Intersection of 64th St and Park Avenue
January 8th, 2001
10:58 pm
The driver had no chance at all, Ed Green decided, as he studied the wreckage of one of Manhattan's countless fleet of taxis. The blue Ford Econoline van hit the cab square on the driver's door. From the amount of blood mixed in among the broken glass and twisted metal, the poor cabbie bled out right there.
When he arrived, a very young uniformed officer advised him that the cab had been carrying two passengers, who'd just left a reception held by Medicore Pharmaceuticals at the Plaza Anthenee. Passenger Walter Tsai, a research chemist, had sustained serious injuries and had been loaded into a bus to Bellevue for treatment. The other passenger, Andrea MacLean, a public relations rep, had been lucky enough to sit on the passenger side and had sustained much lesser damage. Ms. MacLean was still at the scene, waiting to speak with the police before making her own trip to Bellevue.
Lennie was busy speaking to witnesses on the street, so Ed strolled over to the waiting ambulance. Sitting on the back bumper of the ambulance, clutching an ice pack to her head was an auburn-haired woman. Ed noticed two things about her immediately. The first was her legs, clad in black stockings, they were amazingly long. The second was her white wool coat. It was stained with blood, much more blood than the cuts on her face could have possibly produced.
"Ms. MacLean?" he began, causing her to look up at him. He found himself drawn to her large, jade green eyes.
"Yes?"
"I'm Detective Green. I'd like to ask you a few questions about the accident."
"Anything I can do to help, Detective," she replied.
"Can you tell me what happened prior to the accident?"
"Walter and I caught a cab in front of the Plaza Athenee. We'd been there for a reception for some of our European executives."
"Where were you and Mr. Tsai heading to?"
"We both live on the Lower East Side, so we shared a cab," she reported, brows furrowed as if in thought. "It seemed like that van plowed into us on purpose."
"Tell me what happened."
"We had the green light at the intersection and as we pulled out across Park, it just seemed like the van floored it and aimed right at us." She shook her head, and her skin went a shade paler.
"Ms. MacLean, are you okay?" he asked, reaching out his hand to steady her.
"I'm sorry, Detective Green, I think everything's hitting me," she offered a weak smile. "I'm really not feeling too well all of a sudden."
"Detective," began the EMT, "We need to get this woman to the hospital."
"Ms. MacLean," Ed said, slipping his card into her hand. "We'll need to talk to you again."
"It's okay," she said, "I gave the first officer all of my info."
With that, the EMT's swept her off into the ambulance and shut the doors. Ed watched as they rode off.
"So, did she have any idea what happened?" Lennie asked, causing Ed to turn towards him.
Ed shrugged, "She said she thinks the van hit them on purpose."
Lennie raised a brow, "Funny, that's what everyone else said. Did you see who was in the van?"
"No, who?"
"Reverend Jeffrey Suskind," Lennie declared.
"As in the anti abortion activist, Reverend Jeffrey Suskind?"
"One and the same," Lennie agreed. "The Reverend went out in the first bus. He was pretty bad off."
"Hm…wonder what kind of research Walter Tsai was working on," Ed mused.
"What makes you think Tsai was the target?"
"I can't imagine why the Reverend would pull a kamikaze mission to kill a Haitian immigrant cabbie or a PR person."
"You got a point. Let's see what we can find out about Mr. Tsai."
Medicore Pharmaceuticals Corporate Headquarters
30 Wall St
January 9, 2001
11:30 am
"So, that was a waste of time," Lennie smartly said, looking around the ornate lobby.
"You knew they wouldn't tell us anything," Ed dismissed, holding up a magazine, "But check this out. This trade publication says there's a rumor that Medicore is working on a "morning after pill", which, when taken shortly after conception will induce the body to abort the fetus."
"Well, that would raise my hackles if I were Reverend Suskind," Lennie agreed. "Let's go over to the hospital and see if Mrs. Tsai knows what her hubby was working on."
Bellevue Hospital
ICU
1:45 pm
"Mrs. Tsai," Ed began, "Do you have any idea what your husband was working on in the lab?"
"I really shouldn't say," Ling Mai Tsai quietly replied. "They made Walter sign a confidentiality agreement. If it comes out that he told me…"
"We're in the process of getting a subpoena for the lab records right now," Lennie said, "We'll get the information eventually. They will never know it came from you or your husband."
