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DeMaris looked from one cop to the other, her heart racing in her throat, her palms growing moist with perspiration.

“I want a lawyer,” she said hoarsely.

“Yeah, I bet you do,” Priscilla said.

Suddenly Rizzo stood up. “You want a lawyer,” he said harshly. “See, Cil, like I told you, no use tryin’ to be nice to her.” He turned hard eyes back to DeMaris. “You want a lawyer, you can get one at the precinct. You can call one from there. You want a fuckin’ lawyer, you can have one for when we’re grillin’ you. We can get you some kid from Legal Aide.” Now Rizzo placed his hands down on the tabletop and leaned forward, bending to bring his face closer to DeMaris.

“But understand somethin’, lady,” he hissed. “I ain’t some college boy cop from Manhattan South. You’re comin’ to Brooklyn now. And I don’t give a fuck who killed Mallard or Lauria-you or Bradley. For all I know, Bradley’s clean and you killed ’em both. Maybe he’s alibiing you for the night of the murder. I pin this all on you, I clear two cases and still walk away a hero. So if you’re thinkin’ this is about justice, think again. Far as I’m concerned, real justice would be somebody stranglin’ you and Thomas Bradley. That’s fuckin’ justice. Anything else is politics, lady, just politics. And maybe I figure it’s my turn to get elected.”

DeMaris shrank in her seat, perspiration glistening on her forehead. Desperate, she turned toward Priscilla, her eyes imploring the female detective for help.

Priscilla smiled at her, then raised her gaze to Rizzo’s face.

“You know, Joe,” she said in a cold, low tone. “I think maybe she did kill ’em both.”

“No,” DeMaris said loudly, her voice cracking. “I didn’t kill anyone, I swear.”

Rizzo shook his head slowly. “Understand me, lady: it don’t mean shit to me. You want a lawyer, fine. We go to the precinct, you call a lawyer. I arrest you on suspicion of murder, second degree, two counts. Then the lawyer can handle it. If he’s good, better than your lover boy’s lawyer turns out to be, he gets both murders pinned on Bradley. You take a fall on two counts a conspiracy, second degree. You do maybe ten, fifteen years. Bradley does twenty-five to life, twice.” He shrugged. “Best you can hope for. And only if your lawyer is better than lover boy’s.”

After a moment, Priscilla stood and walked around the table, laying a hand on DeMaris’s shoulder. She bent slightly, speaking in a soft, even tone into the right ear of the frightened woman.

“Or maybe you’d like to hear what me and Sergeant Rizzo can do for you?” she asked.

Later, Rizzo and Jackson sat at a table in the small interview room of the Six-Two squad room, a pale, tired-looking Linda DeMaris opposite them.

“Like we promised, Ms. DeMaris, I deliberately kept your statement vague,” Rizzo said. “Far as anyone can tell from readin’ it, you brought the play to Thomas Bradley ’cause you recognized it to be a masterful work. Bradley convinced you to let him handle it, told you to turn down Lauria on behalf of the agency. You were unaware of any problems that occurred later on, after Mallard got the letter from Lauria and confronted Bradley. You were not further involved until Bradley asked you to alibi him for the night of the Mallard murder.” Rizzo paused. “Lucky for you, I’m not a real good statement taker, Ms. DeMaris. The way your statement reads, it’s a little unclear exactly when Bradley approached you for the alibi. Coulda been before he killed Mallard, coulda been after. Better for you, of course, if it was after. We’ll let your lawyer, when you get one, clarify that. As to Lauria, your statement is a little unclear there, too. Seems like Bradley told you Mallard was wise to the plagiarism, but Lauria himself never came up as bein’ the specific source of Mallard’s knowledge and possible anger about the whole situation. Not to you, anyway. So, reasonable doubt could certainly exist as to whether or not you could have known any harm would ever come to Lauria. Far as anybody’s concerned, it could seem reasonable that you didn’t even know about Lauria’s murder till this mornin’ when me and Detective Jackson told you about it.”

