As always, the characters here are the creation of their respective rights holders and the wonderful actors and actresses who bring them to life for us. Thanks for letting us play with them, if only for a while.

Intersecting Lines – The Trial

Part 12 – The Tide Turns

In Court

Alex's viewpoint

Court was late getting started, we'd cooled our heels for almost an hour beyond the usual starting time before we were allowed in; the court officer eventually calling on us to rise as Craven walked in and took his seat, tossing Andrea and I sharp glance before banging his gavel as we sat.

"Defence will rise" Peterson looked confused for a moment then stood, along with his team and Humphries' publically-appointed defender though the question was directed to Peterson.

"Counsellor, is it your assertion that the attacks on these officers, carried out by their assailants, whoever they might be, were motivated by their sexual orientation?" Peterson frowned for a moment then shrugged.

"It is possible Your Honour" Craven peered across at him.

"Can you prove your assertions here in this court, with conclusive evidence Counsellor?" Peterson's frown deepened as I realised what was happening and fought hard to keep the smile off my face.

"Not conclusively Your Honour, not at this time" Craven looked like he'd just sucked a lemon.

"I will take that as a no then" Peterson looked like he was about to say something when Craven cut him off. "Is it your assertion that the sexual preference of these officers had a bearing on their conduct of this investigation?" Peterson shrugged.

"It may have Your Honour" Craven frowned darkly as I happily nodded to myself; it appeared the long-awaited 'message' had finally been delivered and his attitude had been appropriately 'adjusted'.

"May have won't cut it Counsellor. Do you have any evidence you can produce in this court to that effect Counsellor?" Craven speared Peterson with a look then continued. "A yes or no answer will suffice" Peterson suddenly looked pained.

"Not at this time" Craven nodded once as Andrea shot me a 'what the hell' look while I struggled to remain impassive, now was not the time to be seen grinning happily.

"Do you have any concrete evidence whatsoever that you can produce in this court right now that these officers' sexuality played a part in this case?" Craven levelled a finger at him. "Once again a yes or no will suffice" Peterson spoke as painfully as if he was having teeth pulled.

"No Your Honour" Craven nodded once and sat back, regarding Peterson like a scientist examining some kind of specimen.

"In that case if I hear any more from you suggesting sexuality played a part in this case, I will happily declare you in contempt. Do you understand me?" Peterson nodded slowly, reluctance in his voice.

"Yes Your Honour" Craven's voice was pure acerbity.

"Then sit down, we have a trial to conduct and you've been wasting my time" Seeing Peterson dropping back into his seat, I turned to Andrea and exchanged a small smile as Craven cleared his throat, catching our attention.

"Prosecution" We both stood. "Proceed with your case" We both nodded as Andrea spoke.

"Thank you Your Honour" As I sat down I mentally high-fived, we now had a level playing field.

New York The offices of Runway magazine

Miranda Priestly sat back at her desk and allowed herself a little smile, taking in the television reporter who was reporting in that breathless style some affected for breaking news.

"Sensational developments in the court this morning as presiding judge Craven put Defence Attorney Conrad Peterson on the spot, before dismissing several areas of the Defence's ongoing attacks on the credibility of the investigating officers. We'll be crossing to our legal experts to discuss what this means for the case after this short break…"

Raising an eyebrow she allowed a small thrill of dark satisfaction to run through her before she spoke, her voice a gentle susurration.

"That is all"

In Court

We had chipped away at the defendants all day, starting with the lesser lights. Farrar had sat there solid as a rock, limiting his responses to one word answers as much as possible, a couple of times he'd refused to answer, shielded by Peterson and the others as much as they could. To be honest I didn't mind all that much, his shifty behaviour was doing our job for us with the jury; you could feel their patience wasting away with each and every evasion and denial. To be honest, after Hernandez' three days of testimony, it seemed the majority of the jury had already made their mind up, though a couple might still be on the fence, maybe.

Hopefully our next witness might help sway the few remaining doubters. He was apparently a church-goer, one of the fire and brimstone evangelical Christian ones, and wanted to clear his soul before he faced St Peter's judgement, or something. I'd wondered about how someone who claimed to be a pious Christian could have ended up doing what he'd done but at least he was prepared to talk.

"The Court calls Anthony Osmond to the stand"

Once he was settled Andrea began leading Osmond through the evidence, starting with how he had been recruited.