Mrs. Tsai took a deep breath and released it slowly. After looking around the room and assuring they were alone, she spoke, "He's working on something called a "morning after pill"."
Both detectives nodded knowingly.
"Do you think that's why that man tried to kill Walter?"
"We don't know yet, Ma'am," Ed sincerely said, "But we're going to do our best to find out."
Mrs. Tsai nodded, and then checked her watch. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going back into be with my husband now."
"Thank you for talking to us," Ed said, watching her walk out of the waiting room.
"Well, there's our motive," Lennie decided. "Let's go find the PR rep and see if she can shed some more light on the subject."
Room 215
2:10 pm
"I'm not sure what else I can tell you, Detectives," Andrea MacLean said. "It all happened so fast. I mean one minute we were laughing about the drunken girl from accounting and the next minute, there was silence. It was so surreal, like everything happened in slow motion. We pulled out on to Park and I heard an engine revving. Walter and I turned our heads and watched as the van plowed into us. Next thing I know, I'm shoved against the door, with Walter slumped against me, bleeding from God knows where."
"Did you see who was driving the van?"
"Older, white guy, sandy blond hair," she thought. "Kinda looks like that anti abortion guy that's always in the news for handcuffing himself to clinic doors. What's his name? Sussman? Suskind…yeah, that's it, he looked like him."
Ed nodded, watching as realization hit her. She looked between Ed and Lennie.
"Was it him? Oh dear God, don't tell me anybody would be that freaking fanatical to try and kill a research scientist who hadn't even perfected his formula yet."
Neither of them responded, they couldn't without tainting her accounting of the accident.
"I take it by your silence that I'm right," she shook her head. "Shit…how does that make sense? Kill off a scientist to protect thousands of yet –to-be-conceived fetuses?"
"Ms. MacLean," Lennie began, "The DA's office is going to need you to testify to all of this in court."
"I'd be happy to do it," she hissed. "I don't care what your opinion of abortion is; it still makes no sense to kill people to stop it. Doesn't that defeat the purpose? Aren't they trying to save lives?"
"I hear ya," Ed nodded in agreement, watching as her green eyes sparkled wildly.
"Just tell me when you need me in court, I'll be there," she decided.
27th Precinct
3:45 pm
"It seems too easy," Lt. Van Buren simply said, looking across her desk at Briscoe and Green. "Too cut and dried."
"Hey," Lennie laughed. "Every now and then, we get them that easy."
"Yeah, and you two are about due," she agreed. "Well, we've got Suskind on murder for the cabbie and attempted murder for Tsai and MacLean. Hopefully, Tsai will come out of surgery okay and be able to tell us something to corroborate Ms. MacLean's testimony."
"The people who witnessed the accident from the sidewalk agree with Ms. MacLean's story," Ed offered.
"Just to be safe, why don't you check backgrounds on Tsai and MacLean," Van Buren suggested.
"I'll take Tsai," Lennie said, winking at Ed, "You dig up the dirt on MacLean."
"Who said there's dirt?" Ed asked, his tone slightly defensive.
"You'll never know til you dig around," Van Buren said, dismissing them from her office.
6:15pm
"Okay," Lennie yawned, "Sounds like Tsai's about as upstanding as they come. He emigrated from China in 1983 to attend University of Pennsylvania, brought his wife over two years later. The worst things I could dig up on him were an unpaid parking ticket and a late cable bill. You find anything on MacLean?"
Ed looked up from his computer, "Not much. Originally from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, graduated from NYU. The only wrinkle in her life that I can see is that her husband died in 1997."
Lennie raised a brow, "Died? She's young. What was he, a cop?"
"Marine," he concluded. "Killed in the line of duty."
Lennie nodded, "Tough break."
"Yeah," Ed agreed.
"Ah, she's a looker, I'm sure she won't stay single for long."
"Len," Ed shook his head.
"Wait, I hit on a nerve," Lennie gently teased.
"What are you talking about?"
"Eddie, I caught you checking her out last night."
"Yeah, right."
"Hey, it's true, she is a looker. If I were twenty years younger…"
"And on that note, I'm out," Ed laughed, standing up. "Poker night tonight."
"Great, guess I'm buying coffee in the morning."