“Then all we have to do is have a sample of the grease analyzed to see if it matches the grease used on the wheel hubs on the subway cars, and if it does…”
“We nail the SOBs?” He jumped out of his chair. “I knew there was something I liked about you, Mr. Gambini.” He scratched his groin. “I think my spider sense is tingling.”
Vinny glanced at his crotch and grimaced. “Uh…you sure that you ain’t got crabs?”
Lopez laughed. “No, man, my girls are clean. So you think we can make some money on this?”
“Maybe. Hopefully. But it’ll take quite a bit of work. We have to prove that the MTA was negligent with its maintenance, and we have to do this all within ninety days of the accident so that we can file a timely notice of claim. After that, you can expect the suit to take from eighteen to twenty-four months from start to finish.” Vinny wore a confident expression. “Now, about those questions you wanted to ask me…”
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Mea Culpa
Vinny was jotting down notes when he heard someone clearing their throat. He looked up and saw Vanessa standing in the doorway of his office.
“You’ve got another visitor, Mr. Gambini. This one doesn’t look like a total douchebag.”
“Yeah…sorry about the last guy. I mean he’s all right but I don’t think you want to get to know him any better than you already do.”
“Is he a crook?”
“A crook? No, he ain’t no crook. I wouldn’t represent anyone like that. He’s just very intense about his business. I don’t think the two of you would work well together. Anyway, I ain’t expecting no one else. Who’s here?”
She looked down at her secretary’s pad. “A distinguished looking man. Henry Molloy?”
Vinny’s eyes grew wide. “Judge Molloy? Here? Send him right in. He’s a good friend of mine.” He hurried out into the hallway. “Judge Molloy, what are you doing here?”
He patted Vinny on the back. “Can’t I stop in to see my old friend?”
“Of course. It’s just that I wasn’t expecting you. How’d you find me?”
“I spoke to your lovely fiancée on the phone. She gave you up in a heartbeat.”
“Sit down. Sit down. They got coffee here. Can I get you a cup?”
“No need to fuss, Vinny. I just wanted a few minutes of your time.”
“Sure, Judge Molloy. What’s up? Is there something you wanna say to me?”
“Yes.” Molloy paused. “There’s something I have to tell you. I wanted to tell you sooner but I didn’t want to dissuade you from taking Ms. Cototi’s case on you own.”
“I don’t get it. How’d you even know about that?”
“Did you ever wonder why Ms. Cototi called you?”
“Yeah. I mean, I asked her and she said a friend told her to call me. She didn’t want to give me a name or nothing and well…I guess I forgot about it.”
“She got your name from me.”
“You, Judge Molloy? You told her to call me?”
“That’s right.” He seemed to grow sad. “Her parents, Ray and Lydia…Nice people—they didn’t get the time they deserved on this earth. Ray was an old friend from law school. He graduated, married Lydia, and moved to Ohio where Theresa was from originally.” He paused and swallowed with great difficulty. “Lydia lost her battle with cancer when Theresa was just fourteen, and Ray…he was never the same afterwards. Walked out into traffic one day and…I don’t know what to say, Vinny—I’m her godfather. Been keeping tabs on her since Ray passed on…I know she’s a stripper, but that doesn’t make her a bad person. I think things would’ve turned out differently if she’d had her folks around a while longer. I…well, I kind of feel responsible for her.”
“I gotta say, Judge, I’m glad you had enough faith in me to give me the case. I’m sure you know a lot of seriously accomplished lawyers at gigantic law firms who could do the job, but you sent Theresa to me anyway. That means a lot to me, Judge. I won’t never forget it.”
“I know a ton of good lawyers, Vinny, but none that I thought would put their heart and soul into her defense the way I know you will. There’s just one question I have to ask.”
Vinny seemed concerned. “What’s that, Judge?’
“You’re going up against a deputy mayor, not directly of course but you’d be foolish to think he’s not going to exert his influence on the DA. So tell me straight up, Vinny, can you handle that kind of pressure or are you going to let the man scare the smarts right out of you?”