"They approached me at a bar one Friday night, we'd just lost a case, the suspect was guilty as hell but he'd got off on a technicality, we knew he was guilty but he'd got off scot-free and we were all pretty pissed about it" He shook his head. "That's when Gerry, Sergeant Kennedy, started talking to me about maybe there were other ways we could make some of these guys pay" He looked around the room, wetting his lips before continuing on. "I wanted to know what he was saying, was he talking about being a vigilante or something, but he'd said no, instead he said he did some PI work that helped close some cases, helped the victims bring civil cases against criminals, getting them some kind of restitution and maybe closure too. He said he had more work than he could handle and wanted to know if I was interested in some investigations work that paid okay and I said yeah sure" Osmond shrugged. "And that's how it started" Andrea smiled.

""Thank you Mister Osmond, let's now talk about the jobs that Mister Kennedy asked you to undertake" That was my cue, I pulled up the laptop; I'd lost the toss and was on image management duty this morning.

"Yeah, I got asked to do some surveillance of a guy named Luis Rivera" That was my cue and I brought up the first image, revealing a booking shot of Rivera, taken a couple of years before his death.

"Is that Mister Rivera?" Osmond nodded.

"It is" Andrea glanced at the jury

"Please let the record show Mister Osmond has identified the victim" She looked back at him and moved them along. "What exactly was it you were requested and required to do by Mister Kennedy?" I smiled slightly at her alliteration as Osmond answered.

"He told me he needed surveillance done on this guy; that he'd been involved in a crime but had got off and the victim's family was trying to get a civil suit against him, so they asked me to conduct surveillance on him, across a weekend" Andrea nodded.

"And you did so?" Osmond nodded.

"Yeah, me and Luke, uh…Detective Farrar, we did 8 hour shifts on and off, switching with each other, we did this from Friday night to late Sunday night" He shook his head. "Didn't see much of anything, but we reported back to Gerry…Sergeant Kennedy, on Monday and he seemed happy enough, even though we didn't have much to report, no visitors, Rivera didn't go out much, still he was happy with what we had to report"

"And you were paid for your time by Mister Kennedy?" Osmond nodded and spoke up.

"Yeah, $100 an hour cash" He looked sheepish. "I thought it was good money, I didn't know what was going to happen" Andrea pounced on that.

"What did you think when you learned that Luis Rivera had been murdered, along with his wife Gabriella?" At that cue I changed the image on the screen, showing autopsy shots of Luis and Gabriella Rivera, they'd both been shot to death, the bullet hole in Gabriella's forehead easily visible, according to the case file it suggested that she may have been on her knees, begging for her life maybe, when she'd been killed.

Osmond shook his head. "I didn't hear about that till months later and to be honest I didn't put things together till even later" Andrea turned on him at that statement.

"And why was that Mister Osmond?" Osmond shrugged at Andrea's question.

"I suppose I thought that maybe Rivera's past had caught up with him, he was supposed to be involved with a drug cartel at one point, I thought maybe something had gone wrong and he'd wound up dead" He shook his head. "It wouldn't have been the first time. Nasty people, nasty habits, y'know?" Andrea tipped her head to regard him as she continued drawing the information out of him.

"Indeed, and how much of this surveillance did Mister Kennedy ask you to undertake?" Osmond shrugged.

"One or maybe two times a month usually, sometime more, there was no schedule, just when he had a case" He pulled a face. "That's what he called it, a case. When I asked he said he was doing some private investigator work on the side" Andrea nodded and turned slightly to take in both Osmond and the jury.

"I see. At what point did you start to suspect an ulterior motive for their actions?" He sat back and was silent for a few seconds, finally looking up.

"We'd been asked to conduct surveillance on a guy, he was flying in from Mexico, we were to follow him and work out where he was staying and who he was meeting with" Andrea nodded.

"Please go on Mister Osmond" He nodded.

"Anyway we located the guy, we were told his name was Miguel Sanchez, and trailed him to a downtown hotel where he checked in using the name Jose Cordoba though it later turned out his real name was actually Juan Cervantes, he was a courier for the Juarez Cartel" I pulled up another image, showing the photo of 'Miguel Sanchez' passport. Andrea took a few steps forward and spoke.

"Is that the man you were asked to follow, Miguel Sanchez, AKA Juan Cervantes?" Osmond nodded.

