One Deadly Sister

his recorder to rewind and then restarted. “Good afternoon, Miss Reid. Thank you for coming. Shall we begin?”

“You just smashed my recorder against the wall!”

He turned his head down to speak into his recorder. “What on earth are you talking about, Miss Reid? You’re certainly welcome to record this if you’d like, but I’ve never seen your recorder.”

“You just stood up, reached across, grabbed my recorder from the table in front of me, and threw it against the wall. That loud noise was the sound of my recorder hitting the wall. You used obscene language. Then you dumped the contents of my handbag harshly out onto the table.”

Moran’s head tilted slightly and he stared at her with narrowed eyes, wondering about what she just said. Then he continued, “We’ve prepared evidence here that details your interference in a homicide investigation. To start with, there’s the matter of your crude attempt to entrap and discredit a fine officer such as Sergeant Huress, but I’m willing to let that go. The more serious violation is that you’re interfering with the police and providing misleading and possibly illegal information to the newspaper. He rested one hand on the stack of papers. “These papers will be part of the official record. Reluctantly, I find that as a legal officer of the State of Florida, it’s my duty to present this evidence to the judge and bring charges against you.”

“I hate to put you to all that bother.”

He raised his voice, “And I hate to say you’re in a great deal of trouble. I’m afraid the penalties are quite severe.”

“You’re kidding, right?” She knew negotiating with this jerk would be impossible as long as he was playing his bully game. “That stack of papers there is a phony prop. Wouldn’t it be more effective if we worked together on this rather than playing silly power games?”

“You won’t think they’re so silly when you’re standing looking out between bars.”

“You’re right, I won’t. But jail won’t shut me up either.”

“It might be possible for me to overlook some of these charges, but you’d have to retract a few things, that is, correct the record.”

“What is it you want me to do?”

He grabbed up one of the top folders, reached across the table and shook it in her face. In a loud voice, “I want you to butt out and cease running around conducting your own damn investigation and giving information to the newspaper.”

She smiled. “No, seriously, what do you want me to do?”

That was enough, more than enough. He jumped up and quickly marched around the table to where she sat. She started to stand, but he put his hand firmly on her shoulder and pushed her back down. “Just sit right there. You don’t seem to realize whose ass is in the hot seat. Now you listen to me. You’re going back to that newspaper and tell them you made up the whole bunch of bullshit.”

“Mr. Moran, you just got up and walked around to my side of the table. That’s why your voice got louder. Then you touched me forcefully with your hand on my shoulder while you cursed at me.”

“Why do you keeping talking in a loud voice like that? You’re not even paying attention to what I’m saying.”

She pushed his hand hard from her shoulder. “Now do what I tell you and everything will be just fine. Walk back around the table and sit back down. I want to explain something.”

He was incensed. “I don’t know what you’re up to you little smartass but….”

“No, no, no. Save all the expletives. Now go sit down.”

She returned his stare. Then he stomped furiously back to his chair and stood breathing heavily with his arms folded across his chest.

She said, “Everything you’ve said the last few minutes was recorded.”

He looked at his recorder. “I can erase the tape. You’ll never get it.”

“No, not your recorder, my cell. It’s been on the entire time. A phone at the other end is receiving my call, and has a recorder attached to it. I’ve recorded everything you’ve said to me from the start. A homicide detective in Philadelphia taught me that trick.”

He looked surprised but recovered quickly. “To start with, I checked your phone and it was off. Even so, it would be illegal! You can’t record a phone conversation in Florida without the permission of all parties. It has no value whatever.”

“But I didn’t record a phone conversation. I recorded you in this room, face to face.”

“Well, finally I meet you and it turns out you’re not the smart gal everyone thinks you are. Do you know what you’ve just done? You’ve secretly recorded a Florida state attorney! Even the FBI can’t take such an audacious action without a warrant from a judge. You just outsmarted yourself. I now have immediate grounds for your arrest. Something I’ve been wishing for since you arrived in town. Thank you very much, Miss Reid. I believe we’re about through here.”

She just looked peacefully at him.

“So it’s a stupid trick you tried to pull, and it backfired.” He looked over at her phone, then at her and back to the phone. “Maybe you’re bluffing and didn’t record anything.”

She said nothing.

“Let say you actually did, and I don’t think for a moment that you did. Just hypothetically speaking, what would you do with it?”

“Well, you can’t charge me with secretly recording without entering the recording as evidence. So, we’ll let a jury listen to it. Remember, all of this is still being recorded—all the damns, smartasses, and dumb bitches. You’d need to explain your unprofessional behavior in a court of law and you’d fall flat on your hypothetical ass.”

The blood faded from his face, and he sank into his chair. In a weak voice he muttered, “I was wrought up. You got me agitated, that’s all. I’m not normally like this.” Then he leaned toward her. “Wait a minute. I see it all now, this is a trick.”

“You’re right. I was bluffing. I didn’t record a thing.”

He appeared relieved. “Ah, I thought so. I knew you didn’t.”

She continued with a look of amusement.

“I don’t like that smirk on your face. You did record it.”

“Now listen up,” she said. “If you persist in taking this confused mess you call a case to trial, we’re going to challenge the arrest. We’re going to challenge the custody without bond and the constitutionality of his detention. We’re going to challenge the inadequate control of the crime scene. All of the evidence you’ve gathered there will be thrown out—all of it. All of your circumstantial crap—thrown out.

“We’re going to challenge the validity and accuracy of every little piece of your so-called evidence. And we’ll find an expert to match every one of your experts. We’re going to make you sweat over every syllable you utter until the jury wonders what the hell you’re doing in a courtroom. In case you’ve missed my point, you have nothing and you’re going to lose, Moran.

“I suggest you call Jerry Kagan immediately and start negotiations for my brother’s release. You should drop the charges before the paper starts asking why you arrested him in the first place.”

She gathered her handbag contents from the table and walked to the door. She turned. “Oh, and don’t worry about replacing that old pocket radio you just smashed against the wall. It fell out of Raymond’s stupid glove compartment, it didn’t work anyway.”

He sat there staring at the door for a moment after she left and then slowly walked back to his office. He’d get back at the bitch. His best bargaining chip now was the power to permit bail. He was not going to drop the charges. Maybe she could bring enough pressure to force him to let her brother out on bail, but he’d still be under arrest. Furthermore, the price would be very high and part of the price would be she must leave town without saying anything further. If she wants him out then that’s the price. With her out of the way, tying the ribbons on this case against Reid would be easy.

He called Jerry Kagan and told him the state would consider bail if Reid’s sister agrees to pack up and go back to Philadelphia, no more playing detective, no more talking to the media. Kagan was pleasantly surprised. He’d call Moran back first thing in the morning after consulting with his client.

If Reid agreed, then Moran would see the judge and tell him the state was willing to go along with a motion for pretrial release.

Moran knew that everything must be in place before those damn articles started running in the newspaper.