Notes on an Aftermath
Chapter Four: Set In Motion
Melinda is in the middle of comparing the very degraded sample of Crane's DNA to a more recent sample. She looks back and forth between them, inspecting every line, every strand, interpreting every gene. She blinks her eyes and then she takes out her magnifying glass to take an even closer look. She doesn't know why she is doing this; Crane is dead, and the case is over. Even if he were alive, Casey wouldn't be able to try him again based on a newer, better sample.
She supposes that she is putting her own curiosity to rest.
It is getting late in the evening, and she knows that she needs to go home to her husband and daughter, who are most likely waiting for her to join them for dinner, as she'd promised.
She decides to give it a few more minutes.
She continues to inspect the DNA results and finally, although she doesn't know what difference it will make, she stumbles upon an inconsistency.
There is a knock at the entrance way into her office, and she looks up.
"Hey O'Halloran," she says. "What are you doing here?"
"I think I may have something that will help Chester out," he says as he comes in further.
"What is it?" Melinda asks, getting up.
He holds up a small evidence bag and a vial containing a Q-tip.
"What is that?" Melinda asks, taking the bag.
"It's a piece of cloth, maybe cotton," he says. "I found it on the underside of the barrel, it has blood on it, and I swabbed the barrel for more DNA."
Melinda nods.
"I'll analyze the samples," Melinda says.
"Can you put a rush on it?"
"Of course," she says. "Hey, I want you to see something."
She waves him over to her desk and she places the two DNA results next to each other on her desk.
"What am I looking at?" Ryan asks.
"I extracted another, more viable DNA sample from Crane," she explains. "So that I can possible more thoroughly compare it to the degraded one from the rape kit. I've going over the results all evening, and I found something that's either really good or really bad."
O'Halloran is by no means a DNA expert, but he does have an extended knowledge of it.
He takes the magnifying glass and looks at the results closer.
"You see that line, right there?" She asks.
"Yeah," he says.
"Now look at that one right there," she points out.
"Oh…" he says, slowly straightening up.
She nods.
"Either that's really good, or really bad…I'm guessing really bad."
Melinda nods again.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
In a word, being at the bottom of the food chain in prison sucks.
Chester had barely been in the general pop for two hours after being processed into the prison and it'd been leaked that he was a cop. On the way back from the cafeteria, he'd been jumped by several prisoners who claimed that they had beefs against him.
"You sent my cousin to Attica."
"Hey, aren't you that dick cop who testified against my son?"
"You helped put my sister in prison on a crap possession charge."
To that accusation, he'd promptly responded, "I worked homicide, not narcotics, idiot."
That's when the brawl broke out and after the first few punches, it wasn't about him anymore. There were prisoners fighting and tackling all around him and in the chaos, he managed to get himself out of it, a little bruised and bloodied slightly.
The COs broke up the brawl pretty quickly, and that's when one of them, Graves, pulled Chester out of B-block and transported him to isolation.
That had been yesterday evening.
This afternoon, Chester has the pleasure of enjoying company with the likes of a very unbalanced triple murderer, a former mob boss for the Italians, and several others that he doesn't even care to want to know. The one good thing about isolation is that he can take that. He doesn't mind spending time to himself, he needs the time to think at the moment, about the decision he is making.
He's taken all that he's risking into consideration.
First and foremost, his relationship with Casey. He knows that this entire situation is hurting her, and he takes full responsibility for that. He should have never let her fight his battles for him. He let her let their relationship steer the course of how she prosecuted, and he let her. For that, he should have apologized. When she visited him in the holding cells, he could tell that she had been crying. She cried in front of him when they were talking.
Chester can't bear the sight of Casey crying. He's seen her cry before, and she's beautiful, but it pains him, especially because for the most part, Casey is a very happy, funny, compassionate, and loving woman and over the past year and a half that he's been with her, she's brought out the best in him and he's completely in love with her. She gets angry, she gets insistent, and stubborn, but it is rare that she cries, so when she does, it makes him ache for her.
The thought of losing her is very real, and it makes what he is doing that much harder.
Secondly, he begins to think about his career.
His days of being a detective are numbered. He knows that his badge will be taken and he won't be getting a pension. He was only skating on thin ice after the incident that happened when he ran, but getting arrested on top of that, he will never be able to recover from that, career wise. He can't do his job from behind bars.
