Presumption of Innocence db-1

by Stephen Penner

  He parked his car right in front of 'Darkness.'

  It was early still, for a nightclub anyway, but he thought they might be open already. And he kind of wanted to miss most of the clientele. If anybody was going to know what Arpad Karpati was really about, it was going to be the staff. Maybe the regulars, but Brunelle wasn't sure was ready to meet the regulars quite yet. He buttoned his suit coat, smoothed back his just-starting-to-gray hair, and pulled open the faux castle door.

  He had been kind of looking forward to the record-scratching, piano-stopping, everybody-looking-at-the-door reaction his suited entry into the underground nightclub would evoke. He was disappointed.

  There were three other guys in suits drinking beers in the corner, and the bartender, a young woman covered in black clothes, silver jewelry, and colorful tattoos, looked up and said, not at all ominously, "Hi."

  "Uh, hi," Brunelle answered. He walked over to the bar. "Can I get a beer?"

  He wasn't going to do more than sip at it while he talked to the bartender. Not right before driving across town. He didn't think there would-or should-be a lot of tolerance for a prosecutor drinking and driving.

  The bartender slid him a bottle of the latest local microbrew and was about to turn away.

  "Thanks, uh, what did you say your name was?"

  The woman stopped and stared at him. An 'are-you-fucking-kidding-me' kind of stare.

  "Seriously, mister," she said. "You're old enough to be my dad. Which means I'm young enough to be your daughter. And that's just fucking gross."

  Brunelle forced a smile. "Um, right. Sorry. That wasn't where I was headed with that. Not interested."

  The bartender cocked her head, then put her hands on her hips and stood up straight, showing off her large breasts and curvy frame. "Oh, yeah? Why not?"

  Brunelle's smile actually became a bit more genuine. He enjoyed an unscripted question and answer exchange. It's what he did for a living. "First, as you mentioned, fucking gross. Second, I have other interests right now."

  The bartender smiled at the first reason, then nodded at the second. "Mm-hmm. And what kind of interests?" She leaned onto the bar. "Nothing illegal, I hope? You totally look like a cop, so I know you're not."

  Brunelle chuckled. "Yes, something illegal. And no, I'm not a cop." He savored the dramatic pause. "I'm a prosecutor."

  Bartender stood up. "A prosecutor?"

  "Homicide prosecutor," Brunelle added.

  Bartender crossed her arms. "Homicide? Like murder? Sorry, mister, no murders here lately."

  Brunelle took a sip of his beer. "I know. The murder was in Madison Park."

  Bartender laughed. "Not too many people from Madison Park come here."

  "No, the murder was in Madison Park," Brunelle explained. "But the murderer came here."

  The bartender shifted her weight. She had abandoned her statuesque pose, but still cut an attractive figure behind the bar. Brunelle admired the long black hair flowing behind her shoulders as she processed the information she was getting from him.

  "Lot a people come here," she said finally. "What's your name, prosecutor man?'

  "Dave Brunelle. What was yours again?"

  She ignored his question. "Well, Mr. Brunelle, like I said. Lots of people come here. So I'm sure I can't help you."

  "Arpad Karpati." Brunelle figured if this guy was as much of a psychopath as he seemed, he would have made an impression on her, and everybody else.

  The barmaid didn't respond immediately, but Brunelle examined her body language. She crossed her arms again and shifted all her weight onto her back leg. She dropped her chin just a bit. "Don't know him."

  She was lying. That was obvious. The question Brunelle need to figure out was why. The two most likely candidates were protecting him and afraid of him. Preserving the sanctity of bartender-barfly confidentiality was a close third. What's said in Darkness stays in Darkness. He'd start with that one.

  "I suppose you two were friends, so I won't ask you to tell me anything he said. I just wanted to see what this place looked like."

  "We weren't friends," the bartender was too quick to respond.

  That didn't actually eliminate the third option. In fact it kind of strengthened it. It weakened the first one, though. She probably wasn't trying to protect him. But she might still be afraid of him, and she might still want Darkness to stay the kind of place people can come to without worrying that the hot bartender is going to tell everything to the cops. Or worse, the prosecutor.

