Damage

19

Dismas Hardy's suggestion to have the grand jury indict Ro Curtlee on a no-bail multiple-murder charge had grown on Farrell all day as he prowled the offices on the third floor of the Hall of Justice, taking the pulse of his staff.

When he'd started on his rounds, he still didn't quite trust that he was contemplating the right decision. Indeed, when he'd first heard about the Nunez killing, he'd considered and rejected the grand jury solution for what he thought had been sound reasons: that he'd only have sixty days to bring Ro to a trial that would probably not convict him; that his acquittal on that charge would make it much more difficult to bring him back to a retrial in his initial case; that in any case, he'd be out on bail again in another couple of months. He could have asked the court to join the cases for trial, but he couldn't count on having that motion granted. And if the cases had been kept separate, it would have been a train wreck.

But that was before Janice Durbin.

With that murder, Farrell's personal priorities had evolved. He'd finally come to believe that keeping Ro behind bars was a valid end in itself, for no matter how long a time. If he could get the grand jury to indict, he'd take sixty days as a good start and work on getting more jail time from there-try to move up the retrial date, work on Baretto and Donahoe to revisit their bail decisions, whatever it took.

The lawyers on his staff were generally a bunch of hard-core prosecutors, and the events of the past few days, particularly Ro's bail hearing, had cut into the team's morale in a big way. Now Farrell's suggestion that he circumvent the judges' rulings met only with untainted enthusiasm. Finally he was the boss and acting like it.

Taking charge.

Not one of Farrell's assistant district attorneys had any doubt about Ro's guilt, both originally on the rape and murder charges at his trial, and then with the two latest victims-Felicia Nunez and Janice Durbin-and all of them seemed to believe that the grand jury idea was legal and liable to conclude with Ro sitting in a jail cell where he belonged.

Now, closing in on five o'clock, having made his decision, Farrell called his own task force together. If he was going to go to the grand jury, he needed to know everything relevant that anyone could give him on Ro Curtlee. His office continued to be logistically challenged, however, and so he had his invitees seated willynilly, Medical Examiner John Strout and Police Chief Vi Lapeer on the couch, Arson Inspector Arnie Becker on an ottoman, Glitsky and Amanda Jenkins on a couple of folding chairs brought in from Treya's office.

Farrell himself sat on the sturdy oak library table. After he asked them to turn off their cell phones and then thanked everyone for coming at his summons, he got down to it. "I think it's pretty clear with this Durbin homicide that Ro's taking this time out of jail as an opportunity to pay back some of the people who helped put him away in the first place.

"Abe and Amanda, I know you've both argued that same thing right from the start, and I want to apologize to both of you for not making a stronger case against bail in the first place. You were both right. I was wrong.

"And for the record, Abe, your instincts were also right about trying to arrest him for the threat against you. Even if you'd waited and gotten a warrant, I believe Her Honor Erin Donahoe would have done what she did, bail-wise. So now the situation really couldn't be clearer-if we're going to override these bail decisions, and we must-we've got to get him indicted, and I mean yesterday, for no-bail murder.

"So"-he spread his palms, supplicating-"I need you all to help me. I know we've got the shoes on both victims, we've got the connections and motivations related to his trial, the fire in both cases. None of which, I'm sorry to say, rises to the level of convincing evidence. It might work for the grand jury if I tap-dance enough around the related motives, but it would be nice to have something else in the line of evidence since we're going to get huge media on this, and I'm predicting they're not going to give us a pass just 'cause we're the good guys."

For a moment, no one spoke.

Glitsky looked at Becker, over to Amanda, back to Farrell. "That's all we've got, Wes. Except they were all strangled and naked except for the shoes. But that's not enough evidence, either."

All of the people in the room knew the extent to which the grand jury was a prosecutor's tool. There was no judge at the proceedings and no defense attorneys allowed to refute or even argue against any of the DA's assertions. Still, although the standard of proof was low, it was in theory nevertheless based on evidence. And so far they didn't have much.

"How about witnesses?" Farrell asked. "Arnie?"

"On Nunez, we have two people over on Baker who saw a car like Ro's around the corner. Probably the same car. And no, they didn't catch or notice the license number, and nobody saw him get in or out of it. Otherwise, pretty much zero."

"How about the same car at the Durbin site?"

Becker shook his head. "Not yet. Still canvassing, but I'm not holding my breath."

Farrell let out a disappointed sigh. "John?" he asked.

The ancient doctor scratched at his white hair. "I know y'all been talking about rape an' hopin' to pick up some DNA, but the Nunez woman was too burnt for any analysis whatever. Wasn't anything like fluid left to test. And Durbin, best I can tell, there wasn't any rape at all. Although I did, I told Arnie here this morning, I did find that she had a dose of chlamydia. The bottom line is that there's nothin' I can point out proves either one of'em was raped at all. So I wouldn't be comfortable putting that in your MO."