"It is"

"Please let the record show Mister Osmond has identified the victim" Andrea looked back to Osmond. "What happened then Mister Osmond?" He shook his head.

"Once we'd identified where he was staying we contacted Sergeant Kennedy and he told us that we'd done our job and we could wrap up. I was kinda confused, but Luke was cool, said it was easy money for a few hours' work. Anyway we did and headed home. On Monday morning I was going through the weekend's reports when I noticed that a Miguel Sanchez, AKA Jose Cordoba, had been shot and killed in his hotel room late on Saturday night" I clicked to the next image on the computer, showing a crime scene image of Cervantes body sprawled partly across the bed in his room.

"What did you do then Mister Osmond?" Andrea asked.

"I talked it over with Luke, he wasn't bothered by it, but we agreed we'd go and see Sergeant Kennedy. He took us out for coffee, together with his partner, Aiden Powell, and explained that the guy was a druggie, he'd probably got involved in a drug deal that went sour"

"And you accepted that explanation?" Andrea questioned. "Awfully coincidental, and rather convenient don't you think?" He nodded.

"Yeah, I was a bit suspicious but I let it ride, until it happened again" Andrea tipped her head to regard him.

"Yes, what happened there?" Osmond shifted in his seat before replying.

"Arturo Padilla, a mid-level La Familia Cartel drug distributor wound up dead, we'd done surveillance on him less than two days earlier" I sorted through the images, bringing up the autopsy image of Padilla and sending it to the screen as Andrea confirmed with Osmond that was him.

"How did you learn of this Mister Osmond" He shrugged.

"I had misgivings; I mean it had happened twice now, so I started setting up alerts in the names of the people we were running surveillance on, when Padilla turned up dead I talked it over with Luke and then we went and talked with Kennedy. He arranged for us to go to lunch that afternoon with him, Aiden Powell, Tony Di Marco and Julia Humphries" Andrea nodded theatrically.

"And what was discussed at that meeting?" He looked over to the Defence benches then over to the jury.

"They were kinda cagy at first but over the course of an hour they realised that we'd figured out what they were doing. They told us they were working for a rich benefactor, someone who wanted criminals off the streets, especially the ones that seemed to be getting away with what they were doing" He shook his head. "It was BS of course, as I found out later, but we were all tired of druggies and other criminals getting off on technicalities, so when he sold us his story about getting the scum off the streets I was kinda not too unhappy about it" He looked to Andrea. "I didn't know about the Sinaloa connection back then or the WitSec people at all. Anyway Luke was all for it, especially the cash, and pushed for me to go along with him in it so I said okay"

"So you continued to conduct surveillance for Mister Kennedy?" Andrea asked, getting a nod. "On exactly how many people did you undertake this surveillance, in effect identifying people for later murder" Osmond flinched at her phrasing but answered.

"Twenty one" Andrea nodded.

"But you did not restrict your actions to just surveillance did you?" Osmond shook his head as Andrea continued. "Let's talk about the kidnapping of Adoria Moreno, who was living under the name Carmen Ortiz here in Los Angeles" I saw Osmond wince at that.

"Yeah, that" Andrea pushed him a bit.

"You were asked by Mister Kennedy to kidnap her and deliver her to a specific location were you not?"

"Yeah…right, we were told to collect her from her house and deliver her to a parking lot in an industrial area in West Anaheim" He shook his head. "I didn't know her background; I was just told her name was Carmen Ortiz and that she had fled Mexico" Andrea shook her head for a moment then spoke.

"What on earth possessed you to go along with this? I can understand the surveillance, after all that was a quasi-legal activity, but a kidnapping?" He hung his head for a moment then spoke.

"Yeah, I was told she'd absconded from her family back home, that she was a runaway bride and both family's wanted her back in Mexico" He looked up and shrugged. "On reflection it seems like a weak story but by that time I'd sorta been sucked into what he wanted"

"In what way exactly was that Mister Osmond?" At her question he looked up at Andrea, his expression full of regret.

"I'd pulled a lot of surveillance time for him as part of this P.I. thing he was supposedly running, I was getting paid a neat $100 per hour to watch people and establish patterns of behaviour; I'd watch them for a couple of nights and sometimes on weekends, reporting back to Kennedy, I'd be paid in cash and week or two later he'd have me start watching someone else" Andrea crossed her arms and regarded him for a moment before speaking.

