by Stuart Woods
“Herbie makes her a martini and pours himself a brandy,” Dino said. “He hands her the martini glass, so both their prints are on it. But why are both their prints on Herbie’s snifter?”
“What was the girl arrested for?”
“Possession of a controlled substance-cocaine,” he replied. “She got a suspended sentence and rehab.”
“We got cocaine here,” Dino said, pointing at the coffee table, “but it looks undisturbed.”
“Well,” Stone said, “we know Ms. Cullers knows how to buy the stuff.”
“That’s quite a lot to leave behind,” Viv said. “I wonder why she didn’t take it with her.”
“Because she wanted us to find it,” Dino said.
Viv showed them the panties in an evidence bag and explained her theory about them.
“I want to know what’s in that brandy glass,” Dino said.
The tech opened another briefcase and went to work on a computer analysis of the liquid in the glass.
“How the hell did Herbie get mixed up in this?” Stone asked.
“Who knows?”
“She is a very beautiful girl,” Viv said. “Lots of guys would have gotten mixed up with her.”
“Hey,” the tech said, “I’ve got a hit on the analysis. There’s Ambien mixed with the brandy. It’s a sleeping pill, and it looks like a hefty dose. He drank most of it, too.”
“I’m going to the hospital,” Stone said.
“Me too,” Dino replied. “Viv, you pick up the girl on suspicion of filing a false report. Take her back to the precinct and milk her dry before she can lawyer up. I’ll be over there later.”
“Yes, boss,” Viv replied, then left.
Dino and Stone took a good look around the apartment.
“Nice place,” Dino said. “I didn’t know Herbie had taste, except maybe in clothes.”
“Herbie packs a lot of surprises,” Stone said. “He made senior associate at the firm in two years. Never been done before.”
“Come on, we’ll take my car,” Dino said.
At Lenox Hill they found Herbie in an ER cubicle, being attended by a young female resident. Dino made the introductions. “How’s he doing?”
“He’s still out. We’ve sent blood and urine to the lab, but we may not have results for a while.”
“He was drinking brandy, heavily laced with Ambien,” Dino said.
“Are you sure about that?”
“We can run that test on the scene these days.”
“In that case, I know what to give him. I’ll be right back.” She left the cubicle.
Dino peered at Herbie. “Sleeping like a baby,” he said.
“Drooling like one, too,” Stone said. He picked up a tissue from a box at bedside and wiped Herbie’s mouth.
The resident returned with a hypodermic. She unbuttoned Herbie’s sleeve, swabbed a vein, uncapped the hypo, and injected it. “Watch this,” she said, recapping the hypo and tossing it into a disposal unit.
Herbie’s eyelids began to flutter, and in a moment he opened his eyes and looked around. “Holy shit,” he said. “This looks like a hospital.”
“That’s because it is,” the resident said. “You’re in the ER at Lenox Hill.”
“How are you feeling, Herbie?” Dino asked.
“A little fuzzy around the edges,” he said. “Last thing I remember, a beautiful girl had her face in my lap.”
Even the resident had to laugh.
33
Herbie sat in the backseat of Dino’s car. “Okay,” he said, “what the hell happened? How’d I go from getting a blow job to the ER?”
“The girl drugged you,” Stone said. “She put more than one Ambien in your brandy glass, then she went to the ER and said she’d been raped.” Stone told him the rest of the story. “Who is Carson Cullers?”
“She’s Dink Brennan’s girlfriend,” Herbie said. He told Stone and Dino how she came to be in his apartment.
“Dink had to have sent her,” Stone said. He explained to Dino who Dink was.
They parked in Herbie’s garage and went upstairs.
“There was an ounce or so of cocaine on the coffee table,” Dino said. “My tech took it into evidence.”
“I don’t remember anything about cocaine,” Herbie said. “I never touch the stuff.”
“You were set up, pure and simple,” Stone said.
“Listen, Herbie,” Dino said, “you get some sleep. Stone and I are going to the precinct and see what the girl is saying.”
Herbie showed them out. He was starting to undress for bed when he remembered something. He got dressed again.
Stone and Dino were sitting in an observation room, watching through a one-way mirror while Viv DeCarlo questioned Carson Cullers.
“I told you, he hit me in the mouth, and he ripped off my panties and raped me.”
“Let me tell you the problems I have with your story,” Viv said. “First of all, there isn’t a mark on you anywhere, including your mouth. There was no semen inside you. Fisher was drugged with Ambien. Nobody believes you, Carson, not the doctor who examined you, not my boss, and not me. Now, you’re looking at some serious charges here, and if you want to walk away from this without doing time, you’d better start telling me the truth. Let’s take it from the top: why did you go to Herbert Fisher’s apartment?”
The door to the observation room opened, and Herbie walked in.
“I told you to go to bed,” Dino said. “Let us handle this.”
“Has she told you anything?” Herbie asked.
“Yes, a lot of lies.”
“Have you got a VCR in this joint?” Herbie asked.
“Right over there,” Dino said, “under the TV screen.”
Herbie walked over to the machine, inserted a tape into it, and pressed the play button. They all watched as a split screen came up.
