Friday, March 29
5:35 pm
"I don't believe it," Jamie Ross said four weeks later as they all gathered at Hogan Place after the Newman penalty reading. "I can't believe we actually did it."
"I can't believe it's actually over," Lennie said. "I kept thinking Gorton was gonna pull something else out of his hat."
"Are you kidding?" Jamie asked. "After Jack got Newman to call his ex a vindictive bitch on the stand while waving the barong around? Not even Neal Gorton could salvage that one." They all shared a chuckle - it had been pretty amazing manipulation on McCoy's part, and it had pretty much sealed Newman's fate.
"Speaking of the barong..." Lennie prompted Jamie, and she handed it over to him. "The property clerk's been dying to get this back. I think he makes his sandwiches with it," Lennie said, bagging it to return it to Evidence on Monday.
"Guilty and the death penalty," Rey said with satisfaction, putting on his coat. "You know I thought he was gonna walk?"
"Anybody wanna go out for a drink?" McCoy asked.
"Not me. I'm gonna have supper with my wife," Rey grinned.
"Yeah, and I got a date," Lennie said with a smile. "She's no Leesa Lundquist, but she's all right." They left Hogan Place together.
"Man, am I glad this case is over," Rey commented.
"Yeah. Somehow I don't think the Henry Harp case is gonna end on such a high note," Lennie reflected grimly.
"Lennie-"
"Nah, never mind, let's not get into that again," Lennie said quickly. "Go, say hi to Deborah for me."
===
Rey toyed with his coaster at the restaurant's bar, waiting for Deborah to show up. Date night, Friday night. It wasn't as good as simply living at home, but it was a start. They'd worked out that he had the girls at his place Wednesday evenings, they went out to dinner without the kids on Friday, and he stayed at their house on weekends, sleeping on the couch. With occasional stays in Deborah's bed. Or her coming to his place on Fridays, if Rey's mother was babysitting the kids.
Not quite living at home, not quite married again, but... it was a start. Of course, they'd been more or less at this level for weeks and there was no guarantee there would ever be anything more than this, but in the meantime he was willing to wait and pray.
Slow and steady. She needed the slow, and he needed the steady.
And in a way, it was kind of exciting, going on dates like they had before the kids, occasionally bringing her to his place. No children, no interruptions... there was something to be said for having a bachelor pad.
Rey stood up as Deborah arrived, smiling in appreciation at her new dress and earrings. Lennie might tease him about his wife's expensive tastes but the expense was certainly worth it. She looked beautiful, and sexy as hell. Too bad tonight couldn't end at his place - he had a ton of work to catch up on before he had the girls for the weekend, and the babysitter tonight was a teenager who had to be home by midnight.
They went to their table and ordered, chatting casually over dinner. The kids were doing well, although Olivia was having trouble in math and Serena was wetting the bed again. Deborah had finally listened to Rey's advice to see her doctor about some odd occasional numbness in her foot, and she'd also gotten the head of the self-defence centre to agree to only schedule her on weekends.
On Rey's side, he'd had plenty of interesting cases, including one where a serial rapist on parole had apparently gone back to his old habits, but killed his victim this time. They hadn't been able to prove it, so McCoy wanted them to use Megan's Law to basically harass him back into prison. And in the Triandos case, it had turned out that the young widow had been quite innocent. Triandos had actually been killed by the young widow's mother, when the mother found out Triandos was about to toss them both out on the street.
And, of course, there was the Newman case.
"Death penalty. Handed down today," Rey answered her question.
"Oh, Rey," Deborah smiled. "I didn't want to ask - I kept thinking you weren't saying anything because it hadn't gone well, maybe that sleazy lawyer of his had gotten something thrown out-"
"No, it's over. I'm sure he'll appeal for the next ten years, but for now, he's done."
"Good for you. Good for all of you." Deborah shuddered. "If anybody deserves a needle... what a monster."
Rey nodded, sipping his wine, reflecting briefly that while he'd grown far less sanguine about the death penalty since seeing Mickey Scott's execution ten months ago, really, Deborah was right. If anybody deserved the death penalty, it was Eddie Newman.
Deborah cleared her throat as Rey took a bite of his pasta. "Just do me a favour, hon... when Newman does go... don't go see his execution, OK?"
Rey choked as the pasta went down the wrong way. As he started coughing, he gave Deborah an incredulous look and caught a slightly embarrassed twinkle in her eye as she clapped him on the back.
"Holy crap, Deborah," he rasped when he was able to speak again.
"That was a little tasteless, wasn't it?" Deborah said sheepishly.
"A little?" Rey smiled ruefully and took a sip of water. "Jesus. You been hanging out with Lennie when I wasn't looking?"
"Sorry. So... uh... how's the Henry Harp case going?"
He gave her a grateful smile for changing the subject, but shrugged uncomfortably. "It's... not too good. It's... I've been subpoenaed for the defense."