"What about the chlamydia?" Farrell asked. "Would she have been contagious?"

"Yeah, but even if it got passed on to Curtlee, there's no provin' it came from her. So what's that get you?"

Amanda Jenkins cleared her throat. "If I may?" she said. "How about if we think about the one trial that Ro's had? I mean, there was no question about evidence in that case. We had the two witnesses solid, and his DNA with his victim."

"Yeah," Farrell said, "but he's already been tried, convicted, and appealed out on that one. You can't punish somebody for winning an appeal by recharging him with something more serious."

"Of course. But how about if you take it from a completely different angle? Tell the grand jury that you're joining that first case, Sandoval, with these later two. So you're not upping the charge in Sandoval, which is the legal objection. And why are you joining the cases, then? Because the first one is the motive for the others. So now you've got multiple murder, and that's a special circumstance, and that's no bail. And that way-I really like this, Wes-you also make a neat end-run around the sixty-day issue. If his attorneys press for trial, they're shooting themselves in the foot because we've got him again cold on the first one."

Farrell, swinging his feet as he contemplated, sat with the idea for a long moment. "It's good, Amanda, but I still think we're on some pretty shaky legal grounds."

"Not really. If we tried charging the Sandoval rape again, definitely. But we're not. So the specials this time out aren't murder/ rape, but multiple murder. And if we've got the evidence to convict him on one, and we do, that's all we need."

Farrell, clearly warming to the general idea, still wanted more specifics. "So how exactly do I sell it to the grand jury?"

"That these are all connected? Aside from the fact that it's pretty self-evident on its face, you just tell them, 'Ladies and gentlemen, Janice Durbin was a suburban housewife. She wasn't robbed, she didn't have any known connection to gangs or to drugs. Who else in the world would want her dead except Ro Curtlee, and what was his motive? Revenge on her husband, pure and simple.' "

Really into it now, Amanda looked around the room and found herself selling it to everyone. "You remind the jury that their standard of proof isn't reasonable doubt, but merely probable cause. Could any one of them really believe that Mrs. Durbin getting killed right now was just a coincidence? Did they want to live with that? No, even though there's ten years between them, these murders are obviously all connected, so obviously that it can't be ignored. And more murders are going to keep happening, with who knows how many other victims, until Ro is back in jail."

Farrell, nodding easily now, finally said, "I think so. I think that might work." He looked around. "Anybody else have anything to add?"

Vi Lapeer spoke up for the first time. "It would be better if this didn't leak."

"I hope," Farrell said, "that goes without saying."

"Sorry." Lapeer's smile was tight and unyielding. "In Philadelphia, sometimes that wasn't always so clear." Now she turned to Glitsky. "I'd try to get your investigations on these two new cases assigned to an event number"-this meant that the investigations would have an unlimited budget from the city's General Fund-"but I'd have to get His Honor to sign off on that, and we can't go there. So given that that's not going to happen, do you have enough personnel, Abe?"

"I could move people around, maybe assign out overtime," he said, "but who's going to pay for it?"

"How about if you go over budget, you don't get dinged? On my guarantee."

"Thank you," Glitsky said. "I'll find some troops and put them on it." He turned to Farrell. "So what's our time frame on this?"

Farrell shrugged, looked over to Jenkins. "Amanda?"

"If I drop everything else, I can present most of it next week, that is a week from tomorrow. Or you could, Wes, if I brought you up to speed."

"It's your case," Farrell said.

"All right." Jenkins, clearly pleased, let out a breath of relief. "I'll need every witness I can get, both from Ro's trial and from the ongoing investigations. If all goes perfectly, maybe we can hope for an indictment two weeks from tomorrow."

"Jesus Christ," Arnie Becker said. "That long? He could wipe out half the city in that time."

Jenkins threw him a look. "Maybe, but that long would basically be a world record for speed, Inspector," she said.

"In the meantime," Lapeer said, "I can keep it out of the homicide budget and authorize putting someone on him twenty-four/ seven."

"I've already done that," Jenkins said.

This was news to Farrell. "You did?"

"Well, he volunteered, actually. Matt Lewis. One of our inspectors," she explained to Lapeer. "Matt thought I might be a next possible target and wanted to keep an eye out. And it wasn't twenty-four /seven. Just his shift and then maybe a few hours at night."

"He'll want some backup, then," Lapeer said.

"That would help," Jenkins said.

Farrell surveyed the room briefly. "All right," he said, "it looks like we've got a workable plan with a reasonable timeline. Longer than I'd like in a perfect world, but probably the best we can do. Amanda, since you're going to be presenting to the grand jury, why don't you take point coordinating all these efforts with what you're going to need. Couple of weeks, with any luck, we'll get this animal back where he belongs before he can do any more damage. I want to thank you all again for…"

A knock on the door interrupted him, followed immediately by Treya from the outer office. "I'm sorry to interrupt," she said, "but Abe, somebody hunted you down and there's an urgent call for you out at my desk."