“I forgot about this: Mike Freeman’s people installed cameras when they did my security system. It’s motion-activated.”
Each screen displayed a different view of the living room, so they could see two different angles. “I’ve cued it from when she arrived,” Herbie said, “and I’ve got a tape of her phone call, too.” He turned up the volume, and they watched and listened as Carson arrived. Herbie waited until she had left the apartment, then the screen went dark. A moment later it came up again as Viv DeCarlo and her partner entered the apartment.
“She’s nailed,” Dino said. “Rewind that, and we’ll show it to her.” He picked up the phone and pressed a button. In the interrogation room Viv picked up the phone. “Yes?”
“Watch the TV,” Dino said. “We’ve got the whole thing on tape.” He walked over to the equipment and fiddled with it, then the screen in the interrogation room came alive. They watched Carson’s face dissolve from anger to fear to tears.
“Time for bad cop,” Dino said. He left the room and appeared on the other side of the one-way mirror and sat down at the table.
“I’m Lieutenant Bacchetti,” he said to the woman. “I’m the detective’s boss. You’re in deep shit, young lady. We’ve got you cold on filing a false report, obstructing justice, drugging Fisher, and lying to the police. You’re going to do hard time.”
“I want a lawyer,” Carson said, and she was trembling.
“We’ll be glad to get you a lawyer,” Dino said, “and the minute he walks into this room, you’re cooked. He’ll tell you to shut up, and we’ll file the charges. Then we’ll show him the tape, and he’ll tell you to do a deal. But I’ll tell you what: you give us the truth in writing-the whole story about who put you up to this, agree to testify in court, and you can go home tonight, and your parents won’t know where you’ve been. Otherwise, you’ll sleep in a cell for a couple of nights, until your folks can post bail, and you’ll be convicted on the evidence you’ve already seen. Now what’s it going to be?”
“Can I have a drink of water?” Carson asked.
Viv went to a cooler and came back with a cupful. Carso
n sipped it and seemed to be thinking hard about her position.
“No charges?” she asked.
“Not if you tell us the absolute truth, sign the statement, and agree to testify. If you tell us even one lie, the deal is out the window, and your life as you know it will be over.”
Carson took a deep breath. “Dink made me do it,” she said.
“Dink who?” Viv asked.
“Dink Brennan, my boyfriend. His roommate at Yale, Parker Mosely, came to my apartment this afternoon, gave me the cocaine, and told me exactly what Dink said for me to do.”
Viv was taking notes. “And where does Parker live?”
“His parents live at 580 Park Avenue, but he went back to Yale. He lives in a dorm there.”
Dino ripped her notes from the pad and stood up. “You finish up here,” he said to Viv, “and get it all. Explain to her that her statement is being videotaped and recorded, and don’t let her leave until she signs the typed statement.”
“Yes, sir,” Viv said.
Dino left the interrogation room and went back to the observation room. Herbie took the paper from his hand and began to write. “Here’s the address and room number of his dorm,” he said, handing it back to Dino. “Tell your people they might get a disease if they touch anything in the place.”
“They’ll go in with a search warrant,” Dino said, “and I’ll bet we find drugs.”
Stone spoke up. “You know you don’t have anything on Dink yet. She didn’t get her instructions from him. You’re going to have to turn Parker, too.”
“Stone,” Herbie said, “can I talk to you alone for a minute?”
“I’ll go away,” Dino said, and left the room.
“What is it, Herb?”
“I’ve got a problem here, and so have you.”
“Marshall Brennan?”
“Exactly. He’s the firm’s client, and a very important one, and since you and I are both heavily invested with him, we don’t want to cause him any more pain than can possibly be avoided.”
“By having his son arrested and charged?”
“That’s it. Look, nobody’s been hurt here so far. She’s not going to charge me with rape, so it’s not going to make the papers and I’m not going to be fired from Woodman and Weld, and Marshall is not going to fire the firm, and my career won’t be over tomorrow.”
“You have a point,” Stone said. “How do you want to handle this?”
“Let’s do it a different way,” Herbie said, and began to explain.
34
Herbie awoke the following morning, still feeling fuzzy. He’d had only about four hours of sleep, but that would be enough. He called the rehab farm in Connecticut and made an appointment to see Dink, then he had a long conversation with the director of the farm. He showered, shaved, had a good breakfast, then transferred his security tape to his iPad and put it into his briefcase, along with a copy of Carson Cullers’s signed statement. He inserted a tiny recorder into the breast pocket of his tweed jacket, then he called Cookie and told her to clear his morning, that he had to see a client, which was true. He got out the Maybach and drove up to New Haven, thinking that, maybe, he should be driving something less ostentatious.
He drove through the gates of the farm and presented himself at the reception desk, then waited in a comfortable lounge that reminded him of a hotel he had once stayed in.
Dink appeared a few minutes later, dressed in khakis and a polo shirt, clean-shaven and finely barbered. “Hello, Herb,” he said cheerfully, offering his hand. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I had to wrap up a group therapy session. I’m glad you could come to see me.”
“Oh, I was in the neighborhood,” Herbie replied, shaking the hand. “Have a seat, Dink. We need to talk.”
