The Victim of the System

by Steve Hadden

  Lauren’s voice strengthened. “There’s a meeting at eight a.m. at Jenna’s office tomorrow.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  Another pause.

  “Ike?”

  “Yes.”

  “I can’t thank you enough.”

  Ike kept his guard down. “No need to thank me. See you tomorrow.”

  He ended the call and Maria and Mac stood silently, as if they’d just seen the Resurrection.

  Ike’s words echoed in his head.

  If not for me, then for Jack. If for Jack, then maybe for me.

  CHAPTER 15

  It was five minutes to eight and Ike’s navigation system told him he’d arrived—he wished it hadn’t. He pulled onto the concrete drive that was ten times bigger than necessary for the three-windowed brick home converted to the law offices of Price and Price. While it might be a nice practice here in Cranberry Township, it was ten times smaller than all the law firms he’d worked with. He envisioned an ant being crushed under the foot of the justice system, and the abyss in his gut widened a little more.

  As he stepped from his car, he examined the four other cars in the lot. An SUV and three sedans meant Lauren and Jack were already here, along with the Prices and their assistant. The fall morning chill evaporated the dullness of the long ride as he trotted up the walkway. He knocked on one of the wooden double doors as he entered. He spotted a woman, gray and probably in her sixties, twisting something in her hands. Jack sat next to her.

  “Mr. Rossi!” Jack said as he snatched the Rubik’s Cube from her hands and stood, displaying it to Ike like a trophy.

  “Hi, Jack. How’s it going?”

  “I was showing Mrs. Duncan how to do this.”

  “As I remember, you’re pretty good at it.”

  Jack stuck out his chest and grinned at Mrs. Duncan. She stood and reached across the desk. “I’m Kristin Duncan, the Prices’ legal assistant.”

  “Ike Rossi,” he said, shaking her hand.

  She stepped past Jack and said, “Jack, honey, please wait here.” She eyed Ike. “Mr. Rossi, they’re all in here if you’d follow me.”

  The hall was six feet long with only one door, which she opened. Ike saw Jenna and Lauren on one side of the conference table as he entered. Thick files were stacked to Jenna’s left. He didn’t notice the man immediately across from her until he was in the room and Kristin had closed the door.

  “I’m Edgar Price,” the man said. “You must be Mr. Rossi.”

  “Call me Ike, sir.” Ike shook his hand. His thin frame and curly gray hair didn’t match his strong grip.

  “Then call me Ed.”

  Jenna reached across the table. “Mr. Rossi.”

  The same grip. “Ms. Price.”

  “Oh, if you’re calling him Ed, you’re calling me Jenna.”

  He’d remembered her run to the Final Four—everyone in western Pennsylvania did. That season she broke the all-time season-scoring record for women and men. The men’s mark had stood since 1970 when Pistol Pete Maravich closed out his career at LSU. She’d scored more points per game than legends like Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson and Stephen Curry. She’d carried the Panthers through the tournament as if possessed. She still looked as if she could take the court and compete. Ike could always spot the fire of competition.

  Lauren stood and offered her hand

  “Lauren.” Ike shook her soft hand.

  She covered Ike’s hand with hers and held on, smiling. For the first time, he noticed her dark eyes locked on his. “Mr. Rossi, it’s great to have you with us,” she said.

  Ike settled in next to Ed, then felt the group staring at him, waiting.

  “We ready to go?” Ike said.

  Ed slid a new yellow tablet in front of him, and Ike connected the dots. “Oh. Sorry,” he said, sliding the pad back to Ed. “I don’t take notes—better for listening.”

  Ed and Jenna shared a glance. Then Jenna slid the stack of files across the table.

  “These are key files you’ll want to review. You’ll see we’ve gone through the prelims, and unless something breaks our way, we’re going to trial in five days.”

  Ike slid the thick files from the stack and spread them in front of him. “What’s your strategy?”

  “DA McCann has made his case for murder one. He’s trying to prove Jack willfully, deliberately and with premeditation planned and executed the killing of Franklin Tanner. We’re going to agree to those facts.”

