212 LP: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

see here.”
    “As well you should be,” Guerrero added. “That same obsession with Mr. Sparks that caused her to jump the gun on that first night has distorted this investigation from the outset. Your Honor, we are outsiders to this investigation, and even we are aware of at least two far more credible theories as to motive for Robert Mancini’s murder.”
    Guerrero ticked off his theories on two stubby fingers. “First, the police still—four months after the murder—have not identified the woman who by all appearances had sexual relations with the victim prior to the murder. Second, and separately, we have recently learned that the NYPD is conducting a drug investigation of the apartment directly next door to the apartment where this murder occurred.”
    The movement of Ellie’s pen against her notebook stopped.
    “Could this have been a home invasion at the wrong address?” Guerrero continued. “Have the police looked into that possibility?”
    Home invasions were often the m.o. of choice in drug-related robberies, so one of the first steps she and Rogan had taken was to look into the possibility of a mistaken entry. Immediately after themurder, she had personally checked the department’s database of ongoing drug investigations. They even reached out to Narcotics to be certain. They found no addresses that might have been confused with Sparks’s apartment, let alone one on the very same floor.
    “With these two very important unanswered questions, Your Honor, it strikes us as quite audacious indeed for the police and the district attorney’s office to stand here demanding private information from my client as part of a fishing expedition while a killer runs free.”
    “I don’t like it either,” Judge Bandon said, settling back into his overstuffed leather-backed chair. “The court is granting Mr. Sparks’s motion to quash the state’s subpoena—”
    “But, Your Honor—”
    “I’ve heard enough, Mr. Donovan. Interrupt me again, and there will be consequences. Under Zurcher v. Stanford Daily , the prosecution does have a right to obtain evidence from nonsuspect third parties, but only upon a showing of probable cause that the party has actual evidence to be found. There has been no such showing here. A written order will follow.”
    Max lowered his head momentarily before he began packing his hearing materials into a brown leather briefcase. It was a subtle movement, but Ellie noticed. He was disappointed, and not merely about the court’s ruling. He’d warned her that morning that their chances weren’t good. But that small motion suggested a fear that he had let her down.
    He glanced over his shoulder in her direction. His brown curly hair was bushier than usual; for a week he’d been trying to find time for a trim. His gray eyes looked tired, but when she lifted her chin toward him and winked, they smiled back at her.
    The private exchange did not last long.
    “Your Honor!” Guerrero’s exclamation was quickly followed by an audible sucking of air from Sam Sparks. They were both staring at her notebook, still open on her lap beneath her pen.
    She felt Judge Bandon’s eyes follow their gaze.
    “I take it there’s more to see than tic-tac-toe boards and vector cubes?”
    Silence fell across the courtroom.
    “Your notes, please, Detective Hatcher.” It took him only the briefest glance before he called her back up to the witness stand. “I have a few questions of my own, Detective.”

CHAPTER SIX
    2:45 P.M.
    Megan Gunther
    T he twelve letters formed just two words—one name—on a screen filled with many other words about scores of other people on the NYU campus. But those two words—her name, as the header on a subject link of the Campus Juice Web site—had made the last three hours the longest one hundred and eighty minutes of her lifetime.
    Megan had closed her laptop the second that Professor Ellen Stein busted her. But that hadn’t stopped Stein from instructing her to stay