The Cross: An Eddie Flynn Novella by Steve Cavanagh

Author:Steve Cavanagh [Cavanagh, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2015-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

It had taken Boles a full half hour to calm the deputy commissioner and another half hour on the phone to the commissioner himself. He sat in the consultation booth like a man who’d just had his balls slapped.

“Eddie, you made a few good points. You know that. The city can see you made progress. But you haven’t even begun to establish any liability on Marzone. If the jury believes him, you’re done for. They can’t give your client damages unless you prove Marzone acted unlawfully. The point about the knife is interesting. Why didn’t Marzone get stuck with the knife he says Hernandez was holding? I don’t know. But you’ve got no evidence to challenge him. Only Roark and Marzone can tell the tale; no one else was there apart from Hernandez, and he’s not here to testify, unfortunately. But look, we see your client is in distress. We can do half a mil. That’s it. No negotiation. That’s my first and final offer. Take it to your client and get back to me.”

To make it absolutely clear there was no negotiating, Boles closed his files and stood, held out a hand to usher me from the room to go speak to my client.

I didn’t move.

“You gonna speak to your client? Half a million dollars is a lot of money.”

“No, it isn’t. Not for this,” I said. I reached under my chair for the gym bag, placed it on the table, and removed the camera.

It was only Boles and me in the room. He didn’t react much to the video. A couple of times he swept his finger across his top lip, but that was about all. When the film finished, he handed me back the camera.

“The half a million offer is off the table. Marzone killed that poor man. The city doesn’t have to pay a . . .” He said, and then suddenly fell silent.

“Why did you show this to me? It kills your case stone dead. What are doing?” he said.

“I’m doing you favor. And you’re right. This video proves your defense, but it gives me a whole new case against the city, one that I can’t lose. While Marzone strangled a man to death, the head of the Internal Affairs Bureau watched. He recorded the murder. He didn’t stop it. He didn’t interfere at all. He didn’t shout out for help. There was no call for backup. He didn’t even call a paramedic. Frost failed to perform the most basic of his primary duties, resulting in my client’s death.”

Silence. Boles racked his brains. Then he curled his lips and said, “I’ll make a call, see if I can up the offer to one million.”

“No. You’ll pay Maria five million. Then you’ll set up a trust fund for another five million dollars. A month from now, when all of this has died down, the NYPD will issue a press statement exonerating Chilli Hernandez and confirming that the police are reopening the investigation into Ed Genarro’s death.

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