Law of Attraction (35 page)

Green pulled his gun out slowly and handed it, muzzle down, to McGee. McGee nodded, ejected the magazine, and made sure there was no round in the chamber. Then he tucked it into the back of his pants. Anna exhaled, and Jack started pacing the small room.

“Let’s take a minute to decide what to do now.” Jack was talking
more to himself than to anyone else. Anna heard the exhaustion that saturated his voice. She understood the effort it took to gear up for this trial: the lunches of Clif Bars eaten at his desk, the late nights working after he’d put Olivia to bed, the single-minded focus that allowed him to push through his own sleep deprivation. This morning, he’d been running on the energy of finally presenting this case to a jury. The paternity test results sliced through that energy to the core of his fatigue. He looked at his watch and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I need to disclose this to the judge and Wagner. I obviously can’t use Green as a witness anymore.”

“Wait,” Anna spoke up for the first time. She understood that Jack’s mind was still on the trial, going down the path he’d been treading for almost a year. But there was one more thing she needed to know. “Officer Green, when was the last time you spoke to Laprea?”

“Ever?”

“Yes.”

He looked at his feet and answered in a whisper. “On the night she was killed.”

“You’re fucking kidding me!” Jack balled his hands into fists and he strode over to the officer. “We’ve been investigating this case for months! We did a time line of every minute of the night she was killed. You sat there and didn’t say a thing!”

Green backed up to the wall as Jack yelled in his face. They were inches apart.

“I couldn’t tell you—I’d get fired. I’m sorry, Jack, but I didn’t think it mattered. You put the case together great without my information.”

“You coward! That’s obstruction of justice!”

“Jack, please.” Anna put her hand on Jack’s arm. He looked at her hand, then at his own balled fists. He nodded, unclenched his hands, and retreated to the other corner of the room. Anna turned to Green and gestured for him to have a seat. He sank into a chair and put his head in his palm. Anna sat next to him.

“Officer Green,” she said softly. “Tell us what happened. I think you’d better tell us everything.”

He took a deep breath and exhaled deeply, a sigh that almost sounded like relief.

“It wasn’t as bad as it looks now. I was just trying to help her. After that Valentine’s Day assault, I’d check in on her and the family, I’d sometimes go have lunch where she works and talk to her. Davis was
in jail pending trial, and she appreciated somebody coming by, you know?

“One night she was leaving work about the same time I was heading home. So I offered to give her a ride. One thing just led to another.”

He looked both ashamed and a bit proud of his conquest.

“How long did your relationship last?” Anna asked.

“We only got together a few times. It never got serious. I mean, we talked about where it was going, but I wasn’t really ready for anything big. I guess we had that talk a week or so before the first trial.” He wrinkled his nose. “I hope that didn’t affect her testimony.”

Of course that affected her testimony, Anna thought. But she contained her anger and concentrated on obtaining the information she needed.

“Did you hear from her after that trial?”

“No, I think she was back with Davis then. The next time I heard from her was the night she died.”

“What happened?”

“I was on duty, doing routine patrol, and she called my cell phone. From a pay phone. She was hysterical. Said D’marco hit her again, said she was ready to prosecute him ‘to the full extent of the law’ this time, and could I come over and arrest him. I told her: sorry. You know, because of her testimony last time. Lying and all. I told her it’d be hard to
ever
bring a case against him again based just on her word. No one would believe her. I wasn’t going out there to arrest him for a case that was just going to tank when she got back together with him again. I told her if she wanted to get him arrested, to call 911. Let them sort it out.”

“Mm-hm,” Anna murmured for him to go on.

“She called again about an hour later. I wouldn’t have answered if I’d known it was her, but it came up from a number I didn’t recognize. I guess it was Davis’s house. She was hysterical again. Still ranting about wanting me to come over and make an arrest. I wasn’t really listening this time. I told her there was a hot chase going on—all available units were on the lookout for two armed men who’d just held up the Circle B. I was driving through an alley, working the spotlight, trying to see if there was anyone hiding behind the Dumpsters. I just told her again I wasn’t arresting D’marco Davis. And she said something like ‘No, you’re not listening to me.’ She was right, I wasn’t listening.