“Me? Scared? I think you know better than that. Judge Molloy, I boxed some of the biggest bastards you ever seen, guys who could drive nails into a two-by-four with their bare hands. There were a few times I got my head handed to me so bad I didn’t know where I was. You think a couple of guys in suits is gonna intimidate me?” He rolled his eyes. “I don’t think so.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Talk of the Clown
Lopez had signed a letter of engagement naming Vinny as his legal representative. It resided in Vinny’s briefcase along with the other cases in his starter collection, the one signed by Boydetto, the bad check passer, and most importantly, the one signed by Theresa Cototi. As he and Lisa approached Rikers Island in the Caddy, the notion of having a swelling caseload made him smile.
He checked in at the security gate and was directed to a parking space.
“You know what I think?” Lisa said in an exuberant tone. “I think you’re really on your way. You’ve got cases coming in and you’re developing a real daily routine. You’re an honest to God lawyer, Vinny.” She threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek several times. She looked deeply into his eyes. “You know what?” she began in an impish tone. “I’m really proud of you.” She nuzzled his neck. “We ain’t never done it in a prison parking lot,” she said and caressed his chest with her fingertips.
“Lisa! Lisa! Get a grip,” he said. “Are you out of your mind? They got guards and security cameras everywhere. The last thing I need is a video of my fat ass surfacing somewhere I don’t want it seen.”
“I can’t help it,” she purred. “You’ve got me all turned on. I love it when you’re all freewheeling and in charge like you are now. And here, next to the prison…I’m a bad girl. Punish me, Counselor. Threaten me with writs of habeas corpus or something…anything.”
“What? Do you even know what that means?”
“No.”
“It means to produce a body.”
She began to unbutton her shirt. “You want a body, Counselor? Here you go. My heart’s pumping, my hormones are surging, and I’m ready to be treated like a hostile witness.” Her blood pressure rose and her cheeks grew flush. “God forgive me, I want to do you right here and now.”
“Lisa, have you lost it? An innocent woman is in prison on murder charges. I got to have a clear head when I meet with her.”
“Really? Not even a quickie?”
“Lisa, I’m functioning on two hours of sleep. I got more cases than I’ve ever had before, and a client who’s accused of killing the deputy mayor’s brother.”
She slid her hand down his shirt but he grabbed it before it arrived at its intended destination. “Stop it. Just stop it.” He exhaled through his nostrils. “I tell you what. When we get finished here we’ll go have dinner, then we’ll go home early, and…well you know.”
She began to fan her face, playacting, halfheartedly attempting to cool down. “This is terribly disappointing. I ain’t never had prison yard sex before.”
“Yeah? Well if they catch us screwing in the parking lot you’re gonna get all the prison yard sex you can handle and then some. Can’t you at least wait until I’m done with my work?”
“If I have to and you promise we’ll have a nice romantic evening. Okay? You promise?”
“Of course I promise.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“For dinner?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do I have to think about that right now? I’m trying to focus on the meeti
ng with my client.”
“Okay. Forget it.” She said, somewhat upset.
“Lisa, don’t do that to me. We’ll go to a nice place. I promise.”
“I just thought that maybe you had an idea about where you wanted to go. That’s all.”
“If I pick a place will you get off my back?”
She nodded.
“How about that new place on Benson Avenue?”
“The place that’s always empty?”
“I doubt it’s always empty. People are talking about it all the time.”
“That’s right. They are. Except you never took the time to listen to what they were actually saying, did you?”
His forehead wrinkled. “Why? Just what the hell are they saying?”
“That the place sucks. It’s always fuckin’ empty!”
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Pocket Change
Once inside Rikers, they checked in with security. Vinny presented his bar card and driver’s license photo ID.
The female guard glanced at Lisa, who looked smoking hot in a flame red minidress and heels. As always, her gorgeous mile-long legs preceded her. “Is she a lawyer, too?” the guard asked.
