American Nightmare
Disclaimer: I do not own Law & Order.
What was that old saying? Too clever by half? Phillip Swann had never actually believed that it was possible to be too clever but, as people so often did, he had learned how mistaken he was in the worst possible way.
Guilty.
Those lemmings on the jury hadn't had a clue what they were doing. If they did then he should have never heard that soul-shattering pronouncement.
He was apparently guilty of Sid Cohen's murder.
Never mind that he had, in fact, actually done the deed. He should never have been found guilty of it. And that wasn't just arrogance talking (people had sometimes tried to warn him about arrogance but that had nothing to do with this). With this evidence, this complete lack of evidence, the reasonable doubt was through the roof.
But no.
Ben Fucking Stone had decided that this case wasn't like the dozens or hundreds of others that he must have tried in his long years at the office of the District Attorney. For some reason, this case demanded his undivided and somewhat obsessive attention. This case mattered.
Maybe it was just him. The crime itself wasn't especially heinous even if what Stone had said was true. It was just one man killed over a…monetary dispute. He didn't kill a child. He didn't rape anybody. He hadn't gone on a spree. It was just one death. There was nothing about the case that should have done it. No, chances are that St. Ben, in all his sanctimonious glory, had simply objected to Swann's personality. If Stone hadn't found him so…what about 'smarmy' then this case would more than likely have ended as it should.
There was no evidence and Stone wouldn't have knocked himself off convincing the court that there was. People just didn't expend that kind of effort otherwise.
Swann had been to enough court cases in his day. He hadn't really been interested until his legal troubles had begun but after that he wanted to gain any sort of advantage that he could and had sat in on several of them.
He knew what was coming next.
He would be led away in chains and taken to the prison that would be his home for too damn many years.
But that would come later. For now, he was still here in his defendant's chair. For now he could still hold onto the illusion that all was still well with the world, that he hadn't just lost bigger than he'd ever lost before.
He glared over at Stone, the source of all of his troubles, and was mildly surprised to find that the other man was staring right back at him instead of celebrating what must be his greatest triumph. A conviction without a body? Who had ever heard of such a thing? It shouldn't have even been presented to the jury! He'd appeal, of course he would, and the game wasn't over yet. But Stone had been very careful and he wasn't quite sure where to start. He tried not to think about all the time he'd have to figure out a new plan. Time for planning was good. Time after that…
He wondered what it was that Stone was looking for in his face right now. Remorse? Not likely. Cohen had brought his fate on himself and he was now suffering worse than Cohen ever had. A bullet was nice and quick, wasn't it? Not anything like his life in Attica. Fear? Swann didn't know if he was capable of showing that emotion anymore. Fear was just one more tool in the hands of his enemies. Defeat then? No. This wasn't over. It would never be over.
He knew what he saw in Stone's eyes. Triumph and pride and no small degree of sanctimony. He was judging Swann and he was finding him lacking. He thought that Swann wasn't good enough when, in fact, it was just the opposite.
But that was the worst thing, wasn't it? Russell Bobbit's testimony had been the one thing to seal his fate. Russell Bobbit who had been so carefully led and misled until he didn't know anything but what Swann wanted him to know.
The world would now know that Phillip Swann had cut Sid Cohen's throat to silence him and then buried him in New Jersey. Never mind that the supposed accomplice couldn't find the damn body because it was on Roosevelt Island and Cohen had taken a bullet to the brain.
But that was where he was just too damn clever.
This trial was a sham and the conviction unwarranted. All of the important facts were wrong but how could he say that?
Stone had managed to convince everybody that Bobbit's 'facts' were, in fact, reality and the only way to prove him wrong would be too also prove that he did, in fact, murder Cohen. He couldn't lead t hem to the body because that would – if anything – further convince them of his guilt. Some right now might be having doubts due to the lack of evidence but if he pointed them to the body, if he could identify the correct cause of death…
How was it that it had come to this? That all of his careful precautions to save himself had failed? Maybe he should have left the body in an easier to find location. With Bobbit getting the location so very wrong and mixing up the cause of death that would probably help his case even if they could then guarantee that Cohen was dead.
But it was too late for do-overs.
No, there was nothing he could do about his conviction. Not yet.
He would just have to wait until one day, hopefully one day soon but he couldn't control that, the body was found. He would have to not let on that he knew anything more about the crime than anybody else and one day all these careful little inconsistencies he had planted would bloom and vindicate him.
He might be guilty but it was still sobering to see that one could be convicted on such flimsy and outright fraudulent evidence. He felt like that kid in 12 Angry Men except he had no Henry Fonda on his jury to fight for his rights.
If Stone had known the truth then he would probably still find it a great day for justice that the murderer had been convicted of the murder even despite all of the problems but Swann knew better. If he was to be convicted it should have been because they found the body and saw Bobbit's testimony for what it was. That could have happened; they weren't stupid.
How many other people were wrongfully convicted with a system like this anyway? Some might consider it odd for him to consider himself a victim of the system when the end result was that he was going to prison for killing a man that he did, in fact, kill but Swann knew better. The circumstances were everything and this could not possibly be justice.
But Swann could live with that. He had little choice, really.
And when the time came, he would be ready. He had a truly depressing amount of time on his hands waiting for a discovery that may never happen in his lifetime. Oh, but if it did then he'd be such an expert he'd make Stone himself look like an amateur scrambling to keep up with his brilliance.
He would enjoy that very much, actually. And once he was cleared of Cohen's murder (a feat that would likely require Bobbit's death but not just yet. Bobbit might die on his own and then risking himself by arranging for the death would all be for nothing) then he would go after Stone personally. He would make him pay for this travesty.
And then, regardless of just how low he might have fallen now, he would have the satisfaction of being the victor at last.
This round went to Stone but the rematch would be his.
And no one would ever see it coming.
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