Apex Predator (8 page)

That didn’t mean that he did not have a deep understanding of social media or that he did not value what the Internet could do to bring his writing to those looking for that good story. Ironically, he had more followers on Twitter and more ‘friends’ on his
Chronicle
Facebook page than any of the other young reporters at the
Chronicle
.

He had traded on his family name, but not in the way of the Carnegies or the Rockefellers. He was Augusto Garcia’s grandson, from Spanish Harlem, and that carried some weight when he knew he wouldn’t get the information in his role as a reporter. He had more cousins, uncles, nephews and nieces than he could count, whether they were blood relatives or not was irrelevant, once a tio, always a tio and once a primo, always a primo.

Family was defined by the strength of your word and your bond. He never forgot this.

He had a reputation for being tenacious, smart, but also discreet. He had never burned a source, something that everyone that had ever given him a scoop appreciated. He was careful not to jump too quickly when he started hearing chatter or rumors about something.

Instead, he did his own homework and came up with one or two scenarios that he would work from. Once he decided on those scenarios, however, he bit down and didn’t let go until he had his story.

After three years hanging around the precincts and monitoring police scanners, he thought he had a pretty good feel for when there was a real story there or when it was just bullshitting among cops.

Over the past few weeks, he had been following leads on a couple of homicides, both of which turned out to be crimes of passion, nothing to get excited over, and some burglaries where there was actually the hint of a story since one of the burglaries had been a sophisticated cat burglar right out of
Ocean’s Eleven
who had made off with more than $300,000 in jewelry. He had made a mental note to follow up on that one.

Then there was the usual smattering of domestic violence cases, nothing newsworthy, and last there were the missing persons reports. Again nothing out of the ordinary, although he had noticed that in each of the precincts he covered there was a report of a little girl missing. Nothing in common with any of them other than age and they were just three among twelve others from around the five boroughs.

Still, Felix had also made a mental note to check with some of the other beat reporters about missing little girls of the same age range. Maybe there was something big there, but Felix had gotten egg on his face before for jumping to conclusions too soon. Too many options of what could have happened to them, a divorced parent simply taking their kid, getting lost, runaways, although at six he thought that unlikely, still too many possibilities to put anything on paper.

He would wait until he had something to dig into, the cat burglar story was his main focus for the time being, but this one was definitely worth filing away to follow up on later. Besides, he had accumulated enough resources within each precinct to learn if there was something worth learning.

Drew Willis was wrapping up his caseload and was thrilled about going to The Hound’s Tooth and having a stiff scotch.

He couldn’t wait until the assistant district attorney normally assigned to this courtroom came back. Bart Logan was really starting to grate on him. The guy had a stick so far up his ass he would have trouble bending his neck to look down.

The whole week had been a series of arguments and sidebars and meetings in the judge’s chambers for even the most simple of negotiations. Like Drew, Logan was just a few years out of law school and was really trying to establish a reputation as a hard-ass. What he had really achieved was to garner contempt from most of the public defenders he worked with, and not even the guys that were lighthearted and really flexible dealmakers were comfortable working with him. They just put up with his bullshit to try to get the best deal possible, if anything Logan threw on the table could really be called a deal.

As he was putting his files into his briefcase, the door to the courtroom opened and in walked Max Zeidler, a high-profile defense attorney who didn’t step into a courtroom for less than $50,000. His clients were mostly Wall Street types caught on insider trading stuff, wives or husbands accused of murder with estates of billions on the line, or high-profile drug dealers. Not anything close to the street dealers, but the big fish, the guys that worked in tons.

Zeidler was in his late 50s but was in great shape and looked to be in his late 40s. He still had a full head of silver-white hair, which he slicked back. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he had not bowed to the temptations of the plastic surgery gods. His skin was wrinkled and tan and made the perfect combination with his blue, pinstriped Armani suit, his dark yellow paisley tie and his mane of silver hair.

