"He's refusing any visitors."
Those four words had been bothering her ever since they'd been spoken to her three days ago. She'd gone slamming into her office, afterwards, and it was in her office that she sat now. The fact that it was getting late didn't help, at all.
"Stubborn, idiotic son of a…" She trailed off and shook her head. Nice, Anna, she thought, sarcastically. Now you're talking to yourself. But there wasn't anyone else to talk to. And she still had a case to try. The trial was set for Monday.
The office door opened suddenly, and Anna looked up. "Can I help you?" she asked.
"Are you Anna Flynn?" came the reply, and when Anna nodded, the younger woman came into the office.
"If you wouldn't mind," she said, uncertainly, "I need to talk to you. About…about this trial…"
"It'd help if I had a name," said Anna.
"Oh, yeah…" The other woman trailed off, and then spoke again. "Rebecca McCoy."
"Ah." Anna leaned back in her seat and motioned for Rebecca to sit. "Suppose you haven't had any luck at the prison?"
Rebecca shook her head. "No," she said, "I have. The guards told me that I'm the only one he'll agree to see."
Well, Anna thought, at least he's seeing someone.
"You said you wanted to talk to me about the trial," she said, "What do you want to know?"
"Everything," Rebecca admitted, "But I do understand the attorney/client privilege thing, so whatever you can tell me…"
Anna sighed. "If you don't mind my asking, what exactly is your relationship…?"
"My father," said Rebecca, sounding about as tired as Anna looked. That was certainly something, Anna thought, in all the time she'd known Jack, he'd never mentioned a child before. Finally, she nodded slowly.
"Well, to put it nicely, it doesn't look good," she said. "It'd help if he'd let me talk to him, but he seems determined to avoid me."
"It isn't you," said Rebecca, "At least, that's what he said to me. I just…I came to you because he won't tell me anything."
"Of course not," said Anna, dryly. "You have to understand that a lot is riding on this trial, and your father…he's trying to deal with it, but it doesn't appear to be working."
Rebecca offered up a rueful smile. "I know," she said. "I just…I can't believe he'd do something like this. I won't believe it. He's not…he isn't a violent person."
"I know he isn't," said Anna, "Believe me, I know. And I intend to see this through, whether he wants to talk to me or not."
"Finally, a defense attorney one can actually trust," said Rebecca. Anna laughed.
"You truly are a prosecutor's daughter," she said, shaking her head. "Sooner or later, someone will get to the bottom of this. I promise you that."
There was silence between the two of them for a moment…a moment in which Anna rethought her words. Such a promise seemed almost impossible to keep, especially right now.
But she wasn't about to tell Rebecca that…not yet, anyway.
It rained. It had been clear earlier, but all of a sudden, it had started pouring. The 27th Precinct was quiet, other than the sounds of Ed and Nina finishing paperwork they'd fallen behind on.
"We still have those files our vics were involved in?" Nina asked finally, and Ed looked over at her.
"Yeah, we've still got 'em," he said, and pushed them from his desk onto hers. "Trial's on Monday, though."
"Yeah, I know. Something just…I don't know." Nina trailed off and started rifling through files. "Come look at this."
"What'd you find?" Ed asked, slowly, rising to his feet and walking over to her side. She motioned to one of the files.
"This is the only file in which any threats were made towards the prosecutors, so I don't see why we didn't catch it," she said. "McCoy and Abbie Carmichael both declined to file charges regarding it."
Ed looked at the file and frowned. "I remember this one," he said. "Right after Abbie got here. The one our first vic was involved in."
"Defendant was a woman by the name of Tara Galinet," said Nina. "We need to find her."
"It's two in the morning," Ed pointed out. "Neither of us have slept in a while. We'll have a better chance of locating her when we aren't dead on our feet."
"That's what coffee is for," said Nina, and then, "Guess you have a point. I just want this to be over with. The sooner we find her, the better."
