Chapter 37
A choice is presented by the Two of Wands: a partner appears to take your plans to the next level.
DANNY
Idrop Cal at her house and head over to the precinct.
It is much more serious than I let on to Cal. I saw Biz’s face when she stood at my door. Her fists were clenched. I could see her trembling, doing her best to maintain control and not strangle Cal.
She couldn’t mask the pain and shock of betrayal. I read her eyes, “How could you do this with a suspect? How could you do this to me?”
I know Biz as well as I know myself. She will double down with the conviction that Cal is guilty. Cal is as good as dead. Biz will see to it that the prosecutor seeks the death penalty.
Eagle is waiting for me outside. “I found Juliet.” She hands me a file.
I don’t open it. I have bigger fish to fry with Biz.
As soon as I entered the squad room, Captain Kim waved me over. “What is up with Biz? She came in here slamming doors and drawers and anything else she could find. She’s waiting for you in the conference room.”
She is seated at the table. She is drinking a cup of coffee and there is one on the table across from her. I sit and pick up the cup.
“Poisoned?”
She doesn’t crack a smile.
“How could you, Danno? Do you know what you are risking?” Her voice gets louder. “Do you understand what you are asking me to do? Betray my oath, put aside everything I stand for, just to humor some crazy midlife crisis of yours?” She is gesturing wildly. I check to make certain the cameras and microphone in the room are off.
“I’m asking you to trust me and listen to me. Please.”
“Trust you? Oh, that’s rich. How about you trust me? Trust the evidence, pal, that Caroline Cassidy is guilty as hell.”
“Do you remember one of our first cases together—the lawyer who was accused of killing his law partner? Everybody, me included, thought he was guilty.”
Biz’s brow furrowed. It was not a pleasant memory. Jerry Levinson proclaimed his innocence until the day he was shanked in federal prison and died.
Biz had a hunch, a feeling, that he was innocent. “There’s more to this than meets the eye,” she had told me repeatedly.
All the evidence pointed to Jerry’s guilt. Physical evidence at the crime scene: the gas can with Jerry’s fingerprints on it, in the burned-out house where the partner’s charred body was found. A life insurance policy taken out four months earlier with Jerry as the beneficiary. The files that mysteriously appeared, indicating the partner had uncovered some shady transactions by Levinson.
“You believed in his innocence, and you asked me to trust you. And I did.”
“Even after Jerry was convicted, we kept the case open. One day you found an anomaly in the DNA report. Something in the lab report didn’t match the partner’s medical records.”
Biz was listening. I sensed her softening.
“Then a guy was arrested in Costa Rica on a drug charge, and it came to light it was the partner living there under a false identity. He had faked his death and framed Jerry for it. He was responsible for the shady dealings, not Jerry, and he did all that to cover it up.”
“Jerry had died two months prior. We uncovered the truth too late.”
“I have the same confidence in Cal’s innocence that you did with Jerry’s. Let’s not be too late with the truth for Cal.”