A/N If you would like to see what Julia Humphries looks like, do a quick Google search for images of 'Talia Winters Babylon 5'. That character, played by Andrea Thompson, with her cool beauty and shoulder-length straight blonde hair, is Humphries to a tee.
Intersecting Lines – The Trial
Part 13 – A Woman Scorned
In Court
Alex's viewpoint
"The court calls Julia Humphries to the stand"
I stood and made my way out into the centre of the courtroom, standing with my hands in front of me, fingers interlaced, my head turned to watch as Humphries was approached by the County Sheriff's Deputy and led out from the table where she'd been sitting with her State-appointed public defender and over to the witness box. The red bandage-style dress and the matching red patent leather four-inch heels she was wearing looked good on her, she wore them well and looked nothing like the amoral killer she'd turned out to be. One interesting piece of information we'd gained was that Humphries had spent most of the time she'd been in prison working out obsessively, in the gym when she could, in her cell otherwise, as a result she looked really toned and fit, something the tightly-tailored, flattering clothes she'd worn throughout the trial had done a good job of highlighting.
As she passed me she paused and looked me up and down, a slow, almost nasty smile appearing as she spoke.
"Let's get to it Cabot, we've got work to do" The deputy guided her forward with his hand on her arm as I tried hard to look unperturbed. Humphries was the unknown here, she'd refused to talk to anyone, not Brenda, not Peterson, not the State-appointed public defender she'd had assigned to her when she'd made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with Peterson, Kennedy or any of the others. She'd sat quietly at her seat at her separate table each day of the trial, mostly not saying much with the notable exception of her intervention to tie her actions to the others, she'd mostly just sat back, quietly observing all that had happened, often smiling at something only she found amusing. All in all she was an enigma, one I was about to try and get to open up.
After watching her take the stand and the oath I approached her and got us started.
"Miss Humphries, as a detective assigned to the LAPD's Robbery / Homicide division, please tell the court about your relationship with Tony Di Marco?" She looked at me and shrugged, her voice bored.
"He was my assigned partner"`
"Could you please describe your relationship with Mister Di Marco?" She sat there and shook her head slowly then leaned forward to speak clearly into the microphone.
"Let's cut the crap Counsellor, why don't you ask the questions you really want to, about how many people died and why" I froze for a split second; thinking 'what the hell', seeing the same expression on Andrea's face, then pushed on.
"You seem very certain of what you have to say Miss Humphries, why don't you tell the court in your own words?" She nodded and sat back, looking around the court and smiling into the closest camera, then turned back to me.
"It's all true, everything" I nodded, uncertain about exactly where she was going with this.
"Yes?"
"The killings, the kidnappings, the connection to Sinaloa, everything"
Boston BPD Division 1 Homicide
"Jesus Christ!" Frankie Rizzoli shouted at the screen set up for everyone to watch as heads swung around the BRIC, ignoring them Korsak nodded sagely and smiled.
"It's all over now bar the shouting" Riley Cooper nodded once with a satisfied smile as she spoke.
"Death row, here they come"
New York 1PP
Casey Novak sat back in her seat and smiled at the stunned voice of the cable network's legal expert as he tried to put what had just happened into words and failed.
Her smile widened, that single statement had just ensured a conviction, it was all over, the fat lady, in the guise of a homicidal blonde in a tight red dress, had just sung.
In Court
Peterson's team and her own defender were on their feet, shouting objections as Humphries sat back with a smug little smile on her face as the Defence attorneys' tried to get her to stop talking. The discussion between the Defence and Craven had gone back and forwards a few times when I decided it was time to reinsert myself into the discussion and stepped into a pause in the argument, pointing out one salient fact.
"Your Honour, as Miss Humphries here has apparently made the unilateral decision to reveal all, including matters which are obviously going to incriminate her, then who are we to prevent her testimony from being heard?' Craven had nodded at that and turned to where Humphries had sat quietly, watching the proceedings with undisguised amusement.
"Miss Humphries, you are aware that your testimony could incriminate yourself and your co-defendants?" She nodded nonchalantly.
