The Myth of Fingerprints

Squad Room, 2-7 Precinct

Thursday 14 September 2006

"Hey, look at this, Ed," Briscoe said. "CSU sent us the report from the Walker apartment. Turns out she was not exactly Martha Stewart. Prints all over – and we have some matches."

"Records?" Green asked.

"We have a couple of cops, one from the 3-7 – she responded to the break in. Lots of Jenny Walker, yada yada. One journalist, Luke Conroy, printed when he got locked up for refusing to divulge a source four years ago – he's a former colleague of Walker's."

"No-one locked up for choking women with newsprint?"

"No, but we have some unidentified. They're going to ask the FBI to run them through their databases. We might get a hit that way."

"When? By Christmas?"

"You have a better idea?"

"We've talked to just about everybody on that list from City Hall. It looks like Walker's story on Tony Nettle was solid. Let's pick up Nettle for fraud, get his prints and let's see what lights up."

"Let's run that bright idea past Van Buren," Briscoe said.

"What bright idea?" Van Buren asked, pausing on her way back to her desk with a cup of coffee in one hand and a cruller in the other.

"Ed wants to arrest a rising star of the city council."

"Good for him," Van Buren said. "No."

"LT – "

"No! What evidence do you have?"

"We have a lot of solid information about Nettle's fraud. And we have prints in Jenny Walker's apartment that might be Nettle's. If we pick him up we can print him – "

"Nice try, Ed. Write it up. I'll take it to Mr Branch."