“He ever talk about Vittorio beating on Gina?”
“Nah. I never heard nothing about that.” Then Nick narrowed his eyes. “But then again, now that you mention it…” He cocked his head and then pointed at me. “Hold on now, I kinda remember some things that some of the guys are saying around here about Joey and Vittorio. Word gets around here, you know, about what guys have done on the outside. And there was a rumor going around about Vittorio and how he’s associated with Joey.”
“What is that?”
“Joey was Vittorio’s fixer. You know, if Vittorio got into trouble, Joey would fix it for him.
“What kind of problems would Joey fix for Vittorio?”
“Well, you know, Vittorio himself, from what I hear from Joey, was involved in the mafia. He wasn’t a hit man, but an enforcer. He roughed people up, gave them warnings, that type of thing. He found girls for the prostitution end, and he collected money from the johns. He also collected money from the people the organization was shaking down. The shopkeepers, the pimps, the dealers, the people who were using the organization’s turf. Everybody had to pay the piper, you know, and Vittorio was the guy who would collect from everyone. That was his main job, from what I understand. He was the shake-down artist.”
“Okay. What would Joey have to fix for him?”
At that, Nick got a little closer to me. “Well, the word is, Vittorio was into drugging ladies. You know, put those roofies into their drinks, and they pass out and he has his way with them. That’s what Joey told me about Vittorio.”
I sat up straighter in my chair. “Really? You got any names of these ladies?”
“Nah. Listen, it’s all talk, anyhow. Joey said that he fixed all those things for Vittorio, he fixed them with the cops and all that. Joey’s got connections, Joey knows all the cops, they’re all in his pocket, and the ones that aren’t, Joey gets information on them that he can use to blackmail them into doing what he wants. You know, nobody is an angel on the police force, everybody’s got a skeleton in their closet. Joey finds out what that skeleton is, and he holds it over their heads. So, yeah, Joey had everyone on the force dancing to his tune. Nobody found out anything about those women, though, except one of them decided to squeal. Most of the other women were shut up by Joey – he either threatened them or bribed them. The same way he deals with the cops, he deals with the ladies – threatening and bribing.”
“What kind of skeletons do these cops have?”
Nick shrugged. “You know. Some are on the take, some are on the make. Some got their own problems with kids, others got their issues with drugs. That’s not all of them, of course, lots of cops are pretty clean and bright. But even those ones got family members that are into all kinds of issues, and Joey gets to the family members and ends up blackmailing or threatening them. Listen, everyone’s got black sheep laying around, black sheep that can end up being very useful. At any rate, Joey has a special talent for using every trick in the book to make sure that he never gets arrested for nothing he does. And he did the same for Vittorio.”
I turned to Heather. “You getting all this?”
She nodded. I saw that she was writing down a lot of notes, and I smiled.
“Yet, he ended up in prison,” I said. “How did that happen?”
“Well, you gotta understand something. Joey had the cops on his side when he was doing two-bit stuff. But they couldn’t look the other way when he got caught for murder.”
“But he was able to fix things for Vittorio when he was raping women?”
“Yeah. Joey fixed things for Vittorio by paying off the women who he was raping. And, if that didn’t work, then he would threaten them. Most of those women had kids at home, and all Joey had to do was make a threat against their kids, and these women shut their mouths real quick. So, the upshot was, the women were either too scared to bring charges against Vittorio, or they got paid off. Either way, they didn’t go to the cops.”
I realized that I was going to have to get Garrett involved in this story. I was going to have to send him out and find me some names of women who knew Vittorio, hopefully some names of women who Vittorio raped. That would give me an avenue to explore, so that I could figure out who really killed Vittorio. Assuming, of course, that Gina was as pure as the driven snow on this matter. Which I had a feeling she wasn’t.
I nodded my head. “So, how did Gina get my name? Did she get my name from you, directly, or from Joey? In other words, did you get a chance to meet Gina herself?”
