What? A new chapter so soon? Just kidding, this one was easy to write and we had no admits at work yesterday, so I had a lot of free time. I hope you all enjoy it, if there are any mistakes made regarding the legal system, I apologize. I work in the medical field, not law. Also, to the person that mentioned this fiction reminded them of Migration, that's one of my favorite Blue Bloods fics, so that's high praise, I appreciate it! If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do, it's written by GleeGeneration23 and a great story with a slightly similar premise. I always enjoy reading all of the reviews, they make my day. Now, enjoy!
"Wakey wakey, we've got some exciting news for you today, Bello." The guard ran his baton along the bars, creating a harsh rattling sound as he did so.
Bello let out a grimace and sat up from where he had been lying on his bed in his cell with a pounding headache. The additional noise wasn't helping, but one of the perks of protective custody was that he didn't have to share a cell and most of the other guys on the block were fairly quiet and kept to themselves.
He slowly stood up and turned to where the correction officer was standing in front of his cell. Judging by the smirk on the other man's face, the news was more than likely not going to be something Bello was going to like. "What?"
The guard's grin spread. "You're getting transferred into general population Friday. You get to go meet up with some old friends I'm sure you put in here."
Bello felt the blood drain from his face. "What? No, that can't be possible. Part of my deal was that I would serve my time in protective custody. You can't do that."
The guard shrugged, looking unbothered. "Above my pay grade. I just know that the warden said we don't have enough guys to cover the amount of people in protective custody and the rest of the prison, so you and a couple of other guys get to go make some friends." He gave him a final smirk before starting to walk away down the aisle.
Bello was frozen in disbelief for a moment. If he left protective custody, he was as good as dead; the people he'd put in here while he was still a cop would make sure of it. His brain finally seemed to process what the guard had just said, and he rushed forward to the bars to get the man's attention before he went too far away.
"Wait! Guard!"
There was a sigh before footsteps started to come back down the aisle and the guard reappeared. "What do you want, Bello? I'm just the messenger, you ain't going to get to stay here through me."
He wasn't stupid. The guards had made their feelings about him being a dirty cop well known. "I know that. I want to talk to my lawyer. Now. Have them call her and say it's an urgent matter and I need to speak with her right away. Today, if possible."
The guard rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll speak to the gals in the office, someone'll let you know when we hear back." He turned and walked away again.
Bello stepped back from the bars and took a seat on his bed again. This couldn't be happening. Part of his deal with the DA's Office had guaranteed he would have protective custody while he served his sentence. He knew that being a former cop alone would probably get him killed within the week if they put him in general population, but add in the fact that he was a snitch on top of that and he'd be lucky to last two days.
They finally brought him to the visitor's center to meet with his lawyer around two that afternoon. Bello had worked himself up into a nervous wreck over the course of the day. Okay, yes, he knew that maybe he hadn't gone about things the best way and that was why he was in here, but they couldn't just walk back his deal. He might not have been a lawyer, but he knew that once all involved parties had agreed to and signed a plea deal, one side couldn't just decide it wasn't valid anymore.
He waited anxiously in the chair, one leg bouncing incessantly, while they secured him and went to retrieve his lawyer. Bello tried to come up with a reason why the agreement could've been rendered invalid, but he was drawing a blank.
The door opened and his lawyer walked in. His mom had cut off all contact with him after his arrest, as had the rest of his family, but he had at least gotten them to agree to pay for a somewhat decent lawyer to defend him. Bello wasn't about to put his trust in some random public defender.
Sarah Richards was by no means a top defense attorney, but she was still better than an overworked, stressed out public defender. She had passed the bar less than a year prior to everything that had gone down with the Templar, which was part of why her attorney fees were low enough for Bello to afford. She also still had a bit of optimism in her that was hard to find, not to mention being fairly decent at her job too. She just didn't have the clients or high case numbers to start attracting more high-paying customers at the time.
She took a seat across the table from Bello, setting her bag on the floor and clasping her hands in front of her. They both waited for the guard to secure the door and step away before speaking, the only sound in the enclosed space being the rattling of the chains secured to Bello's bouncing leg.