  “What?”

  You’ll see it’s very difficult to dispute the evidence in the responding officer’s report, the investigator’s initial assessment, the emergency medical personnel’s report, and the forensics. Jack did it—without question.”

  “Self-defense or mental incapacity?”

  “You are a quick study,” Jenna said.

  Lauren rose, and Ike sensed the details of Jack’s crime were upsetting her. “I’m going to check on Jack,” she said.

  Ike and Ed stood as she left the room, then returned to their seats.

  “Sorry about that.” Ike looked at the door.

  “She’s had a hard run,” Jenna said. “She’s had to deal with the custody hearing as well as the criminal trial prep. She’s been dragged through the mud by the other side. She’s mortgaged her house in Shadyside to get Jack’s bail and pay us, which we refused, but she insisted. And she’s raising her own boy, Jimmy, at the same time.”

  “When’s the custody hearing?”

  “Judge wants to finish on Friday. Our forced mediation was yesterday.” Jenna threw a nod at the door. “Her psych test came back great. The examiner said it was one of the best she’s seen.”

  “So Falzone will lose?”

  Ed leaned in. “No. The judge is connected to the Falzones. We’re preparing to fight a visitation order.”

  Ike couldn’t imagine being forced to spend time with the Falzones while the trial was going on. “Jack must be scared.”

  “I’d say determined.”

  Ike sent an expression of incredulity in Jenna’s direction.

  Jenna responded with an icy glare. “He’s determined someone was behind all of this. He said they were coming for him.”

  “Tanner?”

  “Yes, Tanner. And others who he can’t name. Said he overheard his father talking about it two days before he died.”

  “So, self-defense?” Ike asked again.

  Jenna settled back in her chair and looked at Ed.

  “We have no evidence to support any of Jack’s claims,” Ed said.

  “Nothing?”

  “Nothing until we got your memo and the five million-dollar offer from Falzone.”

  “They’re hiding something,” Ike said. “And there’s a connection between Tanner and the Falzones.”

  “Right—through the law firm.”

  “So it’s self-defense.” Ike said.

  Ed locked eyes with Jenna, then tilted his head toward Ike.

  “We’ve prepared a backup defense. It levers Jack’s social awkwardness and his problems with other kids.”

  A wave of disappointment and sadness for Jack rose inside Ike. “He’s just a kid. There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s just extremely smart. You do this to him now, say he was somehow defective, that will wreck him. He’ll carry that for a lifetime.”

  “We know—we know.” Jenna leaned into the table on her elbows. “That’s why we need you. You have to find evidence Tom’s death wasn’t suicide. If you show that Tanner was somehow involved in Tom’s death and threatened Tom’s family—we don’t have to go that way.”

  Ike let the words wash over him. Produce evidence in five days that hadn’t been uncovered by six months’ worth of work by two detectives working for the Prices, or Jack’s life is over. He let the pressure build, his mind running wild with it. That pressure, that fear of failure, he’d harness and turn loose on the case.

  “Okay. Any luck with the e-mail?”

  Jenna pulled it from the remaining thi
n file next to her. “I showed it to Dad and Lauren. Nothing.”

  “Did you ask Jack?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Mind if I talk to him? I won’t show him the e-mail or tell him it’s from his father. That would be too much for him. Too confusing.”

  “Agreed,” Jenna said, sliding the copy to Ike. “Already discussed it with Lauren. She’s okay with it, as long as she’s there.”

  “Alone,” Ike said. “I talk to Jack alone.”

  “Why?”

  “I think we have a connection. I want to build on that. Lauren is someone he seems to want to protect. She’ll be in the way.”

  Jenna scoffed. “I’ll let you tell her that.”

  “Be happy to.” Ike slid the e-mail aside and grabbed the thick folder on the top of his stack. He pulled the suicide file. “Anything in here?” he said as he opened it and flipped through the pages.

  “Scene was processed as a suicide from the start. Detective Cassidy leaned heavily on the crime-scene investigator’s report and the note Tom left on his printer.”

