A few days later, everything got shot to hell. The District Attorney's office was the first to hear it, which led to Connie storming into Branch's office, demanding to know exactly what was going on.
"This is ridiculous," she said, furiously. "Just because he was home alone the night the last two victims were murdered…it doesn't mean anything!"
"The evidence the police found tells them what it tells them," Branch replied calmly, "There's nothing we can do about it."
"I suppose you expect me to sit and prosecute him, then," Connie said sarcastically. "You know I'm too close to this."
"Which is why you're going to be sitting second chair. You're not running the trial, as much as some think you ought to. I've asked ADA Holloway to handle it."
"But you're not taking me off of it, completely," said Connie, slowly, a sense of relief settling over her, even though she still didn't like it."
"I know Holloway doesn't always get along with Jack, but I'm trusting him to keep an objective view during this case, and I'm counting on you to rein him in if it gets out of hand."
"You're damn straight I will, of all the ridiculous…." Connie trailed off, frustrated, and sighed. "What evidence do they have?"
"Fingerprints, blood, notes, that sort of thing," said Branch, "I don't know much about police work and forensics. I couldn't tell you much more than that."
"Is he defending himself?"
"I haven't spoken to him, Connie, I don't know."
She took the silence to mean that the conversation was over. Turning on her heel, she left the office, not caring that the door slammed behind her as she left.
One thing after another, Anna thought, almost bitterly, and handed her ID to a guard at the prison, feeling more than slightly annoyed by all of this. She was guided into an interview room, where she sat, and waited.
"Who told you?" Jack's voice startled her, and she looked up at him, and sighed, motioning for him to sit.
"It's all over the DA's office, and presumably, all over the legal community," she said quietly. "Jack, I'm sorry, but this doesn't look good for you."
"Don't tell me you only came around here to tell me that," he said. "I know that. I also know that I didn't do it."
"The Rikers Island theme song," Anna said dryly. He gave her a look.
"I don't know how any of it ended up where it did. But you know…you know I wouldn't do this."
"Why do you think I'm here?"
Words that were probably going to come back and blow up in her face later on, and she knew it, but at the moment, she didn't care. No one else had bothered, and so she would.
"Isn't this a conflict of interest?" Jack asked, eyeing her warily. "You and I have been friends for heaven only knows how long…"
"But as far as the rest of the world is considered, I'd love nothing more than to see you dead because of what you allegedly did to Kaye."
"I didn't do anything to her."
"I know you didn't." Anna trailed off and sighed, running a frustrated hand over her face. "This isn't easy for either one of us, I know, but you could at least pretend to work with me."
"Why the hell should I act like I've done something wrong, when I know damn well I haven't?" Jack trailed off, sounding upset. "This is all over, isn't it?"
Anna nodded. "I'm afraid it is."
"Great. This is exactly what I need right now; I'll never be able to…there's already been talk about having me disbarred."
"They can't disbar you until you've been convicted. Plenty of lawyers have been brought up on charges, and only the ones that are convicted lose everything. You could technically defend yourself."
"So why did you come, if you know that?"
"Because I'm not going to leave you hanging. And if Kaye were still here, she wouldn't have left you hanging, either."
There was silence for a long moment before he looked at her, and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said, "I'm being a jerk. I just…you know, they've stuck me in protective custody, because I put so many of these people in here…."
"I know," said Anna, "I was informed of this. They actually searched me to make sure I wasn't carrying anything I could use to kill you."
Jack laughed, unable to help it. "You're not one that I can see as being capable of murder," he said.
"It goes both ways," said Anna, and without thinking, reached for his hand. "Don't worry about it, all right? We'll get you out of this."
The precinct seemed to be under siege. There were reporters all over the outside, and Ed and Nina could hardly get into the squad room when they came back off of their lunch hour.
"This is ridiculous," said Nina, "All those bastards care about is ratings; they don't really want to know what's going on."
"Some of them might want to," said Ed, dryly. "The city's going to want to know what goes on when someone who's supposed to be working for them freaks out."
"We don't even know if he was being set up or not," said Nina. "Something's not right about this."
"Of course something's not right about this, but as far as we're concerned the case is closed. We have other things to do."
"For someone who was so convinced that McCoy couldn't have done it, you're in an awful hurry to move on. He hasn't even been indicted yet."
"The evidence isn't that compelling, if you think about it. Fingerprints, blood…it can all be planted, you said it yourself. Unless something comes up, it's likely that the grand jury will decide not to indict."
"I could swear you'd gone to law school." Nina sat at her desk and took a sip from the coffee she'd gotten before they'd headed back. "You really think they might not indict?"
"Look at the man's reputation. He's put heaven only knows how many murderers away, and now…" Ed trailed off and sighed. "I don't know. That's what scares me."
"We'll be losing a good man if they do indict, and he gets convicted," said Nina, "They'll disbar him, he'll go to prison….he'll probably die in there."
"Nice, Cassady," Ed said mildly. "With any luck, he'll be able to talk his way out of this one."
"Murder isn't something you can talk yourself out of, not with evidence tying to you to all four of them. CSU finally got us the results from the fourth murder."
"I know they did." Ed trailed off again and shook his head. "Looks like things are finally going down to the wire."
Kaye's funeral came three days after she died. Two days after the police had interviewed everyone who'd worked with her. One day after Jack McCoy had been arrested for her murder, and three others.
"I can't do this."
Anna had been pacing back and forth for the past twenty minutes in the back, and now, she shook her head as she looked towards the front.
"I can't do this," she said, again. "I just…I can't. Trevor, why couldn't you just…"
But he shook his head at her. "You were her best friend," he said. "You're the only one that can do this."
"But I can't," Anna insisted, "It's too soon…I couldn't even talk at Claire Kincaid's funeral, what makes you think I'm going to be able to talk at this one?!"
"Because once you start, you won't be able to stop," Trevor said dryly, "Anna, come on. There is nothing for you to worry about. It's just a few minutes."
"Yeah, a few minutes in which I'm probably going to break down and start bawling and make a complete idiot of myself…I'm already on everyone's hit list because of what I'm doing."
"We don't always get to pick who our clients are," said Trevor, and she gave him a look.
"You know damn well that I chose to defend him, don't you dare go there with me," she said flatly, "I don't want to hear it."
There was silence between them after that. Anna stopped pacing, but the feeling that everyone was looking at her wouldn't go away. She gave an exasperated sigh and ran a frustrated hand through her hair.
"I hate this," she said, finally, in an undertone, so that only Trevor would hear her. "I hate feeling like everyone's going to hate me because I can't decide whose side I'm on."
"You don't have to be on anyone's side; they were both your friends. I doubt anyone really thinks McCoy did this."
"You'd be surprised. There are a lot on our side of the aisle who're probably just gloating over all this, thinking he's finally snapped, but he hasn't. They put him in protective custody, for heaven's sake."
"Why does this not surprise me?"
"I didn't ask for your sarcasm." Anna looked at her watch and sighed. "I hate funerals."
"Yeah, well, you're up," Trevor replied, "Might as well get it over with while you still have the nerve."
She gave him a look, but tugged at the jacket she was wearing, before rising to her feet and going to speak.