“Right then, a guy matching the lookout darted out from behind a
Dumpster, and I started chasing him in my car. I told her to call 911, and I threw the phone down so I could drive. Hell, she might’ve even hung up on me before that. I dunno, I was in the middle of a chase. That was it, the last time I heard from her.

“I didn’t think he would kill her!” Green looked at Anna hopefully, as if by coming clean he would be absolved of his prior mistakes. “I wanted to tell you, but how could I? I’d be suspended for having a relationship with her. But I never lied to anyone or refused to answer questions. I honestly didn’t think it would be a problem for this case. Her calling me doesn’t change what Davis did to her.”

“Did you get the guy?” Jack asked quietly from the other side of the little room.

“Which guy?”

“The Circle B robber. The one you were looking for.”

“Uh—no.”

“Did you radio in your location?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Did you make a report of your chase?”

“No.”

“Is there anything whatsoever to support your story?”

“What—what do you mean?”

McGee cut in, his deep bass voice vibrating in Anna’s chest. “Brad, I do believe the man’s trying to find out if you killed Laprea Johnson.”

Green stared at him, then looked to Jack, who was glaring back furiously, and Anna, who shook her head. She couldn’t help him—and she didn’t want to. Green’s face melted into an expression of naked terror.

Green stood up shakily. “No, I—I think I do need a lawyer.”

He waited for someone to contradict him, but he was met with complete silence. He fled from the room.

34

A
s they sat in the little witness room, surveying the smoldering wreckage of the prosecution’s case, Jack and Anna both understood that the murder case against D’marco Davis was over.

As a witness, Green was destroyed. He was dishonest and possibly guilty of obstruction of justice, a man who would protect himself and his own career rather than come clean. If he was willing to hide things from the prosecutors—his own teammates—how could the jurors trust him? And Green wasn’t just a dishonest witness. He was quite probably a biased one, too. He and the defendant were potential romantic rivals, which meant he had a reason to want to get revenge on D’marco. The prosecution could never rely on his testimony. Of course, they had a duty to disclose all of this to the defense. If they were to put Green on the stand as a witness, he would be destroyed on cross-examination.

And Jack had just told the jury what a good, neutral guy Green was. There was no do-over. Jack would lose all kinds of credibility with the jury.

It wasn’t just that the prosecution could no longer use Green in their case. Green now
was
D’marco’s case. Anna remembered D’marco’s insistence, when he was at her house, that a cop had killed Laprea. That story, absurd at the time, took on a new significance now that they knew that Laprea had been involved with a cop. A dishonest cop who didn’t want to be bothered by a woman from Anacostia. A cop who wouldn’t be happy with an illegitimate child who might jeopardize his career and his wallet. It was certainly enough to make the jury wonder if Green killed Laprea—and, frankly, it was making Anna wonder as well.

Anna still thought D’marco was the more likely killer. But did she believe it beyond a reasonable doubt?

A prosecutor has to be sure. Before she asks twelve people to send a man to prison, a prosecutor has to know that the man she is sending
away is guilty of the crime. If
she
has doubts, she has no business asking the jury to convict.

The murder case was done. Both Jack and Anna knew it.

“Do you still need me here?” McGee asked.

Jack rubbed the bridge of his nose. “What do you have, Tavon, a pedicure appointment?”

“I’m going to talk to the lieutenant,” McGee said. “I have Green’s gun, but they’ll have to take his badge and do the administrative stuff.”

“Good.” Jack nodded. “Then do me a favor and write up Green’s statement. Keep in mind that defense attorneys, Internal Affairs, and the media will be poring over your report for years to come. Shit, I should have asked you to take notes.”

“I’ve got you covered, Chief.”

McGee pulled a small, spiral-bound notebook from his suit pocket. He flipped it open with a smile, showing off several pages of his neat round writing. He’d discreetly taken down Green’s statement nearly verbatim.

“McGee, you’re great!” Anna exclaimed.

McGee looked at her impassively. “Humph,” he said, and walked out. Apparently, she was not yet back on his good side.