There was the sound of the outer door sliding shut and she spoke. "What's this about, Ryan? They called and told my assistant that you said we needed to speak urgently, so I came right after court."
Bello continued bouncing his leg, the increasing frequency causing the chains to rattle even more. "They said they're putting me in general pop Friday. They can't do that, can they? Part of my deal was that I would stay in protective custody."
Richards let out a sigh. "Yes, that was part of the deal, I verified it twice with them before you signed. But unfortunately, they can still move you to general population."
Bello stopped bouncing his leg and sat up straight. "What?! How? If it's part of my deal, then they shouldn't be able to."
His lawyer held up her hands in surrender. "I know, they shouldn't be able to. But with the overcrowding of the prisons, the DOC doesn't always have enough staff to run both the general population and everyone who wants or should be in protective custody. So, all deals with the Manhattan DA's Office have a clause in them that if protective custody is included, it's at the discretion of the prison warden how long you stay."
"When did that happen?"
"About two years ago. It was an agreement that the State Attorney General signed off on, so we can't necessarily negotiate it out of a contract unless they explicitly state that protective custody is guaranteed, and the wardens cannot retract it. Which, in your case, was not in the agreement we signed. They typically only add it if a former CI ends up in Rikers and they've been incredibly helpful, or if it's a gang leader who would do more damage in general population. Of which, you were neither."
Bello felt his internal panic start to rise again. No, this wasn't right. It meant that almost none of the original deal he had made was even going to be kept. Sure, the prosecution hadn't asked for maximum sentences on most of the charges and had dropped the grand larceny ones, as well as the detectives letting him call his wife to let her know what was happening, but the judge had still given him the maximum and he hadn't seen Lisa or his kids since the morning he'd been arrested. She had only come to see him once, to serve the divorce papers.
Bello started sweating as he wracked his brain for a way out of the situation. There had to be something that he could do. He couldn't go into gen pop Friday, that would be a death sentence. An idea popped into his brain, something that he had almost forgotten about. His insurance plan.
"What if we made a new deal? And included that clause you just talked about? We could do that, right?" Even he could hear the desperation in his voice.
Richards frowned. "Ryan, that's not how this works. The DA's Office already made a deal with us on your charges. We can't just go back to them and ask for a new deal a year later because you don't like how that one worked out."
Bello's mind was racing, trying to come up with something. "What if I gave them new information? Something they didn't know? Would we be able to get a new deal then?"
His lawyer frowned. "What are you talking about? I thought you told them everything last year. Not to mention, even if you did have something that was new, they've already prosecuted and closed your case. They wouldn't reopen it after a conviction just because there might be new information, unless they think they convicted the wrong person. Which, as we both know from the trials and your testimony, they didn't."
Bello drummed his fingers on the table. "But they only pressed charges related to Badillo. Technically, the other case is still open. They didn't have any real evidence for the other officer's disappearance, so they didn't charge us with anything."
Richards' eyes widened and she leaned forward. "Ryan. You said you didn't know anything more about that. You swore it under oath. We're lucky the DA's Office decided not to press charges in that case. You can't just make something up for that because of what's happening now. They're just waiting for one of you to slip up or that cop's body to be found. And when that happens, it's not going to be pretty."
Bello leaned forward to match her. "But what if I gave them information to help find her? Would that be enough to secure a new deal with the DA?"
She arched an eyebrow. "In theory, it might be. It depends on what kind of information, I suppose. It would also probably depend on what we asked for. Why? What do you know that might get them to swing a new deal? Because I guarantee that it's going to need to be bigger than where you last saw her."
"What if I told them where they could find her?"
Richards froze. "Ryan. This is not a game. They've been looking for that missing cop for a year now. If you knew something, you should've said it last year, not saved it for a rainy day. Her sister-in-law is the Bureau Chief with the Trial Bureau in the DA's Office. If you try to send them on a wild goose chase, I guarantee it won't end well. They'll find a way to render your deal null and void before the ink's dried."
Bello shook his head. "I'm not playing a game. Not really. I was one of the last people to see Janko and it was nowhere near that warehouse or a body of water. Murphey's been sending them in circles since he got arrested just for the fun of it. We were all just following his lead."
