“Yes,” Lou pointed at the darkness. “By the way, there’s no motion-detector lights out back. I checked again today.”
Mary and the others lapsed into a tense silence as in the next few moments, the silhouette got large, closer to the window, clearly visible in outline. The killer’s face was in the camera’s view, but it was completely obscured by darkness, and Mary prayed for better detail, but it was too grainy. Together, they all watched as the shadow did something at the window, presumably opened it, lifting one arm up while the other held something the same size as a laptop, and then climbed outside, lowered the window, and vanished into the darkness around the fire escape. A few moments later the shadow reappeared on the backstreet behind the row of houses, then took a right turn and left the camera view.
Mary groaned. “Ugh, you can’t tell if it’s him or whoever he sent. It’s not enough proof, is it?”
Bennie shook her head. “No, not unless we can get it enlarged or enhance the image. It’s not enough to charge him or even question him.”
“This is awful, this is just so awful.” Judy’s voice sounded choked, and Mary reached for her hand and held it tight. The numbers changed at the bottom of the video screen, and Mary realized this was when John lay on his living room floor, bleeding to death. She felt tears come to her eyes, wishing she could turn the numbers back, make them rewind to zero so that John was still alive, William and the Hodges were happy again, and Judy had a future with a man she had finally found, after so long.
Bennie broke the silence. “Lou, when does he come in the apartment?”
“He doesn’t, according to this video. I watched the whole video. He doesn’t enter by the window, he only leaves by it. He musta entered by the front door.”
“So what does that tell us?” Bennie asked, thinking aloud. “It tells us that John knew who he was and let him in, or at least John wasn’t afraid of him. But after the killer kills John, he leaves by the back.”
“It doesn’t tell us much.” Mary hit Stop, and the screen froze in grainy stillness. “You could say that it tells us that the act was impulsive, that he’s panicky and he leaves by the back. But it doesn’t really tell us that, logically. There could’ve been a lot of people on the street and he wanted to avoid detection. He knew he’d just killed John, so he leaves by the back. Even a professional would’ve done that. If he’d put on a suit, John would’ve let him in. He could’ve even said he’d been sent by Machiavelli to talk about the reverse-discrimination case, for that matter. Because the killer knew he would kill John, so John wouldn’t be alive to testify.”
“Poor John.” Judy withdrew her hand from Mary’s, wiping her eyes.
Bennie sighed, and everyone went stone silent, their expressions uniformly grave as Mary looked around the table. Judy dabbed at her eyes with a napkin and straightened her shoulders, turning to Lou.
“Lou, that was good work. Thank you.”
“I’m happy to help, honey.” Lou patted her hand, and something about seeing his lined wrinkled hand, with its age spots, resting on top of Judy’s small girlish hand with its funky pink nails, touched Mary’s heart.
She sighed. “I wish the focus could have been better.”
“It’s okay.” Bennie shrugged. “It establishes that the killer left on the fire escape. It corroborates what we already know, and it does fix the time of the murder.”
Mary looked over. “Bennie, don’t you think it exonerates Judy somewhat? In terms of timing, she was gone, and why would she leave by the fire escape? That makes no sense. She had a key and she could go back and forth out the front door.”
“Right,” Judy chimed in, brightening. “Doesn’t this mean I’m off the hook?”
Bennie looked less certain. “No, you can’t tell it’s not Carrier by this video, and there’s too much give on the time of death. She could react the same way the real killer did, go out the back to avoid detection.”
Mary remained unconvinced. “I would still argue that it does, when we give the cops the tape. We have to give them the tape, don’t we?”
“Lemme think.” Bennie looked at Lou. “Do you think they had it already? What do they say at the massage parlor? Had the police been there?”
“Yes, but I know the cops don’t have the tape. The manager told me that the police came by and asked about cameras, but the manager wasn’t in so nobody would let them in the back. I don’t know if they’re going back, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable sitting on this.” Lou patted Judy’s hand again. “They are not going to let you off the hook until they like somebody better.”