  Time to explore those options, with a single statement. Not even a question.

  "He's in jail and he can't bail out."

  The barmaid didn't say anything at first. She pursed her lips and stared down her small nose at Brunelle.

  "You gonna get him?" she asked finally.

  Brunelle shrugged. "Depends. He lawyered up, so I have to prove it through other witnesses. That's why I'm here."

  One of her eyebrows rose. "You want me to be a witness against a murderer you're not sure you can convict?"

  Brunelle smiled. Actually, he wanted her to direct him to other witnesses. But she'd just given away that she had information. Why else would she think she might be a witness?

  "You say that like it's a bad thing," he joked.

  "Sounds pretty bad to me. I'm not a snitch."

  "Bad for business, huh?"

  "Bad for my fucking health," she shot back. "Fuck business. I don't want to get killed."

  And Brunelle had his answer.

  Now he could give the appropriate assurances. No use insisting the business would be okay if what she was really worried about was a bullet in her skull.

  "He's charged with aggravated murder in the first degree." Brunelle knew it sounded impressive, but it was the translation into normal-speak that mattered. "It's a death penalty case. The only way he gets out again is on a bodyboard."

  "Unless he gets acquitted," Bartender countered.

  Brunelle grimaced. That was the rub. "Exactly. So I need to make sure that doesn't happen. That's why I'm here."

  The brunette looked down at him, her eyes narrowed, but the indecision was still discernible in them.

  "Help me make sure he doesn't get out again," Brunelle implored. "Help me hold him accountable."

  The bartender stared at Brunelle for what seemed the longest time. Then she smiled and leaned down on the bar opposite him. Brunelle managed not to look directly at her breasts hanging above the bar top, but only because he was so completely distracted by her running her fingers through the hair above his ear.

  "Sorry, Mr. Prosecutor," she breathed. Sweet beer breath, so close he could practically taste her tongue. "I'm no snitch. And I'm not stupid either."

  Brunelle's heart dropped as she pulled away, and not just because she had rebuffed his best attempt. "Oh well," he managed to shrug. "I expected as much."

  He pulled his wallet from his pocket and extracted some bills. "Thanks anyway." He set the money under the beer. "And for the record, I never thought you were stupid."

  He stood up and turned toward the door.

  "Hey, Mr. Prosecutor?"

  Brunelle turned around.

  "Faust," she said.

  Brunelle cocked his head. "Pardon?"

  "Faust," she repeated. "My name is Faust."

  Brunelle smiled. "Of course it is."

  Chapter 16

  "You smell like beer." Kat wrinkled her nose at Brunelle as he stepped into the high school lobby. "You need a drink to sit through Swan Lake?"

  "Probably," laughed Brunelle. "But no, I just had to stop by a bar to talk to a woman about a case."

  Kat raised an eyebrow. "A bar? A woman? I don't need to hear about that," she laughed. "But don't try to tell me it was about a case."

  Brunelle shook his head. "No, really. The Montgomery murder. Our murderer hung out at the bar. Just seeing if he said anything to anybody."

  "Ahh," Kat replied. "And you had to drink a beer to ask that question?"

&n
bsp; "I bought a beer," Brunelle defended, "because I wanted to talk to the bartender."

  "The cute woman?"

  "Right," Brunelle answered. Then he realized, "I never said she was cute."

  Kat smiled. "You just did."

  She looped her arm through his. "Come on, lover boy, the overture is about to start."

  Glad for the change in subject, Brunelle accepted her arm. "Well, let's go then. I don't want to miss any dancing."

  Kat stopped short, pulling Brunelle to a stop as well. "You don't know anything about ballet, do you?"

  Brunelle grinned. "Nope. But I'm here anyway."

  Kat smiled. "Oh, good answer, Mr. Brunelle."

  She kissed him on the cheek, then handed their tickets to the usher and they went inside to find their seats.

  ***

  "Four acts?" Brunelle ran his hands through his hair three hours later as they waited for Kat's daughter to come out from backstage. "I thought you were only allowed to have two acts."

  Kat laughed. "Allowed? Oh, Mr. Brunelle, you are a prosecutor."