“I never met Gina. I only know of her, ‘cause Joey talks about her every time she visits. You know, they even got a conjugal visit the other day. I mean, not the other day, it was awhile ago, but you know what I mean.”
“Sure, sure. So, you didn’t actually meet Gina.”
“No. Never met her.”
I got the information that I needed. I could always come back and see Nick again if I wanted to know other things, after I got Garrett investigating on the case. But, for now, I had some avenues that I could explore. From what Nick was telling me, there were possibly scores of women who would have wanted Vittorio dead. I would imagine that they were probably unbelievably enraged by what had happened. They were going to be thirsty for justice, and yet, Joey came around and threatened them with even more violence if they spoke a word to the authorities. That would make them even more enraged.
One of them would certainly be angry enough to have killed Vittorio. The question was – who would have been that angry? Who would have been most likely to have taken matters into their own hands? Garrett was going to have to give me names, and I would investigate these victims and try to narrow it down.
I could also look at the victims of Vittorio’s other crimes. He was a low-level criminal, in addition to apparently being a serial rapist. He stole from people, he burglarized, he shook people down, he beat people up. They were also on my possible list of alternative suspects. They had to be.
The problem with a guy like Vittorio, though, was that there were probably so many people who wanted him dead. I didn’t quite know how to narrow it down. I also was going to have to figure out how to get Vittorio’s crimes into evidence. I was going to have to show the jury that Vittorio made enemies around the city, enemies who would have been angry enough to kill, and that would mean that I would have to introduce the evidence of his crimes to the court if I was going to have any chance for acquittal for Gina.
I knew one thing, though – I could figure out how I was going to narrow the list of suspects down by figuring out which of the suspects would have access to Gina’s gun. Who, among the women who were enraged by Vittorio’s actions, would know about Gina’s gun? It stood to reason that if I was going to be successful in finding out who the alternative suspect was, I was going to have to look for the nexus between Gina and Vittorio. It would have to have been somebody who was angry with them both – because the person killed Vittorio and deliberately framed Gina by using Gina’s registered gun.
That’s if Gina was being framed. I still had to admit that it didn’t look good for her. I still thought that she did it.
“Okay,” I finally said. “Thanks for the info. Now, let’s talk about you. Your parole hearing is coming up in a couple of months. I don’t think that I need to tell you that I’ll represent you, Jack and Tommy in all of your hearings. I’ll do whatever it is you need for me to do.”
“I got ya,” Nick said. “You’re my brother. Jack, Tommy and Connor are too.” He looked sad. “But Connor, man, he’s just going to die if we all get sprung. We’re all tight back here, and the other guys in prison still don’t mess with us because we’re friends with you. I have to tell you, Damien, I’m more than a little worried about what is going to happen to Connor if the three of us get out.”
“Me too.” I sighed. “Listen, it’s not hopeless. There’s been two different Supreme Court cases that have come down saying that minors have no business being sentenced to LWOP. These cases don’t exactly fit the particulars o
f Connor’s case, but I’m keeping an eye on anything that might. And I’ll get in touch with my attorney from the Innocence Project and see if he can do something to reopen Connor’s case.” I put my hand on Nick’s shoulder. “So, yeah, my ultimate goal is to make sure that all three of you guys get out of prison soon. I’ll give all of you guys a job, too. I got that huge settlement from my wrongful death case last year, and I know that I can find jobs for all of you. You’re right about all of us being brothers. I still think that we’re all in this together. Don’t you forget that.”
Nick bowed his head and then the guard came over to him. “Well, I guess I gotta get out of here.” We bumped our fists and he smiled. “’Til next time, bro.” Then he got up from the table and walked away.
I looked over at Heather. “Okay. Now, Heather, you heard the same information that I did from Nick. What do you think? What kind of strategy should be taken from here on out?”