Mary’s thoughts were racing. “But wait, on second thought, that puts me in a difficult ethical position, as Judy’s lawyer. This is our work product, and I don’t have an ethical or legal obligation to turn over work product that would inculpate my client. On the contrary, I have an obligation not to.”
Bennie nodded. “You’re right.”
Lou frowned in disapproval. “Maybe we take our time in turning it over? Can we do that?”
Mary looked at Lou. “Let’s table it for now. Judy’s right, you did a great job. Maybe our guy can get something out of it and we can see more of the face. We also have to check if there are any cameras on the front of the house or the street, because that will show somebody entering.”
Lou pocketed his phone. “I can double-check and maybe it’ll have a better view.”
“Maybe,” Bennie said, hopeful.
* * *
“Honey, what’s going on?” Mary had finally gotten home, only to find Anthony’s rollerbag in the entrance hall and him standing there, ready to leave, phone in hand.
“I was just about to call you.” Anthony kissed her quickly on the cheek, excited. He was dressed in a sport jacket and jeans, with his fancy raincoat draped over one arm. “I have to go to Boston.”
“Boston, why?”
“You know the professor I told you about, the one in the history department at Harvard? I’ve been trying to get an interview with him for weeks, for my book.”
“Yes, right,” Mary said vaguely, too tired to remember right now.
“He said he could meet with me tomorrow, and there’s a lecture we should attend together, the day after that. So I have to go to Boston for two days. I got a hotel and I’m on the next flight.” Anthony touched her cheek, with a smile. “Do you mind? I think you’ll be okay, won’t you?”
“Sure, I’ll be fine.” Mary smiled, happy to see him so happy. “I just have work, I’ll be fine.”
“Great, thanks. You have to promise me you’ll take it easy, though.” Anthony passed her to the door.
“I’ll take it easy.”
“Don’t be crazy.” Anthony shot her a warning look, opening the door. “Remember what the doctor said.”
“Okay, okay.”
“I love you.” Anthony picked up his rollerbag. “Good-bye.”
“Good-bye, and I love you, too.”
“And I love you, little baby,” Anthony said to Mary’s belly, then he was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission was housed in a generic, modern office building at Eighth and Arch Streets in Center City, with a façade of indeterminate tan stone and slitted windows more common to a prison than a building with a PennDot driver licensing center on the main floor. Upstairs, the agency’s offices were similarly institutional, with nondescript wooden furniture and spare padded chairs throughout. Mary and Roger were shown into a windowless conference room that held a long conference table with chairs, a speakerphone, and some stray pencils. The walls were freshly painted white, and the only decorations were color portraits of Pennsylvania’s governor and lieutenant governor, next to an American flag and the cobalt-blue flag of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, both of which listed to the right, like beech trees in a strong wind.
Mary sat next to Roger, trying not to be nervous as they waited for the case investigator to come in. She had on a fresh white-silk T-shirt u
nderneath a lightweight wool dress, which was her prettiest maternity outfit, an oxymoron. Roger looked like his normal hip self in a tailored gray suit with a patterned gray and white tie, and Mary got a whiff of his aftershave, which smelled like sandalwood and world peace.
“Mary, let me do the talking,” Roger said quietly, looking over.
“That’s why you make the big bucks.”
Roger smiled. “Except that it was your legal strategy.”
“I learned from the master.” Mary smiled back. She’d warmed to Roger since he’d agreed with their plan, but it was nevertheless risky enough to worry her. Theory was one thing and practice another, and Mary had tossed and turned last night. The baby wasn’t kicking yet, so at least one of them was sleeping in.
The door to the conference room opened, and a compact African-American woman entered, who looked in her fifties. Silver strands shone through the short curls of her hair, she had on oversized dark glasses with gold hoops and a navy-blue suit. She entered the room holding a red accordion file and a silvery laptop and shut the door behind her with a warm, broad smile. “Folks, I’m so sorry to keep you waiting. My name is Vanessa Walker and I’m the investigator on this matter. You must be Roger Vitez and Mary DiNunzio.”