She found herself alone in the witness room with Jack. He looked more exhausted than she’d ever seen him. She glimpsed his isolation, the loneliness of being at the top of the food chain. If something like this happened in one of her cases, she would have called back to the office to talk to a supervisor who could advise her on how to handle it. But the buck stopped with Jack; there was no one he could look to for cover. She wanted to put her arm around his shoulders and rub his back. Of course, she didn’t dare.

“I have to disclose all of this,” Jack said, more to himself than to Anna. “And talk to Rose and Ernie Jones.”

“Right,” Anna murmured. As the victim’s surviving family, Rose had the right to be informed and consulted about major developments in the case. Ernie Jones, who was a victim of one of D’marco Davis’s assaults, had the same right.

As if on cue, the door swung open, and Rose, Ernie, and their lunch group filed in. Rose and Ernie were chatting easily as they sat down. Anna looked at her watch: 12:50. The lunch break was almost over.

“Ms. Johnson, Mr. Jones,” Jack said formally. Rose and Ernie
stopped talking. “May I have a moment with you alone?”

“Course,” Rose said.

The rest of the crowd filed back out, murmuring about what was going on. Rose and Ernie looked at Jack quizzically. Jack quickly told them what was going on, and what the prosecution might have to do at this point. Ernie nodded sagely; Rose looked shell-shocked. Both agreed that whatever Jack thought best was okay with them. Anna squeezed Rose’s arm before following Jack out of the room. In the hallway, Anna saw the case advocate.

“Can you go in there and be with Ms. Johnson?” Anna asked the advocate. “I think she could use some support.”

The advocate nodded and walked into the room where Rose was waiting. Anna knew Rose would be in good hands.

Anna followed Jack back into the courtroom, although she wasn’t sure she was invited. The courtroom was filled with spectators again, but it wasn’t as crowded as it had been for opening statements. Nick was standing at the defense table, looking through some papers. Jack strode up to him.

“We have to see the judge. In chambers.”

Nick looked at Jack and then at Anna, who was standing a few feet behind the Homicide chief. “What about?” he asked warily.

“I’ll tell you in there, on the record.”

Jack approached the courtroom clerk and whispered a few sentences.

A few minutes later, Anna was sitting with Jack, Nick, and D’marco in chairs in front of Judge Spiegel’s desk, like four children brought into a principal’s office to discuss their detention. A marshal stood by the wall behind D’marco. A court reporter sat by the judge’s desk, her hands poised over the keys of her stenographic machine, ready to take down the conversation when the judge came in.

Anna tried to ignore the fact that Nick and Jack were sitting on either side of her. She could see both men in her peripheral vision. She hadn’t been this close to either in months. She glanced around the office to keep herself from looking at them.

Judge Spiegel’s chambers had wide windows overlooking the appeals court across the street. The office was decorated with watercolor paintings, a colorful kilim, and the usual ego wall covered with diplomas, certificates, and plaques. A single framed photograph of a little
white terrier sat on the judge’s credenza. That lonely picture made Anna feel sorry for the judge, and consider her more human and vulnerable than she had before.

The judge strode in and sat behind her desk. She wore a bright yellow sweater set; the robe was reserved for inside the courtroom. The cheerful informality of her attire was offset by the reproof in her voice.

“This is highly irregular, Mr. Bailey. I hope you have a good reason for requesting this hearing. A courtroom full of people and fourteen sworn jurors are waiting for the trial to resume at the time I told them it would.”

“Yes, Your Honor,” Jack said. “What I need to discuss involves a likely grand jury investigation of an MPD officer, which cannot be discussed in public at this time. I need to disclose for the record some information I just learned.” Although he spoke to the judge, Jack carefully articulated every word for the court reporter, whose fingers were flying over the keys of her stenographic machine. “After we broke for lunch, AUSA Anna Curtis approached me with paternity test results just received from the FBI. The test results show that Officer Bradley Green was the father of the unborn child Laprea Johnson was carrying when she was killed. Ms. Curtis, Detective Tavon McGee, and I then confronted Officer Green during the lunch hour. Officer Green confirmed that he had a romantic relationship with the victim, and he made additional disclosures. Detective McGee will be memorializing that conversation in a police report, and a copy of that report will be provided to the Court and defense counsel as soon as it is finished, no later than tomorrow morning.”