Ten years ago, he promised a grieving father that he'd catch his daughter's killer, and he did, and when the law couldn't follow through on the rest, the rest took care of itself. Chester knows that Hector Hernandez is a good man, and he needs to be there for Cecilia. Chester doesn't think that what Hector did was right, by no means, but he understands it. His child is dead and gone, but he has a young girl whose spirit is just the same.
They deserve a chance to make the life they wanted after suffering for so long.
Frank Lekta, a corrections officer for the isolation block approaches Chester.
"Lake, come with me."
"Why?" Chester asks.
"Your lawyer's here," Frank says. "Wants to have a talk with you."
Obtaining a lawyer was probably Casey's doing.
He follows Frank out of the block and then he is taken through a maze of hallways and vestibules before getting to the private rooms where prisoners can meet with their lawyers.
Frank opens up the door, and Chester is surprised to see Casey once again.
He never forgets that she's stubborn and insistent.
Frank closes the door.
She sees his split lip and black eye and she furrows her eyebrows.
"Chester, what the hell happened?"
"Casey, what the hell are you doing?" He asks, a bit irritated and ignoring her first question. "Did you lie to them? Did you tell them that you were my lawyer?"
"Considering the deep pile of shit that you're in, that should be the last thing on your mind detective," Casey says rather harshly.
Yeah, she's pissed too. Actually, furious, is the more appropriate term.
He sits down.
"Case, I never wanted-"
"What?" She asks.
"I didn't want you to come up here," he sighs.
Casey pushes her hair behind her ears. "I don't know why you're trying to push me away, but you can think about that later. Right now, all I want from you is for you to tell me the truth about the murder. You didn't do it, Chester. I know you. The person that killed Thomas Crane…you are not that person."
She looks a little too pale, but her green eyes are bright. Her eyes are red and puffy and he knows that she's been crying. He wishes that she weren't so determined when it comes to this.
"Casey I-"
"Listen to me," she says, a little softer now. "I know that you're protecting Hector Hernandez. I know that you feel guilty about the case but, you can't just give up everything and walk away from your life…us…it's all over now, so you don't have to carry this on your shoulders anymore. Just let it go because there's so much more to think about…tell me the truth."
He sighs and gets up.
"You should go home, Casey," he says and he heads to the door.
"NO!" She yells, getting up. "You are not just going to walk away from me!"
"This isn't about you!" He yells back. "Alright? This isn't about you, Casey."
"You have no idea what this is doing to me, Chester," she says tearfully. "And I think that it's awfully selfish of you to just leave me alone like this. Y-you can't just leave me…I mean, has the last year and a half meant nothing to you?"
He comes over and hugs her tightly, kissing her forehead.
"I love you more than anything," he says to her, putting his hands on her wet cheeks.
"If you love me, you would tell me the truth," she says, pulling away. "You wouldn't be hurting me. Up until this point, you've trusted me, and I've trusted you, and you've been nothing but honest with me. Why can't you do that now? I just…help me to understand why you feel the need to do this."
"I don't think there's anything that I can say to help you understand," he says. "But I know what I'm doing, sweetie."
"You're breaking my heart," she says. "That's what you're doing."
He gently takes her hand. "I do care about you…I love you and that's never going to change."
She shakes her head.
"No," she begins. "You don't love me the way I thought you did. It's obvious because so willing to let me go."
"I just want you to move on and-"
"I don't want to move on," she says harshly. "What I want is the man that I've shared over a year of my life with. What I want is the man that I love."
Chester tries to think of what to tell her, but the words don't come and she exhales, all of her energy going with it, tears falling down her cheeks.
"I uh," she begins, her voice hitching. "I just want to know…did I…did I make you angry? By losing your case?"
"No," he says, coming closer to her. "No, I'm not angry at you. That…it was my fault. I shouldn't have let you try the case. It was too personal for both of us. I'm not angry at you."
She nods, toying with the idea of telling Chester about her pregnancy.
"Chester I…" She pauses, trying to find the words, but nothing sounds good to her in her mind. "I just want to tell you…"
"What?" He asks, taking her hands in his.
Casey sniffles and looks down at their joined hands.
"I love you," she says, losing her nerve. "And moving on is easier said than done, and mostly because I don't want to. Please…even if you don't want to be with me anymore, don't do this. At least we can still be there for each other, at least we can try. There's so much more that you're giving up than you realize."
