Bronx Justice Read Online Free PDF

he’d been practicing the words, having been told ahead of time by Jaywalker that he would be required to say them. Bail was ordered continued, and the case was adjourned for three weeks, to give the defense time to submit written motions.
    Outside the courtroom, Jaywalker cornered Pope and asked him if he would consider giving Darren a polygraph examination. Pope raised an eyebrow as he seemed to think about it, but Jaywalker could see Why rock the boat? written all over his face.
    Finally he said, “Let me run it by my boss.” Passing the buck, no doubt, not wanting to be the one to say no. “Oh, one other thing,” he added. “Tell your man he’d better keep out of the area up there.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Jaywalker was puzzled.
    â€œI mean this,” said Pope, in a tone even more serious than his usual humorless one. “I got a call from Detective Rendell the other day. He said one of the girls phoned him and said she’d seen the guy again, in her lobby. Rendell figured shit, maybe we’ve got the wrong guy locked up. He called me. I did some checking and found out your client had made bail.”
    â€œWhen was this?”
    â€œI don’t know,” said Pope. “Beginning of the week, maybe. He was out before the weekend, right?”
    â€œRight,” Jaywalker had to agree. It was true.
    â€œNow understand me,” said Pope, his eyes narrowing. “This is a free country. I’m not telling your man where he’s allowed to go and where he’s not. But he starts intimidating my witnesses, I’ll have him back in jail in an hour, and his family can see if they can make fifty million dollars. I suggest you tell him that.”
    â€œI will,” Jaywalker said soberly. “She’s sure it was him?”
    â€œShe’s sure.”
    Jaywalker didn’t know whether to hate Pope for threatening them or thank him for the warning. Before he had a chance to do either, Pope turned and walked away.
    Jaywalker lost no time in confronting Darren with what he’d just been told. He was about to read him the riot act for disobeying explicit instructions when Darren interrupted him. “Jay, you know that’s not m-m-me she’s talking about. I haven’t been out of the house alone for one minute since I got out.”
    Darren’s family jumped to his defense, backing him up completely and persuasively. So Jaywalker sent them offwith homework assignments. Each of them was to take paper and pencil and write out everything they could remember about Darren’s movements since his release on bail, as well as his whereabouts on the three days listed in the indictment, August 16th and 17th, and September 5th. Jaywalker instructed Darren to buy a pocket calendar and begin making detailed entries of his comings and goings each day, cursing himself for not thinking of it earlier. Then they set up an appointment at his office for Monday and parted ways.
    Jaywalker headed for his car buoyed by a feeling of excitement. Admittedly, the indictment had been bad. Of the five victims, Pope had succeeded in getting four of them before the grand jury on short notice, and if he got the fifth, he could always go back in, have her testify and get a superseding indictment. Jaywalker’s suggestion of a polygraph examination had met with fairly predictable skepticism, but at least Pope hadn’t quite responded with a flat-out no. But by far the most interesting development had been the business about one of the victims claiming to have seen Darren in the lobby of her building since his release. For starters, Darren and the rest of the Kingston family insisted that he hadn’t been out alone since Marlin had brought him home from Rikers Island. But even beyond that, it just didn’t make sense. In the movies and on TV, the perpetrator invariably returns to the scene of the crime, blending into the crowd or lurking around furtively to