"Sure, I'm not stupid; I've been a cop for fourteen years…" She shrugged and offhandedly waved at her defender. "I know more about criminal law than the boy wonder over there" The man in question flushed red in embarrassment but Humphries had already moved on. "I know where this ends; we're all going to Death Row so I've decided we might as well go out with a bang" Peterson looked from her to me then turned to Craven, his voice angry.
"Has this woman been offered some sort of deal for her testimony? I should have been informed of that prior to her appearance" I shook my head, how stupid did he think I was? I didn't bother hiding the contempt in my voice.
"Of course not, until this point the defendant has not even deigned to speak to anyone beyond the barest procedural matters and I can assure both the Court and Defence that no deal has ever been on the table" I turned to look Craven straight in the eye and spoke as firmly as I could. "I had no inkling of this, but it appears that Ms Humphries is willing to offer an insight into this case that will assist the court and the jury determine the guilt or otherwise of the defendant's" I shrugged. "I say let's hear it" Andrea jumped in to back me up.
"There is certainly ample precedent in case law for it Judge"
The discussion wandered on for another minute or so before Craven sent both the defence counsellors and Andrea back to their seats and indicated I should proceed so I turned back to Humphries and kicked us off again.
"Ms Humphries, you stated that everything that you and the other defendant's stand accused of is correct, is that what you are saying?" She nodded airily.
"Sure. Raydor and Johnson and the others have put together a pretty good case, they know most of it but the essentials are all true"
Los Angeles LAPD Major Crimes
In Brenda's office the Twinkie had stopped moving to Brenda's mouth as she watched, rapt, though at that statement she was moved to mutter.
"Why thank you so very much for that, you miserable murdering psycho bitch"
In Court
"So you can confirm the supposition that Sinaloa was paying you and your fellow detectives to undertake killings on their behalf" She nodded.
"Yeah, mostly; like the cartel guy, Hernandez, said, Kennedy approached them, told them he had an in to the Witness Protection program and did a deal with Sinaloa"
"Objection, here say" It was Peterson. Craven looked to me and I shrugged then looked to Humphries.
"You were not there, were you?" She shook her head.
"No, but when Kennedy recruited me and Di Marco, we asked him about how it happened and he explained it to us" She shrugged. "He left out the bit about him killing that guy to prove himself, but the rest of it, yeah" I glanced at Craven who nodded.
"Objection overruled" He looked to me. "Continue" I looked to Humphries.
"So you were all involved?" She shook her head.
"To different degrees, Osmond and Farrar weren't really trusted" She shrugged. ""Kennedy thought they were too dumb and too squeamish for anything important, surveillance and the occasional kidnapping was their job" She shrugged. "They got an hourly rate for the surveillance, chump change really, though the lump sums they got paid for the kidnappings kept them sweet, both were happy to take the money and kept asking for more jobs like that" She pursed her lips in thought then continued. "Kennedy didn't trust either of them with important work, besides it meant the big jobs went to him, Powell, Di Marco and me" I nodded.
"Why was that important to him?" She shrugged once, her tone brutally disdainful, matching her statement.
"Because he was a greedy son of a bitch, he wanted to avoid splitting the money any more than he was" I nodded slowly, thinking quickly then started teasing out useful information to fill in the gaps in the information we already had from Hernandez.
"But he had already brought Powell, Di Marco and yourself into his…" I thought for a second then continued. "…let's call it his scheme, why was bringing more people in an issue?" Humphries shook her head, her tone dismissive.
"He would have kept doing them all by himself, but he'd had too many OIS incidents, Raydor was sniffing round his shootings and he knew she'd fuck him over if she had a chance, so he'd been forced to bring Powell in" She glanced towards the Defence table and smiled, not pleasantly. "Apparently Kennedy screwed up one of his jobs and his target would have got away, fortunately for him Powell shot and killed the guy then helped him cover it up"
"Objection Your Honour, here say" At Ling's statement Craven looked to me and I nodded.
"How are you aware of what transpired there Miss Humphries?"
"That's Detective Humphries, Cabot. I still have my rank till I'm convicted so use it" I decided antagonising her wasn't worth the grief and I wanted her talking, not arguing so I nodded.
"How did you become aware of what transpired detective?" She smirked at me.