He pulls her into a hug and she closes her eyes.
"I love you," he says and she holds on to him tighter.
"Please just tell me the truth right here and now," she whispers into his ear. "And we'll fix this, us, everything…"
Chester kisses her cheek and then he pulls away.
Casey nods. "I love you too."
She opens up the door and walks out of the room.
After Casey has headed down the hall, Frank comes into the room to escort Chester back to isolation.
"You're a dumbass," he remarks and Chester looks at him.
"Look, I'm not stupid," Frank says. "I knew she wasn't your lawyer. No brief case, no notes, files…not even a friggin' pen. She's obviously your girlfriend or wife, or whatever."
"Can we walk a little faster, please?" Chester asks.
"Sure," Frank says. "Look, I'm not much for talking to inmates but I can read people. You're no hardened criminal. From the looks of your info, you're a good detective and you don't belong on this side with the rest of these assholes. Whatever's going on in your head, you better fix it, because you're an idiot for letting that pretty girl go."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Melinda hears a knock at her entryway and she looks up and sees there is an older man of about sixty or sixty five, with a suit on and a stern look on his face.
"How may I help you sir?" She asks.
"Are you Dr. Melinda Warner?"
"Yes," she says.
"Are you participating in the investigation of the murder of Thomas Crane?"
"Yes."
"May I see the body?"
"Are you a relative, next of kin?" She asks.
"I'm an old friend of the family, and I'd like to take care of the burial," the man says.
"I didn't catch your name sire," Melinda says.
"I'm H.T. Lawson," he introduces himself. "I was a good friend of Thomas Crane's mother. She's been deceased for many years now, and she left the care of his financials in case of death to me."
Melinda nods as she gets up. "Right this way sir."
She leads him into the morgue and she opens up the compartment containing Thomas Crane's body. She pulls out the slab and then she looks at H.T. Lawson, who nods, indicating his readiness to see Crane.
Melinda pulls the sheet back and H.T. sighs and puts his hand on Thomas's cold forehead.
I'll make things right for you, Tommy, H.T. thinks to himself. You didn't deserve to die. Detective Chester Lake will most definitely pay for what he's done. The entire NYPD will pay for killing a son of mine.
"I trust that you will turn the body over to me when the investigation has ended," H.T. says.
"Yes sir," Melinda says.
H.T. nods and then he walks out.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Casey steps out of the tub after taking a long, hot shower, which she desperately needed. She'd woken up this morning and she just barely made it to the toilet to vomit. Over the last couple of days, she'd been alternately sleeping, throwing up, drinking tea, and eating broth with rice to keep her stomach calm. She feels the fatigue down to her bones, and all she wants to do is lie back down. Getting up to take a shower had been a chore, but it relaxed her.
She dries off, then she puts on her robe and begins to brush out her wet hair. As she brushes, she begins to think about what she will tell her family, especially her father. Patrick Novak has always been a stern man, a devout Catholic. He'd had a fit when she told him that she'd moved in with her now deceased ex-fiancee, Charlie. She doesn't know what his reaction will be to her pregnancy, to Chester, and to losing her job.
It worries her slightly because the last thing she wants to do is disappoint her father.
Now that she may lose her career, she can almost see the disappointment and shame in her father's face. It hurts her to think about that.
Casey sets her brush down and she makes sure to take her prenatal vitamins that her doctor had prescribed for her. She'd gone to the doctor yesterday morning, a doctor by the name of George Maitland. He confirmed that she is indeed eight weeks pregnant and he did a sonogram. He called the day after her appointment to inform her that she was due around December twentieth. Her first thought had been that it was perfect because then the baby will have his or her first Christmas.
She goes into her room and she looks at the sonogram picture sitting on her bedside table. Some of the baby's features can already be seen, and it made her so happy to see the life growing inside her. She sits on her bed and she picks up the picture of her baby. Dr. Maitland told her that the baby's heart is already fully formed and functioning, and that all of its vital organs are in place. She found that incredible. At just eight weeks, her baby already has all that it needs to survive. She loves this baby so much…it is an indescribable, impossible, infinite love that she feels already and her baby is no bigger than her thumb. She wonders how much her love will grow when she gives birth.
Alone.
