but he’d never lifted money from a straight guy, never hustled anyone unless they had it coming, and never took a bet from somebody who couldn’t afford to lose. When my dad taught me all the tricks of a first-class canon, he also told me never to use those skills to harm ‘the little guy,’ as he put it.
Because, son, we’re the little guy.
I’d been a con man, using my father’s skills, keeping his code, taking down scores from the worst insurance companies, from drug dealers, from the vilest lowlifes that I could find. And I’d slept like a baby. It was only when I became a lawyer that I had trouble sleeping. The line was never clear – and I’d paid for that by trying to ignore it. I’d vowed never to do that again. Even Popo and I scamming the city lawyer fund helped keep my lights on and kept the pro snitch alive. The city could afford it. We couldn’t afford not to take it.
‘If the firm is willing to kill me, what are they prepared to do to you?’ she said.
‘I can watch my own back. You know that.’
‘I’ll get Amy safe, and I’ll call you from a motel. I’ve got to go before the battery dies. Be careful, Eddie,’ she said, and hung up.
Vibration from the cell phone Dell had given me. A text from him:
Disclosure in the Child case is ready for collection at the DA’s Office.
I was pretty sure it would only add to the evidence against David, and Dell wanted me to see it ASAP. He didn’t want me fighting for David. He wanted me to believe he was guilty. Whatever was in the disclosure had to be bad news.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Child moved fast across the hall. His blond PA, Holly, was almost running to keep up with him, her shorter legs a blur next to Child’s long, deliberate stride. She was dressed in jeans and a sweater and carried a cell phone in one hand and an iPad in the other, each device chi
ming every few seconds with a new message of some kind. On Child’s right, Gerry Sinton. The big man walked with a hand on his client’s shoulder. He could not disguise his contempt when he saw me. I wondered when he’d realized that it was Popo who was at the hospital and not David. Maybe when he got there.
I stepped in front of them and saw barely disguised relief on Child’s face.
‘I can’t thank you enough,’ said David, to me.
‘Don’t mention it,’ said Sinton.
My face screwed up into a ‘really, Gerry?’ kind of expression. David covered his mouth and suppressed a nervous giggle. Bail joy. But as relieved as Child appeared, I could see the fear cracking through the smile.
‘So what happens this afternoon?’ asked David.
‘We start the prelim, our first shot at testing the prosecution’s case.’
‘I thought we agreed to waive the preliminary hearing? This is a case that has to be won at trial. And even if by some miracle you prove at the prelim that the prosecution doesn’t have enough evidence, the prosecutor can still take it to the grand jury for indictment,’ said Sinton.
Essentially, in a felony case, the prosecution gets two bites of the cherry. If they don’t prove to a judge that there’s enough probable cause for the charge during a preliminary hearing, they can always take the same case to the grand jury: thirty members of the public who decide if there’s enough evidence to indict the defendant – they only hear from the prosecutors, not the defense lawyers, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the prosecutor gets their indictment.
‘Let me worry about the grand jury. It’s one fight at a time. Right now we need to start attacking the prosecution’s case. If David’s innocent, like he says, he’ll want to fight it the whole way,’ I said.
‘Eddie’s right,’ said David. ‘The media is going to get ahold of this case at some point, and I want them to know I’m fighting it on every possible level.’
‘Of course,’ said Sinton. ‘It’s just, I have to tell you, David, the evidence against you is substantial.’
‘Let’s not debate this, Gerry. Get on the team,’ I said.
A curt nod of the head was all I got from Sinton. David smiled again and shook my hand. When he released his grip, he palmed the business card I’d slipped him in the handshake and shoved his hand into his pants pocket. On the card I’d written instructions on how to meet the Lizard.
If Child had held up his end of the deal, he’d told Sinton that he was going to a hotel, but he would change direction, get out of a cab on Fifth Street and into a blue van – with the Lizard at the wheel. I’d meet them later at Holly’s apartment.
‘Prelim starts at four o’clock. I’ll meet you back here at three,’ I said to David, and watched him and Holly leave the courthouse and get into a cab. Gerry Sinton watched him too.
‘You didn’t go to the hospital, Flynn,’ said Sinton.
‘I only found out about the mix-up after you left. Otherwise I would’ve told you. Sorry. I didn’t know your cell number.’
He stood back and looked me up and down.
‘We’re supposed to be on the same team. We both want what’s best for David, don’t we?’
I nodded and wondered what David had told him when they’d met just minutes before. Whatever it was, I was still co-counsel.
‘I don’t want you at the prelim,’ said Sinton. ‘I think you need to reconsider the arrangement. You have no idea who you’re dealing with. The last person to cross me got burned pretty bad.’
All I could do was imagine the acid-soaked corpse of Farooq, the informant.
‘Perhaps you should call your wife. Take some advice from her and walk away while you still can.’ A tremor rippled over his cheek. When he spoke again, with no small amount of pleasure on his face, I knew Gerry Sinton didn’t have to justify his actions to himself, and it wasn’t that he simply didn’t care about breaking the law and hurting people. Sinton enjoyed his work. He enjoyed threatening me, he enjoyed stealing vast sums of money, and he enjoyed taking the lives of those who stood in his way.
