Why Me 6

Two things before we start; It is entirely possible that I have not got the intricacies of the legal process correct, I am not a Lawyer. While this is a Romance story, the sex is implicit rather than explicit.

CHAPTER ONE

I often ask myself, why me?

Somewhere in a previous life, I must have done something really, really bad, and what has just happened was the bale of straw that dropped from a great height onto the poor camel's back. I had been looking forward to this year, it was going to be my last on the force and then I was going to retire, get a life before I'm too old, move to a nice little house in the country and grow roses or something, play a little golf, do some fishing and sit in front of the fire with Christine and think of nothing more exciting than what to do with the grand-kids when we eventually got some.

The first thing to go wrong was that Christine felt a lump in her breast one morning. She thought nothing about it at the time, but a month later when it had doubled in size she panicked and went to her doctor. By then it was too late, and while the doctors did their best, a radical mastectomy, they could not save her. The Department made me take some time off, and that, if anything, made it worse, I rattled around in the empty house for several weeks with the occasional visit from Kathy, our daughter and her husband Rick. These visits were few and far between because they were both cops like me. Kathy met Rick on the force just before his star began to rise. They have been married now for seven years and seem happy enough despite the hours that they work and the irregular shifts involved.

Kathy works in the Records Section, managing the various databases that are used in the course of police investigations. Rick works Homicide and has the highest arrest record in the department, something that has given me a sense of pride and considerable kudos among my colleagues.

Now for the truly, really, bad part. I had just signed on this morning when I got a message that the Captain wanted to see me. "Take a seat, Ted." He pointed to an empty chair in front of the desk. "I've got some bad news. We had a call-out at around 11:00 last night that there was a possible homicide. Rick went to investigate and someone must have been waiting for him because the next thing we knew was that his partner gets on the radio telling us that there was an officer down. It was Rick. He had been hit in the head by a single shot from a large calibre handgun and was dead."

I was shocked beyond belief, these things only ever happened to other men, not me or my family.

"That's not the worst part. We did an autopsy and they did a match on the bullet. Based on that match we have arrested Kathy for Rick's murder."

"That can't be true! Kathy would never do anything like that!"

"Unfortunately Ted, the evidence points to her guilt."

"Can I see her?"

"I don't see why not." He pushed a button on his desk and a woman police officer entered. "Julie, would you take Ted down to the interrogation room and let him talk with Kathy Reichert."

"I'm sorry about this, Ted," Julie said as we walked down the corridor, "I just can't see Kathy doing this but Forensics are adamant that they have matched the bullet to Kathy's gun."

CHAPTER TWO

"I didn't do it, Dad."

"I know you didn't Honey. Don't worry, I'll get to the bottom of this. What evidence other than the bullet do they have?"

"I don't have an alibi. I was home alone all night, I had dropped off to sleep in front of the TV waiting for Rick to come home. there was no one to verify that because none of my neighbours in the apartment block heard anything, they didn't hear me go out but then they didn't hear me come back in either. For all they knew, I could have slipped out and killed a dozen people and they would have been none the wiser."

"Did they test for powder residue?"

"Yes, and this is where it gets weird, they claim to have found some."

"When was the last time that you fired your gun?"

"A couple of months ago, I had a day at the range, a refresher course."

"And you used your gun?"

"Yes, and that's the last time it has been fired. I left it unloaded in my locker."

"I don't understand, if you haven't fired a gun for a couple of months how could they find gunshot residue on you?"

"They didn't actually find it on me, they couldn't have, but they claim to have found residue that can be connected back to me."

"Did anyone know that you had it there?"

"Well Rick did, he used to joke about the person dying while I was racing to get my gun from the locker. I told him that no-one ever died in Records."

"How are things between you two lately?"

"Same old, same old. He has been working very long hours over the last twelve months, and our love life sucks because of it, but I can understand his desire to get ahead quickly so that I can leave work and start a family. Money isn't the problem either, we always have enough to pay the bills and save for a place of our own."

"So you don't argue about anything?"

