"Argus didn't know that," said Riker. "He thought Kidd was in town to check up on his work."
Their conversation ended when the door opened. Detective Janos and his charge had returned from the men's room. Victor Patchock sat down, adjusted his wig and continued his story of the jury deliberations. "Well, Andy comes up to me one night when we're all eating dinner in a restaurant with the bailiff. On my way to the toilet, he boxes me into a corner and whispers, 'Number four Ellery Drive.' That's where I live – used to live."
"But we never had any paperwork on you," said Hennessey. "Why didn't you support Dr. Apollo's complaint?"
I was the one who went to the judge," said Johanna Apollo. "But the other jurors wouldn't back me up, no corroborating complaints. The judge asked if I might be hysterical – all the pressure of a televised murder trial. He loved the whole circus, actually used makeup in court. And he didn't want a mistrial. So the judge sent me back in there with all those frightened people."
"And Andy Sumpter," said Zachary. "So you were afraid."
"I'm not immune to intimidation," she said. "Andy was angry with me, and he let me know it. He glared at me for hours. He was so quiet – except for the sound of his fist punching into his hand, and every punch was for me. Obviously, Andy knew about the complaint, and that would've been your work."
"But I had no contact with the jurors," said Zachary. "Can you can prove otherwise? No, I didn't think so. Well, maybe the judge was right. Are you prone to hysterics, Doctor?"
"Actually, you're the one who seems on edge tonight." She turned her chair to face the dark booth, and this had the predictable effect of jumping up the man's anxiety. "I'm going public with my story because – " And here she paused to borrow a phrase from Mallory. "I can't count on living through the night."
Riker was slowly shaking his head from side to side. "Okay, Victor, let me get this straight. Jo went to the judge to save all your sorry hides, and none of you backed her up?"
"No," said Victor Patchock. "Not then. Andy was a crazy bastard. We had to deal with him eight hours a day."
"What happened after the verdict?" asked Riker. "Did anybody else come forward to back up her complaint?"
"No. When Andy got killed, I never thought anything of it. I'm sure no one else did, either. He was the type you'd expect to get his throat slit. I never heard anything about a note written in blood. Nobody told us a killer was threatening the rest of the jury, not then."
Agent Hennessey looked up from his perusal of the Bureau's Reaper file. "That call was made by the Chicago police while they still had jurisdiction. The cops had a real short list of people who wanted Andy Sumpter dead. They figured the crime was staged to look like a psycho killing – to draw attention away from his loan shark."
"So Andy needed cash," said Mallory, who loved money motives best.
Andy was your most insanely loyal fan," said Johanna. "But I'm sure he had other incentives. He wouldn't settle for a hung jury. Did you tell him the verdict had to be unanimous?"
"More accusations? Once again, you're all alone, Dr. Apollo. No support for your story. And let's not lose sight of the fact that you also voted not guilty. Would you like to explain that? Because right now you look like the prime suspect for jury tampering. Swaying an entire jury – well, that would be child's play for a psychiatrist. Andy was just an overgrown brain tumor."
"A good description. So you did get to know him." Zachary sighed. "I can't see that moron convincing an entire jury – " "He terrified them. And you told him how to do that. He wasn't smart enough to work it out on his own. He was so close to blowing his temper and hurting those people."
"But he didn't. And that was your doing, wasn't it, Dr. Apollo? And yours was the only complaint. That's interesting, too."
"If the other two women hadn't died, I think they might have come forward. It would've been easier for a woman to admit what happened in that room."
"You make it sound like a rape."
"The assault took place in the jury bathroom," said Johanna. "But you already knew that. You planned it."
It was like a rape," said Victor Patchock. "You lose your manhood the first time he makes you back down. None of the men in that room would admit that Andy had them cowed. The votes changed with every ballot, one or two a day, till he had them all."
Hennessey looked up from his notebook, pen hovering, "But you say Andy never touched anyone?"
"Well… yeah, he did. It was MacPherson. Poor Mac. He went into the bathroom. It had two stalls. So nobody thought it was odd when Andy followed him in there. But then Andy slid under Mac's stall door. Oh, Mac, he was scared shitless – speechless, never called out for help. I always wondered how Andy knew he wouldn't scream like a woman."
"Practice," said Riker, who could see where this story was going. "He'd probably done it before."
Victor Patchock lowered his head. "Then Andy jammed this stinking, dirty snot rag in MacPherson's mouth. He spun the poor guy around and spread his legs. So Mac had to lean both hands on the wall to keep from falling. And that poor bastard still didn't know what was coming – not till he heard the sound of Andy's zipper coming down."
The little man squeezed his eyes shut. "Outside in the jury room, there wasn't much to hear – grunts, Andy laughing – and thumps – when his rear end hit the stall door." Victor Patchock beat his closed fist on the table, over and over, saying, "Thump, thump, thump," in the rhythm of a rape.
"So Andy comes back to the jury room with this big sloppy grin on his stupid face. MacPherson was in the bathroom another twenty minutes. When he finally came out, he wouldn't look anybody in the eye, just stared at the floor. He was shaking all over, dying inside, trying so hard not to cry. But then he did cry – real quiet, just tears. There was blood on the seat of his pants. Everybody knew what happened to him in there. Nobody ever used the bathroom again – except Andy. MacPherson changed his vote."
Andy Sumpter wasn't gay," said Ian Zachary. "This man was paying child support on three children."
"The rape wasn't about sex," said Johanna.
"Ah, the feminist party line. I know this cliche. Rape isn't about sex – it's about power. Is that the way you see it, Dr. Apollo?"
"No," said Johanna. "I thought it was probably about money. Or did you promise to make Andy famous? Oh, the things your fans will do just for a few minutes on the radio."
"Maybe Andy was your bitch, Dr. Apollo. You were always in control of that room. That's one thing the jurors agreed on when they talked to the media. They took their cues from you."
"I did my best to keep Andy from spinning out of control. He always wanted to use his fists, and it was a fight to keep him from hitting those people. So, in hindsight, he probably wasn't your best choice for intimidating that jury – always a second away from exploding. And this is what comes of amateurs like you dabbling in psychology."
"But you claim this no-neck moron thwarted the entire justice system. Stupid Andy swayed the whole jury."
"Andy came from the cave," said Johanna. "But you're right about one thing. It was my fault. Now I wish I'd just let him explode in that jury room, a room full of witnesses. He might've hurt one of them badly, maybe a few broken bones. But you never would've walked away from that trial as a free man."
"And, without that unanimous verdict, without your vote, Doctor, the Reaper would've had no motive to kill the jurors. All those people would still be alive."