Read Online Entombed by Linda Fairstein - Free Book Online

solitaire on Valentine's
Day? I was dumb enough to think this was the real deal for you and
Jake-"
    No wonder Mike was
trying to make a quick exit. "Wagering on my love life? Counting the
days until Jake threw me back in the water? The sign of a true friend,
Detective Chapman. Old maid, solitaire… nice to know you feel my pain."
    I cracked open the
window behind me and reached for a handful of snow off the top of the
air-conditioning unit while Mike tried to apologize to me and shut
Diamond up at the same time.
    "Can you give me any
scoops on the East Side case, Alex? Something I can quote to keep it on
the front page tomorrow?"
    "Nada. Scram, will
you? I'll have news for you at the beginning of the week. Get lost.
Follow Chapman and steer clear of me, okay?"
    I finished rounding
the icy slush into a ball and lobbed it at the back of Mike's head.
"Don't write me off yet for Valentine's Day, sucker. The Post can always run
another personal ad for me."
    "Can't do worse than
the first one," Mike said, wiping off the snow.
    Several years back, on
a very slow news day after I had taken over the unit, Diamond had
written a piece that he titled "Legal Miss Who Misses Kisses." His
theory was that I was crazy to take this job because no man in his
right mind would want to date a woman who might confuse the first pass
with an inappropriate touch-a criminal one.
    "Harpo Marx, is he
still alive? He's mute, right? Perfect for you. I'll see if I can find
a number for him, blondie. Let me tell you what we ran into last
night," Mike said, sauntering out of the office with Diamond at his
side.
    "Mike!" I tried to
stop him but he didn't turn back. I didn't want him to leak word of the
skeleton before I had a chance to tell the district attorney about it.
It might come to nothing, but Battaglia would have my head if I made
the wrong call on a story like that.

    8
    "Raise your right
hand, place your left hand on the Bible, please. Do you solemnly swear
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"
    Darra Goldswit
answered me. "I do."
    I was standing at the
back of the room, behind the two tiers of seats in which twenty of the
twenty-three grand jurors were arrayed in amphitheatrical fashion,
facing the witness. To my left sat the foreman and his assistant, along
with the secretary. The stenographer was seated beside the young woman
to record every word spoken.
    I had tried to calm
Darra by assuring her there would be no surprises at this proceeding.
The defendant had no right to be present. There was no defense attorney
to cross-examine her. The questions I had reviewed with her would
likely be the only ones she had to answer, unless I left out something
relevant that a juror caught at the end of my presentation. I had done
this enough times to be confident that would not happen.
    Two of the young
lawyers from the unit had asked to sit in as observers, and the warden
leaned against the door, interested in the charges that I had submitted
on the slip of paper I had filed with him earlier in the day.
    "Would you tell the
jurors, please, what your name is and where you live?"
    "Darra Goldswit. I
live in New Jersey now. I moved there from Manhattan."
    "I'm going to direct
your attention to March eighth," I said, giving her the date of her
attack, emphasizing that it had occurred almost five years ago. There
was audible murmuring among the jurors now, as they did exactly what I
had reminded them was improper just moments ago. They nodded and winked
at each other, puffing up with pride as the one grand jury among six
that was getting to decide the front-page news.
    "How old are you now?"
    "Twenty-seven. I
turned twenty-seven earlier this month."
    "Are you employed?"
    "Yes. I'm the
assistant to the manager of public relations at Madison Square Garden.
I've worked in that office since I graduated from college six years
ago." Smart, stable, responsible- qualities all summarized in a job
description and title. A trial jury would get