If she accessed the files, she’d have to be very, very careful.
She could handle that. Just keep her ears open for footsteps. It was a long hallway. Nobody could sneak up on her unless she got sloppy and let them. And she wasn’t sloppy.
It was just a few documents that were publicly available anyway.
Back at her desk, she tilted the computer screen away from the door and typed Danny’s case number into the database. Pages and pages of documents loaded, putting a scare into her. What? How guilty was Danny to have so many court filings? Oh, wait a minute … Thank God. It turned out that case number wasn’t just for Danny’s case, but for all sixteen men charged in that conspiracy to sell heroin. The lead defendant was a guy named Ricky Pe?a. She remembered Danny mentioning him. Ricky was who he met with about bankrolling the auto body shop. He was a major drug kingpin, the boss of the organization, which meant that the case was named after him—United States v. Pe?a. He was also, according to an indictment that had the word “FUGITIVE” stamped next to his name in bright red letters, long gone. So Pe?a got away. As did most of the other named defendants. Danny said that. They all ran. Her hapless brother was one of the few who got caught, and he was the innocent one.
She found an affidavit summarizing all the evidence in the case. It had been sworn out by a Detective Charles Wallace on the night of Danny’s arrest.
Wallace. He must be the dirty cop who Danny had talked about.
The affidavit went on for fifteen pages about Pe?a and his crew. It gave detailed descriptions of surveillances, meetings with informants, hand-to-hand sales of heroin. Wallace had the goods on the lot of them. Too bad most of them escaped justice. Of the three who’d actually been apprehended, one was Danny, who was barely mentioned. She found one paltry sentence about him on the very last page of the fifteen-page affidavit.
Upon entering the premises, Det. Wallace observed defendant DANNY RIVERA with a black duffel bag, which was subsequently opened, searched, and found to contain one hundred bundles of heroin of the brand ‘Rocket’ commonly sold by the Pe?a organization and indicated by a stamp of a rocket ship printed on the plastic bag in red.
In the visiting room, Danny had told her that he was in the bar, talking to Ricky, when the phone call came in from Wallace, and everybody ran. Everybody except him, because he didn’t know any better. He got left holding the bag—literally.
Jesus. Was he telling the truth?
He claimed he was framed. Up until that moment, if she was honest with herself, she’d had her doubts. But there it was in black and white, just like he said.
Mom needed to see this affidavit. It backed Danny up a hundred percent. Of course, Mom had believed him from the beginning. It was only Madison who’d doubted him.
Doubted her own brother.
What was wrong with her?
Damn, she owed him. She ought to help him straighten out this mess, even if it was risky.
She sent the affidavit to the printer, then searched for a copy of Danny’s plea agreement. She read it with fists clenched and head buzzing with rage. Danny had signed away his rights, including the right to challenge the plea, and pleaded guilty to the whole freaking conspiracy. Everything the Pe?a crew did. All the heroin those lowlifes sold. All the shootings and murders. He wasn’t there for any of it, but he agreed to pay the price. How was that possible? They had no evidence on him. The case was so weak. Madison hadn’t graduated from law school yet, but even she knew better than to let a client take a plea this unfair.
How could Danny’s lawyer have let this happen?
Her brother had told her the answer. The lawyer was in on it.
As much as it shook her faith in the justice system, she had to admit that was the only explanation that made sense.
She sent the plea agreement to print, then started researching the lawyer, Raymond F. Logue. He was an old-timer, admitted to the bar in 1972. The Massachusetts Bar Association website showed a long history of disciplinary complaints, for everything from misappropriation of funds to conflict of interest to failure to maintain malpractice insurance. He’d been fined multiple times, referred for continuing education, and suspended twice. But never disbarred.
How was that possible? This man should not be practicing law. Did he have friends in high places? She heard Danny’s voice in her head. My lawyer goes way back with this judge. Has her in his pocket.
Danny had been telling the truth about everything else. But Judge Conroy being in league with a dirty lawyer was a bridge too far. That, she would never believe.
A shadow fell across the carpet. Somebody stood in the doorway behind her. She caught the scent of rose perfume.