Chapter Thirteen
A few months earlier, Raymond Castor and several other members of the Lucifer’s Disciples got into a fight with a group of construction workers in a tavern near the gang’s clubhouse.
Raymond, whose nickname was Ray-Ray, had smashed a beer glass against the skull of one of the construction workers, sending him to the hospital with a concussion and numerous cuts and bruises.
The last time Mr. Castor had been in a bar fight, his right cheek had been sliced open from just below his eye to his jawline, and the construction worker had made a positive identification as soon as he saw the vivid scar on Castor’s face in his mug shot.
Muriel Lujack had been assigned to prosecute Castor.
She had finished an interview with the victim an hour ago, and she was making notes for his direct examination when the receptionist told her that a Miss Nikki Randolph was in the waiting room and wanted to see her.
Muriel was about to tell the receptionist that she was busy when she remembered seeing Randolph listed as Ray-Ray’s girlfriend in a police report.
There were several people in the waiting area, but there was no question which one was Nikki Randolph.
The helmet she held in her lap, her black leather jacket, heavy jeans, and black T-shirt gave her away.
Muriel guessed that Nikki was six feet tall and weighed close to two hundred pounds, which made her an ideal mate for Ray-Ray, who was six-five and weighed two ninety.
“Hi, Miss Randolph. I’m Muriel Lujack, and I’m handling Ray-Ray’s case. I understand you want to see me.”
“Yeah, I do.” Randolph looked around reception. She seemed uncomfortable. “Is there somewhere more private we could talk?”
“Sure. Let’s see if one of the conference rooms is available.”
Moments later, Muriel was seated across from Ray-Ray’s girlfriend on one side of a long conference table. Nikki looked very nervous, and Muriel smiled in an attempt to put her at ease.
“Why do you want to see me?” Lujack asked.
“I know Ray-Ray hurt that guy, but they were fighting. I don’t know why you aren’t going after the other guy.”
“You weren’t in the bar, were you?”
“No.”
“We decided to charge Ray-Ray because Mr. Shaw didn’t use a weapon and Ray-Ray hit him with a beer glass and caused some serious injuries.”
“Ray-Ray told me he was just defending himself.”
“I’m sure his lawyer will argue that to the jury.”
“Is there any way you could just dismiss the case?”
“Not without a good reason now that the grand jury handed down an indictment.”
Randolph hunched her shoulders and took a deep breath. “What if I could tell you something important about a big case?”
“What sort of case?”
“The murder of a cop. If it helped you find who killed him, could you cut Ray-Ray some slack?”
“Is this something Ray-Ray knows?”
“Yeah.”
“Would he tell me what he knows?” Muriel asked, even though she knew that no Lucifer’s Disciple would ever make a deal with a DA.
“No. I shouldn’t even be here. But with his past record, Ray-Ray could go to prison for years, and I can’t live without him.”
“Why don’t we do this?” Muriel said. “You tell me what you know, and I’ll promise not to tell anyone what you tell me or that it was you who told me, even if it’s very important, unless you agree that I can use the information.
I’ll pretend that you were never here. If what you tell me is useful in bringing a cop killer to justice, I’ll help Ray-Ray. ”
The conference room had a view, but Randolph stared at the river and the mountains without seeing them. It was obvious that Randolph was torn between helping her boyfriend and violating the Disciples’ code.
“If this gets back to Ray-Ray or any of the Disciples, I’ll be in for a world of hurt.”
“I understand.”
“Okay.” Randolph took a deep breath. “You know that lawyer, Karen Wyatt, who was framed?”
Muriel felt like she’d been hit with a Taser. She nodded.
“The reason she was framed was because the Disciples had a cop and a DA on their payroll, and they arranged for the cops to raid the Demon Slayers’ clubhouse so they could get their drug business.
Wyatt showed that this was a setup and that a cop and a DA were involved.
But they weren’t the only ones in with the Disciples.
A cop named Max Ellis was on the payroll, and so was one more crooked DA.
“When that lab guy told about the frame, they had to get rid of Ellis, because the lab guy could ID Ellis and Ellis could ID the DA. So he was snuffed. What Ray-Ray told me was that the crooked DA was high up.”
“Did Ray-Ray give you a name?”
“No. It was just something he said one night when we were talking after Ellis was killed. He said he knew who it was, but he never told me.”
Muriel felt like her brain was on fire, and she took a moment to compose herself. “How do you know I’m not the DA who’s on the take?”
Randolph smiled. “I did some research. You were still in law school when Wyatt was framed, and I talked to a few people. I know they call you ‘the Nun’ because you’re such a straight arrow.”
