Evidence


Serena Southerlyn's House

8 am Friday May 11th 2007


"I'm late," Megan Wheeler said, sliding off her stool and cramming the last of her toast into her mouth. "Gotta go." She planted a quick kiss on Serena's cheek and headed for the door.

Serena heard her open the front door, then a man's voice.

"Is this Ms Southerlyn's house? I'm Rey Curtis, she's expecting me – "

"Yeah, she's in the kitchen," Megan said. "On the left. I'd take you through, but I'm late."

"No problem," Curtis said.

Serena heard the front door close, and she started toward the hall. She and Curtis nearly collided in the doorway.

"Ms Southerlyn?" he said.

"Please, call me Serena," she said, holding out her hand. Curtis took it, his grasp firm but not crushing. "Do you want coffee?"

"Thank you, I'd appreciate it," Curtis said.

Serena poured them both mugs full, taking the opportunity to study Rey Curtis. Regan Markham had described him as a "long tall cup of chocolaty goodness" and Serena could see why. Regan had also said that he came with Lennie Briscoe's recommendation, which meant he had been good at his job when he was a police detective. And reliable and trustworthy.

She put the mugs on the kitchen island along with milk and sugar.

"Your roommate is on the job?" Curtis asked, adding sugar to his coffee.

"My who?" Serena asked.

"The redhead. She's on the job, right? I saw her badge." Curtis sipped his coffee, watching her over the rim of his mug. Weighing me up just as much as I'm weighing him.

"Oh, Megan," Serena said. "She's not my roommate. She's my girlfriend."

"Your – girlfriend," Curtis said.

"Partner," Serena said, holding his gaze. "Lover. Girlfriend."

"Okay," Curtis said noncommittally.

"Is that a problem for you?" Serena challenged.

"Not at all," Curtis said. "What people do in their own homes is none of my business."

Serena gave a little mental sigh, but she stopped herself giving Rey Curtis a short sharp lecture on the difference between 'tolerance' and 'acceptance'. We have work to do.

"I'll call Nora," she said instead. "See if she's made that call to Tracey Kibre yet."

Nora had. Tracey had gone down to the Complaints Room herself and searched the old files. "And there was a complaint, June 2000, against one Harold Grafton, but Keri dropped the charges two days later."

"Harold Grafton of Bentley and Grafton?" Serena asked.

"I think that's a reasonable assumption," Nora said.

"Did you find out who her rabbi was?" Serena asked.

"Thomas Fellows, senior ADA in Trial Bureau, recommended her to Arthur Branch," Nora said.

"I'll talk to him," Serena said.

"And to Nick Cherry, he runs Identity Fraud now, he gave her that promotion when he brought her into his bureau," Nora said.

"Rey Curtis has the contact details for her other hires," Serena said, looking at Curtis as she spoke. He nodded. "I'll talk to all of them."

She hung up and turned to Curtis. "Regan Markham said you were going to reach out to somebody at Mercy and try and get to the bottom of this forged report?"

"There's a lady who works in Records there who's done me the occasional favor," Curtis said. "I arrested her husband back in the day."

"And she does you favors?" Serena asked.

"I arrested him for beating on her and her kids," Curtis said with a smile. "She's been off a couple of days with the 'flu but she should be back today."

"Then let's go talk to her," Serena said.

Rey Curtis's contact in the Records section of Mercy General was a middle-aged Hispanic woman with short, curly hair streaked with grey. Her face lit up when Curtis came through the door.

"Detective Curtis!" she said with delight.

"Anna, I've told you, I'm not a detective any more. When are you going to start calling me Rey?"

"I don't want to make the other women here jealous, being on first name terms with such a handsome man," the woman said.

Curtis chuckled. "Anna, this is a friend of mine, Serena Southerlyn. Serena, this is Anna Milgano."

"I'm pleased to meet you," Serena said.

"Anna, Serena and I are working together on a case," Curtis said. "We're trying to find out the truth about something, and I hope that maybe you can help us."

"The truth about what?" Anna asked.

"About whether a woman was treated at this hospital," Curtis said.

Anna frowned. "Detective Curtis, you know patient records are confidential."

Serena took the copy of Keri Dyson's medical file out of her briefcase and laid it on the counter. "Ms Milgano," she said, "This woman, Keri Dyson, has alleged that she was assaulted last Thursday. She's charged a senior prosecutor with the District Attorney's Office. He's on trial right now, and if he's found guilty he won't just go to jail. He'll lose his job, his bar license – his whole life. This file is her evidence that she was attacked – and we know it's a forgery. I'm not asking you to tell us anything about her, about her treatment. We just need to know if the original of this copy is in your files in June 2000."

Anna looked at the file, hesitating, and Serena opened it to the hospital chart. "Signed by Dr Rob Jordan," she said. "Who hasn't worked at this hospital for years."

"I'm not allowed to tell you anything," Anna said.

"I know," Curtis said. "But it would really help us if we could find out if there is an original file, that this is a copy of. This woman laid police charges for assault in June 2000. We think that maybe she used the medical records from back then to make a copy and change the date. It would really help us, Anna."

Anna Milgano hesitated again, and then turned away from the counter without saying anything. Serena felt her shoulders sag in disappointment. She opened her mouth to make another plea, and Rey Curtis put his hand on her arm.

"Wait," he said softly.

Anna went to the bank of filing cabinets that covered the back wall of the room, running her fingers down the drawers until she reached one marked May-June 2000. She opened the drawer and leafed through the files, taking one out and opening it.

Serena held her breath as the woman studied the file.

Turning back to the counter, the file still in her hands, the Anna said: "I'm sorry, but you know, there's just no way I can disclose information about patients." She put the file down, open, on her desk. "I'm parched," she said. "I'm going to go out and get a drink of water from the fountain in the hall. I'll probably be about five minutes."

Serena and Curtis watched her walk out of the room.

"Hold the door," Curtis said, and Serena hurried to stand against the door, hand on the knob, to slow down anyone coming in. Curtis reached over the counter and grabbed the file from Anna's desk, pulling a camera out of his pocket with his other hand. "Bingo," he said with quiet satisfaction, quickly taking pictures of each page, and then putting the file back where it had been. He picked up their copy of Dyson's forged file as Serena stepped back from the door.

They passed Anna Milgano in the hall. She gave them a quick sideways glance, but didn't say a word.

Serena contained her curiosity until they were outside the hospital and back in Curtis's car.

"What did the file show?" she demanded.

Curtis took the camera back out of his pocket and set it to 'review'. "It's the same file," he said with quiet satisfaction. "Look – it's identical in every detail – except for the date."

Serena compared the images on the digital camera to the file for herself, seeing that Curtis was right.

"We've got to get this to the courthouse," she said.

"I'm not a lawyer," Curtis said, "But I spent enough time in courtrooms to know that's not going to be admissible as evidence of anything."

Serena nodded. "But if Regan knows about it, she can try and trip Keri Dyson on the stand – "

"Then ring and tell her," Curtis said. "But most of the lawyers I ever worked with were only happy to see you when you had something they could show a jury. So while you phone, I'll drive."

"To where?" Serena asked, taking out her cell. About to dial Regan's number, she realized that Regan would be in the courtroom by now, and punched in Danielle Melnick's cell number instead.

"First stop, Harold Grafton," Curtis said.

.oOo.