Chapter 3

Logan didn't look nervous; he never did at these things any more. Truth be told, he hadn't been able to eat breakfast, his stomach was so tight. He kept sharp eyes and a sincere look on his face.

His personnel folder was already on the table. It had grown to about 2 ½ inches thick in the last 10 years. Mike and Captain Ross took a seat at the table. The Captain hadn't said more than two words to him, and he really wasn't sure where the guy stood. Mike figured he was on his side, but with Ross you never could tell.

Goren was being briefed by the technician on how to use the remote to operate the computer for the slide show. He was listening carefully, but he had already accidentally closed the file once and now seemed to be unable to figure out how to start it. Finally, she had talked him through it and he was ready. She explained that she could only stick around the first half an hour or so to help, but then she had other commitments. He sat down on the other side of Captain Ross, and within arm's reach of the laptop.

Within minutes, the commissioner and his crew had taken their seats. The room grew quiet and he spoke. "Well, Detective Logan, here we are again," he said unhappily. Logan said nothing. "I hope we can get to the bottom of this before lunch." He turned to the captain. "Captain Ross, a formal complaint has been filed against Detective Mike Logan by the parents of one Eva Schwartz, convicted in the homicide of her younger brother. What have you to say?"

"Commissioner, I have read both the complaint and the reports of my detectives. I do not believe the complaint holds any merit. I believe Detective Logan should be restored to duty immediately." He sat down.

Logan was grateful to the Captain, but he didn't even give him a look in response to his words. He kept his eyes on the Commissioner and his cronies.

"Commissioner," said a representative from the DA's office. "Given Detective Logan's long history of complaints and general trouble-making, we believe it is necessary to thoroughly explore the events in this case to determine if Detective Logan is able to properly represent the City of New York in the execution of his duties as an officer of the law."

The Commissioner's face soured again. He looked at Ross. "Okay, then. Captain Ross, I understand you have someone you'd like to have speak to the Board?"

"Yes, sir, I've brought with me Detective Robert Goren. He was the one of the lead detectives on this case, and he is New York City's foremost criminal profiler." Ross looked at Goren, who stood up, remote in hand.

"Thank you, Commissioner, for giving me the opportunity to present to the Board." Bobby clicked a button and the first slide came up, but it was too small to see. The technician swooped in and fixed it, then gave him a reminder of which button to push to advance the slides.

"Sorry about that," Bobby said. He looked at the screen, which displayed the latest school picture of the victim. "This is Robbie Schwartz. It's his elementary school picture. He turned 8 years old last March."

He advanced the slide and the reaction in the room was palpable. "This is Robbie Schwartz, on June 18th, the day he was killed." He let them look at the picture a few moments. "You notice, he had his school ball cap on the shelf behind him. He liked to play baseball."

He advanced the slide, to the relief of the suits in the room who never had to get so involved with the more gruesome aspects of their jobs anymore. The family picture had been cropped to show a closer view of Eva, with her twisted smile. "This is Eva Schwartz, 12 years old. This picture was taken last Christmas." He let them look for a moment and then went on. "She… killed her brother… with a butcher knife from the kitchen drawer. The parents were… in the house… down in the basement, watching tv." He clicked and the slides reversed to show the death photo of Robbie again.

He pretended it had been an accident, apologized, and advanced the slide again. "When we arrived, Eva's parents reported that Eva had told them a stranger had invaded the house from the street, that Robbie had tried to stop him, and he'd stabbed Robbie, and run away."

"Eva had tucked the murder weapon behind a loose piece of baseboard near the hall, so we didn't find it right away. Eva and her parents said the blood on her clothes was from her actions to try and save Robbie's life after the stabbing occurred." Bobby showed a picture of where they found the knife.

"When the M.E. determined that the murder weapon was a kitchen knife, we searched the house again, and found it. There were no prints: it had been wiped clean."

Bobby continued, through slide after slide, and explained how the investigation unfolded.

"There were only 2 hesitation marks on Robbie's body." He clicked to show a close-up of those marks. "Eva almost immediately became comfortable with the amount of pressure needed to penetrate her little brother's skin. In fact, she pushed so hard in some places that the knife actually exited out his back."

"Eva has a history of behavioral problems. Her parents didn't reveal this to us: we found out when we went to her school. They had reported incidences of violence with other students on several occasions. They had documented specific threats she'd made against others in the school environment, violent stories she'd written, etc." Bobby changed the slide to reveal a school incident report. "Eva stated she was going to cut B.D.'s fingers off, one at a time, and then use them like markers to draw pictures with the blood."

Again, Bobby noticed some of his audience recoil. "We finally were able to prove Eva's guilt via a fingerprint on the loose baseboard, in combination with the blood spatter on her clothing and her confession. When she confessed, she said she killed him 'because he wouldn't give her the controller' for the video game."

Bobby put a graph on the screen. "As Captain Ross said, I am a profiler. These are the statistics in the US currently for homicides perpetrated by youth under the age of 14." The graph indicated that hardly any crimes were committed by this age group. He clicked and a new graph popped up. "These are the statistics for homicides where the offender is female." Again, the number of females was extremely low compared to male offenders.

He clicked again, "These are homicides and weapons used." The line that showed knives as the murder weapon was very low on the graph. Handguns were at the top.

"As you can see, Eva Schwartz is an anomaly. Everything about her: her age, gender, choice of weapon, age of victim… everything goes against the odds."

Bobby went on to explain the statistics on child offenders becoming adult offenders, as well as the progression from less to more violent crimes.

"It is my belief that Eva Schwartz is likely to kill again, is likely to kill many times in her lifetime, and needs extensive psychiatric treatment in addition to incarceration in order to keep the public safe."

Goren cleared his throat. "As I understand it, that's exactly what Detective Logan said, only he said it within earshot of her parents."

Bobby clicked the slide and the school picture with Robbie's innocent smile returned. "As cops, it's our job to protect the public. We couldn't protect him." He jerked a thumb at the screen. "In reducing crime, the whole point is to be proactive, to create a community where people are safe, are looking out for each other, where we take steps to prevent crime from happening. All too often, we're reactive. We lock up the perp, end of story." Bobby looked each person in the room in the eye and continued. "Reactive policing does nothing to reduce crime and improve public safety. Reactive policing makes good cops ask, why bother?"

Bobby pointed to the picture of Robby, and couldn't help but raise his voice as we spoke. "This is why we bother. This kid, this little boy, deserved the chance to grow up, to play ball, to have a first kiss, a first car. We're too late for him... but we're not too late for the rest of them."

Bobby, in his flustered way, nervously fidgeted his way back to his seat, mumbling "thank you." He left the picture of Robbie Schwartz on the screen.

The room was silent for a moment until the commissioner spoke again. "Thank you, Detective Goren… I think we'll take a break for…" he checked his watch. "let's say, 20 minutes. Everyone return here at 10:30."

Goren, Logan, and Ross went out into the hall together. Ross continued down the hall, but Mike and Bobby stopped. Mike shook Bobby's hand. Eames came over to them. "How'd it go?" she asked.

"It was good," Mike answered. "Powerful."

Bobby held out his hand and showed her the remote from the projector. "I guess I'll have to put this into inter-office mail," he said slyly. He slipped it into his pocket.

"You okay?" Alex asked Mike. "Can I get you something?"

He shook his head. "I'll just find some water. Thanks." He went off down the hall.

Alex looked back at Bobby, with one eyebrow raised in a question. "I'm staying here," Bobby answered. "I'm sticking with Logan. Besides, I want to hear what George has to say."

She frowned and nodded. "I'll be right here, waiting," she said.