"There Counsellor, that really wasn't so hard was it?" Looking over towards the Defence tables she continued. "Kennedy was a loud mouth, a few drinks and he'd spill everything. All it took was a couple of beers and he was happy to tell me everything" I nodded and tried to tease out some more details.
"Why was that, did he trust you?" Her sudden laugh was loud in the silent court before she recovered enough to reply.
"Jesus no, he wanted to fuck me" She shook her head. "Kept bitching that his wife had got ugly and fat and he didn't want to fuck her anymore, he kept suggesting that he was looking for a replacement" She rather obviously looked me over then continued. "I'm no dyke but I'd rather do you than let that sweaty pig anywhere near me…" She looked back at where Kennedy was sitting, an angry expression on his face, and continued. "…so I kept stringing him along, feeding him enough interest to keep him keen and he told me everything while he drowned his sorrows" I looked towards Craven who was frowning, thinking it over, he did so for a few moments more before looking to the Defence table,
"Objection overruled" As Ling sat I nodded and turned back to Humphries.
"So how exactly did Kennedy approach you to join his scheme?" Humphries shifted in her seat then resumed.
"We got brought in because Kennedy was concerned he'd skated through too many OIS investigations" She pulled a face for a second. "He was probably right, he'd gotten into a habit with his WitSec jobs and it was going to bite him on the ass hard. He was afraid Raydor would start really digging, we all knew she'd nail him to the wall if she could, so he wanted to spread the work around" She shrugged. "Basically he'd done too many jobs the same and needed to be able to deliver without appearing on Raydor's radar" She snorted with disdain. "Shows how unimaginative the idiot was given Di Marco or I never got anywhere near an OIS investigation" I nodded and prompted her to continue.
"I understand detective, so how did he approach you to join in what he was doing?" She sat back and got comfortable, flicking her hair back as she did and turning slightly to face the camera closest to the jury.
"It was a bit like Osmond. I'd had one of those experiences where the court was an ass" Humphries shrugged. "An obviously guilty asshole got off on a technicality; he'd been robbing Korean convenience stores, one night it all went wrong and he shot and killed the momasan and popasan running it" She shook her head. "He was definitely guilty as, but he'd walked free on the basis of some sketchy corroborating evidence" She looked across to me. "The prosecutor screwed up and his lawyer got away with a 'balance of proof' defence, so he went free, despite being as guilty as sin" Humphries looked back at the Defence tables as she continued.
"We went out that night to drown our sorrows, the way cops do, Kennedy kept buying rounds and eventually, after we'd all vented about how the whole thing was a fucking joke and what we'd like to do to the asshole that'd got away with it; he suggested that there might be something we could do"
"And that was?" I prompted. Humphries glanced my way then turned back to the camera as she answered.
"He gave us his 'working with the victim's' speech but I wasn't buying it. He got us pulling surveillance at first, but when the guy we were pulling surveillance on, a low life Tijuana Cartel lieutenant named Hector Silva, ended up dead a week later we worked out something was shady" She glanced over to the Defence tables as she continued. "Di Marco thought Kennedy was handing over the details to someone who he'd wronged, a family member or someone" she shrugged. "I wasn't so sure but we agreed to keep our mouths shut for the moment" I nodded and probed a bit deeper.
"What changed your mind?" She looked from the Defence table back to me and shrugged again.
"It happened again; another surveillance, leading to yet another dead body" Humphries smiled, well smirked really at me. "I'm not stupid Cabot, I'm a detective, a good one, have been for almost a decade, so I put two and two together and worked out that we were pulling surveillance to make it easier for someone to get to our targets and kill them, which made me wonder who" She gave me another one of those half smirking smiles. "Di Marco thought it was a victim, maybe a relative of someone who had been done over by the suspect but I didn't buy that for a moment, maybe one, maybe, but two?" She shook her head. "Nope" I thought that over for a second, she was convicting them all so I needed her to keep talking.
"What crystalised it for you detective?" At my question Humphries surprisingly smiled, a real smile this time.