"And you didn't question his requests?" Osmond shook his head.

"I suppose I should have, but I was happy with what I saw as earning good money doing stuff that mostly helped people, or so I thought"

"And that included kidnapping individuals?" Osmond shifted uneasily in the witness box.

"Yeah, that should have waved a red flag, but it didn't. Luke was all for it, especially when Gerry said there would be a lot larger pay packet involved" He shook his head slowly. "Maybe I should have said no but I needed the money and I had sorta drifted deeper into it, to the point where stuff I would have questioned before I started doing jobs for him, that I should have questioned, I didn't" He looked up at Andrea for a moment. "Yeah, that's on me, I messed up" Andrea didn't let up on him as she stood watching, hands held behind her back.

"And you went along with this?" Why?" Osmond shook his head.

"Like I said, I was already in deep, I was getting paid, good money, which went a long way, so when he offered us a lot of money for grabbing her, I said yes"

"How much money did you consider 'a lot of money'…" she put it in quotes. "…Mister Osmond?"

"Fifteen thousand each" Andrea turned and looked at the jury.

"Thirty thousand to kidnap a woman and hand her over to Mexican drug smugglers for torture and execution" She turned back to Osmond, her voice harshening. "What the hell were you thinking?" He seemed to shrink in on himself, requiring Andrea to prompt him. "Mister Osmond?"

"Objection" It was Cox who stood, looking to Craven. "Badgering the witness, who clearly was not aware of the fate planned for this woman" Craven was all over that one, shaking his head as he spoke.

"Objection overruled, the fact that witness was not aware of the victim's ultimate fate does not excuse them of their role in enabling the death of the victim" He looked to Andrea. "Proceed"

"Mister Osmond?" she prompted, getting Osmond's attention and raising one eyebrow. He looked to her and shook his head slowly, his voice pained.

"That's just it, I don't know. I just went along with it, they asked and I did it, so honest to god I don't really know" Andrea nodded sadly.

"So it would seem"

Miami

Horatio Caine had stopped at a cafe to grab a coffee on his way back from an interagency meeting, his attention grabbed by the television showing the case in Los Angeles. He'd kept abreast of the case of course; it was hard not to given the absolute shit fight that had blown up in the media about the whole gay cops thing. He didn't give a damn about whoever they were screwing, that was their business and as long as it didn't get in the way of their job, well who the hell's business was it?

These crooked cops though, that was something else again. On an intellectual level he understood the dangerous attraction of saving the state a trial and just ending criminals permanently, the temptation to be judge, jury and executioner; every cop did at one time or another, but that was a slippery slope that led into the maelstrom that was the situation in way too many countries south of the border.

On one hand he could appreciate the situation this cop, Osmond, had found himself in, sliding down the slope from something legal to less legal to outright criminal. But being paid to kidnap and kill people for the cartels…Jesus, that crossed every red line in the book, and that was before they'd apparently tried to have fellow cops killed too.

He accepted his coffee from the barista with a nod, glancing up at the television and shaking his head ruefully once again as he headed out.

Nope, they could go to death row with his blessing.

In Court

Andrea's viewpoint

Kennedy was on the stand this morning and Alex Cabot was stalking him like a tiger eyeing off her next meal.

She was interesting, back when I'd heard she was coming out to LA to join us I'd contacted people I respected in the profession who knew of her and all I'd heard was that she was good. A little too passionate if anything, but I wasn't going to mark her down for that, passion was as important for a successful prosecutor as it was for an investigator. All the best ones had it, Mikki had it in spades and under that ice-blonde mask Alex had it too.

Back in New York when she'd first arrived she was supposed to be on the fast track to political office, passing through the NYPD's sex crimes unit, a valuable tick in the box on the way to the DAs office and beyond when something happened. The reasons varied, some said it was she got lost in the cases they handled, someone else said it was the woman she'd met there, her now-partner Olivia Benson, they'd gotten involved and she'd been side-tracked into staying at the unit. Whatever, she'd amassed a fearsome reputation amongst New York's criminal defence fraternity, no one really wanted to go up against her, she'd left a string of destroyed reputations and equally-shattered ego's in her wake.

