The weekend flew by. It was a fairly calm weekend, thankfully. After being so busy lately, a bit of a break was nice. Ivy Bucci had come over for dinner Saturday night, and to all appearances was making good on getting and keeping her life together. As for Sunday, they'd spent most of the day at his mother's though, as per usual. He was glad she was still doing alright health-wise, for her age, but he and Olivia had started discussing having his mother move in with them as her mobility wasn't what it used to be. He was going to follow his mother's lead, though, not wanting to make the same mistake he did with his grandmother.
Monday, Rafael had an early meeting, so Olivia took Noah to school so that Rafael could leave a bit earlier. The meeting with McCoy was fairly run of the mill, and then Rafael had to run to make it to the Clayton Hearing that Counsellor D'Angelo had requested on time. Thankfully, Judge Bertuccio had sided with Rafael.
After the hearing, he met briefly with A.D.A Hadid to discuss some things and then tried to deal with the bunch of emails and messages that he had.
He'd gotten mostly caught up on those when he shook his head and kindly asked Carmen to grab him a coffee while he continued chipping away at his work.
He gave her a small smile before taking a sip of the hot liquid. "Thank you, Carmen."
"No problem," she deadpanned. "I prefer you properly caffeinated, so really, I was doing myself more of a service than anything."
He chuckled. "Remember that the next time the coffee machine breaks down."
Carmen gave a little laugh at that comment. "Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
He shot her a smug look before taking another swig of his coffee. It wasn't Bustelo, but it was still a good brew.
The rest of the morning was a bit calmer, thankfully, as Rafael hadn't been called in on any new cases yet, which meant he was able to really focus on the heap of work that he already had to do.
He grabbed a sandwich from a shop down the street for lunch, and he just kept on chipping away at the work he had in front of him. Managing his files. They were leaving for Miami in two weeks, so he was trying to organize everything as much as possible before then. That was actually part of why he'd met with Vanessa Hadid.
At half-past three in the afternoon, though, he received a call from Olivia. She'd caught a case and wanted Rafael to come down to the precinct.
"So let me get this straight," he said. "Reed cornered Ashley while she was working and exposed himself?" A young woman, Ashley Bertsch, had been working at a grocery store in Chelsea when a customer, a thirty-six-year-old male by the name of Gary Reed, corned her.
"Yes," Olivia confirmed, "and when Ashley tried to get away, she says that Reed grabbed her, sexually assaulted her, and then fled on foot. Another customer saw the direction he left in -"
At that point, Fin decided to chime in. "- which is how we ended up arrestin' the guy."
"We talked to her coworkers," Rollins said. "She's worked there for two years. No incidents with staff or customers." She eyed Rafael. "In my opinion, she's a credible witness."
"I agree," Olivia said. "And the witness who came forward is a soccer mom. No record. No issues. She's credible as well."
He nodded. "Okay. Then, with any luck, we can get him on sexual assault, forcible confinement, and committing an indecent act." He turned to face Olivia. "Captain, set up a meeting with Reed and his lawyer."
She tilted her head slightly, smiling at him. "Consider it done, Counsellor."
The meeting with Reed ended up being less fruitful than Rafael would've hoped for, but he was still waiting on evidence. It was still early in the investigation yet, so he was hoping someone else would come forward or that the security footage would pan out.
With there being nothing else he could do at the precinct for the moment, he headed back to the D.A's Office to get back to the work on his desk. Thankfully, he had Carmen. She was a godsend.
He had no idea how she did it, but she someone managed to make some sense out of his rather hectic schedule. He'd had a few administrative assistants over the years in the D.A's office, but Carmen was the best assistant that he'd ever had.
He was rather pleased however when he was notified two hours later that Carisi and Tamin had managed to get and review the surveillance tape from the store and that they found some corroborating footage. It wasn't the best angle by any means, but it was more than good enough. They had him.
He quirked an eyebrow. "Hands don't get much redder than that." Reed was pretty much the definition of 'caught red-handed.' Sexual Assault cases were notoriously hard to prosecute but he loved when the bastards did his job for him. There was definitely some poetry to it.
He watched as Olivia turned to her detectives and spoke. "Go arrest him. Now."
"I'll go grab the first slot I can for arraignment," Rafael added. "Not that I wouldn't be opposed to taking my time so he can spend the night in The Tombs."
Rollins gave a little snort. "You and me both, Counsellor."
He dipped his head slightly in acknowledgment and made his way out of the precinct to book the arraignment for Gary Reed. He'd managed to get the last slot of the day, which was fine, although Rafael really was more than a little tempted to just let the man stew in The Tombs overnight.
The defendant made eye contact with Judge Copeland. "Not guilty, Your Honour. This is all just some really big misunderstanding."
"Save it for your trial, Mr. Reed," the judge swiftly replied. Copeland then glanced between both the attorneys. "And on the matter of bail?"
"My client is a respected businessman wi strong ties to the community," Counsellor Evan Braun replied without preamble. "As such, we request that Mr. Reed be released on his own recognizance."
"He's charged with sexual assault," Rafael pointed out. "He attacked a woman in broad daylight and she probably wasn't his first. He's a danger."
"Allegedly attacked," Counsellor Braun retorted.
"He's a danger," Rafael reiterated. "Accordingly, the people request remand."
The judge glanced between both attorneys. Rafael already knew that he wasn't getting remand, however. He just hoped that they didn't end up getting R.O.R. He didn't think they would, though. He honestly expected the judge to simply set bail. "I'm granting bail. $50,000. Cash or bond. Next case."
Well, that was more or less what Rafael had expected.
Gathering his papers up and putting them back into his briefcase, he made his way out of the courtroom and back to his office to grab some things before he finally called it a day and headed home for the evening.
Olivia was playing with both of the children while Rafael made dinner. He had decided to make camarones enchilados - or Cuban-style Creole Shrimp - served over white rice with a side of tostones and avocados. He'd opted to go with tostones that night rather than maduros just to mix it up a little. He'd also taken a little bit of a detour after work and stopped by Santo Domingo Bakery on the way home. Rafael'd gone to the bakery to grab some pastelitos de guayaba y queso crema for dessert as well as for an easy after school snack for Noah.
"¡Alabao!" Noah said as he walked into the kitchen and saw the bag of pastries that Rafael had sitting there on the kitchen counter. "¡Compraste pasteles!" (Awesome! You bought pastries!)
He tilted his head slightly, an amused smile on his lips. "Sí, los compré." Rafael then adopted a slightly more serious look as he continued to speak. "¿Puedes por favor ir y decirle a tu mamá que la cena está casi lista?" (Yeah, I did. Can you please go and let your mom know that dinner's almost ready?)
The eight-year-old nodded. "Claro, papi." (Sure, Papi.)
As Noah headed upstairs to get Olivia and Sofía, Rafael quickly finished setting the table and getting the food ready to be dished up.