"The second guy turned out to be a Raoul Cortez, a member of the Los Zetas Cartel. When he turned up dead I did a little digging and found out he was a weapon's procurer, he was in Los Angeles on a gun run, he didn't get involved in the street level stuff, so there was no local victim here, as far as I was concerned the only people paying to see cartel members from different cartels end up dead was another cartel" She glanced towards the defence tables then back to me. "I convinced Di Marco and so we went and spoke to Kennedy" Fascinated, I nodded and prompted her to keep going.
"And he confirmed your supposition?" I asked.
"Pretty much, he was defensive until I pinned him down about how much he was getting paid, I told him that someone was paying him and it was almost certainly another cartel" She smiled. "He didn't deny it, instead said it was and as far as he was concerned, if it took cartel members off the street of LA he had no issues, especially as the courts weren't doing their job" Humphries smiled, a little off kilter, towards Kennedy at the Defence tables. "I thought he'd actually managed to convince himself of that, of course I didn't know about the Witness Protection side of it at that time" I nodded, noting the court was dead silent, everyone was fixated on Humphries, in particular the jury. She was making my case for me; I just had to keep her talking.
"So what happened then, detective?" She shrugged then continued.
"He spilled most of it then, the Sinaloa connection, the deal, the twenty thousand dollars a job rate" She pulled a face then continued. "I suspected he was skimming but I had no idea he was skimming ten thousand a time, greedy son of a bitch" I nodded; quite obviously there was no honour amongst thieves, or murderous cops it seemed, and encouraged her to continue.
"So Kennedy brought you in to assist him in undertaking the killings for Sinaloa?" She nodded once.
"Yeah, we, I mean Di Marco and I, we agreed that we were in, I mean it was drug cartel low-life scum we were taking off the streets, I had no problem with that, Di Marco didn't either" She shrugged nonchalantly. "Besides, his wife Paula had expensive tastes, plus she was getting lots of cosmetic surgery jobs, I think she was feeling a little intimidated that her husband was spending all that time with me and felt she needed to try and keep up" I nodded a little uncertainly as she pushed on. "She shouldn't have worried, I like my guys rich, generous and well hung and Tony didn't really stack up against what I was pulling most Saturday nights" Ignoring the bombastic irrelevancy I nodded and dragged us back to the case.
"So Kennedy told you that he was accepting jobs from Sinaloa and that he was receiving twenty thousand dollars a time to kill people from other cartels, would that sum it up?" She threw me a glance as she replied.
"Yeah, he offered us the chance to do the same and I was in, Tony too" She tossed her head to get her hair out of her face, a move that looked well practiced, as she glanced at the nearest camera. "I thought it was a chance to take the people dumping drugs and guns and misery on the streets and do what the courts weren't, taking them out of circulation" She smiled. "I was doing it anyway, but it was nice to be recognised for what we were doing"
"You mean being paid?" She looked at me and smiled.
"I was taking cartel money to get rid of other cartel's members, weakening both of them; I thought it was a good deal all round" A thought came to me, something she'd just said...
"You said 'it', meaning taking out drug dealers, was something you were doing anyway?" She smiled condescendingly at me, like I was a dim student who'd just worked out a-not-too difficult math's problem.
"Sure, it's not like anyone would miss a few scum pushing cocaine to kids, if they end up dead, well there's always another on the next corner, I saw it as performing a civic service, saving the state the cost of keeping them in jail"
Los Angeles LAPD Major Crimes
In the Major Crimes squad room Buzz had set up a feed from the cable television people into a small window on everyone's computer desk top; the team following the case remotely, with ripples of satisfaction or disquiet rippling through the room as the trial ebbed and flowed.
Now though any pretense of work being done had been abandoned as everyone stared at the feed from the court, Provenza summing up their reaction.
"Oh my god" He looked around. "Exactly how delusional is this woman?" Flynn just shrugged and looked over at him
"Very" He shifted the toothpick around in his mouth and continued. "I have no idea how the hell someone like her made it through to become a cop" Surprisingly Khan took a stab at it, he was normally pretty reserved.
"While I am no psychiatrist, it would seem that she has convinced herself that she was justified in her actions, no matter how inappropriate or illegal, certainly there is a strong element of self-delusion at play" He shifted slightly under their scrutiny. "Perhaps she was able to fool others because her sense of self-justification is so strong that she does not feel that she has done anything particularly wrong" He shook his head slowly as he continued. "Or it could be she is so self-centered that she does not believe the rules, or the law in this case, apply to her" He grimaced. "It would appear she is a highly functional psychopath"
Jane's summary was typical Jane, short, sharp and to the point.
