First Cut by Judy Melinek M.D

Author:Judy Melinek, M.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hanover Square Press
Published: 2019-11-10T22:57:56+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“I can have Baby Mike break his legs...”

“You’re sweet. But, no.”

Sparkle and I were at Caffè Zeffiro for lunch. I didn’t have much of an appetite. I told her as much as I was free to tell about my Google search and Arnie’s evasions when I’d confronted him with the things I’d found.

“He’s hiding something,” Sparkle agreed. “Why?”

A good question. Arnie had lied about the boat being his own. He denied getting Rebecca the job at Siloam Biologic, but he was lying about that, too. He clammed up when I pressed him over his cybercurrency business plan. Rebecca had been dabbling in bitcoin investment from her laptop at home and digging around inside Arnie’s precious servers from work. What had she seen in there that Arnie didn’t want her seeing? I was certain he had arranged to have Rebecca fired. Could it be he had also arranged to have her killed...?

“Who the hell knows?” I said, and discovered to my surprise I’d said it out loud.

Sparkle had a mouthful of sandwich and shrugged in response. I pushed pasta salad around, in no hurry to get back to the office. I had found an email in my inbox that morning with the eye-catching subject line Probationary Hires Policy, informing me that as a condition of my employment I was required to keep my open caseload down to twenty at any given time. “Please review the PHP carefully,” Dr. Howe’s pissy memo advised. “Failure to comply with the provisions therein may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal, criminal charges, and/or fines.” I had come into work that morning with thirty-one open cases and picked up three new ones. I was on call for the whole coming week, and was certain to land some new homicides, which take ten times more work hours to clear. My open caseload was only going to get heavier.

The fizzling of my brief affair with rich and handsome liar Arnie Spitz had ruined the weekend, and a threat from the boss launched a shitty Monday. To top it all off, right after lunch I was due upstairs in Department 16 for the preliminary hearing in the case of People v. Josu Azarola—which meant a face-off between Anup Banerjee and Jackson Heffernan.

The opposing legal teams were just setting up, stacking papers and uncapping pens, when I walked into the courtroom. I greeted Banerjee and nodded at Heffernan.

“I hope you’re settling in downstairs,” Heffernan said.

“Nicely, thanks.”

“You come from Los Angeles, is that right?”

“Boston, originally.”

“Bahstin! Pahk the cah in Hahvid Yahd!”

I cringed. He winked.

“Ha ha. Yeah.”

A back door opened and a sheriff’s deputy escorted the defendant into the courtroom. Joe Azarola was dressed in a business suit, his hair cut conservatively—but underneath was a hard man. You could see it in his shoulders, the tension in his arms. I’d been right about the limp, too: He still had it.

ADA Banerjee started by asking about my qualifications and credentials. Medical school followed by pathology residency at UCLA and forensics fellowship at the Los Angeles County Coroner.

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