Judge & Jury

Chapter 45

THEY DON'T USUALLY ALLOW anyone inside the cell blocks at this time of night, even law enforcement. Tonight, I was on my own.

"Nick, it's late," said Trevor Ellis, who was in charge of the sixth-floor cell block, where witnesses and defendants were held in the Manhattan County Jail. We passed through the electronic doors together. Only the night crew was around.

There was a guard at the desk, checking monitors. Trevor nodded for him to take a break."I'm okay with Agent Pellisante here. Get some coffee."

"It's official business," I told Trevor. We walked some more, then stopped at the end of the corridor. Cavello's cell was cordoned off, at the very end of the long wing.

"You're sure you want to do this?" Ellis looked at me.

Nineteen people had died this afternoon. Seventeen jurors.My jurors. One victim was a kid on his tenth birthday. Some things you just have to do-regardless of the risk or the consequences.

"Official business," I repeated.

"Yeah," he said."You give him some official business for me."

Cavello's electronic cell door clicked open.

He was lying on a cot with his knees drawn up and an arm crooked behind his head. His eyes widened when he saw who it was.

"Nicky," he said, barely hiding that same mocking grin I had seen so often in the courtroom."Jesus, I just heard. What a mess!" He slowly raised himself up off the cot."I want to tell you how sorry I…"

I slugged him in the face, and he went down.

"Jeez, Nicky." Cavello grunted, rubbing his jaw. He reached for the metal cot post and pulled himself back up, gri

I hit him again. Harder. Cavello slammed back against the concrete wall. He still stared at me with a sort of laughing arrogance, an animal savagery behind his eyes."Your fault, Nicky. What'd you expect? I was go

I went over and yanked him off the floor by his collar. He was still wearing the same shirt he had on in the courtroom that day.

"You may think you've won, you piece of shit, but I'm go

"There was a kid on that bus?" Cavello said, showing mock surprise."Jesus, Pellisante, you oughta know better than that."

I punched him with everything I had. Cavello crashed into the cell wall again. I couldn't control myself. I'd never hated one person so much.

I heard Trevor Ellis behind me."Okay, Nick, that's enough."

I ignored him. I pulled Cavello up again and threw him to the other side of the cell. He went into a metal sink and fell to the floor. I went and pulled him up again. There was blood all over his shirt."They were just doing their duty," I screamed in his face.

"Go on," Cavello mocked."Hit me. It doesn't hurt. But you got it wrong. I told you. No court can hold me. You say I'm going down." He spat out a glob of blood."Maybe. But it won't be from you. You see those cameras up there? They got every second of this. You're through. I won't go down. Butyou will, Nicky Smiles."

I hit him again, and Cavello spun backward against the concrete wall. Trevor Ellis and a cell-block guard rushed in behind me. One of them pi

"Look at you." Cavello started to laugh."You thinkyou gotme? You're the one who's through. You're the one go

Trevor and the guard yanked me out of the cell, but Cavello called after me. His words and laughter echoed down the hall.

"Like a baby, Pellisante. You hear that? First day in a month, I don't have to worry about a goddamn trial."

Part Two. RETRIAL

Chapter 46

ELBOWS ON MY DESK, I looked out at the class of twenty-two astonishingly smug and overconfident first-year law students.

"Can anyone tell me why the law permits law enforcement agents to use deceit at the investigative stage, when they're not even sure of a suspect's guilt, but strictly forbids them from lying during the testimonial stage, when they're absolutely sure the suspect is a criminal?"

Five months had passed. I had taken an extended leave from the Bureau, and I'd been teaching a course in criminal ethics at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice since January.

Some leave. I was doing everything I knew just to hold it together. I wasn't sure I'd ever go back, at least not to C-10, not after the beating I had given Cavello in his cell. But who was I kidding? It was more than that. Lots more. The bastard had been right. Since that day, the image of Jarrod's face looking out the window of that juror bus hadn't left my mind.

A female student in the second row raised her hand."It's the means to an end," she said."Mapp,andUnited States versus Russell allow the police to use deceptive procedures to obtain evidence. Without it, they might never make a case. It's deception for the greater good."

"Okay." I nodded, then got up and started to stroll around."But what if the police have to lie about those procedures during testimony-in order to protect their case?"

In the back row I spotted something that a

The student fumbled with his textbook."Yeah. Sure thing. Not a problem."

I went up to him, removing the newspaper from his desk."Mr. Pearlman here is busy checking his stocks while the Fourth Amendment is under siege. I hope for your future clients' sake you've got a nice family practice in entertainment law to go into."

There were a few laughs around the room. Typical suck-up snickers.

I felt a little ashamed, though. Like one of those professorial bullies who gets his rocks off from a big show of power over his class. And that wasn't me. A few months ago I was pushing around one of the most notorious criminals in the country. Now it was just some kid, in law school.Jeez, Nick.

"So, Mr. Pearlman," I said, offering the kid an olive branch,"the Supreme Court case that held that the exclusionary law of evidence was bindingis…"

"Mapp versus Ohio,sir. U.S. 643. 1961."

"Nice guess." I gri

The bell rang shortly afterward. A couple of students came up to go over an assignment or question a grade. Then I just sat alone in the empty classroom.

You're lying to yourself again, Nick. You're trying to run, but you're not fast enough. It wasn't about some kid catching up on the box scores in my class. Or the Fourth Amendment, or police methodology. It wasn't even about this closed, dark corner of the universe I had let myself drift to, pretending I was building a new life.

No. I flipped the paper over on my desk. I stared at the headline. The very one I'd been waiting these past five months to see.

GODFATHER, PARTII. In big bold letters.

Unfinished business-that's all it was. Cavello's retrial was scheduled to begin next week.