The thought of raising a child alone scares her. She never thought that she'd ever be a single mother. With her career as a lawyer basically over, she not only has to think about finding a job that will support herself and a child, but just coping with raising a child with no father present is what is hardest for her to wrap her head around.
Casey puts the picture back onto her bedside table, and a wave of pain surges through her and tears come.
She covers her face as she cries.
After she calms down, she gets dressed and then she lies down on her bed again, feeling completely depleted of her energy.
The doorbell rings, and she furrows her eyebrows, groaning, wondering who it could possibly be.
Casey gets out of bed slowly so that she doesn't get dizzy and she heads downstairs to the front door.
She looks through the peephole and she sees that it is Olivia and she rolls her eyes. She is in no mood for company. She rests her forehead onto the door, then she reluctantly unlocks the door and opens it up.
"Hey," she says.
"Hey Casey," Olivia says. "What have you been doing? I've been trying to call you for a couple of days, you haven't been answering your cell or home phone."
Casey sighs. "I've been resting…"
Olivia takes in the younger woman's appearance. Casey is wearing a green spaghetti strap top with a purple sweater, and a pair of tattered jeans. Her hair is wavy and pulled back with a black headband. She looks even more sick than she'd been a couple of days ago, and her eyes are puffy and bloodshot from crying.
"Can I come in?" Olivia asks.
"Yeah," Casey says, opening the door wider for Olivia to enter.
Olivia sits on the couch in the den and Casey sits down in the armchair.
"Casey, are you sure you're alright?" Olivia asks. "You look really pale…"
"I'm fine," Casey says.
"I just came over to give you a heads up," Olivia says.
"What's going on now?" Casey asks, dread in her voice.
"IAB is sniffing around," Olivia pauses and looks at her hands. "And they might come to you and ask you questions.
"Why would they want to talk to me?" Casey asks.
"Elliot went on the website for the cold case meetings that Chester always went to," Olivia explains. "They post the guest book from every meeting online…Chester's name was on there, and your name was on there too from last month."
Casey crosses her arms over her chest.
"So? What does that have to do with me?"
"I think you know," Olivia says, looking at the younger woman knowingly.
"It's no one's business."
"Case…no one else knew about Lake's trips to Philly up until this whole thing started," Olivia says, standing up. "How did you know about it, and how'd you end up going?"
Casey takes in a deep breath and bites her lower lip. Olivia knows that is Casey's nervous habit.
"Do you want anything to eat or drink?" Casey asks, getting up.
"No thank you," Olivia says. "Don't change the subject. Tell me what's going on."
"It's none of your business," Casey frowns.
"It is my business, because you're my friend, and I don't want you getting in more trouble than what you already are," Olivia says softly.
Casey sits down again.
"Cragen told us about Donnelly reporting you to the bar," Olivia says.
Casey looks away.
"IAB is going to find out about you being in Philly at the same time he was."
"That doesn't prove anything," Casey huffs. "It's just two colleagues in Philly."
"That is bullshit, Case," Olivia says. "And that's not the way IAB is going to see it. They may not be that smart, but they're certainly not dumb."
"I don't give a crap about what IAB thinks," Casey hisses. "It doesn't give them carblance to dig into my personal life and just assume things."
"Casey, while that may be true, they're going to do it anyway," Olivia says. "And it'll be better if you just talk about it to someone you trust."
Casey furrows her eyebrows.
"What do you want from me?" She asks angrily.
"I want you to talk to me," Olivia insists. "I want you to tell me the truth. Did you know that Chester was going to kill Crane?"
"What makes you so goddamn sure that he did?!" Casey yells tearfully. "You didn't even know Chester! None of you did, so how can you be so sure that he'd kill someone?"
Casey sniffles and wipes a tear falling down her cheek.
It is with that outburst, that Olivia draws the most obvious answer to her many questions as to the extent of Casey's involvement.
Her mouth forms an O then she speaks.
"That's why you knew about the Hernandez case long before any of us," Olivia concludes. "Pillow talk."
Casey swallows thickly. "Chester and I have been together for a year and a half."
Olivia nods. "That explains why you were in Philly with him, too."
Casey nods. "Up until a few months ago, I never got involved with his case. I mean, of course I listened whenever Chester talked about it, but I never brought it up."
"When did Chester first tell you about the Hernandez case?"