Then she'd got on the wrong side of a Columbian drug lord, almost died in a drive-by and ended up in witness protection for years. When that had ended I'd been told she'd spent almost a year working her way back through the system into working with Benson again, before taking a stint with the UN, investigating and prosecuting African war criminals. Finally returning to New York it was obvious she'd given up on making it into political office, instead returning to the sex crimes unit where she'd amassed an amazing record, setting new record conviction rates year after year. New York's loss was definitely our gain and I have to say I'd never regretted my decision to have her work this case with me.

She'd stood there side by side with me as we'd started down Craven, she was senior enough and definitely experienced enough to have been senior chair on this case but she'd never once shown any sign that she was unhappy being my second chair, instead from day one she'd thrown herself into prosecuting Kennedy and his cohorts with a passionate relish I admired.

If...no, when, we sent them to death row, I could happily say that it was because we'd both given 110% to prosecuting them, and we deserved equal credit for it. I'd happily share a case with her anytime.

Now though she was stalking Kennedy, the look in his eyes was wary, as well it might be. I could tell Alex was getting frustrated; she'd been hammering away at him for over two hours but it seemed every other sentence out of his mouth was some variation on 'I can't remember'. It wasn't particularly advancing our case but on the other hand I could tell the jury wasn't impressed by his evasiveness and general demeanor either, nor was Alex.

"Well Mister Kennedy, let us turn our attention to more current events; perhaps your remarkably poor memory might prove more useful with current matters" She referred to her notes on her tablet before returning it to the table and walking closer to the witness box. "Let's turn our attention to your most recent officer involved shooting incident, one Robert Dimery" Kennedy shifted in his seat as Alex skewered him with a look. "You do recall that incident do you not Mister Kennedy?" He nodded once.

"Yeah" Kennedy seemed to have come to the conclusion that saying as little as possible was the best defence; idiot. Alex's smile was razor sharp and dangerous.

"Wonderful, perhaps your memory is making a much welcome and long overdue return after all" She took a couple of steps towards him and continued. "You claim that you received an anonymous tip off that a series of robberies of convenience stores was the work of one Robert Dimery, is that correct?"

"Yes" Alex nodded slowly.

"Can you explain why no record of this anonymous tip was ever recorded Mister Kennedy?"

"No" Nodding, a little exaggeratedly, Alex pushed on.

"That seems to be a common trait does it not Mister Kennedy? I mean we have no record of any of the so called anonymous tips that led you to the deaths of Dimery or any of the other three people you and your partner killed" I glanced over at the Defence tables but Peterson didn't try objecting to that. "Can you explain how you received these anonymous tips Mister Kennedy?" He shrugged.

"Couple of ways, anonymous phone calls, rumors passed on by informants, word on the streets, the usual" Alex pounced on that.

"The usual, an interesting choice of words Mister Kennedy, as there are no records whatsoever of these tip offs or their sources"

"That's because they were anonymous" Kennedy smiled. "That's kinda what anonymous means" Alex nodded.

"Indeed it does, but these take anonymous to new levels, no records, no information on which street informants passed on these rumors, nothing in the incident logs which are supposed to have everything recorded, nothing for later use in a trial as evidence. In fact nothing other than the word of you and your partner that these so called anonymous tip offs occurred in the first place" Kennedy was stony-faced.

"That's what happened" Alex cocked an eyebrow at him as she spoke, her voice carrying a trace of mockery.

"I'm amazed, given how patchy your memory's been today that you can even recall that much" She threw a 'long suffering' look at the jury and then turned her attention back to Kennedy. "I suggest that there was nothing recorded as you had not received any such tip off, instead you went to Robert Dimery's apartment with the sole intention of killing him, another in the long line of people you had been paid to do so by Sinaloa" Cox pushed himself to his feet.

"Objection Your Honour, supposition" Alex shook her head at him.

"You're honestly going for that after what we've heard over the past few days?" Her mouth twisted into a mocking smile. "You really must be on a pay by the day rate" Craven's gavel rapped once.

"Objection denied. Prosecution, I will not tolerate personal attacks on counsel, understood" At that I felt like either bursting out laughing or maybe being sick, given what he'd previously let Peterson and his team get away with. Maybe now he'd rediscovered his ethics he was bending over backwards to prove how even handed he was, or something.

"Of course Your Honour" Alex turned back to Kennedy. "Your description of what happened inside Mister Dimery's apartment is completely at variance with the evidence, both on the scene and the forensic evidence, how do you explain that discrepancy" He shook his head.

