Brooke Malinowski was already seated in the interview room at Riker's when Danielle Melnick arrived.
"Apparently being engaged to the district attorney has it perks," Melnick said as she took a seat across from her advisory."Getting the warden to agree to a Sunday interview is usually like pulling teeth."
Malinowski unsmilingly stared back at her. It had taken McCoy making a late night call to Judge Walter Bradley, who contacted Riker's Island's Warden Jasper Price personally, to get permission to interview Roberta Crawford that morning.
"After the things you've done in connection with this case, you're in no position to comment on any strings I may have pulled," Malinowski said bluntly. "I hope you're ready to deal Danielle."
"I hope you're ready to be reasonable, Brooke," the other attorney countered as the door opened.
Malinowski slid the file in front of her towards Melnick while Roberta Crawford took a seat beside her lawyer.
"As reasonable as I can be with a woman who tried to hire a hit man to kill her husband less than two weeks before the murder," she said icily. "You see Mrs. Crawford, that fairy tale you decided to tell your attorney, it inspired me to made me go through every piece of evidence that related to this case. It also gave me reason to have the police continue to dig for new evidence."
Melnick looked up from the file, her face almost colorless.
"Just because this Clyde Milton is willing to say Roberta offered to pay him a third of the insurance money if he shot ..."
"Danielle," Malinowski said wearily, "look at the date on the receipt for the gun. It's for the day after Milton claims she approached him. Look at the parking stub the detectives found in her car. It's for the day and time claims he met her at a bar fifty feet from that parking garage. There's more, but I think I've made my point."
Melnick passed the file to her client and motioned for Malinowski to follow her outside.
"What," the ADA practically spat back at Melnick.
"Brooke, this isn't the way it looks,."
"Isn't it? It looks like murder one to me, Danielle. Premeditation, means, motive, and she tried to hire someone to do it for her. You're client's lucky this state outlawed the death penalty."
"Brooke you saw what her husband did to her," Melnick said almost pleading. "If she hadn't done something, he would have killed her. Think about those pictures, think about what Jack..."
"Don't," Malinowski snapped in a tone that startled even Malinowski. "Jack's mother went through more than this woman ever will and she didn't hire some guy to kill Jack's father and then when he wanted more money, decided to do it herself and then try to pin it on Jack or one of his siblings. Roberta Crawford isn't Deidre McCoy and her husband wasn't Officer John McCoy. You know if we continue the trial I will ask to amend the charges to include murder one. If she's convicted, I'll ask for the maximum time."
"What are you offering," Melnick asked suspiciously.
"Murder two, maximum time."
Melnick's eyes widened.
"You want to send her away for twenty years? Brooke think about what she went through..."
"Danielle," the other woman hissed. "She was willing to send her son to prison for fifteen years, for a crime she committed! Now, you go in there and sell 'Mrs. Battered Wife Syndrome', this plea in the next sixty seconds or I'm taking this bargain of a life time back and we can see what a jury says about a mother willing to sacrifice her son."
Melnick could see the fury in the other woman's eyes and the effort she was making to control herself. Although Melnick was angered by her client's lies herself, she couldn't get the pictures of her client's battered and broken body out of her mind.
"He would have killed her if it didn't stop Brooke. She may have made some bad choices, but all of her options were bad."
"Listen Danielle," Malinowski said looking through the glass at Crawford. "I know you want to believe her, any woman would after seeing those pictures. Her husband was as big a son of a bitch as Jack's father was. That's why Jack can forgive you. That's why I will eventually. But she's playing us. She's playing us in the worst way a woman can play another woman. This isn't about the sisterhood Danielle, this is about cold, deliberate murder. If her son was convicted, she'd be eligible to collect the two million dollar life insurance policy on Crawford. She knows that. Now, do we have a deal or do I take the new evidence to Judge Bradley Monday?"