“Yes, please call me Roger,” he said, extending a hand, and Mary rose and did the same. They sat down, with Vanessa on the opposite side of the table, setting a file aside and opening her laptop, before she began to speak.
“I’m pleased to meet you both, and thank you for coming in today.” Vanessa regarded them in a professional way, pushing up her glasses with a manicured nail. “Oh, and you have my condolences on the murder of John Foxman.”
“Thank you,” Roger and Mary said, together.
“Let me tell you how I like to do things. You both know that the Human Relations Commission is the state’s body that enforces the antidiscrimination laws in the Commonwealth. As soon as the Complaint is filed, we begin our investigation, and we have fast-tracked this one, since it’s in the news so much lately.”
Roger nodded, and so did Mary, though neither of them interrupted her.
“I like to keep things informal, so we will be interviewing the principals in the firm of Rosato & DiNunzio in the days to come.” Vanessa hit a few keys on her laptop, then turned to Mary with another warm smile. “Congrats on your baby, by the way.”
“Thank you,” Mary said, happily surprised. “She’s quiet this morning. Or he is.”
“Enjoy it while you can,” Vanessa shot back, and they all laughed. “Okay, let’s get to brass tacks. As you know, the Complaint filed by Messrs. Battle, McManus, and Madden alleges that your law firm failed to hire them because of their gender. What I’d like to do is explore with you the decisions not to hire those plaintiffs. I’ll ask you informally, and you can answer equally informally. These proceedings are not under oath, but of course, we expect you to tell the truth. Is there anything you want to say before you begin?”
“Yes,” Mary answered. They had a plan to put into effect, and it started now. “I’m happy to be here today and answer any questions you have. However, I want to state first, so you hear it from me, that we did not discriminate against these plaintiffs on the basis of their gender. We would never do such a thing and we have always stood at the forefront of equality at our firm. And as a factual matter, I didn’t make the decision to hire or not to hire these plaintiffs.”
“So you’re not the decision-maker?” Vanessa started typing away.
“No, I’m one of the partners and I was the first one available for an interview, so here we are. But I didn’t interview any of the complainants. I didn’t even know one interviewed and I wasn’t aware of them at all, until the Complaint arrived at our offices the other day.”
“Okay, thank you very much.” Vanessa started typing away, but continued speaking. “Then we can explore hiring practices in general at your firm.”
“I’m happy to do that.”
Roger cleared his throat. “Vanessa, before we do, I’d like to discuss something with you, also informally. I know you have a mediation program here and settlement is favored by the Commission, where appropriate.”
“Yes, that’s quite right.” Vanessa stopped typing. “Is settlement something you want to explore, even before the interview?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, it is. First, if I may, I’d like to clarify a few points.”
“Go ahead.” Vanessa leaned away from the laptop, linking her hands in front of her.
“I’ve reviewed the file, and correct me if I’m wrong, but Messrs. Battle, Madden, and McManus are currently employed. Is that correct?”
“Yes.” Vanessa nodded pleasantly.
“A typical defendant, in a matter like this, might look at a Complaint from plaintiffs in that posture as failing for lack of damages. By that I mean to say, even assuming that the Rosato & DiNunzio firm failed to hire them because of their gender, which we deny, they incurred no monetary damages as a result of that failure to hire.”
“That’s true.” Vanessa’s eyes narrowed. “However, we at the Commission would generally not deny investigation of a Complaint because it may not have resulted in monetary damages.”
“Of course, nor would I expect you to, as a citizen.” Roger spread his hands, palms up, his tone reasonable and calm.
“So why do you bring up the damages question, if you don’t think the Complaint should be denied because of its deficiency?”
“Because it makes this case unique.”
“That’s true too. The case is also unique for its allegations, since we don’t get many reverse-discrimination cases.”