Richards shut her eyes and let out a breath. "For starters, I'm going to advise you not to say that to the ADA, although they'll probably put it together on their own. What information exactly are you able to give them? If I'm going to try to get a new deal for you, I need to know what's in play and be able to vouch that it's credible."
He chewed on the inside of his cheek. "I was a bit like Murphey's right hand man for most of the things going on in the Templar. I would let him know if someone was getting greedy or upset with how things were being run so he could handle it. No one else knew. That's why he took me with him when we got rid of her."
Bello could tell his lawyer was starting to regret her choices to take him on as a client. He didn't necessarily blame her. "Okay, we're not going to tell them that part either until after we secure a deal."
Fair enough. He continued. "He must've figured out that they were starting to close in, although I don't know how. He called me up and told me that we needed to take the next day off, to make up something like my son was sick, so we could clean house. We drove upstate, got rid of Janko and then came back here. Never told a soul. Last I saw of her though, she was alive."
That caught Richards' attention. "Wait. You're telling me that she might still be alive?"
He shrugged. "Well, I don't know if she is now, after a year, but she was when we left her."
She seemed to be doing calculations in her head. "Okay. We can work with that. Probably get a decent deal out of it if we play the cards right. Would you be able to tell them exactly where you left her?"
Bello hesitated. That was going to be a bit complicated. "Well, not exactly where we left her. More of a general area? I'd never been up there before, but I drove, so I could probably draw it out on a map. It was the middle of nowhere."
The lawyer nodded. "Okay, we'll do that."
She pulled out her phone and opened up a map of the state of New York. "Alright. I want you to describe the route you took to me as best as you can recall, and I'll recreate it on this map. If we're going to bring this to the DA, we're going to need a more concrete location or at least a name of a nearby town."
"We drove on I-87 for over 4 hours, I remember that. Kept going right through Albany. I don't remember where we got off, but we took a bunch of state and back roads for another hour or so until we got to this tiny town, St. Regis Falls. We drove northeast out of there for maybe thirty minutes before we came to this tiny cabin in the middle of the woods. There weren't even real roads leading to it, just these little access roads. I didn't see a single sign of life and almost missed the place completely until Adam stopped me. We left her there with some guy, I don't know who he was. Adam said it was like his third cousin once removed or something? Then we drove back to the city. Everything else happened the next morning."
Richards was studying her map. Bello faintly wondered if she might be able to see the location he had described there. "Okay. Well, that's a lot better than 'we left her upstate somewhere.' I'll get in contact with the DA's Office, see what we can get. What are we asking for, besides the guaranteed protective custody?"
He paused to think. To be fair, his most pressing concern had been the protective custody thing, but the more he thought about it, it was worth a shot for a few other things. "I want to talk to Lisa and see my kids. I know that was part of the original deal, but this time I want a guarantee that they'll come."
She gave him a skeptical look. "How attached are you to that idea? They can't be forced to come if they don't want to. And your ex-wife has full custody, so if she doesn't want to bring the kids, she is in no way obligated to."
Bello chewed on his lips. He wanted to see his family, especially his kids. He didn't even know if the youngest was a boy or a girl, had never met them. But if he had to choose between that or no deal at all, it was a no brainer. "I want to at least talk to Lisa. If they say there's absolutely no way it happens, then I guess we can just let it go, but only as a last resort."
Richards nodded and wrote it down. "That's it then?"
He thought a little more. "And the only person I'll talk to is her husband."
She had a confused look on her face. "Her husband?" Then the lawyer seemed to realize what he was asking for and shook her head. "There's no way they're going to allow that. They'll think you're just trying to taunt him some more. Why?"
Bello glanced down, feeling a flush of shame come over him. "Because. I know how he feels now, in a way. And I won't talk to the DA or that ADA. I'm certainly not going to talk to my old partner." God, just the thought of having to tell Lenin what he did, face to face, made him want to sink into the floor and disappear. Especially knowing that his former partner had defended him to Danny Reagan last year, before everything came out.
Richards seemed to weigh her options. "Fine. I'll see what I can do about that. But no promises."