“Uh, no,” Vinny said. “This is Ms. Vito, my legal assistant.”
The guard seemed perturbed. “She plan on going inside wearing that?”
Lisa scrutinized her outfit, not understanding the guard’s question. “Yeah. Why? What’s wrong with it?”
“You can’t go in there showing all that skin. You’ll incite a riot.”
“I know I look good, but a riot?”
“Ain’t this an all-women’s facility?” Vinny asked.
“That’s right. It is,” the guard said with assurance in her voice. “And it’s one hundred percent lesbian free. Lady, you go in there like that and you’ll have more hands up your skirt than a bride at a seamstresses’ convention. You got something to change into? Like a pair of pants maybe?”
“Pants? You think I’ve got a pair of pants in my bag? No, I ain’t got a pair of pants.”
The guard reached under the counter and handed Lisa a pair of black cotton drawstring pants. “Now you do. That’s ten dollars for the rental. You can drop them off on the way out.”
Lisa examined the worn, stained, and lint-covered garb dispassionately. “I ain’t wearing that hideous thing. It’s absolutely disgusting.”
“It’s up to you, ma’am, but you’re not getting in the way you are,” the guard said.
Lisa grimaced. “Holy shit. Vinny, can’t you do nothing?”
“What do you want me to do? Just slip them on so we can get in.”
Lisa was seething. “Yeah? Well don’t come crying to me when I give you the crabs.” She gritted her teeth and reluctantly yanked the pants off the counter.
“How about your bra?” the guard asked.
“What about my bra?” Lisa asked indignantly.
“Underwire?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong with that?”
“The metal detector is sensitive. It’ll set it off.”
“This is getting ridiculous. Now I got to take off my fuckin’ bra?”
The guard nodded.
“Fine,” she huffed.
“And your hair.”
“What?”
“Your hair.”
“What’s wrong with my hair?”
“It’s big, ma’am.”
“Big?”
“Yeah, it’s big. You’ve got it teased up with tons of hairspray. You could be hiding almost anything up in there.”
Lisa lost it. “My hair? My fuckin’ hair? What the hell do you want me to do? Shave my goddamn head? I ain’t got nothing in my hair. You think I’m smuggling the prisoner a Colt automatic up there?”
“Large hair pins, sharp objects…” the guard rattled off a list. “Anything you could pass to a prisoner that could be used to cause harm.” She pulled a pair of blue nitrile gloves out of a box and snapped them on.
Lisa laughed. “If you think you’re gonna touch my hair you’ve got another guess coming. I worked an hour on my hair this morning.”
The guard stood and leaned over the reception counter. “You want to get in or not?”
Lisa stared at Vinny, her gaze slicing flesh from the bone. “Fuck you, Vinny. You had no idea this was gonna happen?”
“You think I had any idea about this? What do you want me to say? I’m sorry. Anyway, she’s got gloves on.”
“All right. But she better not make a mess out of it,” she warned.
“Yes, your majesty.”
Lisa grimaced while the guard pressed on her hair, feeling for foreign objects and doing her best to make a mess of her carefully coiffed hair.
“My God,” the guard said. “You’d think I was performing a cavity search.”
Lisa scowled. “Don’t you even think about it.”
The guard finished and turned to Vinny as Lisa pulled out her compact and frantically checked her appearance. “What about you, handsome? You got anything that’ll set off the metal detector? Keys, cell phone, a metallic pen…a gun or a knife?” she bantered as she noticed that he was wearing several gold rings, a gold chain, and a gold bracelet. “All that bling got to go, Kanye.”
“Uh, yeah, I got all those things. Um…except for the knife and gun of course. What do you want me to do with them?”
“Lockers are opposite the visitor restrooms. You can leave them in there. Twenty-five cents.”
He checked his pockets. “Hey, Lisa…you got a quarter?”
She huffed with exasperation, arched her neck, and shook her head in disbelief.
