Always Watching (2 page)

“
That’s not funny,” Devlin
said.  “Seriously, Helen, Datello laid a lot of groundwork to
make sure that Collangelo doesn’t win a second term in
office.  He’s gotta be counting on that now.”

“
Even if that were to
happen, it doesn’t preclude the feds coming after him with
charges.  Let’s not forget who his uncle is, and that he’s
probably itching to cut a deal himself.  No, if Datello has
any sense at all, he’ll realize that he’s probably safer in a state
penitentiary than he would be in federal prison where Uncle Sully
can reach out a hell of a lot easier.”

“
So you think he should
take the deal Zack offered?”

“
He’s not stupid. 
Datello has to know that even if he beats these charges in
Darkwater Bay, he’s living on borrowed time with Uncle Sully. 
Cat’s out of the bag now.  Everybody knows he planned to
betray the family.”

“
Shit.  I don’t know
what I’d do if I were in his shoes,” Dev said.  “Thank God I’m
not.”

I gnawed my lower lip for a moment. 
“So… I don’t suppose I can pry any details out of you about why
Johnny needs to be in Montgomery for an indefinite period of time,
can I?”

“
As hard as this might be
for you to accept, just because I work for OSI now doesn’t mean
that I’m getting information at the same level Johnny is. 
Truth be told, Chris isn’t quite sure what’s got Joe so agitated
that he wants his number one guy in town.  I can only surmise
that it’s serious.”

“
That doesn’t make me feel
any better, Devlin.”

“
Sorry,” he
murmured.  “I know this hasn’t been easy for you.  I wish
I could do something to make it easier for you.”

“
I shouldn’t have quit my
job.  At least then, I had something to distract me from all
of this blasted retirement.  I’m bored half out of my
skull.”

“
Have you considered
consulting on cases again?  Crevan said you did that for
awhile last year after that first case.”

“
Working with Darkwater
Bay in any capacity opens a can of worms I’d just as soon keep
sealed.  It came to a point where before I could even question
anybody that they were freaking out about liability and insurance
issues.”

“
Guess in the long run,
those fears weren’t unfounded,” Devlin said.  “Since you got
shot on the job.”

“
I doubt I’d have gone off
to confront suspects alone without a badge.  Anyway, it’s a
moot point.  After the fuss Johnny made to get me out of that
contract, there’s no way that Shelly Finkelstein would consider
working with me again.  On top of that, the old crew that I
loved collaborating with so much are all gone.  You and Crevan
are at OSI.  Ned… well, for his sake, I hope heaven is
real.  Nobody deserves it more than he did.”

Devlin pulled into the parking building
shared by Central Division and the district courthouse. 
“Almost show time.  You ready to hear what bogus excuses his
attorney has to offer this time?”

“
Pretty sad commentary on
my life when listening to a lawyer whine about how his scumbag
client deserves special treatment is the highlight of my day. 
I can hardly wait to hear the latest sob story.”

Dev opened his door.  “Well, then let’s
get inside and watch the show.”

My first clue that something was wrong this
time came when we opened the doors to the courtroom and discovered
that it was standing room only.  A moment later, Zack’s
worried expression flashed before my eyes.

“
Ah hell.  Now
what?”

Chapter 2

“
All rise.  Court is
now in session, the Honorable Judge Judith Gates presiding,” the
bailiff announced. 

“
Be seated,” Gates dumped
her frail, crepitus frame into the seat at the bench and adjusted
her reading glasses.  She peered over them at the
defense.  “Mr. Stefano, what is the dire emergency that would
preclude this trial from beginning Monday morning?”

“
Your honor, my client
would like to request a delay.  His wife is due to deliver
their child any day now –”

“
Mr. Stefano, shame,”
Gates clicked her tongue.  “Perhaps Mr. Datello should’ve
considered this possibility before he tried to gun down several
members of our police department and engage in a violent coup at
the county medical examiner’s office.  Petition –”

“
Your honor, Mrs. Datello
has been receiving death threats.  We would like the
opportunity for the police to do a risk assessment and determine if
protective custody is necessary for my client’s family.”