"She's fucking nuts"
In Court
I nodded, a little uncertainly, not exactly sure where we should go to from here then decided to go after the killings she'd been responsible for.
"Detective Humphries, Would you please tell the court how many people you were paid to kill by the Sinaloa Cartel, through the intermediary of Mister Kennedy?" She chewed her lip for a moment then sat a little straighter, as if she was proud or defiant about what she'd done.
"I killed eight cartel members, seven of them on my own, one I helped Tony out with" I saw people talking, a low susurrus of whispering around the court as I pushed on.
"And none of these were handled as Officer Involved Shootings?" Humphries snorted disdainfully before replying.
"Fuck no! Kennedy and Powell had well and truly fouled that nest" She looked over at the Defence table and contemptuously shook her head. "Raydor hadn't started sniffing around seriously back then but we all knew sooner or later she would, given how many OIS Kennedy had been involved in so Tony and I came to a decision to handle things differently to avoid falling into any sort of pattern that might be predictable" She looked back at me. "There were plenty of ways to get to the criminals we were dealing with without having to be so damned stupid" Humphries shrugged. "It was almost a challenge, finding new ways to off the targets" Deciding to jump in on that I followed up with a question.
"What methods were they Detective?" She smiled happily and waved her hand down her body like she was self-evidently presenting it for appreciation.
"All it took for a few of them was to turn up at a club they were at, dressed to impress and pretty soon they'd be tripping over themselves to hang out with me" She smiled. "It wasn't all that hard" I nodded at that and pushed on.
"So what did you do detective, how did you kill these men?" She shrugged before replying.
"They were criminal scum Cabot, don't forget that, they preyed on society, I was doing everyone a favour by taking them out" I nodded, playing along and said nothing, hoping the silence would encourage her to keep going, god knows Humphries had the ego for it. Sure enough she paused for a moment then continued. "One of them, I poisoned his drink at the bar and wandered off while he vomited on the floor, everyone was looking at him, not me. By the time he was dead I was in the wind" She actually looked proud of her exploits, making me shudder inwardly a little as she continued. The others, well a couple of them wanted to take me home, once we were alone, well they made it all too easy" She smiled sardonically. "One guy and his friend both wanted to party, we got back to his place and we started stripping off, which meant they had to take their pistols off, so I picked up one right off the bedside table and shot them both" She shrugged disdainfully, her voice scornful. "They were thinking with their dicks, not their heads, so not too bright"
Las Vegas LVPD Crime Lab
Ray Langstrom looked across the currently empty autopsy table at his lead CSI, Catherine Willows.
"You did say she was cold, I think that was a gross understatement" Catherine looked from the television to her boss and nodded slowly, her voice dry.
"Hell yeah, the woman's a textbook psychopath, with a whole sidebar of mental issues to go along with it"
"I find myself in agreement with your earlier statement, I too would not want to be in a dark alley with someone like that; she seems of a mind to slit your throat for nothing more than the loose change in your pockets" Catherine looked back at the TV as she considered Ray's words, seeing the blonde prosecutor obviously taken aback at what Humphries had said then spoke.
"Thank god they're going to throw her in jail and toss away the key, she's a lunatic" Ray couldn't help but nod at that pithy but accurate assessment.
In Court
I nodded uncertainly for a moment then nudged her along.
"And then…?" She shrugged nonchalantly.
"I cleaned up the evidence I'd ever been there, got dressed and walked out, went back to the club and picked up a hot guy and let him take me back to his place where we fucked like rabbits all night, thus establishing an airtight alibi"
New York NYPD 12th Precinct
"My god" Richard Castle looked up from his phone where he was watching the case and into the eyes of his partner. "This woman is crazy" Kate nodded; she'd been listening in while doing paperwork at her desk.
"Something's not wired right inside her head" she said, pulling a face for a moment then continued. "To cold bloodedly seduce then kill people, strangers, like that, she's definitely a psychopath" Rick shook his head slowly.