"What? Why?"
"I told you Harp made that deal for fifteen years for everything he did - the cop-killing, the robbery, the hostage taking, all of it?"
"And then when you found the hostage was dead all along McCoy tried to get out of the deal, right, I remember that."
"Well, Harp's lawyer said that if McCoy tossed the deal, he shouldn't be able to use Harp's confession, and we didn't have anything else to tie him to any of it." Deborah shook her head in disgust, having no more patience for sleazy defense lawyers than Rey did. "So we tried to find Harp's accomplice, Earl Novak. We finally find him dead in Riverside Park, go rushing in to court to let McCoy know - and we say like two words, and he tells us to shut up and takes the deal."
"Why?"
"He figured he'd prosecute Harp separately for Novak's murder - tack on that sentence to the end of the fifteen years for everything else."
Deborah frowned, slightly confused. "OK... I think I get it."
"Anyway, Harp's lawyer said he can't do that, because the deal was 'fifteen years for all events related to the robbery at Red Star Liquor Store'."
"And Novak's murder is part of that?"
"That's what she says." They both shook their heads at the vagaries of lawyers, then Rey said, "And the problem is, McCoy can only prosecute if he can prove that he had no idea Harp killed Novak when he decided to honour the deal."
"But you and Lennie told him."
"No, we just told him Novak was dead. We didn't say he'd been killed."
"But for heaven's sake, even I can figure that out!"
"Yeah, well, McCoy went up on the stand swearing he had no idea."
"In other words, he committed perjury."
"Pretty much, yeah." Deborah tsk'd in disapproval. "And Lennie backed him up." Deborah shook her head again. "And now the defense called me for Monday. And if I don't back them up..."
"There goes the case against Henry Harp. And a cop-killer gets fifteen years."
"Pretty much, yeah," Rey agreed.
"They just got up there and lied?"
"Well, Lennie says he didn't. Just didn't volunteer anything. But McCoy... yeah, he lied. He shut us up before we told him anything because he knew this might happen, and now he's saying he didn't know. And I don't get it. I mean, I can lie to a suspect no problem, but going into court... swearing to God, and then lying, it's..."
"Not everyone is honest."
"I know, I know."
"An oath doesn't mean the same thing to everybody. It means a lot to you."
Rey nodded absently, thinking about what the hell to say on Monday, then stopped and gazed at Deborah thoughtfully. "Thanks."
"What?" He shrugged. "For acknowledging that your word means something to you?" He nodded, a little self-consciously. "I think I've figured it out now," Deborah said softly and touched his hand, and he looked down, slightly embarrassed. She changed the subject. "I wish there was some way you could get up there and go along without going along, you know?"
"How?"
"Well... unless they ask you exactly what he said... you could just say you didn't tell him Novak was murdered, and leave it at that."
"That's what Lennie did."
"There's nothing wrong with that, as far as I can tell."
"Except that McCoy told us to shut up. And we know why he did that."
"You don't have to volunteer that. McCoy can say he didn't know Harp killed Novak till he's blue in the face - you don't know for sure that he knew, and you certainly don't need to call him on it."
"But what do I say when they ask me why we didn't tell him? That we didn't bother to tell him, because anybody but an idiot could figure it out on their own?"
"Yeah, wouldn't that go over great," Deborah laughed.
===
"OK, there's your cab. I'll give you a call about tomorrow-" Rey gave Deborah a quick kiss as her taxi waited to take her back home. She kissed him back and turned to get into the cab, then suddenly stopped and tugged on his sleeve.
"No, don't."
"What?"
"Don't go to your place. Come home, Rey."
"Tonight? You mean instead of tomorrow night?" Rey thought over his schedule. "Hon, I have a lotta work to catch up on, I was gonna do it tonight so I wouldn't have to worry about it tomorrow-"
"I don't mean for a visit. I mean, come home."
It took Rey a moment to process that. "You mean... for good?" Deborah nodded and the cabbie made an impatient sound. Deborah waved him off and he pulled away. "You sure?"
"Yeah. Get a sublet for your place. I miss you, the girls miss you - this whole weekend thing is silly."
"You're absolutely sure?"
"Yeah," she took his hand and smiled at him. "I can't promise everything is gonna be the same as before, but... at least let's tear up the separation papers."
They gazed at each other for a long moment, smiling, then he drew her close. He bowed his head and tightened his arms around her, relief flooding him so completely he was awed. Thank You, God, he thought. Longest penance he'd ever done, but it was finally over.
Thank You for seeing us through this. Thank You for guiding us. And thank You, thank You, for allowing me to get my family back. For letting me stop hiding from my sin and come clean and still have a family to come back to. I won't stray again. I'll deserve this second chance You've given me.
"Come home, Rey," Deborah murmured.
===
Author's note: a million thanks to Kyllikki, Gypsum and Chris, for beta and mucho hand-holding :)