"No big issues, I still want him to stop smoking and he says that he's trying. I insist that he has to give it up before we have a family, and that gets him upset. He has accused me of nagging him about it, but I tell him that I'm concerned about his health and that of our children."

"Has he discussed any of his cases with you, is anything bothering him about his job?"

"No, he's happy with how his work is and is happy to share the kudos with Crime Scene and Forensics. When he got his last citation he made a point of praising the efforts of these people, stating that the high arrest rate was due to the unselfish teamwork of all these sections of the force."

"I've heard that," I told her. "So, we have a successful and efficient police officer, popular with his fellow workers, who doesn't appear to have an enemy in the world, who is lured into a trap and killed, and you are fitted up for the crime. Someone doesn't like him, or you, or the both of you. Can you think of anyone who fits that description?"

"I don't have any enemies that I know of and I haven't heard anything bad said about him. I don't know what to think. Will you help me Dad?"

"You know I will Honey. Leave it all to me, I'll get to the bottom of this one way or another."

I kissed her and left the room with all the confidence that I could muster. As soon as I was outside the room the confidence deserted me big time. Whoever was behind this was very clever and knew how to manipulate evidence. Somewhere there was a clue, somewhere that person had made a mistake and I had to find it and save Kathy.

I knocked on the Captain's office door. "I was expecting you, how's Kathy holding up?"

"She didn't do it, Todd."

"But the evidence all points to her having done it."

"I know that, but the important part of the puzzle is missing, motive. She has absolutely no reason to kill Rick, there were no major issues in their marriage apart from the hours that he was working, but she accepts that was so she could retire earlier than planned and start a family. I was always taught to look for motive and opportunity and if you can link that with the evidence then you have a case."

"Listen to me Ted, I don't want you poking around in this case, leave it to the experts."

"But the experts have already decided that Kathy is guilty. I want to look at the evidence for myself. I demand to see the evidence so that I can make up my own mind."

"Ted! Look at me, Ted. Leave it alone, and that's an order."

I took off my badge and took my gun from its holster and placed them on his desk. "I'll have the paperwork for you before I leave."

"Don't do this Ted. What can you do that the experts can't?"

"I can look at this from a human perspective and not a scientific one, that's the way we used to do it, find the reason, find the evidence and you find the criminal."

"I won't accept your resignation but what I will do for you is to grant you one month's leave. If you haven't found anything by then I'll expect you back at work. In the meantime see if you can get a good lawyer for Kathy, apply for bail and I suggest that you try to arrange for her to live with you."

"I guess that's fair enough. Oh, can I arrange to collect Mike's persona; things from his locker and desk?"

"Sure, go ahead." I collected an archive box and cleared his desk drawers and while I had his top drawer out on the desk I noticed something taped to the back of it. I slipped it into my pocket before placing the drawer back.

"Do you have a master key for his locker?" I wasn't about to draw attention to the fact that Kathy had a key. Armed with a key I cleared his belongings from the locker, checking that there was nothing hidden before returning the key.

CHAPTER THREE

My interview with the Lawyer couldn't have gotten off to a worse start. Deeadra Jackson was a woman in her forties or thereabouts, slim and dressed in the right colours to enhance her African-American beauty. "You realise Mister Kenneally that the only reason that I was given this case is that we have what appears to be a no-win situation, and none of the Partners are interested in no-win cases, so they get dumped on an Associate. I drew the short straw." But then it got better. "Having said that, I can assure you that I do not intend to lose. For the Prosecution to win they will have to prove their case beyond any reasonable doubt, and I will make that very hard for them."

"I will help you as much as I can, I can do the leg work for you, and I can provide you with as much information as possible about the major players, after all, most of them I have worked with at one time or another."

"The first thing is to get your daughter out of jail. Then we are going to make the Police work for us, I will subpoena them for the files on all cases that Rick worked on over the last twelve months and then you and I are going to sit down and sift through each and every one of them to see if there is anything that can give us a clue as to who else could have had reason to kill him. We are looking for a motive."