Dink sat down, crossed his legs, and smiled broadly. “I want to thank you personally for getting me into this place. It has really changed my life, and they tell me I’ll be ready for release in a week or two.”
“You’re entirely welcome, Dink. But what I’m about to tell you is going to change your life again-and again for the better.”
“Well, that sounds great, Herb.”
“Of course, there’s an alternative scenario, but we’ll get to that later. Right now you should know that you’re not getting out of here in a couple of weeks. In fact, I think you’re probably going to be here for the remainder of this year and maybe for the year after, too.”
Dink’s face took on a scowl.
“What are you talking about?”
Herbie took the small recorder from his pocket. “I want you to listen to what Carson Cullers had to say last night.” He switched it on. “She said it to the police, and then she put it in writing.” As Carson began to speak, Herbie switched on his iPad, which began to play his security tape.
Dink listened and watched. “This is bullshit, Herb,” he said.
“Shut up and listen,” Herbie said. When the two tapes had played, he switched on the recorder and put it back into his pocket. “Now, what you’ve just seen and heard is enough to get you five to seven years at a very uncomfortable state institution, a place not nearly as nice as this one.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Dink said. “Carson is making this up. She’s crazy, you know-she has spells where she doesn’t know who or where she is.”
“Those probably come during sessions with the drugs you supply her,” Herbie said.
“And it’s her word against mine. You have no evidence tying me to this.”
“Your old roommate, Parker Mosely, is at this moment having a very long conversation with an NYPD detective lieutenant. I’ll have the recordings of that session for you in a day or two. And your stash of drugs has been located, so we can add another ten years to your sentence for that. You’re going to be well into your middle years before you see the light of day, Dink.”
“I want a lawyer,” Dink said sullenly.
“I’m the only lawyer you’re going to get, Dink. Have you forgotten that you signed a document making me your only legal representative for the foreseeable future? You also made me your legal guardian, upon your self-admission to this facility. Add while you are a patient here, you are, ipso facto, incompetent to change those agreements.”
“My old man won’t let you get away with this,” Dink said. He was looking very worried now.
“Your father has already had a long conversation with my associate, who is his good friend, and he has wholeheartedly approved of everything I’m telling you.”
“And if I don’t do what you want me to?”
“Oh, yes, the alternative scenario. In that case this facility will declare you competent, and you will be arrested and tried for your crimes. Carson and Parker will testify in court that you supplied her, through Parker, with drugs, then instructed her to entrap your attorney into a rape charge. You will be convicted and, when all charges are taken into account, sentenced to a term of fifteen to twenty years in a hard-core, non-country-club prison. Oh, and your father will wash his hands of you and disinherit you, as well. When you are finally released you will have to rely on the criminal and sexual skills you learned in prison to support yourself. Are you beginning to get the picture, Dink?”
“Now look, Herb,” Dink said, tears appearing in his eyes, “I want to apologize for this whole thing. It was just a big practical joke that went wrong, and I’ll do whatever I possibly can to make it up to you, really I will.”
“Well, Dink, that’s a great start on the new attitude you’re going to have to adopt if you want to be a free man before you’re forty.”
“I’ll do whatever you tell me, Herb. Trust me, I will.”
“Trust you?” Herbie laughed at that one. “You’re a junkie and a drug dealer, two of the most untrustworthy beings on the planet. You’ve just put the girl you supposedly love and your best friend, perhaps your only friend, in jeopardy of long prison sentences, and you’ve gravely endangered your relationship with the father who loves you and, not incidentally, wi
th his very considerable fortune, and for what? You should start asking yourself that today.”
“I’ll do whatever you say, Herb,” Dink said, and he sounded truly contrite.
“You can start by stopping trying to use the people in this place who want to help you. The general consensus among them, you might like to know, is that you are a liar, a narcissist, a con man, and a sociopath who is a danger to himself and to others. You see, they are accustomed to being lied to by people like you, and they know how to deal with you.
“By the way, while we’ve been having this conversation, the staff have taken apart your very comfortable quarters and removed all of your personal possessions and confiscated them. For the foreseeable future you’ll be wearing the orange hospital gown that you already know identifies the least trustworthy patients of this facility, and you are being moved to a room that is very much like the prison cell you will be occupying, if you should give your father or me the slightest difficulty. He and I are the only people authorized to contact you, and you may not contact anyone, especially Carson and Parker. Have you grasped your situation yet?”
Dink looked out of breath. “Yes,” he said. “I’ll be good.” He sounded like a small child who had been chastened.
“Ah, here come your escorts to your new quarters,” Herbie said. “They’ll give you your new gown after they’ve strip-searched you and given you today’s medications.”
Herbie got up to leave as the two large men in white approached. “Enjoy your stay on the farm, Dink. I’ll be in touch from time to time, when I feel like it.”
The two men took Dink’s arms and marched him away.
Herbie went back to the Maybach and turned it toward the city. He thought he might do a little car shopping on the way home.
35
When Herbie got back to his office, Stone Barrington was seated on his sofa, drinking a cup of coffee. “How did it go?” he asked.