RE: LA EYE'S ( Case of the Innocent Murderer ) ( Katy & Crimson )
When Samantha arrived at the station. she told the desk sergeant that she wanted to see Mike Grant. She had been asked to wait a few minutes while the sergeant called through to see if he was in, and then a uniformed officer had appeared and escorted her to his office. Mike wasnt alone; his partner, Ben Warren was in with him. Samantha liked Warren. He was a good man and actually they had a lot less arguments - but that was primarily because Mike did enough for both of them; it certainly wasn't because he didnt think the same way as his partner did. Samantha often wondered how come they didn't seem to have as many fights as she and Matt had.
"Good afternoon Gentlemen." Warren has stood up from the couch in Mike's office as she went in, but Mike has just sat back in his chair, stretching his legs out, a smug grin playing around his mouth.
"Sammy. Long time no see." Mike's smile broadened a little. "To what do we owe the plasure?"
"Oh... " She looked from one to the other and decided that there really was no easy way to say this other than to just come out and say it. "I've come to ask you to let Willy Miles out your cells and to drop the charges against him." She smiled back at both of them.
Warren sat back down heavily, looked over at Mike who returned his look, and then looked back at Samantha. "I think with the guy's confession, we can pretty much convince a jury..."
"Ben, I will blow his confession out of the water in about five minutes and I can put two psychiatrists on the stand who will offer the jury clear explanations as to why an innocent man might confess to a crime he did not commit." She took a couple of steps towards Ben. "And without the confession Sergeant, you have absolutely nothing at all."
"Juries don't like shrinks, Counsellor... and I'd put a month's pay on the DA being able to find another couple of psychiatrists for our side who will dispute your psychiatrists... which then leaves the confession on the..." Samantha turned to Mike as he spoke.
"At the very least there is a huge amount of reasonable doubt here." She leaned over the table. "But I don't need reasonable doubt... Matt's got solid evidence that puts Willy a long way away from your crime scene." She stood up and held out her hand showing one finger. "A bar tender who will swear on oath that Willy was in his bar on the night of the crime." She raised a second finger. "A neighbour of Willy's who got drunk with Willy in his apartment, that night." She raised a third finger. "A liquor store owner, who is also Willy's landlord who will testify that he saw Willy going into his apartment just before the time of the murders." She looked from one of them to the other. "Pick up the phone. Call the DA. Let Willy go... and start looking for the REAL killer."
"Those really don't sound like reliable witnesses...." Warren started
"What? CALL THE DA Ben. He's not going to want to put this to the test on the basis of your evidence against what I've got."
"Don't need to call the DA." Samantha turned and looked at Mike. She could hardly believe what he was saying and she was a little surprised at how unreasonable these two men were being. Yes they were opponents, but usually both Ben and Mike were clear headed and logical enough to see when their case was on rocky ground. "Mike... you really can't...."
"Counsellor, I don't need to call the DA, because I already got him to sign the release papers earlier this afternoon."
"What?" Again she looked from Mike to Ben and back to Mike and saw nothing but annoying stupid cheesy grins.
"His mother's down stairs now... waiting to take him home as soon as the paperwork is finished up" Ben added.
"She is huh?"
"Yep." Ben gave a short nod.
"And so... I've just been here wasting my breath."
"Not at all Sammy" Mike eased himself out of his chair and came round from behind his desk, wrapping his arm around Samantha's shoulders and walking her slowly to the door. "We always enjoy hearing what you have to say and it is always a pleasure to see you here... always welcome. But as you say, now we have to find the real killer... unless Matt has already done that for us." When they got to the door, Mike opened it and eased her into the corridor out of sight of Warren. Samantha nodded, smiling, realizing they had spent the last five minutes teasing her. Mike looked both ways down the corridor and saw that it was deserted.
"Go let Matt know that he's not the only one looking for our killer... and say hello to Nina for me huh?" And with that, he reached down and smacked Samantha firmly on the ass, then turned and went back into his office. Samantha squealed a little more from surprise than anything and then stood there somewhat stunned for a moment as Mike disappeared. She shook her head, blushed, looked both ways down the corridor to make sure no-one had seen and then had turned to make her way out of the building.
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Samantha walked into Tony's. It was nearly 5.30 and she wasn't entirely sure Matt would still be here. They had had plenty of late evenings in this place which had started out as them just having tea at the end of the day.... even though there wasn't a drop of tea in sight. But the one beer she had with her steak often became a couple and then Matt would persuade her to mmove onto the scotch. She held her alcohol pretty well - which was a good job when she was drinking with Matt - but sometimes getting up for work the following morning wasn't the easiest thing to do.
She looked around the bar and saw him, sitting up at the bar itself, back to her. If he was looking though he would have seen her walk in without having to turn around because of the mirrored wall behind the bar. She walked up and sat on the stool next to him. She said nothing - didn't even acknowledge him. Tony bought her a beer over without her having to ask and placed it in front of her. Samantha took a small sip straight from the bottle and waited.