"Mike!"
Detective Mike Logan looked up at the sound of Jack McCoy's voice, surprised to see him at the 27th Precinct. The man looked rattled.
"I think I saw…something…" the one-time attorney said.
Logan had McCoy sit, worried about his mental state.
"You okay, Jack?"
McCoy scowled as he took a seat by the detective's desk.
"Think I'm hallucinating? Yeah, I have nightmares. Panic attacks too. But I don't see things that aren't there."
He paused,
"I saw John Curren."
"Curren…" Logan remembered the Kapinski Murder.
Around the time McCoy had his breakdown…
Sentenced Twenty-five to Life. Caught up in a mass prison escape…
"Curren's dead, Jack."
"Body ever found?"
"Well…no," Logan shrugged. "But…"
"I saw Curren," McCoy insisted. "He was…there…at Central Park."
Logan sighed, shoulders slumping wearily.
"Okay, Jack…" he sighed. "What did he look like?"
McCoy shook his head.
"He…he looked like hell, Mike…ragged, emaciated. His skin looked rough, and his eyes…"
McCoy shivered as he looked back at Logan.
"His eyes were white, like cataracts…"
His head bowed.
"I let him down, Mike…"
"Jack…"
"I got Curren to plead out. The deal was that I would use him to testify against Tappan. Then…"
The breakdown…
Jack McCoy wasn't there to prosecute Willard Tappan for his role in Arthur Kapinski's murder.
So Tappan walked, and Curren went to prison…
Mike Logan laid a hand on McCoy's shoulder.
"I'll tell Van Buren. If Curren's hiding out in Central Park, we'll find him…"
…..
Central Park
John Curren felt a gratitude for the Tree so intense, it bordered on worshipful adoration.
It gave him shelter and peace.
At such a low cost…
Every once in a while, the Tree required blood, and some small amounts of flesh.
The teenagers' blood had seeped into the ground over the night, feeding the Roots; enough blood to keep the Tree for several months.
When it hungers again, I will find something to satiate its thirst.
Curren walked up to the Tree…
His savior…his protector…
It opened up to him, letting Curren back inside, offering sweet sap to drink.
John Curren closed his eyes, in rapturous contentment.
He knew where Willard Tappan and Jack McCoy were.
That they had been working together came as no surprise to Curren.
They were working together right from the start…
When the Tree thirsted again, he would offer them up to the tree.
Willard Tappan and Jack McCoy…
Their blood will feed the Tree…