"I've written about the femme fatale, the ice cold KGB agent and the conscienceless female killer; just as characters in my books but to see, to hear the real thing is utterly horrible, repellent even. I never realised just how…wrong…someone like that is" Kate pursed her lips for a moment then replied.
"Messed up or not Castle, she's making Alex's case and so far she's guaranteed a cell on death row for all of them" He nodded, his eyes on the 'phablet' propped up against a pile of files on her desk where they could both watch it.
"Yeah, there is that"
In Court
"Detective Humphries, can you tell the court how your targets were selected?" She nodded.
"Yeah sure, Kennedy would pass me the info, name, location, the stuff that the Cartel or his sister had passed on. Usually there'd be some stuff from the surveillance that Osmond and Farrar had conducted, giving me some idea of their general movements" She tossed her hair back and looked to the camera. "I told Kennedy to give me the ones who liked to party, go out to clubs and stuff, because that gave me an in the others didn't have" I nodded and followed up.
"And once he had you would undertake the killing?"
"Pretty much" She shrugged. "I'd let him know it was done and he'd confirm it with his cartel contact and a week or so later I'd get paid the twenty thousand he said Sinaloa was paying"
"How were you paid?" She smiled in recollection.
"He'd pass me an envelope with the cash in it, on the quiet, nice and easy" I nodded and got her back on track.
"You said you killed eight people as requested by Kennedy, could you remember their names?" She shook her head.
"Not off the top of my head" Humphries shrugged again. "They were just criminal scum; hardly worthy of note, I remember one or two names, but not all of them"
Quantico FBI Behavioural Assessment Unit
Jennifer Jareau looked across at her fellow agent in the Behavioural Assessment Unit, Emily Prentiss and shook her head.
"That woman is deranged" Emily nodded.
"An interesting psych profile to put it mildly, I'd like to have a look into her background, there's surely a bunch of issues on show there" JJ shook her head.
"Good thing Ana and the others caught her" At that comment Emily smiled and decided to tease her friend.
"Aww, you still moping over your crush object?" That drew a quick retort from JJ.
"She is not my 'crush object' as you put it, I like Ana, she's a really nice person" Emily wasn't going to let her get off that easily though.
"You were interested enough that her girlfriend felt she had to get territorial with you" Jennifer shrugged, a little defensively, after all Emily had been paying off on her mercilessly since that Runway magazine article had appeared with her in it.
"I can't help it that she was insecure, we were just having a good time" Emily wasn't having a bar of it.
"JJ, you were practically sitting in Romanov's lap at that dinner, I can't blame Dearing for getting pissed" Ignoring that observation Jennifer waved back at the screen.
"Getting back to the real issue, this woman is a mess, psychologically speaking" She looked from the screen to Emily. "A shame we didn't get a call" Emily shrugged.
"From the evidence it seems they had no idea of what they were looking at until after they'd caught them. I mean forty-something people, that's pretty bad" Jennifer nodded.
"I think we can chalk this one up as a win for the good guys"" Emily nodded slowly.
"I couldn't see them getting off anyway, not after what that informant said, but this testimony, that's a one-way ticket to life behind bars" At that they shared a satisfied glance.
In Court
I nodded at her words while I tried not to show how appalled I was by her.
"We will come back to that then shortly" I ran my eyes over the remainder of the Defence tables, taking in the expressions of her co-defendant's, ranging from consciously blanked to appalled to angry and decided to see if Humphries would give them up.
"What about your fellow officers in the Robbery / Homicide division? Did you discuss what you were doing with Kennedy and Powell, Osmond and Farrar?" Humphries pulled a face.
"Not really, Kennedy and Powell talked about it, but the other two were kept out of a lot of it, Kennedy thought they were too soft for the real jobs" She shrugged as she looked over to the defendant's tables. "He was right, Farrar wasn't really trusted and Osmond had that whole bible-bashing thing going, I sure as hell didn't trust either of them" She looked back to me. "Sooner or later they were going to become a liability, I expected that Kennedy would either kill them himself or get one of us to do it" I frowned at that little revelation, glancing to the Defence tables to see consternation on the faces of the defendants as Ling rose.
"Objection Your Honour, speculation" I looked to Craven and interjected.