***
“I look ridiculous,” Lisa complained as they walked back to the prison after she’d changed in the car and they had stashed anything they thought might set off the metal detector. The drawstring pants were tremendous on her—the cuffs on the absurdly baggy pants scraped the ground as she walked across the parking lot. “I’m braless and wearing a pair of inmate pants under my skirt over platform pumps. This is some kind of God-awful joke. If my friends ever saw me like this they’d laugh their friggin’ asses off.”
He laughed. “Yeah, maybe we ought to take a picture and add it to your collection along with my steak face photo and the one of Joe’s naked behind on the ladder. Lisa. I’m truly sorry, but you know how much I value your opinion. I want you there when I interview my client…for your insights. I mean now that I know Judge Molloy handpicked me to represent Theresa…I don’t want to miss a trick.”
“You want an insight?” she snapped. “Here it is. I look like a freakin’ clown. Didn’t you know that you have to be all covered up to visit someone in prison? How about a heads up, Vinny?”
“I swear I didn’t know. It’s like I said. There’s a lot of on-the-job training.”
“I’m really beginning to hate it when you say that.”
“What? On the job training?”
“Yeah. That. I don’t want to hear it no more…ever!”
***
Theresa was a tiny little thing, not more than five feet tall, and without her heels, her prison coveralls hung on her like adult clothing on a child. She looked down at the floor as she entered the room under the watchful eye of a prison guard, then looked up and saw Lisa standing next to Vinny wearing the baggy pants under her dress. “Jesus. And I thought I looked bad.”
“Yeah?” Lisa said aside to Vinny. “At least I get to take this crap off when I leave.”
“Ms. Cototi, this is my legal assistant and fiancée, Ms. Vito. She’s here to help me with your case.”
“Just as long as she’s not here to help me with fashion pointers. Jesus Christ. What the hell are you wearing? You look like the poster child for a K-Mart blue light special.”
“They made me put on these ridiculous pants. They said I was showing too much skin. It’s a good thing the fashion police aren’t here or I’d be your cellmate.”
“That’s no joke,” Theresa said. “I’ve only been here overnight and
I’ve already been propositioned three times. You ever get catcalls from another woman?”
After a moment’s thought, “Actually, yes.” She extended her hand. “You poor thing. Call me Lisa.” She glanced around, taking in the somber meeting room. “The place could use a coat of fresh paint…maybe a plant or two.”
“Call me Theresa, okay? I don’t have a lot of friends.”
“Sure,” Lisa said as she cracked her gum. “I love your hair.”
“Thanks, Lisa.”
“Ms. Cototi is from Ohio. She ain’t got no family around,” Vinny explained and then gestured toward the table. “Why don’t we all sit down?” Once seated, he pulled out a pad and pencil and placed them on the table in front of him.
“So, I’m in a lot of trouble, huh?” Theresa asked with a worried expression.
“I won’t lie,” Vinny began, “This is a serious charge but the only thing that really worries me is the victim’s brother.”
“Do you think I could talk to him?” Theresa asked. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him. He was looking at me like he wanted to kill me. He’s known me for such a long time. He has to know that I didn’t kill Sammy. I loved Sammy. I waited seven years for him to get out of prison, and I didn’t even have one date while he was away. Doesn’t that mean anything to him?”
“He may be too grief stricken to think straight,” Vinny said. “Hopefully he’ll calm down and come to his senses. A guy with that kind of juice…he could be our worst nightmare.”
“So how do we get him to calm down?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know, Lisa. I hope he’ll start to see things more clearly once the case gets underway.”
“You think we’ll definitely go to trial?” Theresa asked.
“I’m afraid so, dear, unless the DA offers to plea bargain. Doucette is asking for murder in the first degree and that carries a life sentence.”
Theresa’s eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped. “Life? He wants to send me away for life? But I didn’t do it, Mr. Gambini. I would never…You believe I’m innocent, don’t you?”
Back to Brooklyn Page 11