  Brunelle grinned. "It might not have been so bad if I'd had any idea what was going on. Aren't there supposed to be supertitles or something?"

  "That's opera, culture boy," Kat shook her head. "In ballet, the dancing tells the story."

  "Well, I think I need a translator," Brunelle joked.

  "Allow me!" It was Lizzy, running up on tip toe, stage make-up still on and hair still pulled back into a lacquered bun. "I totally know the whole story."

  Brunelle looked to Kat.

  "Whatta ya say, David?" she asked. "Want to hear the story of Swan Lake?"

  Brunelle hesitated. He actually was curious after watching the entire story, like a television show in another language. Kat and her daughter sensed the hesitation.

  "Over ice cream, of course," Lizzy added. "We always go out for ice cream after a show."

  Brunelle smiled. "Well, I can hardly say no to ice cream, can I?"

  They walked out to the parking lot and as they all settled into Kat's car, Lizzy tapped Brunelle's shoulder from the back passenger seat.

  "So, are you mom's new boyfriend?"

  Before Brunelle could overcome his shock, Kat started laughing. "We'll see how this ice cream and ballet thing goes, first."

  ***

  "All right, all right," Brunelle was saying earnestly, small pink ice cream spoon pointed at Lizzy for emphasis. "So Odette is really a princess, but during the day she has to be a swan because of an evil spell?"

  "Exactly," Lizzy answered. "Her and all her princess handmaiden people."

  "And how many of those are there?" Brunelle asked, digging for more toffee caramel crunch.

  Lizzy laughed. "Depends how many girls are in the studio. But usually a whole bunch so the dancing looks cool."

  Brunelle nodded as he swallowed. "Okay, and the bad guy, what's his name again?"

  "Rothbart," Lizzy answered. "He's an evil sorcerer who cast the spell on all of them."

  "But why?"

  Lizzy shrugged. "I don't know. Power? Control? Maybe just 'cause he's a dick?"

  "Lizzy!" Kat yelled, but there was a smile not quite hidden in the corner of her mouth.

  Lizzy just rolled her eyes at her mother. "Anyway, yeah, that's why he gets so mad when it looks like Sigfried is gonna break the spell."

  Brunelle frowned. He was interested in the story, but had no idea how the ballet had told it. "How does he break the spell?"

  "Well, he doesn't," Lizzy answered. "The spell will be broken if he pledges his undying love to Odette, but he screws it up."

  "I thought he did that at the party scene." Brunelle recalled the dancer on one knee pantomiming giving his heart to the beautiful princess. "When Odette was dressed all in black."

  Lizzy and Kat both just stared at him for a second.

  Lizzy turned to her mother. "Where did you dig him up, mom?"

  Kat narrowed her eyes at Brunelle. "I thought you said you saw 'Black Swan'?"

  Brunelle grinned. "I wasn't really paying attention to the plot."

  Kat rolled her eyes and Lizzy giggled at her mom.

  "That wasn't Odette, Sherlock," Kat growled. "You might have caught that if you hadn't been looking at-"

  "Of course it was Odette," Brunelle drew on his courtroom experience to block the next words. "It was the same dancer."

  "Right," Lizzy agreed, returning momentarily to her ice cream. "But she was playing a different part. Odile, an evil twin of Odette, created by Rothbart to trick Sigfried."

  Brunelle almost dropped his spoon. "Oh. Oh, my God."

  Kat laughed at her date. "Pretty evil, huh?"

  "No," Brunelle replied. "Brilliant."

  "Brilliant?" scoffed Lizzy. "He's the bad guy."

  "Yeah," Brunelle smiled. "But what if the good guy did it?"

  He raised an eyebrow at Kat and motioned toward Lizzy. "Whattaya think? Her voice is a dead ringer for Holly."

  "Holly?" Kat's eyes flew wide. "The girl from the reports? Oh, no, David Brunelle. No, no, no, no!"

  Brunelle tried to turn on the charm. "So you'll consider it?"

  Kat's wide eyes narrowed into angry slits. "I can't believe you'd even suggest something like that!"

  Lizzy reached out and placed a hand on her mother's arm. "What is it, mom? Is there something I can do to help?"

