Page 7 of Witness 8

I stood, picked up a folder off the desk and took out the thick wad of documents inside. About a hundred pages. Stapled together. I flicked through them, studying the pages, then found what I was looking for, ran my finger along a line of text, then gave Sergeant Gray a big smile.

‘Sergeant, when you make an arrest from a traffic stop and the vehicle has to be towed, what is standard NYPD protocol?’

‘You secure the vehicle, hit the randomizer on the cruiser and call the tow company that comes up onscreen. Then I make sure the vehicle is transferred into their custody.’

I turned, nodded to Denise. She got up, left the court. I could have done this sooner, but I wanted to make sure Sergeant Gray saw me signal to Denise. And that he saw Denise leave.

‘So the tow company who comes to collect the vehicle, that’s always chosen at random by the computer?’

‘Not necessarily. We have a duty to convey the suspect to central booking as soon as possible. If we happen to see an unloaded tow truck passing by, we can flag it down.’

‘Does that happen often?’

‘Sometimes.’

The courtroom doors opened and Denise led in four men. Two wore dirt- and grease-strained gray overalls. The other two blue overalls were in roughly the same state. All four wore work boots, their hands dark with traces of oil, and were between forty and fifty years old. They could all have been from the same industrial rock band, but a distinctive individual logo on their overalls, and the same logo on a ball cap that one of them wore, spelled out exactly where they were from – they wore the insignia of the other four city-approved towing companies.

‘Is there a record of the randomizer results?’

‘Mr. Flynn, is this relevant to your client’s case?’ asked the judge. Hightower was listening, but he liked things to move swiftly in court.

‘If you allow me a few more questions, I believe this will be crucial.’

‘Go on, but bring this to a point soon,’ said the judge.

‘Sergeant Gray, is there a record of the randomizer results?’

Gray, keeping his lips tight, smiled and locked his fingers together before saying, ‘There are no records of randomizer results.’

‘But we do have your arrest records,’ I said, holding up the heavy bundle of documents in my right hand. I reached over, took another pile of pages from the table with my left, held those up too, and said, ‘And we have the towing records for the other four towing companies approved by the city. What would happen if we matched up those records, Sergeant Gray?’

I couldn’t resist glancing behind me at the gallery. One of the men in overalls was smiling and nodding. All four of them staredintensely at Gray – like he was juicy prime rib and they were getting ready to devour him.

‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ said Gray, his eyes furtively moving between the bundle of documents in my hand and the four tow-truck drivers in the gallery beside Denise. He sat up in his chair and his eyes grew wider as I let the silence, and his anxiety, build.

‘I mean, what are the odds the randomizer gives you the name of the same tow company for every single one of your arrests?’

Sergeant Gray grew very pale. Then his skin color changed again. He looked almost green, like he was about to throw up.

‘Before we get into these records in detail, Sergeant Gray, I’m going to ask you once more, andfor the final time– is it possible that my client’s license plate was a little dirty, but that the plate numbers were not fully obscured?’

I could hear the pine bench creaking as all four men in overalls leaned forward. Their gaze locked on Gray.

Sweat broke out on his forehead. He started chewing on his lip, then swallowed, took a sip of water. I was giving him a way out. A path that would cause some immediate embarrassment, but it was better than facing another internal-affairs investigation.

‘Now that I think of it,’ he said, and then coughed and sat up straighter in his chair. ‘Now that I have had time to properly consider it, maybe my recollection of that license plate was not one hundred percent accurate.’

‘What?’ asked Judge Hightower. ‘Speak clearly, Sergeant. Was the defendant’s license plate obscured by dirt or not?’

‘I can’t be sure any longer,’ said Gray, shaking his head.

Judge Hightower leaned back in his seat and stared at me.

‘Mr. Flynn, I have no idea what just happened, but this officer has just confirmed your client was illegally stopped. Thatmeans the search of your client’s vehicle was also illegal and any items recovered from that search were unlawfully obtained. This prosecution is dismissed,’ said Judge Hightower, and he stood up and left the court.

By the time Sergeant Gray was on his feet, the DA had already angrily stuffed his papers into his faux leather briefcase and was stomping out of the courtroom. Gray looked unsteady on his feet. He joined his partner, they whispered together then followed the DA out of court.

I felt Jayden’s arms round me. They were shaking.