Kierra Davis let out a groan as she hung up the phone. The pretrial hearings she had been prepping for for the past two days had just been postponed. Apparently, the judge had the flu. She was about to resign herself to starting work on her next case when she heard a knock on her door.
She looked up to find her assistant standing in the partially opened doorway. "Sorry to bother you, Ms. Davis, but there's a Sarah Richards here to see you. She says she wants to discuss her client's case."
Davis pinched her nose to ward off an impending headache. Lovely. This was just what she needed today. She couldn't place the name off the top of her head, so she didn't even know if this was something she was going to want to deal with right now when there were so many other things going on. "Okay. Did she say what her client's name was or what the case was?"
"Ryan Bello, ma'am. Said they were looking to make a new plea deal."
Ryan Bello? Davis wracked her brain, trying to place the name. It sounded vaguely familiar. Then it registered. The Blue Templar case that she had worked as lead prosecutor on last fall. Bello had been the first member caught and had given up the rest of the organization in exchange for a deal. She couldn't imagine what he could possibly want now, a year later, after he'd already been convicted and sentenced.
She closed her eyes and sunk back into her chair. "Fine. Send her in."
Her assistant gave her a brief nod before disappearing out of the doorway. She shuffled around some of the files on her desk, attempting to organize some of the chaos and giving herself a mental refresher. If she recalled correctly, Bello had gotten a pretty decent deal, a lot better than some of the other members of the Templar, so she wasn't too certain why he would be wanting to renegotiate something. Or what made him think that he could, for that matter.
There was a soft knock on her door a couple of minutes later and she looked up to see Sarah Richards standing in the doorway. She vaguely recognized the woman, although Davis wouldn't have been able to pick her out of a crowd on the street to save her life. A courtroom, maybe.
She gestured at the chairs in front of her desk. "Please, sit. My pretrial hearing for this afternoon was just cancelled, so I have some free time."
Richards cautiously walked into the room, shutting the door behind her, and took a seat. "Thank you for agreeing to see me. I know this is a little unexpected."
Davis arched an eyebrow and leaned against her desk on her forearms. "Unexpected would be one way to put it. Both you and your client are aware that he was convicted and sentenced last year, right? And that we upheld our portion of his plea deal?"
She nodded. "We are."
"Good. Then do you care to explain to me why you're here on his behalf? Because we don't normally restructure plea deals after the trial."
Richards gave her a steady gaze. She was confident, Davis had to admit. "My client was informed this morning that he is going to be moved out of protective custody into the prison's general population, even though that was part of his plea agreement."
Of course that issue would've reared its ugly head. Davis had had to deal with a lot of it ever since the Attorney General had made that clause a part of any protective custody deals. It was an ongoing nightmare. "Well, Miss Richards, you and I both know that the State added a clause that the wardens could decide to remove prisoners from protective custody if they did not have the staff to safely attend to all the inmates and if there was minimal risk to the prisoner. That's not my call to make. If your client has an issue with it, he should take it up with his warden and the prison system. It's out of my hands."
The other woman nodded. "Yes, I am aware. And I informed my client of as much. But there is serious concern for his safety if he is placed into the general population."
Davis let out a sigh. "I'm sure there is, given his history. But I can't do anything about that."
Richards leaned forward. "You can give him a deal that explicitly states that he must be in protective custody at all times and the warden cannot choose to override that decision."
Davis leaned back in her chair. "That's not how these things work counselor, you know that. Unless he is tried for another crime, this office cannot give him a new deal. He's already been sentenced and convicted. What's done is done. It's as simple as that."
Richards glanced out the window, seeming to look at something. Davis followed her gaze, but all she saw were a couple of junior ADAs conferring with Erin Reagan. "What if my client offered information that may lead to Officer Janko's recovery?"
That caught her attention. The Janko case had gone cold as soon as the trials had started, and Davis knew that the detective on the case had been pursuing every hint of a lead to her location since. She also knew from the occasional conversation with Anthony Abetemarco that the Reagan family was still haunted by the loss, especially Jamie.
Davis studied the woman across from her with a more critical eye, trying to determine if she was bluffing. "That depends on what the information is. Because this office is not going to play games with Mr. Bello if that's his intention. And I assure you that his former partner will not either."