He had first gained notoriety back in the ’70s and early ’80s defending the old mafia dons and doing it pretty successfully, so much so that in a couple of cases the Federal court had moved to have him disqualified over some RICO technicality or another.

Now he walked into the courtroom like he owned it, with his minions following and people getting out of his way. He actually looked like one of the dons he defended back in the day.

Drew watched the little procession with some amusement. It was even more amusing to watch Logan’s reaction to Zeidler’s arrival.

He stood up from the prosecution table buttoning up his suit coat with a very dignified look on his face and his hand outstretched, “Mr. Zeidler, Bart Logan, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you, I’ve been expecting you. I assume you’re here about the Pedroza case.”

Zeidler stopped, looked at him, shook his hand as a mere courtesy and asked, “Where’s Melanie Farris? I thought she was the one handling the case.”

Logan tried to maintain his composure, but the red spreading across his face betrayed his annoyance, embarrassment was more like it. ”She’s been pulled into another case, so the Pedroza case has been handed to me.”

Logan was trying hard as hell to remain composed, but the awkwardness of the situation was just not in his comfort zone and rather than coming off as someone with some authority, he came off as a petulant child insisting he was right.

Zeidler turned back and whispered to one of his assistants, then turned back to face Logan. “Well, Bert, you don’t mind if I call you Bert, do you? Why don’t we get the judge out here and get on with requesting a continuance until Melanie can get back on the case.”

Bart stood his ground, Drew was impressed, “Mr. Zeidler, there is no reason for requesting a continuance, the people are ready and all the stipulations about the DNA evidence have been made. Your office confirmed it. And it’s Bart, not Bert.”

Zeidler was smiling. Drew knew what was coming and he was actually feeling sorry for Logan. The kid just couldn’t figure out which battles he should fight.

“Alright,
Bart,
here’s the deal. We have made the stipulations we have because of long and careful discussions with Melanie Farris and your boss, David Neill, you know, the DA.

“Now if we are going to have to deal with a different legal team then we will need a continuance in order to discuss the case with that new legal team, a team I am assuming you will be a part of, but not heading, no offense.

“If we are going to ask for a continuance anyway, then wouldn’t it make sense to request one until the original prosecution team could handle the case again? I am sure you would still be a part of the team, but this way, things would move just so much more smoothly, don’t you think?”

Drew had to sit in admiration, in one fell swoop Zeidler had let Logan down easy, without insulting him, dangled a high-profile case in front of him like a carrot in front of a horse and made him think it would end up coming off as his idea. Logan was clearly outgunned and outmatched here and he didn’t even know it. He made a show of looking through the file and thinking about it, but he knew damn well what he was going to do.

Still he had to save face and get the last word in, “Based on the complexity of the case, Mr. Zeidler, the people would not be opposed to a continuance until Mr. Neill and Ms. Farris can rejoin the case. Of course that will be up to Judge Lee to decide.”

Zeidler nodded and patted Logan on the shoulder. “That’s a good man. Don’t worry, Jerry…I mean Judge Lee…won’t have a problem with it. His docket is backed up as it is.”

Logan looked satisfied with himself. He turned to the judge’s clerk, who was smiling at the whole exchange herself, “Heather, could you ask Judge Lee if we can meet with him in his chambers?”

Heather nodded, “Of course, Mr. Logan, I will check with him.”

As she turned to go back to the judge’s chambers, she caught Zeidler’s eye and gave him a quick wink. While they were all waiting for her to come back, Drew, one of the last lawyers in the courtroom, was shaking his head and smiling as he finished putting his files away.

Zeidler and his entourage, most of whom were on their iPhones or Blackberries texting away, just sat and waited. He looked around the courtroom and saw Drew putting his files away and called out to him, “Willis, it is Willis, right? That was a nice outcome on the Jordan distribution and conspiracy case. I represented the co-defendant and we didn’t get a much better deal. It was a nice play getting the cop to doubt the source of the container at the preliminary.”