  Ike flinched at the mention of Cassidy’s name, then hoped it went undetected. He slowed his page turns as he got to the photos of the garage where they found Tom: a three-quarter-inch garden hose messily duct-taped to the exhaust of a BMW 530, the other end pinched in the driver’s-side window. The keys loose in the cup holder in the console. Tom Cole’s ashen face, looking forward but cocked awkwardly against the headrest. Jack should never see these. Ike studied the photos again.

  “What is it?”

  “Not sure yet. But I know Cassidy and he likes shortcuts. Can I take this?” Ike closed the file.

  “Sure. Those copies are for your use,” Ed said.

  “Did you depose his ex?”

  “Yes. It’s there,” Jenna said.

  “The Falzones?”

  “No way. Judge wouldn’t allow it.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m sure you know about the death of their son, Patrick, about eight months ago.”

  “Car accident. What’s that got to do with excusing them from being deposed?”

  “Judge said they were grieving his death and now the loss of their ex-son-in-law. Their attorney argued alongside the DA that it wasn’t relevant to the Tanner murder. The judge quashed the subpoenas.”

  Slowly the plan was forming in Ike’s head. Tom Cole’s death, the Falzone connections, and go from there. They’d spent more time reviewing the files and the insanity theory. Ike was disgusted with that option. He imagined what it did to Lauren.

  But they were right. Evidence for self-defense was nonexistent. To get anything, he’d have to get through the defenses of one of the wealthiest families in America—and find fault with the work of the detective that had held him at bay in his own parents’ case for the last eight years. All in five days. He pulled out the e-mail again and looked at the expression on the page.

  “I’d like to talk to Jack now.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Ike waited in the conference room for Lauren. In many ways, this would be the most difficult interview he’d ever conducted. Under conditions that rattled the coolest and silenced the most talkative, he’d questioned hundreds of people ranging from egotistical executives to hardened criminals to the most honest and humble workers on the planet, but he knew he had to walk a fine line with Jack. Push him too hard and he’d clam up and never trust Ike again. Too soft and Jack would be convicted despite unknowingly holding the key to his freedom buried in his brilliant mind. Even so, he had to build trust quickly and then press Jack for answers. But first, he had to convince Lauren he had to do it alone.

  Lauren slipped past the open door. Her soft welcoming smile triggered an unfamiliar stirring inside. She looked more rested, and her skin glowed from the benefit of some sunshine. Ike suspected she was a runner. Her lean figure and toned muscles were sculpted from more than chasing two young boys around the park. As a rule, Ike didn’t pay attention to those things most of the time. Over the years, he’d proved a poor judge of women.

  She closed the door and sat in the chair next to Ike. “Jenna said you needed to talk to me?”

  Ike could feel her warmth and regretted what he was about to do. He knew she was an extraordinary mother, now to two boys, and she’d kept them close and away from the media, the public, and upsetting questions.

  “I’d like to speak to Jack,” he said.

  “Okay. I thought you might need to do that. We’ll be happy to talk with you. Let me go get him.” She stood.

  “Lauren?”

  She stopped and turned back.

  “Please have a seat.”

  Her warmth disappeared. “What is it?”

  “I need to speak to Jack alone.”

  Based on the fire in her eyes, Ike girded for an assault. His question had obviously ignited her motherly protective instinct. He felt like a hiker between a mother bear and her cub.

  “What do you mean, alone?”

  Ike carefully pressed on. “I think it’s important for Jack and me to talk. I think there may be a connection between us. And he clearly is worried about protecting you. That might prove an impediment.”

  “You think he won’t tell the truth in front of me?” she asked as if cross-examining Ike.

  “No. I don’t think he’d ever lie to you or in front of you, but he may not tell me the whole truth. And we need that.” Ike reached out and covered her hand on the table. “I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t important. We only have four and a half days until trial.”

  Lauren looked at his hand covering hers and then at Ike with a mix of warmth and uncertainty. “Okay. But please don’t show him that e-mail. It will just upset him.”

