Page 67

“When they told me where you were I was actually happy,” she admitted. “A man, a policeman using his authority to rape a woman the way everyone said you did; that man deserved to suffer.”

“Who said?”

“That woman who blamed you, my superior, Prosecutor Hines,” Jocelyn listed. “There was that video and papers waiting for you at the station.

“And then one day I heard that you’d been released. That the charges had been dropped and you were off the force.

“I went to the files and everything was gone. No tape, no statement, not even the report of your arrest. I tried to find Nathali Malcolm, but there was no record of her either.

“I went to every person I knew connected with the arrest, but no one told me anything. My old supervisor said to forget about it. She said that you had been fired with no pension and even the union was hands-off.

“That’s when I knew that you’d been set up. There was something you were into that made you a danger. They used me to go after you because they knew how I felt about cops and sexual misconduct. They knew I’d go after you with all my ability.

“I quit the force ten months later. When the precinct captain asked me why, I told him that I just couldn’t take the shit anymore.”

I believed her. I knew what she said was true. They had given my friend Gladstone the assignment. They had set up Beatrice so she couldn’t say no.

“Prosecutor Hines must have known something,” I said. “He might have pressed charges based on a lie, but when they asked him to drop the case…he must have known something.”

“Ben died seven years ago,” she said. “He’d moved back down to North Carolina and had a stroke.”

“And you were too ashamed to call me and tell me what they’d done?” I accused.

“No. No, Joe. I was sure that you knew who did it and why. I thought you kept quiet either because they paid you off or that they’d kill you if you said anything else.”

“Kill me?”

“I figured they put you in jail to let them finish you in there,” she agreed. “If you died there, nobody would ask questions. After all, you abused that woman hiding behind your shield. I thought you had made some kind of deal with whoever framed you and they let you slide with a dismissal.”

Her words sat me back on the backless couch. I put my left fist down on the leather cushion to keep from falling sideways.

“So you really think they were going to kill me and then they changed their minds?”

“That’s the only way it made sense,” she reasoned. “I mean, they had you, but obviously they didn’t want you in court. One reason I never came to you about it was that I thought that you had been made part of the deal, whatever that was. If I got involved they might have come after me.”

I leaned forward, putting my elbows on my knees. They were trying to kill me at first but then changed their minds. This rendition of my experience actually made sense. With a decent lawyer I had a good shot at getting the charges dismissed.

“Why are you here, Joe?” Jocelyn asked.

“I came to blame you for framing me,” I said. “That and to get the names of the people you worked with.”

“Why now? I mean, it’s over, right?”

“My daughter’s all grown up. Nobody needs me now.”

“So you’re just gonna get yourself killed?”

I hadn’t put it in those words, but she was right. Whoever set me up like that wouldn’t hesitate at murder.

“Have you ever heard of Adamo Cortez or Hugo Cumberland?” I asked the corporate security analyst.

There were three jets in the sky over New Jersey, circling Newark Airport. Next to them was Jocelyn Bryor’s beautiful face wondering about my question.

“What is this, Joe?” she asked.

“I need to find out who set me up.”

“Sounds like you already know.”