There was a media circus happening at the courthouse, flashguns flashed, cameras whirred and microphones were thrust in our faces as we entered. The questions that we were asked would never have been allowed in court so we were forced to maintain our non-committal silence.

Kathy was waiting for us in the courtroom, she looked tired and scared. I tried to reassure her but the stacked deck of attorneys and police at the prosecution table was enough to scare even me. "They can't be too confident of their case," Deeadra said, "For them to wheel out the big guns."

"Kathy, this is Deeadra Jackson, she is going to represent you and help you."

Kathy's face twitched in a short-lived smile and she held out her hand. Just then the clerk announced the arrival of the Judge. "District Court of New York, this court is in session Judge Harry Warner presiding, all rise!"

Harry Warner was a familiar face, he was a no-nonsense Judge who was scrupulously fair to both sides. He smiled beneficently to the packed court and sat down. The District Attorney rose. "Your Honour, I am here to represent the State.'

Deeadra stood. 'Deeadra Jackson for the Defence.'

To accuse Gilbert Rawlings of being a publicity-seeking career politician would be a little harsh if it wasn't true. He only prosecuted sure things and then only if they could gain him some sort of political mileage that would ensure his future appointment. He was a tall, gym slim man in his fifties with 'fashionable' grey streaks at the temple, salon tanned face, and presumably body. He wore an Armani suit, silk shirt and tie which would have cost me a week's wage at least.

The Clerk read the court docket. "In the matter before this court, the State versus Kathleen Reichert on the charge of murder in the first degree."

"How does the defendant plead?"

Deeadra glanced briefly at the prosecution troops. "The defendant pleads not guilty Your Honour."

Rawlings raised an eyebrow in a practised movement signifying surprise. "Mr Rawlings?"

"Your Honour, the State charges that at approximately 11:00 last night the defendant lured her husband to a place where she fatally shot him once in the head with her service pistol."

"Ms Jackson?"

"Your Honour the defence will prove that my client could not have carried out the crime for which she is being charged. She had neither the motive nor the opportunity to carry out this crime and we challenge the veracity of the Forensic evidence against her, which by the way is the only evidence linking my client to the crime. There are no witnesses that can put her at the scene."

"Bail, Mister Rawlings?"

"We oppose bail, Your Honour, the killing of a Police Officer is a serious matter."

"Ms Jackson?"

"We ask for bail Your Honour, and will, as part of the bail conditions suggest that my client be remanded into the custody of her father, Police Lieutenant Edward Kenneally, a long-serving Police Officer of exemplary character."

"I will set bail at fifty thousand dollars on the condition that the defendant places herself in the care and custody of her father."

"Your Honour, I have with me a subpoena asking that the police turn over to the defence the results of the forensic tests and the files on all cases involving Detective Richard Reichert over the past twelve months."

Rawlings looked at Deeadra. "May I ask what relevance these files will have to this case?"

"Ms Jackson?"

"It would appear that the District has already tried and convicted my client, but without proof of motive or opportunity. It is our desire to fully investigate the circumstances that surround the death of Detective Reichert and, to enable us to do that, we would like to explore the cases on which he worked, to see if some other person could have had a motive for this heinous crime because my client certainly didn't."

"Mister Rawlings, would you ensure that the relevant files are made available to the defence attorney?"

Rawlings' expression had changed. He had been assured by the investigating police that their case was watertight and that the evidence available was conclusive, but now he wasn't quite so sure. He reviewed the evidence and was even less sure. "Is this all you've got?"

"It's all we have so far, more evidence will come to light as our investigation progresses."

"It had better." He stormed out of the courtroom.

An hour later, with a brief stop at her apartment to pick up essentials, Ted, Kathy and Deeadra were seated around the kitchen table in Ted's apartment looking through the forensic evidence. Kathy had made coffee for all of them and found cookies. The coffee was getting cold, and the cookies remained uneaten, as the undivided attention was on the files. "Do you think we can ask for an independent forensic examination of the pistol?" Ted asked.

