Always Watching (38 page)

Chapter 32

Less than a week ago, we were in a different
courtroom listening to more attorney antics, those trying to delay
what I thought was an inevitable trial for Danny Datello. 
Today, it was a simple arraignment.

As I predicted, Zack was tickled pink that
the FBI was in attendance.  Any leverage he could exert was
welcome. 

“
We request that the
defendant be held without bail,” Zack said.

“
Your honor, Mrs. Sherman
poses no flight risk, has strong ties to the community in which she
resides and –”

“
Has no family living in
Montgomery anymore, your honor,” Zack interrupted.  “I’d like
to remind the court that the dying declaration the defense has
proffered to excuse Mrs. Sherman’s  culpability in this crime
was offered by the man who murdered the infant’s father. 
There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support this
ludicrous claim that Danny Datello somehow orchestrated his
daughter’s
adoption
from behind bars.”

The judge peered down from the bench. 
“I’m curious if the FBI presence here isn’t intended to serve as a
reminder of how seriously the federal government views kidnapping,
Mr. Carpenter.”

David squared his shoulders and gave an
officious nod at the bench.

“
The defendant is remanded
without bail,” the judge peered at the defense table.  “What’s
up next?”

“
We’d like to move for a
change of venue,” Marcel said.  “I’m convinced that given the
popularity of this gangster Danny Datello in Darkwater Bay, that
it’s impossible for my client to receive a fair trial.”

“
Hmm, and I suppose you’d
suggest that Montgomery would be more amenable to fairness than the
good folks in Bay County.”

“
As the prosecutor said,
your honor, not even he believes that Mr. Datello, a man who killed
one of his former colleagues, could’ve possibly arranged for his
child to be adopted by Mrs. Sherman from the confines of
jail.  Clearly, the entire community is biased toward this
infamous family.”

“
I think you can find
twelve jurors who will be objective, Mr. Marcel.  Motion
denied.  What say we set a date for this little
event?”

“
Defense moves for
immediate trial,” Marcel said.

Zack squirmed. 

“
Any objection to that,
Mr. Carpenter?”

“
Your honor, the
prosecution can be ready within…” he glanced over his shoulder at
me of all people.  I’m not the badge in this case.  I
held up one finger.

“
A week.”

“
Sounds reasonable. 
Is that speedy enough for you, Mr. Marcel?”

“
I was hoping that we
could start seating a jury this afternoon.”

The judge laughed softly.  “Well even
if Mr. Carpenter was in the rush that you are, I’d say no to
that.  We’ll start to impanel our jurors next Tuesday. 
And with that, unless you’ve got something official to file with
the court, Mr. Marcel, we’re finished.”

David leaned over and whispered in my
ear.  “You’re being very optimistic that we’ll have enough
evidence in a week, Helen.”

“
I’m not worried about
Zack adding additional charges to this indictment.  We’ve got
enough on her as things stand.”

“
I thought Holmes had an
ironclad alibi for her whereabouts the night the baby was
abducted.”

“
She did,” I said. 
“But that doesn’t change the fact that Sherman still had Sofia
Datello in her custody after she was snatched from the
hospital.  Zack can make mincemeat of Preston’s dying
declaration.  It won’t matter that he was FBI.”

“
We still don’t know how
she got from Darkwater Bay to Montgomery.”

“
And we’ve got more than a
week to answer that question.  Hopefully a lot of other ones
too.”

David rose and walked with me from the
courtroom.  “Where next?”

I turned my cell phone on.  “I’ve got a
message.  Let’s see what’s going on with the rest of our
investigation.”

A moment later, Crevan’s voice floated into
my ear.  “Hey, Helen.  We’ve got a little snag
here.  Dev and I showed up to meet with Destiny Gerard this
morning, and she’s refusing to cooperate with us.  Could you
give me a call when you get out of court this morning?”

I dialed his number.  “Want to meet me
at Celeste’s place?”

“
It looks like we’re going
to have to go that route, Helen.”

“
Did she give you an
excuse for her lack of cooperation?”

“
Nope.  Just said if
we wanted another crack at Danny boy’s books, we’d need a new
warrant.”

“
Wait a minute.  Zack
has his financial records from the case he planned to
prosecute?”

“
I have no idea.  I
didn’t think he would’ve had any reason for them, Helen.  The
case against Danny was murder for hire, not something related to
the businesses.”

“
Interesting.  What
do we know about this woman?  Has she been a fixture in the
business for years?”

“
Yeah, she’s the one who
took over operations at the casino after Salvatore Masconi
disappeared, Helen.  She’s been here through it
all.”

“
So based on the gaming
commission’s scrutiny, we know she has no criminal
background.”

“
I wouldn’t count on
that.  Masconi slipped under their radar after all,” Crevan
reminded me.  “We’ll run a background check on her.  Dev
and I are across the street in the downtown office.”

LaPierre Tower.  Johnny’s old penthouse
before he moved in with me had become Crevan’s new home.  I
wondered if Johnny was there.  We endured a tense drive home
from Montgomery before the hearing this morning.  He left the
house before David and I did and didn’t bother joining us at the
district courthouse.

“
We’ll be right over,” I
said.  “I think we should head out to Hennessey Island right
away.  Meet us in the lobby.”

“
Johnny’s with
you?”

“
David Levine,” I
said.  “He’s tagging along for the duration.”

“
Where’s
Johnny?”

“
I have no idea.  He
didn’t say where he was going this morning.”

“
You didn’t ask? 
Helen, I thought you would’ve settled that other thing
yesterday.”

“
I think it might have
something to do with Joe and that news story.  He was pretty
nonverbal after the interview with the press.”  Some lies come
so easily.

“
Great.  That’s all
we need now.”