  “I won’t show him the e-mail, but I’d like to show him the mathematical expression. I won’t tell him how I got it.”

  Lauren didn’t answer. She held Ike’s gaze for a moment and then nodded. “I’ll get him.”

  She left the room and thirty seconds later returned with Jack.

  Jack glanced up at Lauren, then at Ike. He stuck out his hand. “Thank you for helping me, Mr. Rossi.”

  After shaking his hand, Ike offered him the seat next to him. Pulling the Rubik’s Cube from his pocket, Jack sat down.

  “I’ll be just outside,” Lauren said, kissing the top of his head and eyeing Ike.

  Lauren left and closed the door and Jack resisted making eye contact. Jack scanned the room, stopping on every item as if cataloging its contents. Ike sensed the awkwardness.

  “So, you like that Rubik’s Cube?”

  Jack picked up the cube and looked at Ike. Jack’s eyes were a brilliant blue and overflowing with an alert energy Ike had never seen. “I do. Did you know there are 43.5 quadrillion combinations and only one correct one?”

  “No, I didn’t, but I did know that the inventor’s name was Erno.”

  Jack chuckled. “That’s a funny name.”

  “Well, in Hungary, where he lived, I’ll bet it was just fine.”

  Jack nodded in agreement and twisted the cube a few times. Ike knew he needed to press on but wasn’t sure Jack was ready. Then, suddenly, Jack locked eyes with Ike. “Are you sad your mom and dad were killed?”

  Caught by surprise, Ike simply answered. “Yes. I miss them every day.”

  “And it was a long time ago?”

  “Twenty-two years. How did you know about my mom and dad?”

  Jack went back to fiddling with the cube. “I looked it up online. You were a great football player, too.”

  “I was pretty good.”

  Jack locked his eyes on Ike again. “I really miss my dad.”

  Ike could feel the sadness he saw in Jack’s eyes. Too much pain for someone so young. Ike leaned in face-to-face with Jack. “I know, Jack. It must be really hard.”

  Jack seemed to catch himself and flushed the sadness from his face. “Can you help me?”

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  Jack cautiously glanced a
t the closed door. He returned his focus to Ike and raised his eyebrows. “Can you stop them?”

  “Stop who?”

  “The people who killed my dad. They’re coming for me and my Aunt Lauren.”

  “How do you know that?”

  He glanced at the door again. “I heard my dad talking about it.”

  Ike’s instincts were alerted. “Can you tell me what you heard?”

  Jack nodded. “Just don’t tell Aunt Lauren.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t want to scare her. If she gets too scared she might leave.”

  Ike put his hand on Jack’s shoulder. “I know for sure she’d never do that. But if you tell me, it might help me help you.”

  Jack stared at the cube. “First he told me that he loved me. He looked worried. He said he was working on a very important project and couldn’t spend as much time with me as he liked. I understood. He told me that my mom was doing everything she could to get me away from him.”

  “What did you think about your mom?”

  “She was mean to me and my dad. But my dad said that she had some problems and it had nothing to do with me. He said she still loved me but that she was sick and couldn’t help it.”

  “That sounds very hard.”

  Jack looked at the floor and nodded.

  “Jack, can you tell me what else you heard your dad say?”

  “Yeah. I was outside with my telescope and had to come back in to get another lens. He didn’t know I had come back inside. He was in the garage talking on the phone and I heard him say that if something happened to him, to take Jack and his money and get away from here. Then he said that Tanner was wanting to destroy him. He said they were trying to stop him and would do anything,”

  “Did you ask him about it?”

  Jack shook his head. “I ran outside—then—” Jack started to cry. “My dad was killed the next day. And I didn’t stop it. So I stopped Mr. Tanner. He was coming for me. I knew he was after me.”

  Gently, Ike cradled Jack in his arms. As Jack wailed, Ike felt his tears. He felt his pain and his sense of guilt. They were all too familiar. The door cracked open and Lauren peeked in. Ike gave her his silent assurance that it was okay. Then Jack pulled back a little and looked at Ike with his wet eyes. “Can you help me?”