"Why, what have you got?" Deeadra asked.

"There is something wrong with the prints. It looks as if whoever fired the gun was making sure that the only prints were Kathy's, do you see the blurring of the prints? The other thing is that there are no prints on the ammunition clip, who would wipe a clip clean and leave prints on the gun?" Ted asked.

"Someone who replaced the empty clip in the gun for a full one he brought with him." Deeadra replied.

"You're right! The clip in my gun had a line scratched across the end, this one doesn't!"

"Now we are getting somewhere!" Coffee and cookies disappeared. The first chink in the prosecution case had been revealed.

CHAPTER FOUR

"So we now have one piece of the Forensic evidence that we can challenge, what about the other, the powder residue on the jacket?" Deeadra asked.

"Which jacket is that?" Kathy asked. I handed over the photograph of the jacket. "Of course there will be powder residue on that jacket, that's the one I used at the firing range, I haven't worn it since, I left it hanging in my locker."

"Something smells fishy here. Why would someone want to kill Rick and frame you for it? Who could stand to benefit from that?"

"That is what we have to find out. It is important to our case that we find who could be thus motivated and have the opportunity. When Rick was called out, was it a 911 call?"

"I think so."

"If it was, we can get a recording of the actual call. Maybe an examination of the speech patterns will prove that Kathy didn't make the call. All we have to do then is find out who did."

"Apart from yourself, who had a key to your locker?"

"Well Rick had one, and I had a key to his, we used to leave messages for each other and, if we were working different shifts which was most of the time, I would prepare a meal for him and leave it in his locker. Stuff like that."

"No-one else?"

"Not that I was aware of, I certainly never let my key for his locker out of my possession."

"Can you think of any reason why he might give his key to your locker to anyone else?"

"No, I don't think he would."

"There is one other possibility. There is a master key to the lockers, the Captain has it in his top drawer."

"Does he keep that drawer locked?" Deeadra asked.

"It wasn't locked when I got it from him to clear Mike's things from it. Oh, I forgot, in the drama that was unfolding when I cleared his desk there was something, an envelope, taped to the back of the top drawer, now where did I put that?" It was in my jacket pocket. I opened it to find a folded paper, opening it I read 'find what you're looking for". He must have suspected someone was checking on him."

"That means that he either suspected something or he had discovered something that he was keeping close to his chest." Kathy said, "Why didn't he say something to me?"

"To protect you. If those he found out about thought that he'd told you then they might have harmed you."

"And they haven't harmed me enough?"

"I think that we now have a motive for his death, all that we need to find is, who it is."

"Maybe the files will tell us something." I divided the files into three roughly equal piles and handed them around. The group was soon engrossed in studying the individual files.

Several cups of coffee later Deeadra stopped reading. "I don't know if either of you has picked up on something, but I have the distinct impression that something isn't quite right about these cases."

"If you mean that there are similarities in each of them that shouldn't normally appear, then yes. Taken individually these cases all seem to be prime examples of cooperation between the different branches of the force, the efficient gathering of evidence and tying it all together into a watertight case against the accused that resulted in a conviction in every case. However each conviction was obtained using unchallenged forensic evidence, and if Kathy's case is anything to go on, this evidence could very well have been manufactured. If we can prove that evidence has been manufactured in any of these cases then we have a conspiracy of mega proportions on our hands."

"Who would stand to benefit from this?"

"I know that this will sound far-fetched, but what if, in response to the Mayor's 'zero-tolerance policy', someone has set out to remove criminals from the streets in return for financial benefit?"

"Sort of 'guns for hire'?"

"Exactly! And what if that someone was the DA? He has the resources at his disposal, the police take out a known felon and fit another known felon up for the hit. They have effectively killed two birds with the one stone."

"Proving that is going to be the real problem, and it is unlikely that we can expect co-operation from either the police or the DA's office. So we are pretty much on our own."

"Can we get hold of the transcripts of each trial?"

"I don't see why not. What did you have in mind?"