"The witness is providing insight into motivation, theirs and the other witnesses, perhaps we can get to the bottom of it though cross examination Your Honour" Craven pondered for a moment before looking to Ling.
"Objection denied" He looked back to me. "Proceed" I nodded and looked back to Humphries.
"Why would they be killed? They seemed to be delivering the results needed?" Her mouth twisted into a sardonic smile.
"They were doing what they were paid to do Cabot, I'd actually suggested to Kennedy that he could pay a private detective to do the work they were doing and keep it at arm's length" She shook her head. "He said he was happy having them do the legwork, it meant that we weren't using someone new who might figure out what we were doing" She looked to me, then back at Kennedy. "He also said that while we could do the kidnappings, having them do it kept them implicated and their mouths shut"
"Why was that important detective?" I glanced from her to Kennedy then back. "Surely their involvement in Kennedy's scheme would keep them quiet"
"Osmond was a weak link, always running off to church with his good little god-fearing wife" She snorted. "Hypocrites, both of them; Osmond knew what he was doing and his wife happily spent the money he got for setting people up to be killed" She looked his way and shook her head pityingly, her voice harsh. "I always knew he was weak and easily breakable, he happily rolled over when Johnson put any kind of pressure on him" She looked back to me. "We should have killed him long ago" The smile I got was evil. "Dead men tell no tales"
Washington DC The Pentagon
Colonel Sarah Mackenzie shook her head in the privacy of her office.
"Jesus, she's a murderous nutcase"
Sarah closed her eyes for a moment then opened them again to see everyone in the court was obviously coming to terms with that statement. Not that it was hard to see why, Humphries was a cold-blooded monster wrapped in an attractive shell, something she'd obviously used to her advantage over the years.
Thank god Ana and the others had caught her, well her and the rest of them. It seemed they were all treacherous, criminal scum, but Humphries…she was something much worse.
At least she could take comfort in the fact that even before Humphries had said anything they were looking at life in prison. Talking it over with her other half two nights ago, Harm, now a Federal prosecutor, had summed it up in one pithy sentence.
"They'll die in jail, something that's too good for them given what they've done, but it's the best we can do" Looking at Humphries on the stand she nodded at just how accurate that statement was, particularly regarding one cold blonde in a red dress.
In Court
I spent a few seconds coming to terms with the reptile sitting in front of me, god knows I'd prosecuted more than my fair share of monsters in SVU, but Humphries was her very own kind of 'batshit crazy', as Liv would put it.
"Very well detective, you would receive your targets from Kennedy, together with surveillance information gathered by Osmond and Farrar, what would happen then?" She leaned to one side and rested her elbow on the side of the witness box, then rested her chin on her hand as she regarded me, her posture all about confidence and control.
"I'd review the information, determine the best opportunity to get to the target, everyone has a weak spot; you just have to find it" I nodded and tried to get her to keep going.
"What were you looking for?" She regarded me through calm eyes.
"Opportunities where the target fell into a pattern, someplace they were everyday but away from others, most people have them"
"Can you give the court an example?" She nodded slowly then looked to the cameras.
"Most people who drive to work, they park in roughly the same place each day, often in a car park, if it's quiet and a bit secluded like most are, you can get to them there with no witnesses" She shrugged. "Most people have routines they fall into"
"And those who don't detective?" She smirked.
"Like I said, most of the men think with their dicks, macho assholes. They'd take one look at this…" she waved her hand down her body. "…and they'd be tripping over themselves to take me home" She grinned a little sardonically. "Made it all too easy, get back to their place, somewhere quiet and private and it was simple as 1, 2, 3; hell one guy, he was so slimy and greasy I wasn't prepared to even go that far, just kissing him and having his hands on me made me want to puke so we left the club, got into his car and while he was starting it up I pulled my pistol out of my purse and put a bullet through his head. One shot, dead. Then I got out of the car, wiped it down for prints and went back to the bar, then picked up a hot guy for the night and went back to his place where I fucked myself an alibi"
New York 1PP
Sitting in her office watching the trial coverage Erin Regan shook her head and looked to her guest. For most people hosting the NYPDs Chief of Police might be a big deal but the situation was a bit different here.
