"Brooke, I can't tell you how relieved I was when I was told you'd be taking the lead in this case," Danielle Melnick said warmly as Malinowski accepted her outstretched hand. "Now that a woman is prosecuting maybe we can come up with a plea everyone can live with."
Malinowski said nothing as she motioned for Melnick to take a seat. After making the usual offer of coffee and spending af ew minutes making polite conversation about mutual colleagues and steering less than subtly away from the subject of their lovers, Malinowski opened the case file on her desk.
"Okay Danielle, what is your client willing to plead to?"
"Given the fact the hospital records support her claim of repeated abuse over the course of her marriage to that son of a -"
"Danielle," Malinowski interjected as she raised a hand. "Cut to the chase. When Judge Eliis says court starts at ten, it starts at ten. We have less than thirty minutes to resolve this, so deal."
The woman clad in the smartly tailored fuchsia suit and high necked black silk blouse nodded. Under different circumstances Malinowski would have taken the time to ask where Melnick had found such a flattering outfit, but after her eight a. m. briefing by the DA himself, the senior ADA knew it would be better to cut to the chase and get back to court as quickly as possible.
"Michael, the charge should be Man One," Malinowski said as she eased herself into the chair across from the DA, her back still sore from the lengthy train ride from Manhattan to Long Island.
When her boss frowned, she wasn't sure if it was because he could see the amount of pain she was in or because of her desire to plea down Roberta Crawford as quickly as possible.
"The woman shot her husband at point blank range without provocation. That's not Man One Brooke," he snapped, while offering her one of two cheese danishes.
"Come on, you know Melnick's defense has merit. Why are you fighting me on this Michael? Aren't you the guy that donates a zillion dollars a year when the battered womens shelter here in town has its annual fundraiser? I know what side of the issue you're on. Just let me plead it out," she continued to argue while she sampled the danish.
"And I know that a woman with battered women's syndrome rarely flees the scene, or rarer still buys a gun months before the murder takes place. There's clear premeditation here and if you don't see that, maybe you need to go back to the 'West Law' site and re-read the definition of murder in the first degree. No plea lower than Murder Two and she does the max."
"Fine," Melnick said briskly, "my client will plead to Man, one eight and a third."
Malinowski shook her head as she met Melnick's surprised stare.
"Not interested," Malinowski said firmly, her game face glued on to hide her own discomfort.
"Not interested? What kind of an offer will give your boss his pound flesh, Brooke?"
Willing herself to hold her opponents irratated gaze, the senior ADA repeated her superior's instructions.
"Murder two, twenty years," Melnick repeated incredulously."I realize you picked this case up late last night. Maybe you haven't had a chance to review the pictures that document what my client's husband put her through?"
"I took the first train in this morning, Danielle. I've been here since six and I've reviewed the pictures as well as every other document in the case file. There's premeditation here and that makes this murder-"
"My God, I knew he was good, but I didn't know he was that good."
"I don't understand. Who –"
"Jack," Melnick said simply. "I thought he was finished trying cases, but apparently I was wrong. Apparently he's brainwashed you into accepting the cycle of abuse he lived through, as the standard to base-"
"Obviously were done here," she said sharply, her anger sparked by Melnick's unexpected attempt to bring up McCoy's first hand knowledge of life in an abusive home.
Knowledge Malinowski knew her fiancee had shared with only a handful of his closest and most trusted friends. Abruptly, she moved to open her office door.
"Listen Brooke," Melnick said as she noted the flash of anger in her advisary's eyes. "I know how that sounded and I apologize."
"If you think for a second I base my plea bargains on anything other the evidence at hand and the directives of the Suffolk County District Attorney, you are more than welcome to file a complaint. But don't think for a second, just because you and Jack are close, I'm going to sit here and listen to the kind of crap you just tried to -"
"All I'm saying," Melnick said evenly, "is that any woman looking at those pictures knows my client was provoked. Whether it's Jack or Michael Jackowicz you're listening to, you know anything more than Man One minimum time, is a miscarriage of justice. As a woman, you have to make your boss see that, if you hope to serve justice in this case and not just your boss's political agenda."