Chapter 11: Meanings

"What's the meaning of this, Jack?"

He looked up and saw his wife at the door, livid. "I told you all's fair in love and law, Dani, so…"

"You had the nerve to call Liz Olivet to your side before-?"

"I'm not prosecuting the case! And thank Connie for her quick thinking about Liz. For the record, Liz's already finished her evaluation of your client, so feel free to counter-."

Danielle shook her head. "What else are you doing to try and undermine my case, Jack? We both know that the boyfriend is equally guilty."

"Ah ha!" he said pointing a finger at her. "So you believe your client's responsible for her actions here?"

"Of neglecting her children to a certain extent, but find me a perfect parent anywhere. Her boyfriend's the one who tried to sell their daughter. Her boyfriend's the one who abducted and terrorized Renee Maguire. Her boyfriend's the one who pressured Tina to kill her son."

Jack shook his head. "All of the evidence points to your client, Danielle. Don't worry I don't intend to tell the girls all of your defense tricks. Just the ones they should obviously know by now."

Danielle chuckled, some of the tension fading from her shoulders. "That's sweet of you, dear, but that's a pathetic bluff if I've ever heard one."

"That was spoken with honesty," he said insulted. "What did Tina Keith hope to accomplish with her little girl? Why didn't she, as a mother, take both of her children someplace where-?"

"Look at her mother, Jack! The woman's spoken just as many words to her child as that Ashburn woman did. And for the record, Mr. Ashburn has been the one to sporadically check in on Tina." Danielle shook her head. "He even offered to take in his step-son's child into their home. What does that tell you?"

Jack leaned back. "That tells me that…" He paused, holding up a hand to his wife while he quickly dialed the phone. "Detective Green? It's McCoy. Foolish question for you guys regarding the Dahashi case."

Nora stepped in quietly, giving Jack a nod of greeting before chatting with Danielle.

"For the record," Nora said, "have you noticed that cute habit of his of late?"

Danielle leaned back conspiratorially and whispered, "Do you mean our 'adopting' two young women? No. Just so long as he doesn't try to impose a curfew on them or insist on meeting their perspective dates beforehand…"

"You should have seen his reaction when I told him about Alex and Randy," Nora whispered back.

"Oh, do tell it again. I'd love to see this."

Jack glared at them while continuing his conversation with Green. When he finished, he hung up and looked at both of his 'wives.' "For the record, I'm not being an 'overprotective' wannabe parent to Alex or Connie. I just think Alex could do better than-."

"That's not true and you know it," Danielle said sharply. "Admit it; you hate Dworkin."

"Only because he's a fool," Jack said defensively as he picked up his coffee cup. "He'll ruin her! He'll-."

"He'll do something completely novel, Jack." Off his look, Nora said, "He'd have added to the Hogan Gossip Pool without actually having worked there."

The look on his face was almost as priceless as the earlier one, but this time, she won and they knew it. Changing subjects, she said, "So, when do you think Erin and her beau will marry?"

Nora kept her face neutral as first his neck, then his face reddened, worsening only because his wife enjoyed watching his discomfort, too. Silently, he set down his coffee cup, picked up the phone, and dialed. All the while, she sipped her tea, amazed that he fell for that one.

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Alex continued prepping Nina Cassady for her testimony against Tina Keith. Satisfied that they left nothing to chance, they took a break.

"How was your date the other night?" Nina asked.

"Not bad. Randy Dworkin's cute."

"Cute?" Nina shook her head. "Cute as in - 'Barney the dinosaur cute' or what?"

"Just cute. We might go out again. Of course, something tells me that Connie, Jack or Nora will want to talk me out of it. Who needs my family when the one here can be just as bad?"

"Ah, but this family doesn't drive you crazy," Nina countered. She frowned.

Alex tilted her head. "What is it?"

"Just something…." Nina tried to shake it off. "Want to go check on the Maguire children with me?"

----

Joey Maguire was the first one to run up to Nina and hug her. "Where's Joe?" the young girl asked as she looked at Alex Borgia.

"He's helping others in need right now. I'm going back out there to join him soon, but first," she knelt down to be level with Joey, "I wanted to see how you were doing."

The young girl nodded. "All right, I guess. Renee's trying to get a place of our own, away from our mom. Think you can help?"

Nina and Alex exchanged glances. "Maybe," Alex said, careful not to promise something she couldn't guarantee. "Your sister's old enough to be considered an adult, so-."

"I know she's an adult! Sheesh, I'm not slow or anything," Joey said.

"Josephine!"

Joey turned as her older sister approached her. "Hey, Renee. Nina's here to see me."

Nina smiled. "Actually, we're her to talk to you and Renee; aren't we, Alex?"

Alex nodded. "Is there someplace we can talk…?" Alex asked as Joey reluctantly went to rejoin her other siblings.

"Stop sulking, Joey. I'll be back in a bit," Renee said. Then the three women went to a room on the opposite side of the floor.