"We don't even know if she's still in the city," said Ed, "It could take until this trial's over, and by then, the DA will probably have gotten the conviction they're looking for."
"You sound so sure that they're looking for a conviction."
"The last victim was a cop. If they weren't, the department would've been raising hell by now, not to mention the rest of the city."
He had a point, and she knew it. The department would've been raising hell, and the city would have been, too. Whether the District Attorney's office was looking for a conviction or not, they had to make it appear as if they were.
"She still has family listed in the city," said Nina, examining the file. "Might be outdated, but it's still worth a shot, isn't it?"
"They might not be so willing to give her up. She was acquitted, remember? They'll probably assume we're trying to nail her for this."
"If it turns out that she's the person we're looking for, then yes, we are trying to nail her for this," Nina said dryly. "Come on, Ed, you've got to be kidding me if you don't believe that she could possibly have something to do with this."
"I find it hard to believe that we didn't pick up on this before. You'd think we'd have noticed."
"We've been too focused on trying to solve murders to really look before now."
"Galinet's address should be on file somewhere. We'll go looking as soon as the sun comes up." Ed looked at his watch and sighed. "Mind if I skip out until then?"
"No. Heaven only knows we deserve it," Nina replied dryly. "I'll call you if anything comes up."
True to their word, though, as soon as first light came, both detectives went in search of Tara Galinet. Nothing had come in during the time that Ed had been gone, which had Nina more than just a little bit frustrated.
"You'd think we'd have picked up on it," she said, sounding annoyed, with the case in general. "The only case where threats were made…"
"Whoever did this had to have known that, and had to have known that other murders would distract us," Ed pointed out. "We're dealing with four now."
"Yeah, but still," said Nina, "We should've been able to pick up on it. McCoy might not remember all his cases, but surely he'd remember being threatened."
"I don't think he pays much attention to it," Ed remarked. "I wouldn't."
"We get threatened on a regular basis; we're cops," Nina said dryly. "You got the address still? We should try the house again."
"Right here." He held it out; she looked at it, and they headed off towards the place where they had started; Tara Galinet's last known address.
"She might've left the city," Nina said, almost to herself. "There's no guarantee that she's still here. If she thinks that we might have figured out a link between her and this case…"
"I doubt it. We've been running around in circles; first McCoy's innocent, and then he's not, and then he's out on bail, and now he's back in prison," said Ed. "Wherever Galinet is, it's somewhere nearby; she'll want to be able to gloat."
"Assuming it's even her," said Nina. "I can't believe…if it turns out that it is her…"
"Then there will be some way to nail her. Sooner or later, we're going to find her, whether she's left the city or not. There are other law enforcement agencies, you know.
"Somehow I don't think handing this over to the Feds is the right way to go."
"Neither do I, but if we don't have a choice, then we're gonna have to." They'd reached the house. Now, both detectives got out of the car, and went to knock. This time, someone answered.
"I'm Detective Green; this is my partner, Detective Cassady," said Ed. "Is Tara here?"
The woman who'd answered the door frowned. "No. Tara's not here. She hasn't been here since your lot arrested her however long ago."
"Have you seen her at all?" Nina asked. "We'd like to ask her a few questions."
The woman snorted. "Questions, my foot. Don't think I haven't heard what's happened to that prosecutor who tried to railroad her. I don't feel one bit sorry for him. Even if I did know where Tara was, I wouldn't tell you."
And then the door slammed in their faces. The two detectives exchanged glances.
"Think we might need a warrant to get in?" Ed asked. Nina shrugged as they started back towards the car.
"I don't know," she said. "I'm thinking that we might. I'm also thinking that if Tara's disappeared, she might've taken on a new identity. It'd make the most sense."
"Another identity," said Ed, slowly, and then, "You think…someone we've talked to before?"
"Looks can be changed," said Nina, grimly. "That might be what's really going on here."
"It's gonna be hard to prove."
"But we're gonna prove it."