27th Precinct
"His name is Roger Hall," Detective Lennie Briscoe explained to his boss, Lieutenant Anita Van Buren, as she leafed through the suspect's bio.
"The man's a world-class sniper," she commented as she put the folder down. "Honorably discharged, awarded several medals for valor. So, what's he doing planting coke on people, and purchasing life insurance policies without their knowledge or consent?"
"No clue," Lennie shrugged. "We'll ask him when we bring him in."
…..
145 East 30
"Have to wonder why Hall's doing this," Rey Curtis said as Lennie Briscoe drove. "He was a sniper in the Marines. Why stoop to this?"
"Some people just have a thing about celebrities," Lennie kept his eyes on the road. "All that adulation, all that wealth. It seems to get some people's underwear in a twist."
"Yeah…" Curtis nodded. "But Van der Hooten seemed all right to me. And Adam Roberts didn't seem all that bad either. There's enough bad behavior by stars out there already."
"Dunno… Jealousy maybe?" Lennie shrugged as he stopped the car. "We're here."
Curtis looked at the apartment building.
"What a dump," he commented.
"Hey, you're insulting good honest dumps," Lennie drew the arrest warrant out. "Let's go get the guy."
The detectives bumped into their target as he left the building.
"Roger Hall?" Detective Briscoe asked.
"Yeah…" the man's stance was wary. "Who's asking?"
"Police," Briscoe produced the warrant. "We have a warrant for your arrest. Please place your hands behind your back."
As Hall complied and Curtis handcuffed him, Briscoe proceeded to Mirandize him.
"If you cannot afford it, an attorney will be provided free of charge. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."
…..
27th Precinct
Interrogation One
Jamie Ross sat at the table, facing Sally Bell, and her client, Roger Hall.
"We have connected your client to two baggies of coke, one found by the police on Adam Roberts; the other found by Anais Van der Hooten, and called in by her, just before the Narcs were called in by an unknown third party…"
Ross paused, then continued.
"Mr. Hall was also identified by Insurance Agent Ken Tyler, as the man, posing as Daniel Carrera, who took out a two million dollar insurance policy naming Anais Van der Hooten as the beneficiary. Also, your client's prints connect him directly to the shooting death of Daniel Carrera."
"Yeah..?" Hall spoke huskily.
"We have you dead to rights on Carrera's death," Ross gave him her best deadpan stare. "With everything we have, you could be looking at the Death Penalty."
With Jack McCoy on the case, the Death Penalty was a…dead…certainty.
That was, perhaps, the one thing she didn't like about her boss.
Hang'em High McCoy…
Brilliant, passionate…driven.
But, underneath the brash exterior, there was the soul of a man who cared.
She heard Sally Bell's sigh. Rumor had it that Bell had been an ADA years back, that she and Jack McCoy had been…close.
She knows Jack too. Probably better than I do.
When Jamie Ross had become Jack McCoy's Assistant, his Second Chair, she'd had some misgivings. McCoy had a...reputation among the female ADAs at Hogan Place.
But there had been stories about him and Claire Kincaid, how her death-killed by a drunk drive-had taken something out of Jack McCoy.
If Jack McCoy is this present now…
What must he have been like before she died?
Sally Bell sighed again.
"My client has something he could tell you, if it will take the Death Penalty off the table. Off the record, for now…"
"Off the record," Ross agreed.
…..
"You're not going to believe this…" she stepped into Jack McCoy's office, found both McCoy and Ben Stone there, having a companionable scotch.
"Hall pled out?"
"Not yet," she took a seat. "According to him, he was hired to do all of this; the baggies of coke, the insurance policy…everything."
"Including the killing?" Ben Stone asked.
"Yes,"
"All right," McCoy leaned forward at his desk. "Did he name his employer?"
"Emory Chance, Owner and Chief Editor of Stars in Our Eyes..."
McCoy frowned. Apparently the name, and the title associated with it, meant nothing to him. Not that Jamie Ross was all that surprised. Jack McCoy had a complete and total disinterest in what passed for popular culture nowadays.
"It's a celebrity news rag," Ross explained. "You know…who's been caught in bed with whom; who's divorcing whom."
"So…celebrities caught behaving badly…" Ben Stone spoke thoughtfully.
"Celebrities caught behaving badly…"McCoy repeated. "And if they don't, Chance makes sure they get caught anyway…"
It did, indeed, look that way.
"What do you want to do, Jack?" Jamie Ross already knew what Jack's answer would be.
"Let's talk to Emory Chance," McCoy announced. "See what he has to say now it's him caught behaving badly."