"Miss Borgia, I'm ready to testify, so-."

"That isn't why we're here to see you," Alex said.

Nina took a deep breath before she began. "Earlier, you said to Detective Fontana and me that you would have 'taken care of things your way.' What did you mean by that?"

This was the first Alex had heard of this and was equally curious as to the young woman's answer.

Renee took a small piece of paper from her shirt pocket. "These were some folks who claimed to help with adoptions and such. Had I acted so much sooner…Kylie and Keith would be with me and my siblings and we'd be on the other side of New York by now."

"Did you ever get in touch with these people?" Alex asked. If she could use this as evidence of someone preparing to step in on behalf of the two children before all of this happened, then….

Renee nodded. "I called them and the person who answered the phone told me I was too young to even consider such a thing, that it would be a phase I'd 'grow out of.' Tried again a couple of days later and got someone else. She said she'd give me the necessary forms and to arrange coming in to talk with her."

"When was that? Do you remember?" Alex asked. She felt bad – it was Nina who wanted to ask Renee questions, and here she took over.

"A week before…" Renee drew the back of her sleeve across her eyes. "Look, I already had the forms and everything. I just needed someone who could legally sign off on them. This firm didn't do that, or take me seriously."

Nina patted Renee's hand. "We do. Miss Borgia and I will look into this. And count on Joe helping out, too."

Renee gave a weak smile. "I'll admit, Joey really likes you two. What a shame you guys don't have room for kids like us, huh?"

Nina turned away quickly as Alex copied the name and number of the business in question on the back of one of her cards. When she finished, Alex gave Renee the slip of paper back along with her own card, her home number written on the back.

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Danielle Melnick-McCoy finished giving her opening statement then resumed her seat. She went over the prosecution's witness list and the one name she didn't want to call was included on there. If things went the way she hoped, Danielle wouldn't have to deal with that witness for at least another day.

In the meantime, even though her husband wasn't in the courtroom, Danielle was fully aware that he was following this case closely.

She was impressed with how Rubirosa handled the first witness, a nurse at the preschool Keith had attended. It was to the point, professional….a thorough pain for Melnick-McCoy to deal with on cross.

"Wouldn't you say children Keith's age tend to get hurt a lot? After all, they're full of energy, haven't quite mastered balance and are eager to let nothing go by them unnoticed."

The nurse nodded. "True, but a child like Keith shouldn't have bruised where he did-."

"Isn't it possible that those bruises were as a result of some rough-housing on the children's part? Or, and I don't mean this to sound so scandalous, but, another teacher having left those marks on him?"

The nurse kept her gaze even. "None of the teachers smoke cigars," she said.

Danielle backed away, aware of a new snag on her side of the case. "No more questions for this witness," she said and sat down.

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During the recess, Danielle lay in on her client. "How could you not tell me about those burns, Tina?"

"I didn't mean to…I mean he didn't mean to… You know how kids are!"

Danielle closed her eyes. She knew her thoughts on children and that was one of the reasons why she chose not to have any. Besides, her husband had a daughter, so that was one less worry, of sorts. But, that was neither here nor there. "Children do not run into lit cigars or cigarettes!" She had said each word slowly and deliberately.

The first witness successfully put her client into a shameful light. The second was no better – explaining how often permission slips came back smelling of either illegal substances or covered with beer rings. It was only once in a great while that the staff could translate the so-called signature.

"Tina," Danielle said at last. "I need you to tell me everything I need to know….now."

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"Now you want me to do what?" Joe Fontana asked surprised. "Nina, are you out of your mind? I know I might be a bit more financially stable than you are, but…I am not parental material!"

"Joe-."

He shook his head and waved his hands for emphasis. "No. Not gonna happen, Nina. I love those kids, too. But, if you or I tried to take in every child we've come across in all of our cases…. No."

Nina let out a sigh of defeat. "Well, could you at least help me try and find them something? Please?"

He opened his mouth to say 'no' again, then closed it again, mulling something over. "You know how long Children's Services tends to take on such things, right?" Nina nodded. "All right then. Let me make a phone call. The kids are certain they want to stay in New York?"

"I think Renee's just looking to get her family someplace safe. Why?"

"Just…in case this works, they might be looking at Jersey. Might, I said." He grabbed something from the vending machine then descended down the stairs. "Hey, Patrick! Yeah, it's your brother Joey. Look, how serious are you and your wife looking at having a large family?"

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Connie Rubirosa looked at her partner and noticed a troubled look on her face. "What's wrong? We've won the first round today."

"I know," Alex said. "It's just…We'd be pushing this hard if the family in question was like ours, right?" Off of Connie's look, Alex added , "Not poor, not living in the projects and such."

Connie shook her head. "It doesn't matter where the family comes from, be it the victim's or the suspect's. What matters is justice. Give Fontana and Cassady some time and I'm sure we'll have the boyfriend in no time. Then they can both pay for what they did."

After a while, Connie wondered about something. "You didn't do anything foolish, did you?"