Richards gave her a tight smile. "That wasn't our intention at all, Miss Davis. My client is willing to give up valuable information regarding the location of Officer Janko in exchange for a few things."
Davis arched an eyebrow. Of course he would have conditions. The man was a rat through and through. "And what exactly are you looking for in exchange for that information?"
Richards shifted slightly. "First and foremost, we want a guarantee of protective custody, with it explicitly stated as such that none of the wardens can revoke my client's status there."
That much was obvious, given the way their conversation had been going. Davis circled her hand, indicating for the other woman to continue.
"He would also like see and speak to his wife and children. I'm also requesting that he not be charged with Officer Janko's murder. And he will only speak with Sergeant Reagan to reveal Officer Janko's location."
Davis had been writing down the request on a notepad to the side, but the additional factors made her stop. The protective custody clause, she could do. That was a simple fix. The other conditions though, were a bit concerning.
She placed her pen down. "Counselor, I cannot make someone go somewhere if they do not want to. Mr. Bello's ex-wife is well within her rights to choose not to visit him if she does not want to. And she is even more within her rights to refuse to allow him to see their children, as she has full custody of them. I will not force her to go see him if she doesn't want to, let alone bring their children. As for speaking with Sergeant Reagan, absolutely not. I don't know what kind of sick game your client wants to play, but the man has been through enough. I won't put him through any more suffering because your client asked for him. That's not how this works."
Richards fixed a steady gaze on her. "I'm aware. But we aren't asking for much here. Certainly not a reduction in his sentence. And in exchange, my client could potentially help close a major case. One that, last I checked, still didn't have any substantial leads."
Davis met the other woman's gaze with a steely one of her own. She had a point, loathe as she was to admit it. "I can write up a plea deal ensuring protective custody. That's not a problem. Neither is not pressing homicide charges, given the fact that the information was provided to us. But the other two conditions your client is requesting are not as simple."
She nodded. "I'm aware of that, counselor. I'm simply asking that you give Sergeant Reagan and Mrs. Bello the option to make their own decision on the matter before you shoot us down. If they refuse, fine. But that should be their choice, not yours. And my client has explicitly stated that he will not speak to you, your boss, or Detective Lenin regarding this matter."
Davis let out a sigh. "Alright, give me some time to reach out. I'll speak with my boss and Detective Lenin to gather their thoughts on this and contact you once we've come to a decision, okay?"
Richards gave her a tight nod. "Of course. I'll be waiting."
She stood and walked out of her office. Davis watched her through the windows until Richards disappeared behind the elevator doors.
She dropped her head into her hands, contemplating what she had just agreed to. This was going to be messy, and she wasn't even sure if she could trust that Bello would actually give them something useful. But it was worth a shot at least.
Davis sat in her car down the block from the house that Lisa Smith (formerly Bello) shared with her mother and children. Her boss had agreed to at least consider the conditions Bello was requesting in exchange for information leading to Janko's recovery. So here she was. As soon as the news had broken about her former husband's activities, the poor woman had filed for divorce and left the city. She had changed her name almost immediately and made certain that it was nearly impossible for her to be found. Davis couldn't blame her.
Lisa was currently playing in the front yard of her mother's house with her two kids, something Davis hated to interrupt. Unfortunately, she didn't have much choice, as they were dealing with a bit of a time sensitive matter.
She got out of her car and headed up the block, making sure that she was in the other woman's full view as she approached. Lisa noticed her when she was a few houses down. The woman bent down, whispering something in her son's ear and shooing him back inside with the baby.
She stood, arms crossed, on the front porch as Davis walked up the sidewalk. "Hello, Lisa. My name is Kierra Davis, I'm with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office."
Bello's ex-wife cocked an eyebrow, her stance defensive. "I know who you are. I remember seeing you on the news when they covered the trials. What do you want?"
Davis sighed and gestured towards the porch swing nearby. "Let's have a seat, shall we?"
Lisa reluctantly followed her over and took a seat. Davis tried to come up with a way to present the current situation without getting an immediate rejection but was drawing a blank.
She decided to just bite the bullet. "Lisa, I'm here because your ex-husband requested to see you and the children."