Now it was Drew’s turn to try to look nonplussed and confident. He actually felt pretty good, so it wasn’t all that hard, “Thank you, Max. It wasn’t that hard really, the guy’s report and notes were crap from the beginning. I just had to get him to admit that on the stand to the judge.”

Zeidler nodded, smiling, “Sometimes that’s not as easy as it looks. Good work anyway.”

Drew finished packing his files and went up to shake the man’s hand, “Thanks again. Hey, good luck with Pedroza.”

Zeidler rolled his eyes toward Logan and made a low gesture with his hand as if to say ‘We’ve got it in the bag,’ but what he actually said in a low voice was, “If you ever think about joining a firm, a no holds-barred, balls-to-the-wall firm, you make sure you give me a call first.”

Drew turned to leave, “I appreciate the offer, it is an absolute honor, but I just hung out my shingle not too long ago, you know how that is.”

Zeidler smiled, “I do, do I ever. Just keep it tucked in your back pocket. You never know.”

Drew turned and started to walk out of the courtroom. He had no doubt Logan had caught that whole exchange and could almost feel his eyes boring a hole in the back of his head.

Just before he reached the door, Willis heard Zeidler say to Logan, “Oh, and Bart, since this delay is caused by the people’s busy schedule, you won’t oppose a motion to reduce bail for Mr. Pedroza, will you?”

Bart waited a couple of seconds and looked at the clerk before stammering, “Well, ah…”

Drew had reached the door to the courtroom and made his way through it quickly lest he start laughing out loud in the courtroom and really screw up his relationship with Logan.

Grady was back from talking to Mia Reynolds’ family members. Nothing to really note or bear down on. Father was rock solid, mother and sisters were typical upper middle class. He had also talked to the detectives talking to the teachers for both girls and had not come up with anything promising. Both girls went to private school and had teachers with significant credentials and meticulous backgrounds that could be verified. All had checked out.

Most of them were women anyway. The ones that were males could not be more different from the profile they were working off of. They were mostly over their mid-50s, mostly of European descent and most had very mundane lives that could also be traced back almost minute by minute during their time away from school. They had families of their own with which they spent a great deal of time or clubs they belonged to or organizations they were a part of, all of them able to account for their time almost down to the minute.

They had also talked to the custodial staff. There they had actually developed a couple of possibles. Two of the yard maintenance workers had done some time and completed probation, but neither was a violent offender nor any type of sex offender.

Both were Hispanic and had agreed readily to speak with the detectives on the case. Both offenses had to do with having relations with an underage girl, usually 16 or 17, when they themselves were 20 and 21 years old. They’d been cleared immediately.

He had also had an opportunity to speak with Mark Mullins and had gotten pretty much the same story from him.

Even with the profiles they were working from, there just didn’t seem to be anyone within the girls’ known circle that could be their guy. Extended family was next, all the uncles, cousins, second cousins, close friends, anyone that had spent time with them or even been at the same party was being interviewed as well.

The Reynolds family was planning on coming by the station later with Mrs. Reynolds’ sisters and brother. Mr. Reynolds was coming in from Phoenix where he had been for the past year, so it was mostly for emotional support that he was coming in.

Grady walked in his office and slammed the file on the desk. Damn it, they should be further along than this by now. Someone saw these girls together, liked them, targeted them and went hunting for them, and he was watching the police now. He knew they were talking to people; too many people were involved now.

The question was, was he enjoying the attention or was he panicking? Grady was assuming that this prick was probably amused by the attention, he hoped anyway. If he was panicking, he was probably hundreds of miles from New York by now and they would have to hear about some sort of similar case in Montana or Florida or some other state before they got back on his trail.

While he was looking out the window, as he was apt to do when he didn’t know what his next play would be, Grady heard a small tap on the window of his office. It was one of the secretaries with two other women, “Detective, Mrs. Reynolds and Ms. Hunt are here to see you.”