"I don't know, I told people what happened, the forensics and the evidence must have been faked up cause that wasn't what happened"

"Really, 'faked up' you say, why would that have happened? Who would have done such a thing, all to make you look like a scapegoat?"

"Raydor, she hated us regular cops, everyone knew it" He looked towards the jury. "Everyone knew she got off on ruining ordinary cops who'd had to shoot to defend themselves, she hated us" Alex shook her head then gave him a little more rope.

"And why would she hate you Mister Kennedy? Why would she do such a thing?" Kennedy glanced at her then looked to the jury.

"Because she hated Taylor; my boss in Robbery Homicide; everyone knew she and her dyke girlfriend Johnson hated him, they both wanted him screwed over, I was just collateral damage" Alex tipped her head to regard him, one hand resting on her hip as she watched him for a moment, before laying into him again.

"So you suggest that evidence was faked at the crime scene to cast doubt on your testimony?" Kennedy nodded as he replied.

"Yeah, cause that wasn't what actually happened" Alex looked to the jury and not incidentally, one of the camera's and shook her head before continuing.

"Then how do you explain the forensics evidence not supporting you either Mister Kennedy?"

"The M.E., she's a friend of Raydor, she must have been in on it too" The look on Alex's face was pure skepticism, so pure you could have bottled it.

"Does this include her predecessor, Doctor Morales, who carried out the autopsies on your previous victim's as well?" She smiled; all sass and teeth. "Back before Doctor Isles had even contemplated leaving Boston for Los Angeles?" Kennedy pulled a face and said nothing, just giving a half-shrug. Alex shook her head again and shared a look with the jurors before pushing on. "So it was all a conspiracy, one designed to make you look guilty so these so-called conspirators could cast blame on your superior, Commander Robert Taylor, is that what you are suggesting?" Kennedy shrugged.

"Yeah, must've been cause that ain't what really happened in that apartment" Alex stood in the middle of the area in front of the jury and crossed her arms as she regarded Kennedy, finally she shook her head as she spoke.

"Well I have to congratulate you Mister Kennedy, you've come up with a conspiracy theory to rival any of the 911 or Kennedy conspiracies, all because you were the supposed victim" She shook her head pityingly and glanced towards the jury. "It's amazing really how so many people must have had it in for you" She started ticking off her fingers. "Commander Raydor and the entire Force Investigation Division, Doctor Isles and before her Doctor Morales, plus their entire forensic team and the crime scene photographer who apparently changed all the imagery to support the conspiracy, with Photoshop I presume" The look she threw the jury was more amused than anything, getting a few smiles in return. "The bullets that came from your gun must have been placed into specially-drilled holes in the apartment's walls to support the conspiracy and they must have filled up and painted over the holes you said were made when Dimery fired at you which were never found, all in all a remarkably complex and convoluted conspiracy with the express intention of framing you Mister Kennedy" Alex looked towards him with a questioning look on her face. "All that, and it happened at an incident that just happened to be one where you had no record of the anonymous tip that sent you there" She reached up and removed her glasses as she looked at him.

"Mister Kennedy, do you have any idea of how incredibly ridiculous all of that sounds, honestly?" Kennedy had obviously decided to double down on stupid.

"I'm telling you that's what happened" Alex nodded slowly then spoke, her voice dripping with condescension.

"Of course you are Mister Kennedy, never let it be said that you don't stick to your story, no matter how far-fetched, indeed nonsensical it might be" Kennedy muttered something under his breath as Alex smiled and slid her glasses back into place. "Indeed Mister Kennedy, your story seems remarkably consistent across all the Officer Involved Shooting's you've had, you and your partner Aiden Powell. In each case it was an 'anonymous' tip…" She put it in air quotes. "…that led you to a person who just happened to be a individual in the Justice Department's Witness Protection program, who just happened to end up dead at your hands and which you now claim was some kind of frame-up by everyone involved in investigating those incidents" She shook her head. "So we don't have one conspiracy, we have four separate ones" Perhaps wisely Kennedy said nothing, drawing a resigned look from Alex that she shared with the jury as I smothered a smile, Alex was good, very good at the theatre of the courtroom,

I'd already picked up a few of her tricks and was looking forward to using them myself, though her use of her glasses should have been registered as a deadly weapon, given the uses she put them to. She took them off for emphasis, slid them back on with a flourish, polished them to denote resignation, slid them down her nose in disbelief, adjusted them constantly, waved them around the court when someone said something ridiculous, used them to point at the witness when she was making a deliberate point and, according to Mikki who'd seen them in use, her lover Olivia turned to mush when she used them to her advantage on her, they were indeed an all-purpose accessory.

