PATSY by Kenneth L. Ehrenthal (fantasy novels to read .txt) 📕

on this subject.  You have given me a lot to think about.  Remember, I'm just a simple Presbyterian girl from a small New Hampshire town.  But, kidding aside, there are things in there I agree with.  And I do agree that passively accepting a BAD deal is not what even Jesus meant." 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter 41
 
 
The meeting on Friday was very subdued.  The group knew that they had hit the stone wall in the case.  Louis Swinger said it best or at least put words to
what everyone was thinking.  "It's the DA's office.  How do we breach it?"  George was sitting grumbling as the decision developed. Under his breath he mumbled, "son-of-a-bitch, son-of-a-bitch....."  Mary sitting nearest George was able to translate George's mumbles.  "Who's a SOB George"?  "It's the honorable Thomas McGinty, esquire."  "I feel it in my bones and I know it in my head."  There was a long silence.  "What do we do now?" said Ann Lawrence.  "That's easy, said Louis, we get McGinty's DNA.  "Oh", said Frank, and how, genius, do we do that."  "Hey", said Frank, 'I got the hard part; all you guys have to do is figure out how to get it."

When Heidi put the ring on her finger, she was embarrassed.  She had never expected this.  Growing up she had felt that her father tolerated her and put all his emotional self into his sons.  She had done well in school.  While not pretty, she was cute enough to attract some of the boys.  After college and Law School she spent so much time developing her career that she had very little time for long relationships. At some point, and not too long ago she convinced herself that she would always remain single.  That is until now.  Her whole upbringing conspired to enforce very strict standards on her.  She learned to hide her feelings and give very little of herself to anyone.  Now there was Sid. He was the first person in her life that she really felt that she could be intimate with. Not just physically but emotionally and intellectually.  She hated showing her vulnerable side.  Also, she felt that the ring was a little ostentatious.  When she was around her office she often hid her hand.  Her secretary even asked if she had hurt herself.  And, she thought, Sid was so cute.  I think that he is as embarrassed as she.  I expected that he thought he would drop to one knee when he gave it to me.  He probably thought that he should go to New Hampshire to ask my father for my hand.  Certainly that was the way it was done years ago.  But I made it clear that I loved him and if he wanted to get engaged he didn’t have to go overboard.  I’d spend the rest of my life with him, engaged, married, or neither.
 
