The Schadenfreude Society 9
Rikers Island Correctional Facility
"Man Two?" Sally Bell stared at Jack McCoy as if he had just taken leave of his senses. "Yesterday, my client was facing the Death Penalty. What's changed since yesterday?"
Jack McCoy, sitting directly across from Bell, and her client, met her gaze, raised eyebrow for raised eyebrow.
"A lot's changed since yesterday, Sally," McCoy's gaze flicked across to Roger Hall. "We're prepared to be lenient, provided he tells us everything he knows about these people…"
He slid a few photos across the table to Hall. The other man briefly looked at the photos.
"Yeah…" he grunted. "I know them. Some better than others."
The faces of Emory Chance, Nathaniel Freed, Toby Gillis, and Steven Sokolov looked up from the photos on the table.
And Dr. Dan Duvall…
"So…which one hired you?" McCoy leaned forward.
"They all did…for this and that…"
"Roger…" Sally Bell spoke warningly.
"It's okay, Sally," Hall turned back to McCoy. "They call themselves The Schadenfreude Society; and they…decide."
"Decide? What do they decide?"
"The usual…" Hall sat back. "Who's about to implode…Who's least likely to implode."
Hall shook his head.
"Other times, they think there's a celebrity who has had enough…"
"Enough what?" McCoy stared at Hall. "Explain, please."
"You know," Hall shrugged. "Sometimes, they get just a little too…big for their britches. Too much fame and fortune."
"You believe this, Mr. Hall?"
"I dunno…" Hall shrugged again. "But it's serious business for the Society. They find someone they think doesn't deserve all the fame and stuff…they do what they can to take him or her down a peg or two."
"All right, Mr. Hall," McCoy leaned forward. "I'm going to name three celebrities, and you're going to tell me what you know about them. In return, you can plead to Man Two."
"Full Immunity for anything else you might learn from this…confession?" Sally Bell interjected.
McCoy sighed in exasperation.
Eight to Twelve for killing a Doorman, widowing a mother with young children, and setting up a chain of events that led to the suicide of an actor…
"Yeah…" he finally conceded, gracelessly. "Full Immunity."
"Okay…" Hall nodded at Bell's nod. "I'll tell you what I know."
"All right," McCoy brought out the small paper, with only three names on it.
"Adam Roberts, Eddie Newman, and Anais Van Der Hooten. I'm especially interested in anything you might have on Eddie Newman's case."
"Eddie Newman?" Hall frowned. "I didn't have anything to do with that. That was all Dr. Duvall's business…"
"You sure?"
"Yeah, Mr. McCoy. It was the night they convicted Newman, and I was with Mr. Chance at his bar. Duvall came in to…celebrate."
"Celebrate?"
"Yeah…that's what Chance called it. A celebration over the conviction and eventual death of a celebrity who didn't deserve fame and fortune."
"Did he pay Duvall?"
"Not right there…" Hall scrunched his face up, trying to remember. "But I'm sure he did. He paid me ten thousand each time I did a…assignment for him."
…..
1 Hogan Place
"The Schadenfreude Society…"
Adam Schiff repeated the words thoughtfully.
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of."
Ben Stone could only agree.
"So…Dr. Duvall did kill Heidi Ellison…" he murmured.
"And set Eddie Newman up to take it in the face…"
Jack McCoy looked ill at the thought, and Stone repressed a sigh.
He had always been opposed to the Death Penalty. Jack McCoy, though…
He came by his nickname, Hang'em High McCoy honestly.
But, right now, he was living every good prosecutor's nightmare.
An innocent man wrongfully convicted, sentenced to death…
Eddie Newman was dead. He had been killed by a fellow prisoner instead of the State. But that made no real difference.
Eddie Newman wouldn't have been there to be killed by that prisoner if Jack McCoy hadn't moved heaven, earth, and hell, to put him there.
Now, the DA's Office had sent Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Rey Curtis off to arrest Dr. Dan Duvall.
"When they get Duvall, go easy on him," Stone suggested. "You'll need him to get the members of this Society, and you won't get that by waving the Needle in his face."
"Think I don't know that?" McCoy scowled, glaring thunderously.
Schiff's office phone rang, and he picked it up.
"Schiff speaking. Yes…they're both here…I see…Drug overdose? I'll tell them."
He put the phone back in its cradle.
"That was Lennie Briscoe…"
"Please tell me Dr. Duvall isn't dead…" McCoy stood.
"No…" Schiff sighed. "The detectives went to his office to pick him up, found him unconscious at his desk. Everyone's at Manhattan General now. I assume you'll want to join the party?"
"I'll drive," Ben Stone offered.
…..
Manhattan General
The Waiting Room was just a little crowded right now, with Two Detectives, a handful of Police Officers, and two ADAs waiting, some perhaps more patiently than others…
Jack McCoy felt grim as the doctor walked up to the small party.
"How is Duvall?" he demanded as soon as the doctor came up.
"He's alive," Doctor Kennedy said.
"When can we speak to him?"
"He's non-responsive right now; a coma," Kennedy explained. "Before you ask, we don't know when he'll come out of it. Or if he even will come out of it. Guy was drugged. Rat Poison."
"Any chance of this being a suicide attempt?" Briscoe asked.
"Seeing as there are at least a million other, less painful ways to do it," the doctor said. "I'd say no. He didn't do this to himself. It was done to him."
Someone belonging to the Schadenfreude Society caught wind of the investigation, and acted to pre-empt us…
He brought his gaze back to the detectives and police officers.
"I want Dr. Duvall under a twenty-four hour protective guard," he ordered. "Only medical personnel to see him."
He paused.
"Place Roger Hall in Protective custody too." He added. "The people who did this to Duvall wouldn't think twice of killing Roger Hall."
Rey Curtis nodded, turned away to make a call to the 27th.
I'd better call the others…
Jamie Ross and Neil Gorton.
If this Schadenfreude Society if going to play dirty, so must we…