‘I’m going back to the office. I’m sure I won’t see you later, so please give a message to your wife – from me. Tell her she can’t put taxi fares on her expenses.’
Like most big men, Sinton had a thick jaw. One centimeter in front of the ear, the temporomandibular joint. A flash punch to that sweet spot would shatter even the heaviest jaw like glass. I thought about this as a black Mercedes pulled up at the curb and ferried Sinton away without another word.
The only way to remove the threat to David and Christine was to get the prosecution case against David thrown out. The threat of a conviction put the heat on David, and my involvement with him put both their lives at risk. If the evidence against David got thrown out, he was no longer under pressure to give up the firm. Most dispositions, or plea agreements, happened before the prelim. That’s why Gerry wanted to skip that process and remove the incentive to make a deal.
Walking back through security, I put the phone I’d taken off of Gill into an envelope and left it at the security desk. Exiting the building, I sent a text message to Lester Dell and told him to pick up the phone. Outside the courthouse the street was teeming with people. Midday in Manhattan. I lost myself in a large, fast crowd.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I grabbed a cup of coffee from a diner and took up a table in the back, close to the window. It would’ve been difficult to follow me on foot, considering I’d taken a number of detours. Even so, I checked the window every few moments, making sure I didn’t have a set of eyes on me. A cinder-block sky hung above the buildings, contemplating rain. The coffee was hot and strong.
From the cell phone the feds had given me, I dialed Dell’s number. He didn’t even say hello.
‘I saw Gerry Sinton put your client into a cab not twenty minutes ago. I thought we had an understanding. I thought we were clear: Get me a plea, the algorithm, and Child’s testimony against the firm and we let the charges against your wife slide.’
‘I told you, I’ll get what you need without putting David’s head on a block. Did you get the phone?’
‘I got it. Where did you get it?’
‘Took it off of Gill. There’s a message on it ordering him to kill my wife.’
‘Jesus, is she okay? Where is she?’
‘She’s safe. For now. The phone can put you closer to Sinton – I imagine that text came from him. That’s an attempted murder charge, right there.’
‘I’ll get my tech on it right now. That’s interesting. The firm wants you off the case by any means possible. We’re close. But make no mistake – I’m not interested in nailing Sinton for attempted murder; the feds can have him on that. My job is to hurt the firm’s clients – the drug lords, the arms dealers, the terrorists. To do that I need to trace the money.’
‘I’ll do whatever it takes, but I want Christine and David in return.’
He sighed.
‘You ever truly lose somebody?’ he said.
I thought of my parents. They died pretty young, before their time, certainly.
‘It’s like a hole, Eddie. You can’t replace what’s gone – but you can try to fill it with other things. New things. You can try to make it right. The firm took Sophie from me, and I need to make it right. I can do that. But think about the other victim here. Clara Reece is found lying in David’s apartment with two mags of ammo in the back of her head. If I let him off a murder charge to get what I want, I’m just digging another hole. I won’t go down that road. I can’t. You shouldn’t either. You got my text earlier – the DA has additional evidence for the prelim. Read it and tell me David Child is innocent.’
I saw through Dell’s game. It was a familiar one. It’s a game the justice system plays every single day in America – because sometimes it simply doesn’t matter if you’re really innocent of the crime; the only smart move is to plead guilty and make a deal for a lesser sentence.
‘You want me to read the new e
vidence and tell David that irrespective of his innocence, he will definitely be convicted and his only choice is to plead guilty and make a deal to cut his sentence.’
‘Bingo,’ said Dell.
Happens all the time. I’ve done it myself. Innocent people often don’t want to take the chance of losing and doing fifteen or twenty years when they could make a deal and be out in two. It’s mathematics – not justice, but that’s the reality.
‘I’ll look it over, but I’m not sure I can convince David. I’ll need the GSR expert to testify at the prelim. That will help.’
‘How come? Aren’t expert reports just handed in at this stage? I mean, I don’t see how that helps.’
He was right. At a prelim, experts weren’t required to give evidence under oath unless there was a damn good reason. Their reports were simply put in front of the judge, without being tested under cross-examination.
‘It’s for Child. It’s a convincer. One of the strongest pieces of evidence is the GSR on his skin and clothes. If the report is handed in, it has no real effect on Child. On the other hand, if the expert testifies, and I don’t have shit to counter his testimony, it sinks Child even further and puts the pressure on him.’
‘I see your point. I’ll call the DA. This kid needs to realize making a deal is his only shot. You do, too. You should eat something. It’s going to be a long day. I hear the blueberry pancakes in there are pretty good.’
Before I could reply, the call disconnected. No cars parked in the street, nobody resembling Dell on the sidewalk. Damn, he was good. I resigned myself to the idea that CIA operatives are seen only if they want to be. The waitress asked me if I wanted anything else. I ordered the blueberry pancakes.
I was relying on Dell to persuade the DA to call their GSR expert. I didn’t have a chance of winning the prelim if I couldn’t even get a shot at cross-examining the guy. But right then I couldn’t think of a single point to put to the witness. It would come. If David was innocent, sooner or later, the ammo I needed to prove that would come to me.
Eddie Flynn 02-The Plea Page 12