“Well, it sounds like Vittorio probably made a lot of enemies. I’d talk to the women who were involved in his perverted crimes and see if any of them got reason to see Gina in prison. Then I would figure out who in that bunch would be the most likely to have had access to Gina’s gun. That’s how I would narrow it down.”
I smiled. “Smart girl. Harper did well when she hired you.”
Heather beamed, but didn’t address the compliment. “You want me to work with Garrett to run those women down? I would definitely start with the women who were threatened to keep quiet, as opposed to the ones who accepted the bribes. I think that that’s the best way to go about it.”
“I think so too. Okay, here’s how we’re gonna do this. Garrett can probably find the names of the victims, at least some of them. It’s going to be tricky, but we can figure out, by looking at Vittorio’s bank account, who was getting hush money. It’s going to be even more tricky to find out the ones that were threatened into silence, but I have a feeling that most of these victims have some kind of commonality. Maybe they all frequented a certain bar, which is where Vittorio met them, or perhaps they live in the same neighborhood. If Vittorio was somebody who was a creature of habit, then he probably met his victims in much the same way.”
“Perhaps he ran in a certain circle, and people in that circle would know both him and the women that he met. I don’t know, but I’m sure that Garrett can figure out how to run down at least some of the women who were involved with Vittorio. Then, you’re right, we can triage them to figure out who might have been the most likely suspect.”
Heather and I left the prison, and I was thinking that I might – might – have a good lead on who to look at for this murder. The cops weren’t going to do much more investigation – they knew that Gina had motive and the gun was registered to her, and they had so many other cases on their plates, they were going to take the path of least resistance. So, it was up to me, Heather, Garrett and Harper to do the legwork for them.
If there was somebody out there who had it in for Vittorio, I was going to find her. Or him. That was the only way that I could pull a rabbit out of the hat and see Gina acquitted.
I had my work cut out for me. That much was for sure.
Chapter 4
When I got into the office after my prison visit, I saw that Harper was there with a tall, slim African-American kid. The kid was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, with high-topped tennis shoes. He stood up when I walked in the room, and shyly extended his right hand. “Hello,” he said with a smile. “My name is Darnell Williams.”
I smiled back and shook his hand. “Damien Harrington,” I said. “I’m Harper’s new associate.”
“Let’s go back to the conference room,” Harper said. “I’ve been chatting with Darnell for a bit. He was early for his appointment, and I was just here in the office, so we’ve had a chance to catch up.”
“I understand that you’re a freshman at MIT,” I said to Darnell as the three of us walked back to the conference room. “How do you like it up there?”
“It’s a lot of work,” he said. “But I love it. Everybody knows what happened to me with that cop, Officer Cooper. They all have been very supportive, though. It hasn’t been a black mark against me at all.”
“Nor should it,” I said. “Believe it or not, I can relate to the feeling of being wrongfully imprisoned. There’s no bigger frustration in this world. Harper told me about what happened to you, about how that cop deliberately framed you for murdering that other cop, and I have to say, I wouldn’t be as calm about it as you’ve been. You’re to be commended, buddy.”
“You were wrongfully imprisoned?” Darnell asked.
“Yeah. But mine was because of an honest mistake. I couldn’t imagine how pissed I would have been if I knew that I was in prison because somebody else was trying to cover their ass.” I shook my head. “Harper also told me that Office Cooper is serving a life sentence for the murders he committed. I would imagine that he’s probably being harassed and beaten on every single day. Dirty cops don’t have an easy time in prison, trust me when I tell you that. They have to face the people that they railroaded into prison, and they also have to face the people that they legitimately put into prison. They usually have a target on their backs. From what Harper told me about Officer Cooper, if he is getting beat up in prison, it couldn’t have happened to a better person.”
We all went into the conference room, and Harper got a pitcher of water out of the fridge and poured all of us a glass. “Okay,” she said, getting out a legal pad and handing one to me. “Let’s get started. Now, Darnell, tell me again about your Aunt Arnetta. You said that she was suffering from Diabetes. Is that right?”