That ignited a burning flame of rage in the other woman's eyes. "Absolutely not. Over my dead body will he have anything to do with my children and I certainly don't want to see him. He lost that right when he fell in with that crowd." She paused and seemed to let the information sink in, studying Davis's face. "But you wouldn't be here if that was just the case, would you?"
Davis dropped her shoulders. "No, I wouldn't be. In exchange for hopefully leading detectives to Officer Janko's body, your husband has requested guaranteed protective custody, to speak with Sergeant Reagan, and to see you and the kids. Normally, I wouldn't even consider it, but…"
Lisa gave a nod. "But it's not really all that much in the grand scheme of things, is it?"
Davis shook her head. "It isn't. But I won't make someone do something they don't want to do, which is why I came to ask you personally and I had Detective Lenin go speak with Sergeant Reagan. I think it should be your choice, both of yours. I won't make that decision for you."
The woman dropped her head, mumbling something to herself, before raising it and staring out at the yard in front of her. "I saw him once, you know." She looked at Davis. "Sergeant Reagan. That poor cop's husband. I had gone down to the precinct to collect a few of Ryan's things, since his boss had asked me to, and the divorce wasn't final yet. And I saw him, just sitting there at a desk, staring blankly ahead. It had been a few weeks, but that poor man, the look on his face was just heartbreaking. I couldn't imagine losing someone I loved and not even really getting an answer on what actually happened to them. And to know that the person who had done that was toying with you by not giving you the truth, just because they wanted to."
Davis spoke. "I can't even imagine what he feels."
Lisa shook her head. "I tried. I was probably nowhere near it, but I tried, and it seemed awful." She paused to think for a second before turning her head back towards Davis. "I'll talk to him. But only on a few conditions."
Davis nodded. "Of course. Whatever you want."
"First, there is absolutely no way that I will bring my children there to meet him. I'd rather they grow up without a father then know the kind of man he actually is. Second, I'll meet with him and talk, if that's what he wants, but only after they find that officer and confirm it actually is her. Not a minute before. And if they don't find her, it's null and void."
Davis gave her a sad smile. "I think that seems fair. Thank you, Lisa. I know it takes a lot of strength to do that, after everything you had to go through after the arrest."
She returned the smile. "I'm just willing to do it in the hopes it brings that woman's family some peace. And her as well."
Davis squeezed her hand and stood to leave. "I'll reach out to you if we do recover Officer Janko. Let you know if you need to go speak with him."
She started to head down the walk back towards her car when Lisa called out behind her. "Miss Davis. Why did he decide he wanted to help find her now, if I may ask?"
She turned back towards the other woman, who was still sitting on the porch swing. "The warden at the facility he's located at decided to move him out of protective custody into general population this coming Friday."
Lisa shook her head, anger evident on her face. "Of course that would be what it takes for the bastard to do something right. Not because he wanted to do the right thing out of the goodness of his heart, but because he was trying to save his own skin." Her voice dripped with disgust.
She wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, so Davis just gave her a nod and continued back to her car. That was one end of things settled. Now she just needed to wait for Detective Lenin to get back to her regarding Sergeant Reagan.
Davis tapped her pen impatiently as she waited for Detective Lenin and Sarah Richards to join her. It was after eight and Lenin hadn't let her know which way Jamie Reagan was leaning for this deal, so she had had to draw up two separate ones, both of which her boss had approved. She figured it was best to kill two birds with one stone and have him here to discuss logistics at the same time she presented the deal to Sarah Richards.
There was a knock at her door as she was rereading the case notes for the Janko file. "It's open, come in," she called out, not looking up from the page she was reading.
There was the sound of the door opening and heels clicking across the floor. So, Richards had arrived first it seemed. "You called, said that your office had made a decision regarding my client?"
Davis closed the case file and placed it to the side. "Yes, we have for the most part. We're just waiting for one more party to join us before we proceed."
Richards looked confused and opened her mouth to ask a question, but before she could, another knock came.
Davis gave the other woman a smile. "That must be him. Come in."
Detective Lenin opened the door, pausing when he noticed that Davis wasn't alone, before entering further into the room and taking the other open seat in front of her desk. "Sorry, traffic was a nightmare trying to get across town." He nodded at Davis. "He's in."