  Kat spun to face her daughter. "You are not, repeat not, going into the King County Jail pretending to be the girlfriend of some homicidal maniac in the hopes that he says something incriminating to you."

  Lizzy's face squished into a frown, but she didn't try to argue any more. So Brunelle did.

  "Odile did it," he tried.

  Kat's scowl melted, despite her obvious effort to stay angry. "You idiot. Odile was the evil twin, created by the bad guy, to defeat the heroes."

  Brunelle smiled back. "Yeah, but otherwise it's a great analogy."

  Kat crossed her arms. "Mr. Brunelle," she said evenly, "you promise me right now you will not send my daughter into jail wearing a wire to get a confession from that psychopath."

  Brunelle took a deep breath, then sighed. He raised his right hand. "I promise."

  Kat nodded. "Good."

  Brunelle looked at Lizzy. She shrugged at him. But instead of shrugging back, Brunelle smiled, and winked.

  Chapter 17

  It was a bad idea, he knew. But it was better than the no ideas he had otherwise. Karpati was going to walk. They had no evidence against him other than Holly's testimony. But Holly wasn't going to talk, which meant Karpati would be on the street in a matter of weeks. There weren't even jail calls between them. None they could find anyway. She was just that damn scared of him. Without Chen and McCall browbeating her-something Judge Quinn was highly unlikely to allow-Holly wasn't going to say anything.

  Brunelle couldn't even hope for a vengeful jury ready to convict with insufficient evidence. The judge would never let it get that far. Motion to dismiss granted, a murderer on the street, a girl in prison for something someone else did, and a smarmy defense attorney slapping him on the back on his way to his next big fee.

  Which is why when his phone rang that Monday afternoon, Brunelle listened, considered his options, and then-against his better judgment-said, "Yes."

  Chapter 18

  "Thanks again for offering to do this, Lizzy," Brunelle said the next afternoon as they stood in the jail lobby, waiting to be buzzed inside.

  "I'm kinda surprised you said yes," Lizzy replied. "You promised mom you wouldn't do it."

  "I promised her you wouldn't wear a wire," Brunelle replied. "Which is true. We're not gonna have you walk up to him and pretend you're Holly. He's not blind. We're gonna put you in the holding cell next to him and tell him Holly's in there. So, a wire wouldn't be any good for that anyway. Too far away."

  Lizzy laughed. "Mom's gonna kill you."

  Brunelle nodded. "You still sure you want to do this?"

  "That's why I called you," Li
zzy answered. "Mom told me what they did to that girl. If I can help, I want to help."

  Brunelle was impressed by the girl's sense of duty and altruism.

  "Besides," she went on, "I wanna be a detective when I grow up, so being a confidential informant at fourteen will look great on my resume."

  Or not.

  Brunelle nodded. Kids these days.

  "So," Lizzy beamed, "what's the plan, boss?"

  ***

  "I assure you, officer," Brunelle could hear Karpati telling the jail guard over the speakers, "I do not have court today."

  "You're on the docket, Karpati," the corrections officer grumbled back. "That's all I need to know. Now get into holding cell number three and be quiet."

  "Would you mind telling me the nature of the hearing?"

  It really pissed Brunelle off that Karpati could speak so politely. He was gonna be a good witness. Damn it.

  "Says here," the guard flipped through his sheaf of papers, "'Motion to Join Codefendants for Trial.'"

  Brunelle was watching the scene unfold via the closed circuit television cameras that hung from the secure holding cell area behind the courtrooms. It was poor quality video, filmed at a strange downward angle, but he was pretty sure he saw Karpati frown.

  "I don't have a codefendant," Karpati protested even as they reached holding cell number three.

  The guard looked down at his papers again. ""Holly Sandholm,'" he read. "Says she's on for arraignment in adult court too. They musta transferred her case."

  Karpati frowned again as he looked down in thought.

  The guard laughed. "Congrats, you've got a trial buddy. Now get in there."

  He half-pushed Karpati into the small, windowless room, and secured the door. Then he turned down the hall and yelled, "Sandholm! Cell four!"

  ***

  Lizzy walked confidently down the cement hallway to cell number four. Brunelle was impressed. Chen not so much.