Gates stared at Zack.  “Is this true,
Mr. Carpenter?”

“
An allegation that she
has received some type of threat was made to my office, yet when we
requested the evidence of said threat, the defense failed to
provide any proof.  No police report was filed –”

Celeste Datello, who sat behind her husband
weeping quietly, with her perfect little baby bump wailed
loudly.  “Why should I believe the police would investigate or
care what happens to me and my daughter?”

Datello turned around and soothed her with a
soft stroke to one cheek.  I watched his lips move, his
demeanor morph from the cold blooded killer I knew into a man that
had clearly pulled the wool over his very young wife’s naïve
eyes. 

Shh, darling.  I’ll make sure you’re
protected.

“
Your honor, our own
investigation has revealed that these threats could be coming from
Mr. Datello’s uncle.  As you may know, he’s facing federal
RICO charges, among other things.  He holds my client in part
responsible for his legal problems.  We would like to
–”

“
Hold on, Mr. Stefano,”
Judge Gates forestalled the argument with a hand in front of
her.  “I’d like to see these alleged threats, in whatever form
they were issued.  And I cannot conceive how any of this would
jeopardize the start of this trial come Monday morning. 
However, the judicial system takes these matters
seriously. 

“
Mr. Carpenter, how much
time do you think your office will require, with a concerted effort
and cooperation from the police, to determine the veracity of these
threats once you have the evidence in hand?”

“
Uh… well, your honor,
it’s difficult to say.”

“
I see.  Well, in
that case, I’m going to grant Mr. Stefano’s request for a
continuance, only one week, sir.  We’ll meet back here next
Friday, and Mr. Carpenter, I do expect that the state will have
sufficient time to investigate.  We’re –”

A shriek pierced the air.

Instinctively, Devlin and I rushed
forward.  Celeste Datello was cradling a belly so rigid I
could see the muscle ripple through her suit.  Blood pooled
between her feet.

“
Danny, something’s
wrong!”

He nearly climbed over the railing
separating the galley from the defense and prosecution.  Court
officers quickly restrained him.

“
Call for an ambulance,” I
said to Devlin.  I pushed my way down the aisle.

Datello spotted me and started yelling, “Get
that bitch away from my wife!  Judge, she’s probably the one
threatening my family!  She won’t rest until we’re all
dead!”

“
Get him out of here,”
Judge Gates ordered.

I eased Celeste onto the floor.  A
bloody hand slid into mine.  “Don’t be mad at Danny, Detective
Eriksson.  He’s scared and afraid that someone will hurt our
baby.  Please help me!  I know you can protect us. 
Please!”

Instead of easing her worry, I held her hand
and coached her breathing until the paramedics arrived.

“
Please, please help me!”
she wailed.  If not for the slimy lubricant on her hands, I
doubt anything could’ve broken her death grip on me.  “Helen,
please.  We’re practically family!  Help me. 
Someone is going to hurt my baby!”

I let the paramedics pry us apart and
stumbled backward against Devlin’s chest.

“
You all
right?”

I shook my head.  “I have no idea what
to make of that.  What just happened?”

“
Hysterics, I think,” he
said.  “Datello probably staged the whole thing for
sympathy.”

“
I don’t think so,
Devlin.  You don’t fake that kind of bleeding.  She’s in
trouble.”

“
Really?”

“
I think it’s called an
abruption.  The placenta tears away from the uterine
wall.”

Devlin’s eyebrows inched close
together.  “Is this something someone could’ve done to
her?”

“
No,” I said.  “If
someone had attacked her, believe me, we’d have known about
it.  This was spontaneous.”

“
Do you think somebody is
really threatening Datello’s family?”