"That woman is a complete mental case" She looked back at the screen where the prosecutor, Alex Cabot, was obviously processing that statement. "I've never come across anyone like her"
"Consider yourself lucky then" her father told her, his expression grim. "There's plenty of people like her out there; cold, amoral killers, some work for organised crime, some are lone wolves killing people for kicks and some of them, like her, wear a badge" Appalled Erin looked to her dad.
"You think we have people like that in here the force?" Commissioner Frank Regan nodded slowly.
"Unfortunately yes, pretty sure of it, the issue is finding them" There was a quiet silence for a second before Erin changed the subject away from that bitter truth and onto safer ground.
"Cabot's doing a good job of handling her though" Regan nodded and gave a faint smile.
"Yeah, she is"
In Court
I stood there for a second, idling in place as my mind struggled to deal with exactly what was sitting in front of me, the exterior might be pleasant enough to look at, but the reality under that pretty shell was horrific. I glanced at Andrea and saw the appalled expression she was trying to contain, then saw Mikki behind her catch my eye from where she was standing at one end of the front row of the audience, giving me a slow, single nod, the message clear. 'You got this'. I gave her a small smile and nodded, then turned to Humphries, gritting my teeth I dove back in.
"So detective, you were assigned seven targets by Kennedy, who was acting on the orders of the Sinaloa cartel, plus you mentioned another that you assisted Detective Di Marco with" I glanced at Di Marco, why was staring at his former partner. "Could you tell us about that killing?" She shrugged.
"Yeah, the guy was pretty paranoid, with good reason it turned out, so he had a couple of bodyguards with him. Tony needed help so I said okay, I could distract them. I dressed up nice, wore lots of makeup and a wig, then got close to the target at a nightclub and made a play, he liked the attention but the guards were way too watchful for me to do the job, so I started an argument over something petty and he told his guys to toss me out" She pulled a face. "It took both of them to throw me out, as planned, while they were Tony walked up and put two shots from a silenced pistol into the back of his head" She shrugged. "No one heard anything over the dance beats, then he turned and walked out, passing the guards in the crowd on the way back, by the time they found their boss we were both long gone" She looked to her former partner and nodded. "He did well"
Andrea was busy searching through the list of dead victims and brought up an image of Daniel Maldonaldo, taken in the Boiler Room nightclub, the body slumped back on a couch, that image sitting alongside a prior booking photo.
"Is that the victim Detective?" Humphries shook her head, her voice grim.
"He wasn't a victim Cabot, he was a go between, he tied local street gangs to the Gulf Cartel, he wasn't a victim; he was a scumbag helping spread drugs across the city" I nodded slowly and tried again.
"Is that the person that Detective Di Marco killed with your help detective?" She nodded offhandedly.
"Yeah, that's him"
"Did you assist Detective Di Marco on any of his other…work for Sinaloa detective?" Humphries shook her head.
"No, it was a one-time thing, he handled his jobs, I did mine" She flipped her hair out of the way and continued. "We'd already agreed that by doing things like that we'd be less likely to fall into a pattern" She smiled. "He did things his way, I did them mine, though I did admire some of his work" I frowned, then decided anything to tie them to their crimes was worth listening to this…woman…preen in front of the camera.
"Oh, in what way was that detective?"
"He dressed up in his old patrol officer's uniform and used his unmarked to follow one target late at night, as soon as it was a quiet back street he hit the lights and sirens and pulled him over, like it was a traffic violation. The guy wound down his window and Tony put a bullet through him, then turned and drove off, clean as" Humphries smiled. "Quick and clean and no one saw anything, just the way it should be"
"You think so, that murder is a game?" She gave me a disdainful look as she replied.
"Of course it's not a game Cabot, you screw up and you wind up dead" Humphries shook her head. "You do it right and the target doesn't know their dead till the bullet hits them" She smiled. "Kill them quick and clean, silently if possible, make sure they don't know it's coming, if possible do it where no one else can see you, if not kill any witnesses and then walk out of there leaving no traces" She tipped her head to regard me and smirked. "Easy as pie; do it right and it's like taking candy from a baby"
Right then and there I revised my opinion, Humphries wasn't a psychopath, it was clear she was a monster in human form.