She smiled and pulled the file that included Jamie Reagan as part of the plea agreement from her stack, making a mental note to shred the other option later. "Perfect. Then let's get down to business, shall we? Oh, in case you two don't know each other, Miss Richards, this is Detective Eric Lenin, he's the lead detective on the case. Detective Lenin, this is Sarah Richards, counsel for Ryan Bello."
The two gave each other nods of acknowledgement before angling themselves towards her desk. Richards spoke first. "So, I take it that there is the conditions of my client's agreement? And it includes the proper language to guarantee him protective custody?"
Davis nodded. "Yes, it is, and don't worry, you were crystal clear about that, so I made certain it was included. You're welcome to review it after this conversation. We're just going to go over the terms of the agreement here and then we can bring it to Mr. Bello to sign in the morning."
Richards nodded. "That's fair, I suppose."
"Good. Now, besides the protective custody clause, I've reviewed your other requests in exchange for the information that you allege will lead to the recovery of Officer Janko's remains. My office has agreed not to press homicide charges, since your client will be assisting our investigation, which is clearly outlined in the paperwork here. I spoke with his ex-wife, and she agreed to talk to Mr. Bello, but only after Officer Janko is recovered and positively identified, not before. She also will not bring their children to see him under any circumstances and said if your client continues to press the issue, she will not speak to him either. And it sounds like Sergeant Reagan has agreed to go speak to Mr. Bello as well, Detective Lenin?"
Lenin glanced at the two lawyers before nodding. "Yes, he has. Said he would do whatever it took to lay his wife to rest."
Davis nodded and turned her attention back to Richards. "Good. Now, everything that is included as part of this agreement for your client, Ms. Richards, is contingent on him giving us information that leads to the retrieval of Officer Janko's remains. None of it will be honored until we are able to positively ID her, except for his speaking with Sergeant Reagan. That will only be done because Mr. Bello refuses to speak to anyone else about this and we won't be able to obtain the information otherwise. But, in the event that your client is playing some sort of game, this deal will be rendered null and void, and he will be entered into gen pop immediately, regardless of whether or not it is Friday."
Richards nodded and took the paper that Davis was holding out to her for review. "I understand. As far as I have been able to verify, it appears that Mr. Bello is genuine in his intentions to assist with the investigation."
Lenin let out a snort at that and Davis gave him a look. She didn't necessarily blame the man, but there was a time and a place, and this was currently neither.
Richards read through the document and seemed satisfied, although she appeared to reread the opening parts of it several times. Likely to make sure there was no way her client would be removed from protective custody. She handed it back to Davis, who tucked it into a manilla envelope, and sat back. "This seems fair."
Davis nodded. "Good. We can meet with your client in the morning to sign it. Detective Lenin, when is Sergeant Reagan free to speak to Mr. Bello?"
Lenin shrugged. "He said whenever we needed him, so that's up to you guys. I think it would be better to do it sooner rather than later, though. And I'd like to be able to give him a heads up, maybe to cover for him with his lieutenant, since this isn't going to be public knowledge yet. The man already thinks Reagan's one step away from being cracked, if he finds out about this before your office makes an announcement, he'll think Reagan finally lost it and put him back on a desk."
Davis glanced at Richards. "In that case, would tomorrow morning work? We'll already be meeting with Mr. Bello to review and sign the deal; Sergeant Reagan could speak to him immediately following it if he wishes."
Lenin seemed to consider the possibility. "I think he'd be okay with that. I'll call him in a bit and let you know for sure, counselor."
Davis nodded and made a note to make sure to follow up with the man if he forgot to call later. "Good. Now, just for some logistics. Mr. Bello stated he will only speak with Sergeant Reagan, but we still need to be able to verify what he says. Therefore, the three of us will be observing the conversation through a one-way mirror in a separate room. And since it could potentially take us a while to find this location, is it alright if we do this early tomorrow morning?"
The other two nodded. "Perfect. I'll get everything squared away here and with a judge. Detective, please let me know if Sergeant Reagan will not be able to make it tomorrow morning. Otherwise, I'll see you both tomorrow."