DeMaris opened her mouth to speak, but Rizzo held up a hand to silence her.

“No need to comment,” he said. “I got all I need, and I know more about you than I want to. Let me be blunt, Ms. DeMaris. Far as I’m concerned, you’re a thief and a callous, calculating, coldhearted bitch who’s gettin’ away with murder. Let’s just leave it at that.”

The door to the interview room opened and Detective Morris Schoenfeld stepped in.

“Here you go, Joe,” Schoenfeld said, handing some papers to Rizzo. “Signed, sealed, delivered.”

Rizzo glanced at the legal papers he held. “Thanks, Mo,” he said.

Schoenfeld nodded, turning to leave. “This little favor squares us for that counterfeit prescription case you handed me and Rossi. We’re pickin’ up the perp to night.”

“My plea sure,” Rizzo said. He turned to Priscilla as Schoenfeld left the room. “Here, take this court order. Call Homeland Security, give ’em the order number so they can put a freeze on Bradley’s passport.” He waved the other papers at her. “These are the warrants.”

Priscilla left the room. Rizzo turned back to DeMaris, speaking in a softer tone. “I called a friend a mine over at Brooklyn South Homicide. He’s got some juice at the D.A.’s office. They got hold of the homicide bureau chief. He’s comin’ down personally to hear you out, and once he sees that half-assed statement I took, he’s gonna want you to give him a better one. You refuse and speak to him only after your lawyer gets here. I’ll fill the bureau chief in. Because of your cooperation and statement, plus some circumstantial evidence I already had, Detective Schoenfeld was able to go down to court and secure a search warrant for Bradley’s home. I’m hopin’ to get the physical evidence I need to tie him to the Lauria homicide. Without you as his alibi, and with your testimony as a cooperating witness, he’ll fall on the Mallard case, too. Any defense lawyer in the city can cut you a deal you’ll be satisfied with. Bradley’s my target here, he’s the strangler.”

He reached across the table and patted her hand. “Relax, you’re doin’ the right thing. If you’d have bucked me on this, I’d have gladly crucified you. And your boyfriend, too. He was done for either way, so you might as well look out for your own ass. Most you’ll probably do is a couple a years.”

Rizzo stood, his expression now stern. “Not too bad for stealing a play from a lonely, sad dreamer so you could line your own pockets.”

He shook his head and turned to leave. “What ever jail time you wind up with, lady, it ain’t enough. Not nearly enough.”

Back at his desk, Rizzo began making phone calls, first to Dan Cappelli, the Daily News reporter he had spoken to on Thanksgiving night, then the Six-Two squad boss, Vince D’Antonio. He made a perfunctory apology to D’Antonio for disturbing him at home, then filled him in with the briefest of outlines. D’Antonio said he would be at the precinct in less than an hour.

Next he called Lieutenant Dominick Lombardi at Manhattan South. Lombardi was one of the senior investigators assigned to the Mallard homicide. Upon hearing Rizzo’s summary of the situation, he promised to be at the Six-Two as quickly as possible.

As he hung up on Lombardi, Priscilla stepped up to his desk.

“Passport is frozen, boss,” she said. “They got it into the computer while I was still on the line with them.”

“Good, Cil,” Rizzo said. “Sit down. I gotta talk fast, so let me get started. Vince is on his way, and Lombardi from Manhattan South. When they get here, I’ll fill them in. Then Lombardi makes his play to push us off the case and have Manhattan pick up Bradley. That’s when we bend him over and shove it up his ass.”

Priscilla smiled. “Tell me,” she said with a wink.

Rizzo laughed, then grew serious. “Few years back, a bunch of local teenagers jumped a black kid down by the highway. They beat ’im up a little, then chased him. Kid ran out on the highway and got hit by a car. Hurt pretty bad, almost lost a leg.”