"About six months in," Casey sighs. "He never really liked talking about work when we were together, which was fine with me but…he came over here and he was in a real bad mood and he was taking it out on me. I told him to tell me what was wrong. That's when he told me about the Hernandez case."
"How did you end up going with him to Philly?"
"One night I was staying at his place. He fell asleep on the couch and he had the file spread out on the coffee table. I didn't want to wake him because he's a light sleeper so…I snooped."
"And what? You thought you'd take up his cause too?"
"It wasn't anything like that," Casey huffs. "The people that go to that meeting…they're not bloodthirsty vigilantes or anything. They don't cut corners to close their cold cases. They're by the book, and they use every legal avenue available to solve their cases. Most of the time though, it's a crap shoot for some of them and for the better half of the people that go, it's…an outlet. Chester told me that he didn't want to shut me out of that part of his life, so he asked me to come with him. I thought it was sweet of him so I went."
Olivia shakes her head before speaking again. "Why didn't either of you say anything?"
"Chester is a very private person…and anyway, he was still working in Brooklyn when we first started dating and when he transferred to the unit, he didn't know any of you and it's not like you or the guys made an effort to get to know him."
"You could have told me," Olivia says, a bit offended. "You could have trusted me."
Casey sighs. "I know, and I hated not telling you, but I didn't out of respect for him."
Olivia nods.
"That night…" Casey says tearfully. "We argued. Chester said that he was going to meet someone about his case and I got upset at him. It didn't sound right, and I told him he shouldn't go. He got angry at me, and we started yelling…I told him that he should just let it go, that you can't win all the time and he called me a hypocrite. I told him that I didn't care what he did and I went out too…"
"Case…" Olivia says softly.
Casey wipes the tears fall down her cheeks. "While I was at that stupid function, Chester was nearly getting killed. I didn't even remember that until now…I didn't even apologize. Chester has always been there for me and the one time when he needed me most, I left him alone. None of this would've happened if I was there."
"Casey, you had no control over what happened," Olivia says.
"I screwed everything up," Casey says quietly. "I just wanted it to be over…I wanted Chester to have some closure so that this case won't be hanging over his head for the rest of his life. This whole thing is my fault because I let my feelings for him get in the way. I told myself that I should do it because I love him, when I should have just handed the case to someone else."
"You're not making things any better by blaming yourself," Olivia says.
"I just feel like we're losing everything," Casey says. "I never thought any of this would happen…I should have never let Chester go to that place alone. I should have been there for him because he would have never gotten shot and none of this would have happened…"
"Sweets, Thomas Crane was only interested in saving his own ass," Olivia says. "You would have gotten hurt too."
Casey gets up and she goes to look out the window, arms crossed over her chest.
"Before all this…we were happy, Liv."
Casey turns to Olivia.
"I'm pregnant."
"Does Chester know?" Olivia asks.
"No," Casey says. "I only found out last week. I mean…I've had a feeling that I might be pregnant for weeks. I bought a test, but never took it. I was going to tell Chester that I might be pregnant so we could find out together…that was shot to hell obviously."
"You need to tell him, Case," Olivia urges. "How far along are you?"
"Eight weeks," Casey says.
"Maybe that's why you wanted to close the case so badly," Olivia suggests. "You were afraid of losing him to it."
"Either way, at the moment, I am," Casey sighs. "I went to visit him in prison, and I begged him to tell me the truth, to tell me what I know is true, but he's already made up his mind. I wanted to tell Chester about the baby, but…"
"What?" Olivia asks.
"Telling him would make this all real and even more painful for me," Casey explains.
"Well…do you plan on ever telling him?" Olivia asks. "Because he has a right to know."
Casey shrugs. "I don't know now. At first I was so sure that I would, that I couldn't do that to him, but I'm thinking about the baby. What kind of childhood is that? Knowing that your father is in prison, spending weekends going back and forth for visitor's hours?"
"Sweets, you can't keep this from him," Olivia says. "You're emotional and not thinking straight…you think he's innocent, and even if he doesn't say so, the evidence will, if that's what it proves. You have to tell him."
"I don't want to talk about it anymore," the younger woman says. "I just want to be alone right now, so…can you please just go?"
"Case I think-"
"I don't give a damn about what you think or what you think I should do!" Casey yells. "Just leave me alone!"
Olivia sighs and she stands up and leaves Casey's house.