“Yes,” he said. “That’s right. But it was under control. She was controlling it with diet and medication and exercise. Lifestyle changes. My mama, she’s kinda big, but Arnetta really kept up on her health. She didn’t let herself go the way my mama has.”
“And when did you start to notice that Arnetta was getting sick?”
“Well, as I told you, she suffers from Type 2 Diabetes, so, I used to notice, when I was a kid, that she was tired a lot and would get really winded from just a little bit of exercise. She would complain about pain in her joints and she was thirsty all the time. We didn’t know what was wrong with her, because she wouldn’t see a doctor. She finally did when she went into a diabetic coma. We almost lost her. But you know, the doctors did all kinds of tests on her, and they diagnosed her with Diabetes. They also found out what kind of allergies she had, and it turns out that she had a severe allergy to mold spores of any kind. So, she was really sensitive to mold.”
I was writing this down on my sheet of paper, and I wondered how it was that Arnetta survived in that house as long as she did. She had a pre-existing condition of Diabetes, but it sounded like she had it under control, but that definitely weakened her. And having a severe allergy to mold was going to exacerbate the issue as well.
“So, she was living in an apartment on the East Side,” Harper said. “It looks like this was an older apartment, built around the turn of the century. And she started getting sick when-“
“This is all second-hand knowledge, because I didn’t know that she was getting sick when she actually was sick. But this is what my mama told me the other day about how it went with Arnetta. Mama told me that Arnetta moved into that apartment about a year ago, and she started getting sick right away. She started getting really tired and had migraine headaches. She has never been a migraine sufferer before. She started coughing all the time, and she started getting stiffness in her joints. She had all kinds of other issues, too. Memory issues, difficult in concentrating, diarrhea and bloating, and she would get lightheaded all the time. She didn’t know what was going on. She went to the doctor, and he said that she was suffering from chronic fatigue, and he put her on medication for that. But she kept getting sicker and sicker. She was always suffering from the flu, it seemed like. She started to have problems breathing. She told my mama that she would wake up at night and found
that she couldn’t catch her breath. She got rashes and she bruised all the time. She even started to lose her hair.”
“And she saw a doctor about all of this?” I asked Darnell.
“Yeah. But, you know, she only could afford the free clinic most of the time. She didn’t have insurance. They didn’t really want to deal with her. She went to Truman hospital a few times, went to the ER, but they seemed to think that she was drug- seeking, so they didn’t want to help her much. They didn’t know what was wrong with her. They did tests for pneumonia and they even tested her for Lyme Disease, but they couldn’t figure it out.”
“Did they ask her about her mold allergy?” Harper asked. “Did any of these doctors bother to check her records and find out that she had a mold allergy?”
“No. Apparently, none of them did. And Arnetta, she didn’t even think about the mold allergy thing herself. Nobody knew what was going on. All we knew was that she was getting weaker and weaker, and her symptoms were getting worse and worse. And then, one day, my mama tried to call her and she didn’t answer. That wasn’t that odd, though, because Arnetta didn’t always answer the phone. But mama tried for several days, and she got really worried, so she went over to Arnetta’s apartment. She found her in the living room. She had been dead for several days.”
“Okay,” Harper said. “And was there an autopsy done?”
“Yes. My mama requested it. The doctor found that there was mold everywhere in Arnetta’s organs. In her throat, on her liver, in her lungs, in her brain, everywhere. So, the mold investigators went to her apartment, and they did tests and found that mold was everywhere in that apartment.”
I looked at the results of the environmental evaluation of the home and found that the apartment tested positive for some of the most deadly strains of toxic mold – Stachybotry, Aspergillus/Penicillium, Cladosporium and Chaetomium. I knew something about toxic mold, and I knew that these were some of the deadliest mold strains, especially Stachybotry and Aspergillus.
[Damien Harrington 01.0] The Alibi Page 5