the twenty-minute intervals and the right-side pockets, and just as they would have with the right-handed exchanges. That way, when it came time to testify, they would know how to answer if they couldn’t actually remember, without running the risk of contradicting each other.
JAYWALKER: We already know from Agent St. James that he was never able to identify Mr. Barnett’s source. How about the backup team? Did you succeed in identifying him?
CRUZ: No, we didn’t.
JAYWALKER: But you did succeed in arresting “Stump,” didn’t you?
CRUZ: We did.
JAYWALKER: How did that happen?
CRUZ: By accident, actually. We’d just arrested Mr. Barnett and patted him down. One of the team members was about to handcuff him and read him his rights when out of nowhere, Stump walks up. So I patted him down, too.
JAYWALKER: And lo and behold, I suppose you detected something in his right pants pocket that felt like drugs. Right?
CRUZ: That’s right.
Of course it was right. It had been in the reports.
JAYWALKER: And when it turned out to be heroin, you arrested him, too?
CRUZ: Not me personally. One of the NYPD guys took that collar.
JAYWALKER: And you learned that Stump’s true name was Clarence Hightower, and that he’d done time with Mr. Barnett?
CRUZ: We learned that later.
JAYWALKER: And naturally you charged Mr. Hightower with acting in concert with Mr. Barnett, since he’d been the one who’d brought Agent St. James to Mr. Barnett in the first place, for the express purpose of buying drugs. Correct?
CRUZ: No, that’s not correct. Mr. Hightower was charged only with possession.
JAYWALKER: Felony possession? Or just misdemeanor possession?
CRUZ: Misdemeanor possession. It was a small amount of heroin, which he told us he’d bought across town and was for his own use.
JAYWALKER: And you believed him?
CRUZ:
JAYWALKER: I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.
CRUZ: Lieutenant Pascarella said we didn’t have enough on Mr. Hightower to charge him with sale. And he was in charge of things.
JAYWALKER: Mr. Hightower was in charge of things?
CRUZ: No, Lieutenant Pascarella was.
JAYWALKER: So you never did learn who Mr. Barnett got the drugs from. And the guy who set everything up in the first place, you never charged him in connection with any of the three sales. Right?
CRUZ: That’s right.
JAYWALKER: Who arrested Mr. Barnett?
CRUZ: I did.
JAYWALKER: Who processed him? Searched him, took his pedigree, vouchered his belongings?
CRUZ: I did.
JAYWALKER: Did you ever ask him who he got the drugs from?
This time it was nothing but a shot in the dark. Barnett had told Jaywalker that he’d never been asked about his source, which made no sense. But even if that was true, Agent Cruz could hardly admit it. Chances were he’d say that Barnett had refused to discuss the subject, asked to speak with a lawyer or gotten belligerent. But Cruz surprised Jaywalker.
“To tell you the truth, Counselor, I honestly don’t remember if I asked him or not.”
Which might have won him points with the jurors for honesty and politeness, but it really true broke a cardinal rule of drug enforcement. Still, Jaywalker decided to leave the answer alone. Not that it wouldn’t continue to nag at him, though.
“No further questions,” he said.
They broke for lunch.
“The People call Investigator Lance Bucknell,” Miki Shaughnessey announced when the trial resumed that afternoon. And the moment Bucknell entered the courtroom, the jurors nodded in recognition. Apparently they had taken to heart Jaywalker’s point that Investigator Bucknell’s all-American looks hardly equipped him to blend in with the brothers in Harlem.
Because of that, Jaywalker was curious as to exactly why Shaughnessey had decided to call Bucknell. The best guess he could come up with was that she’d thought the investigator’s good looks would help win over the women on the jury. Or perhaps it was a desire on her part to bring in a representative from the third and final agency that had made up the joint task force, the New York State Police. Ten minutes into Investigator Bucknell’s testimony, it occurred to Jaywalker that Shaughnessey might be playing defense with her witness, using him to preempt any further attack by Jaywalker on the failure of the backup team to identify Alonzo Barnett’s source of supply. But if that was her goal, she’d picked a strange witness to do it with.
SHAUGHNESSEY: Did there come a time during the course of that first buy, Investigator Bucknell, when you got out of your surveillance vehicle and followed the defendant on foot?
BUCKNELL: Yes, ma’am.
SHAUGHNESSEY: And were you able to see where he went?
BUCKNELL: Yes, ma’am, I was. He walked to number 345 West 127th Street, a large apartment building on the uptown side of the street.
SHAUGHNESSEY: What did he do when he got there?
BUCKNELL: He walked through the outer set of doors into a vestibule area. There he appeared to press a button on a large board of names. A moment later he appeared to be speaking over an intercom system. Then he stepped to the inner set of doors and, after a second or two, pushed one of those open, entered the lobby and disappeared from my view.
SHAUGHNESSEY: Did you attempt to follow him into the building?
BUCKNELL: No, ma’am. Not on this occasion.
SHAUGHNESSEY: How about on the second buy? Did you also follow him on foot during that event?
BUCKNELL: Yes, ma’am. On the second buy I followed him to the same building. And after I saw him get buzzed in, I entered the vestibule. But I found the inner doors locked, and I was unable to proceed farther. Eventually someone came out of the building and I was able to gain entry as she exited, but by that time the defendant was nowhere in sight.
SHAUGHNESSEY: And on the third buy?
BUCKNELL: On the third buy, anticipating that the defendant would go to the same building, I wore a disguise and stationed myself inside the lobby even before his arrival.
SHAUGHNESSEY: How did you get inside the lobby?
BUCKNELL: I slipped the lock with a credit card.
SHAUGHNESSEY: And did there come a time when you saw Mr. Barnett?
BUCKNELL: Yes, ma’am. About twenty minutes later he entered the vestibule area from outside the building, pressed a button on the board and was buzzed in.
SHAUGHNESSEY: Were you able to see which button he pressed?
BUCKNELL: No, ma’am.
SHAUGHNESSEY: What happened next?
BUCKNELL: The defendant walked to one of the elevators, pushed the button and got on when the door opened. I…I got on behind him. I waited for him to push a floor button so I could push a higher one and see where he got off. But he pushed twelve, which was the top floor. I pushed ten, so it wouldn’t look like I was following him. When the elevator door opened on ten, I figured I better get off. I looked around for the stairs, but it took me a moment to find them, and by the time I did and ran up to the twelfth floor, the defendant was out of sight.