A hulking frame I couldn’t ignore lumbered
around the corner and down the wide hallway of the courthouse.

“
Oops.  Take that
back, Crevan.  Johnny just walked in.  We’ll be over in a
few minutes.”

Johnny pumped David’s hand
enthusiastically.  “Thank you so much for intervening with
Governor Collangelo.  I was so tired this morning, it took all
my focus to drive back to Darkwater,” he said.  “Joe and I
conferenced this morning after we had a chance to read the article
that Hammond published.  He actually quoted you.”

“
Was it as damaging as Joe
feared it would be?” I asked.

Johnny avoided eye contact.  “It wasn’t
a great piece, but it was a hell of a lot fairer than it would’ve
been if he hadn’t done any damage control at all.  What
happened at the arraignment?”

David’s eyebrows dove when the question was
directed at him.  “Remanded.  Marcel requested a change
of venue which was denied.  Jury selection begins next
Tuesday.”

“
So soon?”  He
finally stole a peek at me.

“
We’ve got enough on her
for the Datello kidnapping, Johnny.  I just got off the phone
with Crevan.  He’s across the street.  They didn’t have
any luck with Gerard this morning, so we’re heading over to
Hennessey Island to see if Celeste can make a dent.”

“
I’m headed out to
OSI.  Thought I’d take a run at Sarah Holmes.  David, I
don’t suppose I could impose on you to sit in on the
interview.”

“
Uh, sure,” David
said.

“
Maybe you could have a
conversation with Florence Payette too,” I suggested.  “I’m
sure it would help Zack a great deal to have a second opinion on
how she’ll hold up on the witness stand.”

Lines crinkled at the corners of his
eyes.  “All right, Helen.  I guess I’ll see you at
lunch?”  He stepped close and kissed my cheek.

“
Dinner.  Then I’ve
got that thing with Fantasia tonight.  Hopefully, we’ll have
some more leads after that conversation.”

“
I’ll give you two a
moment,” David said.  “Meet you out front, Johnny?”

He nodded.

“
So you’re still on for
your
date
tonight?”

“
It isn’t my date. 
It’s Devlin’s.”

Johnny snorted.  “Then I won’t keep
you.”

“
Johnny, what I said last
night –”

“
Spoke volumes.  I
don’t need the recap.  Don’t expect me home for dinner. 
I’ve got a ton of work at the office, and Joe really wants some
results on Sanderfield’s campaign contributions.”

“
Is that how this is gonna
be, all because I admit that I love my friends?”

“
It’s the way they love
you back, and the fact that you don’t discourage it that told me
everything I needed to know.”

Johnny turned around and walked away before
I recovered from my shock enough to set him straight.  Maybe
it was a blessing.  We could’ve probably closed this case last
Friday if it hadn’t been for all the emotional distractions.

Chapter 33

Celeste Datello opened the door to her
penthouse looking more than a little harried.  Enough of
this.  I gripped her arm and led her into the open living
area.  “We need to talk.  Where is Ms. Gerard?”

“
Working.  What’s
wrong now?”

“
We’ll get to that in a
minute, Celeste.  You look exhausted.  I thought Destiny
was staying here to help you.”

“
She is helping
–”

“
When was the last time
you slept?”

She twisted her arm away from my grip and
huffed a little indignantly.  “It’s not easy having a newborn
baby, Helen.  Of course I’m not sleeping like I should, but I
refuse to take Destiny’s advice and hire a nanny.”

Given what Celeste had been through in the
past week, I couldn’t blame her on that count.  It wasn’t what
I meant anyway.  “Sit down,” I gestured toward the sofa. 
“I want you to listen to me, Celeste.”

She perched on the edge of the sofa and
crossed her arms over her chest.  “All right.  What is it
this time?”

I crouched in front of her and reached for
her hands.  “I feel responsible for what you’re going through
right now, Celeste, all of it.  Danny’s arrest, his death, and
I cannot hold my tongue sometimes.  The last time we spoke,
you said that you feel like I’m still family, so I want you to
listen to me, because I’m saying this to you as someone who cares
about family.”

Her eyes filled with tears.  Celeste
barely nodded.

“
You need to make peace
with your family, Celeste.  Believe me when I tell you that
there comes a point when it is too late to make amends.  I
know for a fact that your parents are still here in Darkwater
Bay.  Your mother should be the one here helping you. 
Please, for the sake of what really matters in life, reach out to
her.  Don’t count on one of Danny’s old employees to be here
for you, not when you’ve got flesh and blood who would love nothing
more than to reach out to you.”

“
They could’ve come to me.
It’s not like what’s happened isn’t well known in the city,” she
whispered.  “Where have they been?”

“
Honey, it’s not that
simple.  Sometimes we have to be the ones to take the first
step.  Were your parents with you at Christmas?”

She nodded.

“
And they were horrified
by Danny’s arrest, weren’t they?”

“
Yes.”

“
Asked you to come home
with them, put this Datello chapter behind you in life,
right?”

Celeste nodded again.  “I loved
him.  I couldn’t turn my back on him like everyone else
did.”

“
Of course not.” 
Even though I had done that very thing to Rick when his legal woes
resulted in an arrest, I understood the concept of standing by your
man in theory at least.  I didn’t doubt that it was love that
motivated Celeste to stay with Danny. Sometimes reality needed to
take precedence over sentimentality, even loyalty. “But he’s gone
now, honey.  Making peace with your family isn’t being
disloyal to Danny.  Do you think he’d want you struggling
alone like this?”

“
No,” she crumbled like a
sandcastle hit by heavy surf. 

“
Would you like me to call
your parents for you?”

Her wet blue eyes fixed on me in a gaze of
gratitude.  “I told Danny you were really a good person,
Helen.”

“
I’ll call them right
now.  Detective Mackenzie will stay with you –”