"I will grant you that there is something very, very suspicious about these four shootings Mister Kennedy, there may indeed be four separate conspiracies Mister Kennedy, however the conspirators are you and your partner Aiden Powell, they have your prints all over them, the same M.O., an anonymous tip off, of which no record exists I might add, leading to a dead victim, shot in 'self defence'…" she put it in air quotes. "…that just so happened to be a former member of Sinaloa who was now under Witness Protection right here in Los Angeles" She looked to the jury and spoke to them. "I've heard of coincidences but this stretches the concept beyond breaking point straight into the realm of the utterly ridiculous" She smiled at the jury then spun back to Kennedy.

"Honestly that would be farfetched, in fact quite frankly unbelievable, even without the other testimony we've heard in this courtroom in recent days, when you combine that testimony with the evidence, the conclusion is well-nigh overwhelming" She paused for a second but both Kennedy and his team were silent. "You orchestrated the deaths of those four Witness Protection protectee's Mister Kennedy, conspired with your partner, Aiden Powell, to hide what you had done and were paid blood money from Sinaloa to do so, something you did not once, but four times Mister Kennedy" Kennedy sat there, not saying anything, probably wisely as Alex was on a roll.

"Nothing to say Mister Kennedy, or has your memory failed you once again?" She spun to the jury. "Mister Kennedy's memory seems as patchy and full of holes as the fairy tales he has tried to spin about what happened in those killings, all evidence to the contrary" She looked back to Kennedy and shook her head before making an aside to the jury. "With a memory that bad, it's a wonder how he ever made Detective, let alone Sergeant" she shrugged. "Though it's obvious standards in Robbery / Homicide weren't all that impressive in the first place, given the conduct of six members of that team" She smiled happily. "I cannot wait to speak to the head of that team, the aforementioned Commander Robert Taylor, I have no doubt that should be more than interesting" I couldn't restrain my own evil smile at that thought.

Los Angeles LAPD Parker Centre

Commander Robert Taylor watched the television set up in the corner of the tiny office he'd been allocated since he'd been stripped of his role as head of Robbery / Homicide and dumped in this bull shit job he'd been stitched up with, liaising with the LAPDs suppliers of K9 recruits and horses for the mounted squad.

At that dyke lawyer's words he grimaced, he sure wasn't looking forward to his being called to give evidence, no way in hell. He had no doubt she'd try and paint him in the worst possible light, suggesting he'd looked the other way while they'd been doing their dirty work for the cartel; her and Hobbs both actually, not that he should be surprised, they were both part of the same man-hating lesbian witches' coven that Johnson, Raydor, Dearing and the others were all part of, looking to screw him over. They hated him for being the sort of man he was, a man's man; not some wimp rolling over like a well-trained poodle in the face of their attempts to manipulate the LAPD to their liking.

He watched as that woman from New York, Cabot, kept hammering away at Kennedy. He thought Gerry was playing it smart, saying as little as he could, even though it was obvious as hell he was guilty as sin, they all were, the evidence was too conclusive, leaving him wondering at the façade they'd maintained. The remainder of the Robbery / Homicide team had gathered over a beer not long after the arrest of Kennedy and Humphries and the others and talked it over, none of them had the slightest inkling that their former colleagues were living a double life, not just selling out to the cartels, but offing people for them.

If he'd had more introspection Taylor might have wondered if he'd only seen what he wanted in them, rather than what was there. Instead he rationalised it that they were all good liars and then put that aside, instead concentrating on what he saw as the most important thing; his upcoming appearance in the witness box and what effect that might have on his chances of getting his career out of the shit hole he'd found himself.

At least he could console himself that he had his pension, so he could retire at any time, and with the way all those dykes were running the show, that mightn't be a bad thing, before they completely took over.

In Court

"So you not only managed to co-opt your partner, Aiden Powell, into your murderous activities, you eventually spread your activities wide enough, acting as Sinaloa's assassins for hire here in Los Angeles, that you felt the need to bring in other accomplices, in the case Tony Di Marco and Julia Humphries" I watched as Alex smiled, albeit without any trace of humour this time. "You must have been pleased with how they turned out, they seemed to be even more cold-bloodedly ruthless than you and Powell" She shook her head before continuing. "Between the four of you, you got so busy you decided you needed some assistance doing the leg work, the surveillance needed to identify your victims, confirming their location and habits for future killing" Alex glanced over at the defence tables and shook her head before turning back and continuing.

