“Nothing yet?”
“I’d say I can tell my team to narrow the list of suspects to just one young woman, don’t you think?” There are five hundred prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and a support staff twice that size. “Would you mind if I called the investigators with the wedding news?”
Fleming dug her cell phone out of her pocket and handed it to me.
“What’s her name, Gino?” I asked him as I dialed.
“She’s Mrs. Estevez now.” He shrugged his shoulders. “How the hell should I know what it was two weeks ago?”
Fleming slammed her hand down again. “Do better than that, Gino.”
“Her first name is Josie. It’s Josie.”
“Laura?” I said when my secretary answered the phone. “As fast as you can move, okay? Call the squad and tell whoever is closest to the door to come down and grab on to-”
“No!” Moretti shouted.
“Step into the hallway, Gino,” Fleming said. “Now you’re out of order.”
“They need to grab that new kid down the corridor. Josie is her name and-”
“Bring her right up to me,” Fleming said, talking over me.
“Laura? Still there? That’s the judge speaking. I don’t know who Josie works for exactly, but they can cuff her if necessary and bring her up to Part 53. We’re in the robing room.”
“Cuff her?” Moretti said. “You two are going overboard. There’s an innocent view of this that you haven’t even considered. My client isn’t-”
“Move faster, Gino.”
“But, Judge-?”
I put one hand over my ear while Fleming laced into my adversary.
“You know, when I was in your shoes and stood up in court for a client,” she said, “I was the client. I thought for him, I talked for him, I bled for him if necessary. I was going to be cleaner than a hound’s tooth so no one could hold any of my conduct against a guy who was already behind the eight ball. But you? You’re just gaming me. You’re gaming the system. And that’s the lowest type of animal life in my courtroom.”
“I’m not gaming anybody. I had no idea.” Moretti couldn’t bring himself to walk out. “Like it’s okay for a prosecutor and a cop to hook up, right, but not for anybody else? For a paralegal or even the accused, who is still presumed innocent even though you’re the one presiding, Judge Fleming. At least that’s my guess. You don’t think that kind of incestuous relationship between Cooper and her homicide hotshot compromises how an investigation gets worked?”
“Don’t go there, Gino,” I said.
“Close the door behind you,” Fleming added, waving the back of her hand at him.
I was still on the phone. “Yes, Laura. I’m here. Now call IT and tell them it’s this Josie kid who’s most likely trying to break into the database. They need to stop whatever else they’re looking at and get on her computer. Find out what’s on it and lock it down. Then call me back once you make contact. I’m on the judge’s cell,” I said, asking Fleming for her number and repeating it to Laura.
“What’s there to get from your files, Alex?” the judge asked.
I bit my lip. “More than you need to know at this point.”
“Give it up. I’m not going to be able to try this case. Ex parte, ex schmarte. Whatever adjournment you get, this one is already too messy for me to handle. I’ll be reassigning it today. Is it the women?”
“Yeah. And I’d have to say girls, not women. Estevez likes them young. Names, addresses, aliases. Every which way we have to find them.”
“Your victim?”
“Tiffany’s safe. I spent most of yesterday with her and she was good when she went home. Mercer had officers pick her up this morning when we learned this attempt was being made to gain access to my files and they’re babysitting her in a hotel.”
“So Estevez is smart enough, desperate enough, to actually plant a mole in your office?”
“Apparently so. That idea never occurred to me.”
“And Gino?” the judge asked. “Do you think he’s capable of-?”
“No way,” I said, walking to the window to look down at the street behind the courthouse. “I can’t imagine he’s involved.”
“Very gracious of you, Alex,” Fleming said sarcastically. “I wouldn’t be quite so certain. These other girls, are they in danger?”
“I suppose it depends on whether Josie was successful in breaking and entering into my computer system. It’s a big ring this guy runs. He’s got a posse out there who stand to lose a lot of money if Estevez goes down.”
The first few distinctive notes of the theme song from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly played out on Fleming’s phone. She looked at the incoming number and passed it to me.
“Two guys from the squad have been dispatched to look for Josie. Josie Aponte. She’s a brand-new paralegal assigned to Child Abuse,” Laura said. “And the IT crew is headed straight for her computer.”
“Make sure the techies hold back until the detectives are hands-on, so we don’t tip off that we’re onto her if she doesn’t know yet. That should be done within five minutes, right?” The District Attorney’s Office Squad, an elite branch of the NYPD with officers handpicked to work complex investigations, had its own version of a mini precinct just one flight upstairs from my wing. “Keep me posted.”
Judge Fleming reached for her phone and started for the door. “Let’s move this to the courtroom. I want to put this whole thing on the record. The Bar Association can make Gino sweat out his role in this. Let’s see if I can get Josie’s prenup out of her. I haven’t had my chance to do a tough cross since I graduated to my judicial robes.”
“I think we’ve met our match,” I said, following her out. “Can you imagine what balls it takes to go through all the security clearance for this job, then walk in ready to commit a felony, smiling at me every time she passed me in the hallway? Josie’s made of tough stuff.”
“Estevez says he’s got a kid. It’s hers?”
“I don’t think so. There’s a baby mama, but he keeps her away from all his business.”
The court officers and reporter were caught by surprise when Fleming and I walked back in. Moretti was on the phone but hung up when he saw us.
The judge stepped onto the bench and everyone resumed his or her position.
“You want Mr. Estevez in here?” the captain asked.
“No. Not now. Not ever again,” Fleming said. “Tell him I hope his parole officer hasn’t been born yet.”
Moretti was seething.
“I’m thinking of who the toughest judge on the block is, and that’s where this case will be tried. I’ll adjourn this for a month,” she said, tossing the case folder to the captain to hand to the clerk. “Let Eddie Torres have a crack at Mr. Estevez.”
The Honorable Edwin Torres was as formidable as he was smart and solid. The fact that he packed heat was known to every inmate, and none had dared any tricks in his courtroom.
“Your call, Mr. Moretti. Do you want to testify before or after Ms. Aponte?”
“Testify about what, Your Honor?”
Fleming was trying to come up with a reason to get Gino on the witness stand. “People’s lives are at risk here, sir. Do you understand that? What did you know about this harebrained scheme to get into Ms. Cooper’s files?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Is Aponte Josie’s surname? I didn’t even know that.”
“You better hope she says the same thing. She’ll be up here in-what?” Fleming asked, looking at me.
“Probably another few minutes.”
“Ladies first, Your Honor,” Moretti said.
“Cute, Moretti,” Fleming said. “This just happens to be the wrong time and place for cute.”
“You want me to question her, Judge?” I asked.
“Not a chance. She’s all mine.” The young woman had flaunted her relationship with Estevez in open court, and Fleming would try to hold her toes to the fire, on the record, before the police met with a refusal to answer questions. She opened her notebook and started to write in it. “Just give me some background, Ms. Cooper. Was Josie Aponte one of the women in the defendant’s stable? Did she work for him?”