July was hot as hell in the city.  In a week, the courts would close down, except for emergencies.  Sid and Heidi wanted to get out of the heat and go someplace, any place.  But the Mohammed case was heating up.  George had definitely established that McGinty had access to two apartments in the 5th Avenue both were listed as stash houses, but only one was used that way.  McGinty kept the other for his own use.  That other apartment was the one where Sarah Alpert was killed.  The crew argued for several days about there was enough evidence to have a judge re-open the case.  There seemed to be no way to force McGinty to submit to a DNA test, or even to have Mohammed tested.
Heidi told Sid that he should go directly to the DA himself and lay out what they had.  He could certainly order the files opened and with his acquiescence a judge would be more likely to order the DNA tests.  There seemed to be no other way.  Let’s sleep on it and talk about this some more in the morning. 
Heidi and Sid walked slowly along a wooded path in Central Park.  Not too far from the scene of the crime on 5th Avenue.  “I’ve been thinking, said Heidi, “I know how difficult it would be to get McGinty’s DNA.  But maybe there is another way.  Wouldn’t Sarah Alpert baby be a half sister to Shauna, his daughter?  You know whose wedding we attended.  If we could get her DNA or even her sister Megan’s, we would have all the proof we need.”  “You’re right, Said Sid, but how do we do that? Remember, any way we are able to obtain the DNA has to be legal.  We can’t run a scam.”
“By the way, Said Heidi, I’ve been thinking about your explanation of life and religion all night.  I can understand what you are saying, but I think you over simplify and slough off examples of many actions that go against you’re hypothesis.  I was thinking of a lot of them in my sleep.”  “Please try to remember some, I’d love to hear you out on this.”  “Remember Sid,” she said, “I was raised in a small New England town.  All of us, there in the town seemed to take care of each other.  Even my father, “the banker” from my observations never took advantage of anyone else’s misfortune.  I know there were times that he allowed some families pay their mortgages late when there were problems in the family. I take his actions and so many others in the town, like that, as the basis of what I consider religion.  To me it is the moral principle of Jesus that we have to take care of each other, and not just to perpetuate ourselves but to care for our fellow man.  Isn’t that really why you took this case and isn’t that why we are all trying to right this wrong?”  “You do make sense Heidi,” he said.  “All those principles certainly do approach a religious ideal, but to me that is just ethical behavior.  I don’t mean “just” in the simple sense, but just an extension of self preservation, in the social sense.   I respect your beliefs, all I guess I’m really trying to say is that how we act is more important than why we act.  Whether it’s because of what I believe is genetic or you as doing God’s work, the end results are the same.”
“Ok! Sid, let’s find an ethical way to get some DNA. “Hey”, he says, I’ve got it.  We find out where Shauna lives, we accidentally knock her down.  She scrapes her knee, we sop up her blood and viola, DNA.”  “Sure super sleuth!  Let George knock down McGinty, we sop up his blood and we have the DNA.  George would love that.”
“This case is driving us all crazy.  While the rest of the world and our law practices go by we have become so one dimensional.  I’ve never even acknowledged you love and wonderful gift,” said Heidi.  “Sweetheart, just living and loving you and having your love has been acknowledgement enough.”  “Sid, do you want to get married?  You know ultimately, that’s what engagement means.  “Engagement is one thing, but marriage, is a horse of a different color,” says Sid.  “I know Sid, once bitten, twice shy.”  “Ya, all the clichés.”  That in a way is what my belief system was getting at.  We live by these impediments to really thinking.  Yes, Heidi, if you will have me as a husband, rather than just a lover.”  “Wait, do I have to give up being your lover, if we get married?”  Now there’s a conundrum.
The consensus was by all parties concerned that getting DNA from McGinty was going to be the hard part.  Going to the DA and laying out all their circumstantial evidence was also hard.  Ann had an idea. “Since the baby would have been the half sister, or brother to McGinty’s kids, why don’t we try to get their DNA?”  Sid winked at Heidi.  Louis asked, “How do we do that?”  “Well, continued Ann, “we can find out where they go for dinner and grab a glass or something off their table with their saliva, and test that.  Then we can lay all the evidence in front of the DA.  Maybe George can follow them to a restaurant one day, and do the deed.”  George loved the idea.  He didn’t think that it would be too difficult, since daddy had bought his little girl and apartment near the witness protection building.
After several days of surveillance, George followed them one Saturday to the Tavern-on-the-Green.  When they left he walked to the table took a water glass.  They sent the glass to a DNA lab and waited.  The report came back two weeks later.
Meeting again on the usual Friday afternoon, the group began to plan their strategy for matching the DNA samples.  This was going to be another tricky matter.  They had to figure out how to get to the Medical Examiners office and match up their sample with the “killers”.  Remembering that the original call, that set them on this chase, had come from someone in the Medical Examiners Office, they decided to send Mary to investigate.  Mary went to the ME’s office.  The receptionist was very helpful giving her the names of the Tech’s in the office.  There were seven.  Three were women, and since the call was said to have come from a male, that left four.  She also was able to find out which one was responsible for checking in and checking out the samples.  She decided to focus on him.
 
 
 
Chapter 42
 
Charlie Phillips usually stopped in Starbucks near the MA’s office every morning.  On Tuesday morning, Mary happened to bump into him as she was leaving.  He knocked the coffee cup she was holding out of her hand.  He was very apologetic and offered to replace it for her.  She accepted and they got to talking.  Mary seemed to remember his name, she said, from some of her cases.  As she recalled, even though the evidence he presented was against her client, she felt he was fair in his delivery.  As he left, they agreed to meet later that evening.  Mary and Sid met Charlie in the Crab Tree Bar, near the ME’s.  Mary introduced Sid, who explained how he had a case and a missing DNA report.
Charlie became somewhat annoyed.  “Was that coffee spill a plan to get to see me after work? Am I being set up,” he asked.  Sid showed him his Bar Card as did Mary, indicating that they were both lawyers.  Sid tried to assuage his concern by telling him that in no way would they try to intimidate him.  Charlie seemed to relax a little.  Sid began to explain the “Royster Case”.  Suddenly Charlie blanched.  “I never made any calls about that case,” he said.  Mary smiled, “Charlie, we never mentioned anything about a phone call.”  Charlie sighed, “What do you want?”  We would like to match the DNA from the killer of Sarah Alpert with a sample we just obtained from someone who was never under investigation for the crime. We believe that this DNA will prove Mohammed innocent and point us to the real killer.”  “You know I could really get myself in trouble for this,” said Charlie.   “But Charlie, said Mary, “it was you that started this whole thing when you called the Public Defender’s Office.  Without that call, we wouldn’t be here, and let me say this; an innocent man might be condemned to sit in jail until the end of his term.”  Charlie sighed, “I know, but the reason I called, and remember, I did not leave my name, was to keep me out of the loop.”  “Look”, said Sid, you’re our only hope now.  You’re on the inside.  We just