case. Their conversation was interrupted by occasional crackles.
“Shit,” was all Chandler could manage at first. “What are the ramifications?”
“Well, if Jennings tells Denton, which is likely, I really don’t see any harm to you-what are they going to get you on, petty theft of a cigarette? There’s just nothing there.”
“So then what’s the problem?”
“It seems that most of this falls on your friend Lou. I’ve been running it over in my head, and it’s probably going to go like this: if the chief of Forensic Services finds out about it, he’s going to get Internal Affairs involved, and your friend Palucci will be history. And if the chief doesn’t report it to Internal Affairs, Jennings is going to go straight to the attorney general and he’ll get the Bureau of Investigation to look into it. Either way, Palucci-”
“I can’t let that happen, Jeffrey. He was doing me a favor.”
“And that’s why Jennings is going to be all over this. But a bigger problem is that Denton could get you-and me-on obstruction of justice.”
“Because we didn’t turn over the Harding DNA results?”
“We technically should have alerted them to the results immediately. I did tell Denton that he should obtain a DNA sample on her, but I didn’t tell him why. I didn’t tell him that we’d already run the tests.”
“You couldn’t tell him.”
“Thanks to you.” Hellman paused. “If you’d only run it through a private lab-”
“I don’t want to go through all that again,” Chandler said as he walked up the stairs toward the lab. “It’s not gonna get us anywhere.”
“It’s messy. It’s goddamned messy. If Jennings is out for blood, he’s got a good case. His vampire teeth are polished and poised for action.” They were interrupted by a crackle.
“Should we talk about this later, when you’re back at your office?” Chandler asked, concerned about the security of the cell signal.
“We’re fine.”
“What if Harding and her attorney find out about his? Could they file a federal suit against me for violating her civil rights?”
“We’re talking about a cigarette,” Hellman said. “A piece of consumable merchandise. Petty theft of a cigarette, for Christ’s sake.”
“No, we’re talking about DNA. There’s nothing much more private than your own genetic code.”
“Did she see you take the cigarette?”
“I don’t know.” Chandler thought a moment and remembered that she did not return to the table after leaving to take a few drags. Was that the reason-did she see him bag the cigarette and slip it in his pocket? He shook his head. “I doubt it. Unless she left it there purposely to set me up-”
“Now you’re getting paranoid.”
“Who the hell knows with her?” He stopped on a landing and took a deep breath. “Look, even if she didn’t see me take it, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that she took out a cigarette during lunch with me, and then a couple of hours later there’s a cigarette in the crime lab that I’m asking Gray to run a lip print and DNA analysis on.”
After a moment’s thought, Hellman said, “I just don’t see a fourth amendment issue here.”
“What about a civil suit? Could Harding and her attorney go after me for a civil rights violation?”
Hellman snorted. “I don’t have to tell you that anybody can file a civil suit for anything. All it takes is a few hundred bucks. It doesn’t stand a chance of winning, but yeah, they could file one. And you’d be spending a lot more time in California away from your family than you’d like. Win or lose.” He paused. “But I really think the biggest problem lies with your buddy Palucci and the obstruction of justice issue.”
Chandler clenched his jaw. “What if I call Jennings myself and confront him?”
“No. That’ll be worse.”
“Fine. Then I have another idea,” Chandler said. “Let me make a few calls and I’ll get back to you.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“I’ll let you know. I’ve just gotta make some calls first.”
He disconnected the call, then dialed Lou Palucci.
“I heard,” Chandler said. “Sorry, man. I had no idea that Gray would blabber it all over the damn place. I thought he was a professional.”
“He’s on the strange side, Chandler. Normally, he’d be fine,” Palucci said, “but this is not the kind of thing that comes up regularly. Not to mention the fact that he’s fairly green. But it’s not like he was telling everyone about it. Apparently, he and Jennings got into a pissing match over you. Each had his own story to tell. And it just came out. At least, that’s the version I got.”
“Why don’t you talk to Jennings. Tell him what kind of an impact this is going to have on the lab-and on you. Tell him it could cost you your job.”
“I spent the entire night thinking about it. Can’t you just see the headline? ‘Director of State Crime Lab Involved in Scandal.’ If he doesn’t know what’s going on in his own department, what kind of a director is he? And if it does get out that I did know, it’ll be worse: I knowingly violated procedure, abused my position, allowed the usage of taxpayers’ money for personal interests…it’ll be filled with all sorts of things for the media to grab hold of.”
After a moment of silence, Chandler sighed. “Lou, listen to me. All you have to do is talk with Jennings. Now, before he gets to Denton, the chief, and the attorney general. Just make sure you impress upon him the fact that if he takes the lab down in an effort to take revenge on a fifteen-year-old dispute, he’ll be blacklisted by the very lab he relies on to make his cases.”
“I think I’ve got a better source of persuasion for Jennings.”
“Who’s that?”
“Someone who saved his ass a few years back. Jennings owes him.”
Chandler gave him his number in New York and hung up. He ran his fingers through his hair, then leaned his shoulder into the metal fire door and pushed into the hallway.
“Dammit.”
CHAPTER 55
A day after his discharge from the hospital and an hour after returning to work, criminalist Stuart Saperstein was dispatched to a crime scene. Three hours later, he settled down at his desk to log in all the evidence he had collected. Before he could finish, however, he was summoned to Lou Palucci’s office.
He tossed the digital recorder onto his desk and trudged down the hall.
As he walked through the doorway, Palucci was hanging up the phone. “Sap,” he said. “Close that door and grab a seat.”
“You look like you haven’t slept in days,” Saperstein said, tilting his head back and peering at his boss through soiled glasses.
“See, that’s why you’re a criminalist. Very observant. You don’t miss a damn thing.” He scooted his chair closer to the desk. “I’ve got a situation here that I need your help with. Your buddy, Bill Jennings, is threatening to bring some serious heat down on me and the rest of the lab and you have to stop it cold. Before it gets anywhere.”
Palucci spent the next five minutes providing the details of Chandler’s involvement with the lab. Finally, Saperstein interrupted the explanation.
“So,” he said, removing his glasses and poking at the dust on the lens with a finger, “what you’re saying is that this guy Chandler used the state lab for private gain, and Bill found out about it, and you’re afraid he’s going to raise a stink. Saperstein replaced his glasses. “I don’t get it. Why would Bill care?”
“There was an incident about fifteen years ago involving Jennings and Chandler. The two of them squared off, and Chandler turned out to be right. Big case, big blow-up. Jennings came out looking real bad.”
“His chance to get even,” Saperstein said.
Palucci nodded. “With us in the middle.” He shook his head. “If this gets out to the chief…” Palucci started to