The nickname didn’t upset Lujack. She liked it. It was not embarrassing to be known as someone who was ethical and honest.
“Nikki, you’ve given me a lot to think about. I want you safe, so don’t contact me. You’ll know I used what you gave me if I make a deal that helps Ray-Ray.”
Muriel escorted Nikki Randolph to the waiting room. Then she returned to her cubicle and tried to work on Castor’s case, but she kept drifting, distracted by the fact that someone she worked with was responsible for the murder of Max Ellis and sending Karen Wyatt to prison.
Who was the traitor? Frank Curtin had just been elected to the post of Multnomah district attorney and had not been in the office when Karen Wyatt was framed. But he had run on a platform that involved decriminalizing drugs, which would have benefited the Disciples.
Muriel made a list of people who had been working in the office four years earlier.
Oscar Vanderlasky came to mind immediately.
He hated Wyatt and had prosecuted the case that sent Wyatt to prison.
Ellen Kaufman had been in the office forever.
Janet Kim was in charge of the lawyers who prosecuted narcotics cases, and drugs were heavily involved in the crimes that had led to Wyatt’s incarceration.
And there were other deputy district attorneys who had been in the office when Wyatt was framed.
How could she figure out the identity of the traitor?
After giving the question a lot of thought, Muriel decided that she would have to learn as much as she could about the raid on the Demon Slayers motorcycle club, so she went to the room where the files of closed cases were kept and asked the clerk for the files in the case of State of Oregon v. William Harold Baer.
Muriel headed home around six. She lived in a small apartment. The living room was outfitted with a sofa, a coffee table, a small television set, and a bookshelf crammed full of books that stood next to an armchair on which a standing lamp cast its glow.
Muriel brought the remnants of a salad she found in the back of her refrigerator to her dining room table and picked at it while she read through the files in the Baer case.
What Muriel read was disturbing. Karen Wyatt had represented William Baer, who was accused of assaulting one of the policemen who raided the Demon Slayers’ clubhouse.
Ellen Kaufman had represented the State because of the notoriety the case had generated.
Baer was second-in-command of the Demon Slayers and the person with connections to a Mexican cartel that was supplying the gang with the heroin they were selling.
The Lucifer’s Disciples were in competition with the Slayers and wanted Baer out of the way so they could cripple the club’s connection to the cartel.
During the raid, Baer was beaten severely by Officer Chet Stevens, who claimed that Baer had attacked him.
Baer said that he’d surrendered as soon as the police stormed in.
Stevens didn’t know that Wayne Costner, the leader of the Slayers, suspected one of the members of stealing heroin to feed an addiction and had secretly installed security cameras just before the raid.
After Stevens testified on direct, Karen had destroyed him by showing footage of Stevens beating her client after it was clear that he had given up.
The cameras also caught two other police officers stealing money and drugs from the Slayers.
After Baer was acquitted, Stevens and the other officers had been arrested.
A special prosecutor from the state attorney general’s office had been appointed to handle the case, and Stevens had made a deal for a lighter sentence.
As part of the deal, he’d said that Donna Ridley, a deputy district attorney, had been paid by the Disciples to work up a search warrant for the Demon Slayers’ clubhouse.
To support the request for the warrant, Stevens provided the testimony of an anonymous informant, who did not exist, and Ridley wrote the search warrant affidavit.
Stevens and Ridley had been bribed and told what to do by Robert Barbour, a low-ranking member of the Disciples.
Barbour’s body was found in a roadside ditch soon after Baer’s trial, and Stevens and Ridley said that they did not meet with any other gang member, so the trail to the Disciples had gone cold.
The investigators had asked many questions about Walter Zegda, who was easily the most interesting person mentioned in the file.
Stevens and Ridley knew that giving the authorities Zegda would be rewarded with a golden ticket, but it would also be a death sentence.
Neither one implicated Zegda in the plot.
Muriel didn’t think she was any closer to figuring out the identity of the traitor in the DA’s office after reading the file, and she had no idea how to discover the traitor’s identity.
Muriel knew that a few investigative reporters had tried to solve that mystery, but as far as she knew, nothing had ever come of their efforts. Now, Muriel had new information.
She was too tired to think clearly, so she closed her laptop, turned on her television, and found a channel that streamed classic movies.
Casablanca was playing. It was one of her favorite movies, and she couldn’t remember how many times she’d seen it.
When it was over, she climbed into bed. As soon as she closed her eyes, the question that had troubled her all evening reared its head.
Should she tell Karen Wyatt what she had learned from Nikki Randolph?
By the time she fell asleep, she still didn’t know the answer.