"And didn't your new co-conspirators turn out to be just what you wanted? Anthony Osmond and Luke Farrar turned out more than willing to help you continue your mass production line of murder, scouting out your future victims while being paid crumbs. And when you needed dirty work done, kidnapping Adoria Moreno, amongst others, they were happy to do so" She shook her head at Kennedy. "You must have been so proud of them all"

"Objection Your Honour, supposition" Craven nodded at Ling's interjection and spoke.

"Sustained, the jury will disregard that inference" Alex nodded as Kennedy remained stubbornly silent so Alex turned and regarded the defendant's, arrayed in a line, from Powell at one end to Humphries at the other, slowly pulling off her glasses and massaging her eyes for a moment, as if weary or in pain, then straightening up.

"I have to say Mister Kennedy; I have prosecuted so much criminal filth over a decade in the NYPDs Special Victim's Unit. Rapists, child molesters, murderers, pedophiles, sex slaver's and so many more, but rarely have I been forced to bear witness to so much cold, calculating and conscienceless criminality as I have here" She shook her head again and turned back to Kennedy, glasses held in one hand which she used to point his way. "And we have you to thank for it all, well you and your sister, but you were the one that made your way to Mexico and reached out to Sinaloa, offering to parlay her stolen information into murder for hire" She looked to the jury and sighed.

"The witness took the information his sister provided and bargained with Sinaloa to become a paid assassin, then corrupted five other members of the Los Angeles Police Department into joining him on Sinaloa's payroll' She threw the Defence tables a glance and a slow head shake then continued. "Kidnapping or killing almost 40 victims wasn't enough for them, so when their activities were threatened with potential exposure, they had no hesitation in agreeing to the murder of fellow officers" She slipped her glasses back on, deliberately and slowly then continued.

"The witness agreed to a price for the death of six fellow law enforcement members and it was only by sheer good luck and good police work that multiple attempts on their lives were foiled" One arm came up, outstretched and pointed at Kennedy as she spoke to the jury. "If he had succeeded make no mistake, Kennedy and his conspirators would still be out on the streets, still carrying out murders and kidnappings for Sinaloa, as we have heard earlier, likely some of them of other police officers" Her arm dropped and she stood there for a second before continuing, her voice changing, becoming slower, less urgent.

"What they have done is unconscionable, a betrayal of their oaths, their fellow officers and the law, happily tossing all of those aside for thirteen pieces of drug-tainted silver, their litany of betrayal's shaming Judas while indulging in a catalogue of murders for hire" Alex turned to face the jury square on, crossing her arms and speaking in a slower, lower voice.

"Speaking personally, as the partner of a police officer and a criminal prosecutor of many years' experience, I am quite frankly sickened by what they have done and what they tried to do, to their victims and their would-be victims, their fellow officers" She shook her head, her expression grim, then turned to Craven, looking him straight in the eye. "I'm more than done with this witness Your Honour"

With that she turned and walked back to our desk as murmuring started throughout the courtroom, prompting Craven to tap his gavel and call for silence. She sat down beside me as I turned and looked at her, getting a nod and a fist bump from her as Craven called on Peterson to cross, giving him the impossible task of somehow trying to salvage Kennedy's credibility and reputation. I smiled, a little sardonically, 'better him than me'

New York 1PP

Casey Novak sat back in her office as the city outside grew dark, it was getting late in New York but she'd wanted to see Alex go to town on Kennedy, instead of her usual fire and brimstone though she'd been very different than she'd expected, something the legal expert on the cable network's 'panel was commenting on as well.

Her manner had been almost resigned, as if she was over the defendants and all their works, she'd hammered away at Kennedy for several hours, his continued refusal to answer questions making him look more and more guilty, not just in the eyes of the jury but for everyone watching across the country.

That final summation though, that had been brutal in its simplicity and even more effective for it. Casey nodded to herself, she had enough experience reading a courtroom's mood and from what she'd seen, all seven of the accused were going to jail for the rest of their lives. A small smile ghosted over her lips as she nodded to herself, 'good job Al; a really good job'