“
I wouldn’t be a bit
surprised.  It’s like I said before, Devlin.  Datello is
living on borrowed time.  What I find shocking is that Stefano
got this hearing before the judge in the first place.  I
wonder why Zack looked so worried.”

“
Let’s ask him,” Devlin
said.

The crowd was pushed back to the
prosecution’s side of the aisle anyway to make room for emergency
treatment of Celeste Datello.  Devlin and I inched our way
toward Zack and his co-counsel.

“
Hey,” Dev tapped on his
shoulder.

“
Oh, hello
detective.  Helen.”

“
You looked a little
worried when we came into court today, Zack.  What’s really
going on behind this motion for a continuance?”

He shook his head.  “I wasn’t
certain.  We thought that Stefano might’ve hurled accusations
that the police department was behind these threats.”

“
Not the department,” I
said.  “You were afraid that Datello would point the finger at
me, which he did, but not before the judge already made her
ruling.”

“
You haven’t had any
contact with him since his arrest, have you, Helen?”

“
Not a single word. 
I hadn’t seen his wife until the first pretrial hearing.  It’s
not my style to do something like that anyway.  If I have a
problem with someone, we’ll have it out then and there.  I
have no interest in Mrs. Datello, beyond feeling a great deal of
pity over her poor choice in husband.”

“
Curious that she seems to
think you’re the one to protect her family now, isn’t it, Helen?”
Zack said.  “Danny and Celeste seem to be divided on their
opinion of you.”

I snorted softly.  “We’re practically
family.  That’s what she said.  She ought to be careful
about making such statements.  Might get back to her
husband.  God only knows what he’d do to her if he heard her
say such a thing.”

“
Helen, about that,” Zack
said.

“
About what?”

“
I have concerns about
them using this familial relationship in open court.  Now I
know that you never had anything to do with Datello while you were
married to his cousin, but –”

“
Don’t go there, Zack,” I
said with soft finality.  “I didn’t even know that my ex was
related to Datello while we were married.  Had I known before,
there wouldn’t have been a wedding.  If you need someone to
testify that I was targeted for marriage as a potential insurance
policy, contact David Levine.  They concealed that family
relationship so well that not even the FBI uncovered the truth when
I was vetted for employment.”

“
I already know they’re
going to try to drag your father’s criminal history into this to
impugn you, Helen,” he said.

“
Oh, so now I’m
responsible for what my father did when I was a child?”

“
Of course not,” Zack
said.  “But on the other hand, you know as well as I do how
juries eat this stuff up.”

“
Then you need to focus on
a few facts to bring them back to reality.  For instance, when
David Ireland was murdered sixteen years ago, I was twenty-two,
unmarried and had never heard of Rick Hamilton or Danny Datello and
Sullivan Marcos.  I was fresh out of undergraduate school,
working on my master’s degree in psychology.”

“
I know that,
Helen.”

“
There wasn’t a damn thing
even remotely related to these men in my life.  As for my
father, I hadn’t seen him since his arraignment hearing three years
earlier.  It’s been almost twenty years since I’ve seen or
spoken to him.”

“
I know, but –”

“
Then it’s your job to
make the jury see that, to make sure they don’t forget that I
devoted my life to stopping men like my father, like Datello and
Marcos.  For heaven’s sake, Zack.  Look at what we’ve
accomplished in less than a year in Darkwater Bay.”

“
Unfortunately, there are
still pockets of citizens who think Datello was good for Darkwater
Bay.”

“
You were supposed to
minimize their presence on this jury, Zack.” Devlin said. 
“And while I realize that there are bound to be some union guys on
the jury, they need to understand in no uncertain terms that his
arrest hasn’t had the negative impact on jobs in this city that
Datello’s lawyer would have everyone believe.”

“
I have concerns that this
isn’t going to be the slam dunk we hoped it would be,” Zack
said.  “If I can keep the jury focused on the evidence and
make them ignore Stefano’s distraction tactics, we should be
fine.  This alleged death threat business has me
concerned.”