Battaglia almost choked on the cigar smoke, he puffed so hard. “Or what?” he said, laughing at my show of temper. “What do you want me to tell the mayor?”
“Tell him to watch Brian Williams at 6:30. Nightly News.”
“That’s comical, Alex. You doing the weather this evening, are you? Is that your next gig?” He laughed again, but Manny Chirico’s handsome face was frozen in a grimace as he watched me open the door.
“Yeah, boss. Storm brewing on the bench. Tropical-force winds. What the mayor ought to know is that I have an audiotape of Jessica Pell that’s a bit incriminating. Made it myself, Paul.”
Battaglia took the cigar out of his mouth and crushed it in the glass ashtray on his desk.
“Who the fuck signed off on a wiretap of a judge?” he shouted at me. Smoke even seemed to be coming out of his ears.
“It’s not a wiretap, Paul, and I didn’t need your signature,” I said. “All I have to do is download the audio and e-mail it to one of the television producers. It’ll make a great scoop on the news tonight. Especially the sound of the judge smacking me across the face.”
TWENTY-SIX
“Rose is going to call you before I finish talking,” I said to Laura as I stuck my head in, barely pausing on my way back to the conference room. “You don’t know where I am, you don’t know when I’m coming back, and you’ll be happy to get a message to me if necessary.”
The light on the first line of her phone lighted up. She put her hand on the receiver to pick it up, but I put mine on top of hers.
“And if the man himself walks over to talk to me, just tell him I’ve stepped out.”
A second ring. I knew it was Rose Malone calling for Battaglia, who’d be looking for an apology first and then for more information about my taped conversation with Pell.
“Tell him I seemed very upset. That I flew out of here,” I said. “And if Manny Chirico drops by, remember to tell him that I love him. I absolutely love him. Or maybe give that message to Rose, and tell her to be sure to pass it along in front of Battaglia.”
Laura picked up the phone. “Alexandra Cooper’s office.”
She covered the receiver with her hand and mouthed to me that it was Rose. I shrugged and shook my head, and scooted down to the conference room.
“You look like you got hit by a truck,” he said.
“We have to get lost for the rest of the day, Mercer. I may have just talked myself out of a job.”
“C’mon, Alex. What’s-?”
“Insubordination. Rudeness. Untimely display of my ill-managed temper. Threats,” I said, sitting at the table with my head in my hands. “I think I just sort of threatened Paul Battaglia. And the mayor of the city of New York. Tell me I didn’t do that.”
Mercer walked over behind me and started to massage my shoulders. “I know you didn’t do that.”
“Quite sure I did. It’s Friday. I’m just going to take off early for the weekend. Unless you’ll hang with me,” I said. “Can we take the most critical papers we need with us and go to my apartment and keep working?”
“I’ll do anything you want. But let’s get your head on straight.”
“That feels good. Keep rubbing my neck.”
“Will do if you tell me what just happened in there.”
I got as far as Chirico’s presentation of Raymond Tanner’s prison photos. Mercer had been with us at Stallion Ridge on the day our last major investigation came to an abrupt end. He had helped to find a way to celebrate my birthday when my personal world imploded that afternoon, and so the timeline Chirico established made great sense to him.
“Jessica Pell and Raymond Tanner in the same air space up at Fishkill?” he said. “Mighty dicey. Being on her bad side’s a dangerous spot.”
“I think that tat is only about spooking me. Nothing more than that.”
“So what’s Battaglia’s problem?”
“I didn’t get to the end of the story, Mercer. I went up to court yesterday to see the judge, like I told you I was going to do.”
“You what?” He let go off my shoulders and sat down opposite me. “Pick up your head, look me in the eye, and tell me you didn’t do what I told you not to do, Ms. Cooper.”
“I didn’t mean to go against you, Mercer. There’s just too much on the line here for this laissez-faire approach everybody seems to have about Pell.”
“Spare no details, Alexandra.”
Every word of my conversation with Jessica Pell was still fresh in my mind. I repeated the story for Mercer, whose expression never changed throughout the telling. Then he stretched his arms out on the table and bowed his head.
“Who’s going to believe you, Alex? You think you’re getting jammed up so you went to her one-on-one? I would have gone with you if I’d thought for a minute you were serious.”
I pointed at the scratches on my cheek and Mercer reached across the table and held my chin in his hand to look at them.
“It’s not about you, is it, Alex? You didn’t crawl out on a limb for your own sake. You did this so Pell wouldn’t pull the plug on Mike.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. I shook my head from side to side.
“Damn, I wish I’d been there.” Mercer stood up and started to pack several of the manila folders into one of my canvas sail bags.
“One more thing you should know,” I said. “I had the guys from the DA’s squad wire me up. It’s not just my word, Mercer. There’s a tape.”
He dropped the file that was in his hand, and the papers spread over the floor. “Mother of-”
“Hey-it’s legal.”
“Ill-advised, Ms. Cooper. Risky but ballsy-and yes, legal. Where’s the audio?”
“At my apartment. And a copy in the squad safe.”
Mercer smiled at me. “Way to go, girl. Wait till Mike hears.”
“No way. Blood oath on this one. When Pell gives the all clear, let him just think the madwoman came to her senses. He can’t know I got into this battle.”
“I can respect that for now. Pick the files you want,” he said, bending down to retrieve the papers. “I’ve got mine. Now all we have to do is figure a way past McKinney’s door, and we can hustle down the rear staircase.”
“It’s Friday. McKinney’s shrink gets the first crack at him in the morning. We’re good to go.”
I called Laura from my cell. “All calm?”
“Not from my vantage point. Rose called three times before the DA came by. You do not want to cross his path today. He wants to hear from you as soon as I find you.”
“In about three minutes, two people who look a lot like Mercer and me will slink past your door. Bury your nose in a file cabinet and then we’re out of your hair. I promise I’ll respond to all your calls and texts. I just blew out of here. That’s all you know,” I said. “And I will try to find some way to thank you.”
“Stay safe, Alexandra. The radio says that Tanner bastard raped again last night.”
“I’m with Mercer, and he’s on top of that. Talk later.”
With a small fraction of the case folders in our totes, we raced down the short corridor between the conference room and my office. Instead of the main elevator, we took the service staircase down to the street.
Once inside Mercer’s SUV and headed uptown, I called Rose’s number.
“Alex? Let me put you right through. You seem to have started a small war.”
“No, no, no. I’m not in the office. I’m taking the day off. I’d just like you to tell the boss I’m sorry for the contretemps, and that I’ll call him later. No point his waiting for me to come see him because I’m gone for the day.”