The Mayor of Lexington Avenue

Thirty-one

Nancy called him at seven the next morning. He had just finished his sit-ups and was going through his daily stretching routine when the phone rang.

“Jack, it’s me, Nancy.” As if he didn’t recognize her voice. She sounded awfully excited. “Jack, I’m at the office and I think I found what you’re looking for.”

“Don’t tell me over the phone. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“Who was that?” Pat asked. She was still in bed, lying next to the spot Jack had so recently vacated.

“It was Nancy. She found something.” He was already moving toward the bathroom as he was talking. He brushed his teeth in the shower, didn’t bother to shave, dressed in a flash, kissed Pat goodbye, and headed for the office.

Nancy looked like something the cat dragged in. She was still dressed in the same pantsuit from the day before, although the jacket was off and slung haphazardly on a chair in Jack’s office and her white blouse was wrinkled and stained with office-brewed coffee. There were dark circles under her eyes. He could tell she was bone-weary but very excited.

“What did you find?”

“Take a look at this.” She handed him a thin manila file. He opened it and saw several pages that appeared to be the results of chemical lab analyses. There were blood and urine test results and toxicology reports. It took him a moment to realize what he was reading. Then it came to him in a flash.

“That’s it! That’s what I knew in the back of my head was missing-the lab analyses in the coroner’s report. Where was it?”

“It was one of those little files in the back of one of the boxes that apparently none of us ever got to when we went through the stuff the first time.” Jack remembered. He had read the investigative reports thoroughly but had ignored the thin files at the bottom of the second box. He was just too tired to read them and assumed they were unimportant.

“Now take a look at this.” She handed him a second thin manila file. He opened it and started to read a two-page police report dated on the same day as the murder about a suspected rape of Lucy Ochoa! His heart started to race. He could feel the blood coursing through his veins at breakneck speed as he tried to slow his eyes down and read the report-and then the lab results again. A picture started to emerge-a very sinister picture.

“Do you know what this means?” he said.

“I think so,” she said, watching his eyes dart across the pages. “Although it’s taken me most of the night to figure out what you figured out in a couple of minutes.”

“Take me through it,” Jack said, hoping to calm himself while he listened to her explanation.

“Apparently, they found semen inside Lucy Ochoa the night she was murdered. The blood type from the semen was AB. That was different from the blood type on the carpet, Rudy’s blood. So they started a separate rape file. I’m not exactly sure why. I think they were up to no good but I’m not exactly sure how it worked.”

“You’re right so far. Here’s the rest. The blood and the semen created a big problem. It put two people in the house. So they-the prosecutor and the police-decided to eliminate the problem by creating two crimes. By having a separate rape investigation, they didn’t have to produce that file for the defense in the murder case. And also, since it was a criminal investigation, the documents weren’t public records, so nobody-including the press-could get at them.

“The press usually gets at least some of their information through a public records request. The state attorney knew that.”

“Why did we get the rape file?”

“We made a public records request for all documents relating to Lucy Ochoa or Rudy Kelly. The criminal investigation of the rape case-an investigation that, in fact, never existed-ended years ago. Once the investigation was over, those documents became available. Apparently, nobody has made a public records request since the original murder investigation ended.”

“I think I get it,” Nancy said. She was following but it was tricky, and this was all new to her. There was one other thought she had to get out before she lost it. “What about the coroner’s toxicology report? Wouldn’t the defense have seen that? And wouldn’t that show the semen and the different blood type?”

“It would if the defense had seen it. Note that the toxicology report is titled: ‘Addendum to Coroner’s Report.’ I’ll bet the coroner was in on this little scam. He didn’t issue his toxicology report with his initial report. It wasn’t forwarded to the defense, and the idiot who was representing Rudy never thought to request it later. And nobody picked up on the discrepancy in the appeals.”

“What about Rudy’s blood analysis? Wouldn’t that have been part of the coroner’s report?” Nancy asked. She felt a little stupid but she was still putting it all together.

“No. The coroner is only concerned with the body of the deceased. The semen was in Lucy’s body. Rudy’s blood that was found on the carpet was analyzed by the police-they used a crime lab in Miami.”

“Wow! So the two blood types were never described in the same report! So where do we go from here?”

“Well,” Jack said, “I finally have an issue that I can appeal. I’m confident that when the Florida Supreme Court finds out what the state attorney and the police did, we’ll get a new trial and, if Rudy gets a new trial, he will not be convicted again.”

“You really think we can get him out of prison?”

“I really do. It’s a long process but the worm definitely turned today, and you, Nancy, made it turn.”

Nancy didn’t know what to say. She was definitely excited but the prospect of Rudy’s freedom down the road wasn’t enough for her. She wanted Rudy to walk out of prison right away.

“What do we do next?” she asked.

“Next, I have to write this brief. I can probably do it in a week. As I said before, I anticipate the court will give the attorney general’s office maybe a week to respond and oral arguments will be set a few days after that. We’ll get a couple of days before the execution is scheduled in case we need to go to the next step, the Supreme Court of the United States. I don’t think we will, though. Nancy, this was great work.”

“What do we do between now and then?” she asked urgently, ignoring the compliment.

“I’m going to be tied up doing this brief, mostly.”

“Well, I’m going to continue to run down leads. Maybe we can find out whose semen that was. If that’s all right with you?”

“Sure. Just be careful.”

“I will. I just want to do whatever I can for Rudy.”