Episode 17: "Above the Law"

Day Three

Scene One

As Jim and Karen waited under the bridge for Sonny to show up, Jim remembered they had met Sonny under this same bridge when they were working the case of Carl Desmond, the detective murdered by his unfaithful wife. Sonny had been adamant he wouldn't meet Karen and Jim at the precinct, insisting he couldn't risk being seen there after asking around about East Side Trece.

"Here he comes," Karen murmured.

"Dunbar, how ya been? Glad the dog turned up," Sonny said, spotting Hank in the car. "Sorry about that."

Jim waved his hand. "Got anything for me?" he asked, already impatient with Sonny.

"Well, no one had much to say about this Perez guy. Seems he was more of a gang wannabe. Doesn't look like he would have had the clout to have the gang take out your dead girl for testifying against him. But I maybe found out something about the secret boyfriend. A few people saw a guy, might be him, around the neighborhood. He stood out, didn't fit in. Always wore a fancy suit – like yours, Dunbar."

"Sonny . . ." Jim looked annoyed. "Anyone give you a description of the guy?"

"Just like I told you. He didn't look like he was from around here."

"Anyone ever see him with Alicia?"

"No, but a couple guys thought they saw him on her block, and one said he saw him going into her building once."

Jim nodded. "Okay. Go. Let me know if you find out anything else."

After Sonny walked away, Karen asked, "What now?"

"Let's go check out Mr. Holland's wardrobe."

Scene Two

After a ten-minute wait, a secretary escorted Jim and Karen to Mark Holland's office. He was on the phone and gestured to them to wait. Jim started to speak, "Mark Holland?"

Karen interrupted him, whispering, "He's on the phone." Jim shook his head in annoyance.

Holland hung up the phone and stood to introduce himself. "Mark Holland."

"I'm Detective Bettancourt, and this is my partner, Detective Dunbar."

Holland openly appraised Karen as she introduced herself and Jim. When she introduced Jim, Holland noticed him for the first time and did a double-take. "You're that Detective Dunbar," he said to Jim. "Your lawyer did a hell of a job, getting your job back for you. Who was he?"

"Geoff Miller," Jim replied mildly.

"Never heard of him," Holland commented dismissively. "What can I do for you, detectives?"

Karen glanced over at Jim and rolled her eyes, then addressed Holland.

"We're working a homicide in the East Village – Alicia Reyes. She was a witness for you in an armed robbery case about three months ago – Ramon Perez was the defendant."

"Yeah, I remember her vaguely," Holland said. "Nice girl, but not all that memorable – just a Puerto Rican girl from the neighborhood. Jury liked her, though, as I recall."

"What can you tell us about Perez?" Jim asked.

"He was a thug, had connections to East Side Trece. We considered prosecuting the robbery as a gang crime, because of his gang affiliation, but it turned out to be a bit of private enterprise on his part. Why, do you think one of his homies killed the girl because she testified against him?"

"It's a possibility. We aren't ruling anything out at this stage," Jim told him.

"Well, he must still be in prison," Holland observed, "but he could definitely have had someone do the homicide for him. He had enough status in the gang for that. Was there any indication the homicide was a gang crime?"

"Someone wrote 'ES13' on her bedroom mirror." Karen told him.

"Well, that clinches it, then. Perez got one of his homies to do the deed. Anything else I can do for you?"

Once they were in the car on the way back to the 8th Precinct, Karen muttered under her breath, "Prick."

"Yeah," Jim agreed. "Nice of him to solve the case for us. I guess we're too dumb to figure out the connection when someone writes a gang symbol right under our noses. But just because he's an arrogant jerk doesn't make him good for the murder."

"No." Karen thought for a minute, then added, "But did you notice how he brought up the gang connection first, before we mentioned it, and he jumped all over the idea as soon as we seemed to be buying into it?"

"Yeah. And he didn't ask when, or how, or where Alicia was killed."

They rode in silence for several blocks. Then Jim turned in his seat to face Karen. "So, Karen, did you check out his suit?"

"Yeah, I did. It was nice enough, would definitely stand out in the East Village. Not as nice as yours, though."

"Why, thank you, Karen. I never knew you noticed. Christie will be pleased."

"She picks out your suits?"

"Well, yeah. You didn't think I did, did you?" Jim asked with a slight smile.

"No, of course not." Karen mumbled. After a minute, she changed the subject. "That Holland guy is a real sexist. The whole time we were there, he was checking me out. And he wasn't being subtle about it at all. It really pissed me off." She didn't say so, but she was angry at Holland for taking advantage of Jim's blindness. She knew he would never have looked at her like that if Jim could see him doing it. "Anyway, Alicia was an attractive woman. I saw a picture of her at her mom's house. I can definitely see Holland hitting on her, especially if he was having problems in his marriage or . . . something," she concluded awkwardly. She went on, "So where do we go from here?"

"We can't connect Holland to the homicide with what we've got so far," Jim told her. "We need more evidence."

"Yeah," Karen agreed, "but where do we get it?"

"Crime scene dusted the whole apartment for prints, didn't they?"

"I think so."

"Let's check with them, see if they lifted any prints from any of the other rooms. Holland's prints would be on file, right?"

"Yes. He would have been fingerprinted when he was licensed to practice law."

"Well, let's see if his prints are anywhere in that apartment. And we can go back there, take another look around. Maybe there's something there that will help, that crime scene didn't collect the other day. While we're there, we can show Holland's picture to the neighbors, see if anyone remembers seeing him around."

"Okay."

Scene Three

"I think I've got something here." Jim sat up straight. For the past hour, he'd been sitting on Alicia's couch, waiting impatiently while Karen searched the apartment. Having to rely on Karen to look for him was an unavoidable reminder of his limitations. He doubted he would ever get used to it. And in spite of his confidence in Karen's abilities, somehow he could never escape a lingering worry that she might miss something he would have spotted. He willed these thoughts from his mind. There was nothing he could do about it.

"What is it?"

"I was going through her desk, and I found an appointment calendar, like a weekly planner. She used it to keep track of her class schedule, dentist appointments, things like that. But there's something else. Every few days, right up to two days ago, there's the letter 'M.' The entries begin about three months ago. And they're all on weekdays, none on the weekends."

"'M' for 'Mark'?"

"That's what I'm thinking. Those are the days she was seeing him. It would make sense that she wouldn't see him on the weekends, since he's a married man."

"Yeah." Jim nodded. He didn't want to think about the logistics of conducting an extra-marital affair, but he had to admit Karen had a point. "You done searching?"

"Not yet. I still have the kitchen to do."

Two hours later, they were back at the precinct. Karen hadn't found anything else significant in the apartment, but their canvass of the building yielded two neighbors who thought Mark Holland looked familiar, and another who thought she might have seen him there on the morning Alicia was killed.

When they brought Fisk up to date on their findings, he shook his head. "I agree, he's looking good for it," Fisk told them, "but you still don't have enough, especially considering the guy's a deputy DA. You've got to be sure there are no holes."

Jim nodded. "I know. We'll keep at it."