Fairstein, Linda - Final Jeopardy Read Online Free PDF

drawer onto his lap frisky little suckers that had been packed in on top of each other all night. I’m surprised you didn’t hear his screams on Ninety-fourth Street.”
    Mike liked the story.
    “You do it?”
    “Are you crazy? I assume it was the cops from the case, but he knows that I’m the one who called him ”crabby“ that time, so he blames me.”
    We were interrupted by the appearance of a uniformed cop in the doorway beyond Laura’s desk. He looked like a rookie baby-faced, polished shoes, new equipment, and a sheaf of arrest papers in his hand.
    “I’m looking for Mr. Cooper,” he announced to the , three of us.
    “You got him. Only I’m Cooper. It’s Alex Alexandra.”
    “Oh, sorry. I’m Officer Corchado. They sent me up from the complaint room I’ve got a new case.”
    Laura moved to her desk to start working the phones and I waved Corchado into my office and introduced him to Mike as we seated ourselves.
    “I won’t be able to write this up for you ‘cause I’m involved in something else today, but my assistant, Sarah Brenner, will work on it with you as soon as she gets in.”
“Yeah, but my lieutenant told me I had to see the bureau chief. There’s a problem with a cross-complaint and he said you’d know what to do.
You’re the chief, right?”
    “Yes,” I replied.
    “What’s the problem? Tell me what kind of case you’ve got.”
    Corchado explained that he and his partner had responded to a 911 call shortly after eleven last night.
    “Neighbors had called it in housing project in the two-three.” East Harlem.
    I asked if he’d met the victim.
    “Yeah, she was a mess. A kid, fifteen. Taken to the rooftop from the elevator on her way home. Put up a struggle. Lots of blood, mostly from her nose, I think, when he punched her to shut her up.”
    “Did he rape her?”
    “Yes, ma’am. That’s what she said. She was crying so bad we didn’t talk to her a lot. Ambulance took her to the hospital.”
    “How did you get the guy?” I asked.
    “Easy. She knew him. Said he had gone to junior high school with her older brother. So when they took her to the hospital my partner and me went to the apartment to get her brother. We told him what happened and that his sister said that it was Otis who did it.
    “Her brother, Kenny, was wild, ma’am. He knew exactly who Otis was and what apartment he lived in. Told us the guy’s real name was Herman Myers, but they called him Otis ‘cause he used to ride up and down in elevators, waiting for old ladies to get on so he could rob ’em. Just got out of jail on the robbery cases a few weeks ago. Took us right to the apartment, we knocked on the door, and when Otis came out into the hallway to talk to us, we locked him up.”
    “Nice collar,” I told Corchado.
    “Is it your first felony?”
    “Yeah, actually it is.”
    “Well, congratulations. You can feel good about this one.
    Laura will send you down to Sarah’s office and you’ll have him indicted by the beginning of next week.“
    “Yeah, but there is a problem. Otis… well, his lawyer called the precinct and wants to file a cross-complaint.”
    “What?”
    “Well, Miss Cooper, Kenny hit the defendant in the head with a baseball bat. Otis is in the hospital took a bad crack to the head. That’s why the lieutenant told me to see you.
    Do we have to lock Kenny up, too?“
    “Christ, how did you let this happen?” I asked, as my pleasure over a good arrest turned to annoyance.
“Kenny followed along with us to point Otis out,” Corchado explained, ‘and I guess he was carrying the bat. He just came back from playing ball so I didn’t think nothing of it. He was real quiet until we put the cuffs on Myers, then he started to cry and all. He kept saying,
“Why’d you do it to her, she’s just a baby. Man, Why’d you have to do it? She was a baby.”
    “Right before we got him to the patrol car, me and my Partner on each side of him so nobody could interfere, Otis turns back