“Quite right. I could find very few in my research.” Roger straightened in his chair. “But the damages question got us thinking about how we can settle this case. Settlement is typically a monetary amount, a compromise determined by what the plaintiff lost as a result of the unlawful act.”
“So what are you prepared to offer?” Vanessa turned to Mary. “Or what are you prepared to offer, as a principal of the firm? If you don’t mind answering directly.”
“In our view, since the plaintiffs haven’t incurred any financial damages, they don’t need to be made whole financially. We decided to make a wonderful settlement offer to these plaintiffs.”
“Which is?” Vanessa asked, impatient.
“We’d like to offer all three of them jobs at Rosato and DiNunzio.”
“What?” Vanessa’s eyes flared in surprise.
“We’d like to hire them, as associates. Their records are excellent, and we need to hire qualified associates. We don’t discriminate against men and we would like the opportunity to prove as much.”
“Really?” Vanessa shifted forward, cocking her head with interest.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Mary said, with conviction, since it had been her idea. She hadn’t turned Zen, but she had taken a page from the real Niccolò Machiavelli’s book. His most famous saying was, Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
“So you would offer them a job, full-time?”
“Yes, absolutely. In addition, if they felt some minor sum was justified for legal fees they have paid, we would reimburse them, as a sweetener.” Mary masked her annoyance at having to pay Machiavelli’s legal fees, but if it did him in, it would be her pleasure. “Bottom line, we would love to have them work for us and we hope that will settle this case.”
“Well, this is certainly unorthodox.” Vanessa smiled, surprised. “Most defendants never want to set eyes on the Complainant who sued them, ever again. The last thing they want is them on the premises.”
“I’m sure, but that’s not how we operate. The Complaint wasn’t filed that long ago, so it’s not as if we accumulated bad will, and certainly, we have a better perspective on life, after the loss we suffered as a firm.”
“I can see how that would be so.” Vanessa’s expression brightened. “I must say, I didn’t expect this at all. I expected something on the
order of righteous indignation.”
“Oh, I could do that,” Mary said, with a smile.
Roger laughed. “Believe me, she could.”
Vanessa smiled back. “My, my, this is a game-changer.”
“I would think so.” Mary wanted to hammer the point home. “After all, we pay associates extremely well, and it’s what these three men wanted when they applied. It’s more than reasonable as a settlement offer, don’t you agree?”
“I must say, it’s impressive.”
“Will you recommend that they settle?”
“I have to discuss that with them before I discuss it with you. Regardless of any recommendation of mine, they are free to make any decision they wish. But I will certainly discuss this with plaintiff’s counsel, and it will be up to them to decide what they want to do.”
“Of course.” Mary put on her game face, gambling that Machiavelli wouldn’t out-Machiavelli them and instruct the three plaintiffs to accept the job offer, since she didn’t think he would do that, or they would accede. What she gained was a possible settlement of the reverse-discrimination case, having called his bluff by their offer. If Machiavelli refused such a reasonable settlement offer, the Commission would never go his way. Plus Mary got the added benefit of not revealing she was onto Machiavelli, not only with respect to his manufacturing the reverse-discrimination suit, but his owning Home Hacks in the London Technologies case. Because what she really wanted was to get Machiavelli on murder.
Vanessa returned to her laptop. “Mary, let’s complete the interview, just in case.”
“Of course,” Mary said, but she was already thinking about stage two of their plan.
Which went into effect right now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
After the interview, Mary and Bennie went to the Roundhouse, having called for a meeting with Detectives Krakoff and Marks, who listened and took notes while the two women explained how the reverse-discrimination case was manufactured by Machiavelli in order to eliminate John on the London Technologies case, and ultimately, why they believed that Machiavelli was responsible for John’s murder, whether he had killed him himself or hired someone to do it. They had decided not to mention the surveillance videotape while Judy’s legal fate was still in jeopardy, and it wasn’t a clear enough image of Machiavelli anyway, so it wasn’t their strongest evidence.