Final justice - W.E.B. Griffin [144]
"Something wrong with that, Eileen?"
"All the defense has to do is create reasonable doubt in the mind of one juror," she said. "And we all know the jury pool always contains a number of people who are simply unable to believe that any black kid ever did anything wrong."
"You're not trying to tell me you think these two cop-killers are going to walk?"
"I'm trying to tell you, Ralph, that it's a possibility, which will become a certainty if we make any mistakes from here on in."
"God damn it!"
"That's the bad news, Ralph," Coughlin said. "The good news might, I say might, be that we can find the murder weapon. . . . It's a revolver and we have a bullet--"
"And can tie the weapon to either one of these two," Eileen interjected. "Credibly tie it to either one of them."
"Or really get lucky, and once they're arrested, they confess. They're just a couple of young punks," Coughlin went on.
"Which any public defender six months out of law school will contend was obtained by mental duress . . ." Eileen said.
"Jesus," Lowenstein said.
". . . or worse. And I don't think we can count on these two being defended by an incompetent from the Public Defender's Office. This is Murder Two, and they will assign the best man they've got. Or, worse than that, some really competent defense lawyer will take it pro bono because this trial's going to be all over the papers and TV."
"You've got their sheets?" Mariani asked.
Lowenstein shoved a folder across the conference table to him.
"There's not much," he said. "A couple of shoplifting charges, car burglaries, that sort of thing."
Mariani read the records of previous encounters with the law of the two suspects, shrugged, and then looked at Eileen Solomon.
"Okay, Eileen. What do you think we should do?"
"I don't think we should rush to arrest these two until we have a better case."
"Matt told me he was concerned that these two, having gotten away so far with the Roy Rogers job, and knowing you can only be executed once, might do the same sort of thing again, just as soon as they spend what they took from the Roy Rogers," Mariani said, but it was a question.
"That's a valid concern, and I share it," Eileen said.
"So you're suggesting we just sit on these two until we can make a really tight case?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Now that we know who they are, maybe we can get something from snitches," Lowenstein said. "For example, whether or not they still have the .38."
Mariani nodded.
"And we could run their mug shots before some of the witnesses and see if it jogs their memory," Coughlin said.
"Taking great care with that, so the defense can't claim we suggested whom the witnesses should pick out," Eileen said.
"How soon could you start surveillance of these two?" Mariani asked.
"I can have detectives from Southwest outside their door in however long it takes them to get there. I'd rather use undercover cars, which means I would have to have your permission to take a couple--five or six would be better--undercover cars away from the Impact Unit or Internal Affairs. With a little luck, I could have them in place in probably under an hour," Lowenstein said.
"You've got my permission, of course," Mariani said, then had a second thought. "No, you don't. Because you don't need it. Peter Wohl's already got the authority. The mayor ordered the formation of a Special Operations task force for this job, remember?"
"I remember," Lowenstein said.
"That's right," Coughlin said.
"He's already got authority to request support from everybody, right?" Mariani asked.
Coughlin and Lowenstein nodded.
"The mayor gave Wohl the job," Mariani said. "Let him do it. You better put the arm out for him."
"He's downstairs in Homicide with Quaire and Washington, " Lowenstein said.
"You already called him?" Mariani asked.
"I didn't have to. We were all having dinner at Augie Wohl's house when Quaire called me," Coughlin said.
"Okay, then, Denny," Mariani said, and then his voice changed as he added, formally, "Under your supervision, Commissioner Coughlin, the Special Operations task force,