Some of the lawyers threw their hands in the air, then began pounding their cell phones with their fingers while others just continued to complain while they jostled toward the ticket machine to get a number. The tickets were for members of the public who waited in line to make a complaint – not for lawyers waiting to see a client.
‘What the hell, Bukowski?’ I said. ‘What’s the point in me buying Knicks tickets for you if you’re going to call every damn lawyer in Manhattan?’
‘Sorry, Eddie. Look, this is a hell of a case. You’ll want it. This ain’t nothin’ to what this place is gonna look like in the morning when there’s an army of paparazzi outside waiting to get a picture while we take these girls for arraignment.’
‘What girls? What’s the case?’
‘The ESU brought in two girls at midnight. Sisters. Both in their twenties. Their pops was lying upstairs in the bedroom, torn to pieces. The sisters called the cops on each other. They’re both saying the other one killed him. This case – it’s gonna go big.’
I looked around the waiting room. The cream of Manhattan’s criminal defense attorneys were gathered, all the big players in their thousand-dollar suits with their assistants tagging along behind them.
I looked down. I wore a pair of black and white Air Jordan Low’s, blue jeans and an AC/DC tee under a black blazer. Most of my clients weren’t concerned with my sartorial appearance after midnight. I clocked some of the suits nudging each other and nodding in my direction. Clearly, I didn’t look like any kind of competition for these guys. But what I didn’t understand was why this case was such a big deal.
‘The sisters claim the other one did it. So what? They got money or something? What’s brought all the lions to the riverbank tonight?’
‘Shit, you haven’t seen the news, have you?’ said Bukowski.
‘No, I’ve been asleep.’
‘The girls are Sofia and Alexandra Avellino. Frank’s daughters.’
‘Frank’s dead?’
Bukowski nodded, said, ‘I talked to one of the ESU responders. Frank was gutted like a fish. Torn up with a blade. The responder told me this was a bad one. And you know the ESU – they see a lot.’
The Emergency Service Unit of the NYPD operated like a smart SWAT team. There wasn’t much they hadn’t seen – from terrorist atrocities to bank robberies, hostage situations to live shooters. If someone in the ESU said it was bad, that meant it was straight out of a nightmare. But it wasn’t the extraordinary level of violence involved in the crime that had brought out Manhattan’s finest criminal sharks – it was the victim and the alleged perps.
Until November last year, Frank Avellino had been mayor of New York City.
‘What are the chances of me getting in on this case when I’m at the back of the line?’
‘You’re at the front of the line now. Carol couldn’t get the client signed up. The guy in there now hasn’t got a prayer. I’ll take you through in a second,’ said Bukowski.
‘Hang on, I was third in line?’
‘Carol Cipriani bumped me a grand to be first, but she couldn’t get the client signed up. Sorry, Eddie. I gotta eat.’
‘Hey, what are we? Chopped liver? What gives here?’ said one of the suits.
‘Don’t worry, take it easy. He’s not bumping the line. You’ll get your chance,’ said Bukowski. ‘It’s okay, Eddie. Most of these pricks are here to see Alexandra. You’re seeing Sofia.’
‘Hang on, we’re not here to see both sisters?’ asked one of the suits, and they all raised their voices to complain.
Bukowski was my guy, along with half a dozen other duty sergeants who would tip me off if they caught a big arrest, and I always looked after them in return. This time, the NYPD smelled a big case and every cop who had a lawyer feeding their pockets got on their phones. I’d seen it before. The detectives in charge of the case would complain to the sergeants, but as long as they didn’t cut into the arrest time too much there was nothing they could do. The detectives wouldn’t complain to their superiors because then they would be ratting out a fellow officer.
In the NYPD, rats die in holes. Some of the lawyers here would get their shot and those who didn’t wouldn’t complain. If they did complain then they wouldn’t get any more calls. The clients wouldn’t complain because they got the pick of the best lawyers. High-profile homicide was Christmas time for uniformed PD. Like most things in this town, a little corruption and a little money on the side helped to grease everyone’s wheels.
Welcome to New York City.
‘Let me grab my keys and I’ll introduce you to Sofia.’
‘Why am I seeing Sofia?’ I asked.
Bukowski leaned in close, said, ‘I know you. You won’t take the case if the client is trying to get off on a crime they committed. Alexandra, I got my doubts about her. This chick – Sofia – well, you’ll see. I get twenty to thirty people come through my cells every day. I can spot the real perps same as you. She ain’t a perp. But I gotta warn you, don’t make any sudden movements with this chick. Don’t hand her nothin’, don’t leave any pens or paper with her.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, the custody doc thinks she’s crazy … But she won’t attack you. You’re gonna be her lawyer.’
TWO
KATE
Kate Brooks slept soundly, wrapped in layers of woolen blankets, wearing her Taylor Swift PJs over her gym gear, and two pairs of thick, white tube socks. No matter how much she tinkered with the old radiators in her apartment, she couldn’t get them to heat up. The studio apartment had been advertised to let as ‘A bijoux living space with central heating throughout’. Two radiators at either end of the room technically counted as heating throughout. As a consequence, Kate got dressed before bed every night. When the winter really kicked in, she didn’t know what she was going to do.
An alert signal began to chirp on her phone – an electronic bell that got louder every second. Kate’s arm swung out of bed to the nightstand and she swiped at the screen twice to silence it. She quickly tucked her arm back under the duvet, and turned over without really waking up.
The phone began chirping again.
This time she forced open her eyes. The noise coming from her phone didn’t sound like her wake-up alarm. She realized it was a call from her boss – Theodore Levy. Not only that, but she’d hung up his first call.
‘Hello, Mr. Levy,’ she said, with a croaky voice.
‘Get dressed. I need you to swing by the office and pick up a document, then meet me at the First Precinct in Tribeca,’ said Levy.
‘Oh, sure thing. What do you need me to bring?’
‘Scott is in the office right now running down some leads, but I need him here. I need you to get a retainer agreement for Alexandra Avellino. Bring it down here. I’ll need it in the next forty-five minutes. Do not be late.’
With that, he hung up.
Kate flung the covers back and got out of bed. This was the life of a newly qualified lawyer. She was close to six months in the job, the ink still drying on her law license. Scott, another baby attorney in the practice, was in the office already, and why the hell he couldn’t pick up whatever Levy needed didn’t affect Kate. Levy barked orders and people jumped. Didn’t matter that there might be an easier or quicker way to do something; so long as everyone was in a frenzy, Levy was happy.