15Connie and Mike figure it all out
May 17 In NYPD's CSU lab
Connie "Your initial review of the handprint was inconclusive, can you explain what problems you had with the sample. "
Tech- "the smears were nonsandard, it made the match inaccurate within our parameters."
Connie "When you say nonstandard, what do you mean?"
Tech – "Well," and she could tell he was somewhat uncomfortable, "the placement didn't seem entirely natural"
"Entirely natural?"
"Yes like the hand was at an unnatural angle when it left the print"
"Like it was planted somehow? "
"Well I wouldn't say that"
"Off the record?"
"It wasn't natural, planted maybe, I don't know, but something was off about it"
"So you kicked it to the feds so you didn't have to match it?"
Tech looking more uncomfortable "Well"
"Thanks, you've been very helpful" Connie was sure now that she was right about this case. She called the FBI lab on her way to the office.
Connie had an idea on the way back from the lab, she did a little research on her computer, bingo, she called Teresa, Robert's girlfriend to come to office to answer a few questions.
xxxxxxx
Connie observed Robert's girlfriend, she seemed to be pretty straightforward, a working class kid, had her ups & downs & had come out the other side. She had said Robert was loyal, Teresa seemed to be loyal as well. "Thanks for coming into the office Ms Quizoda, we just need to clarify some things "
Teresa, still trying to convince them of Robert's innocence "You have to listen to me. Robert is a stand up guy, but he still has scars from his childhood, not just the physical one's, but in his heart & his head. (Mike enters room) He doesn't think he should be a husband or become a father because he had such a terrible father, thinks he didn't have a good role model, so he's afraid he'd be like his bastard father, (Connie looks up, Mike is staring intently at Teresa, Mike turns suddenly and looks straight at Connie, but looks away quickly, slightly embarrassed) I told him there's no way he'd be like that, he's a good man. "
Jack's assistant came over asking for Mike, Jack needed to see him, he looked at Connie, and she nodded ok, she could take care of this. Connie continues talking to Teresa…
xxxxxx
Mike, munching on nuts at the table in his office with Connie next to him "Ok, what's your theory?"
Connie "We know the print did match to Lira's, that isn't in dispute, in order to leave that handprint, you'd need Lira's hand." On Mike's look "Hear me out, leap of faith Mike," he leaned forward, "so there's only a few ways it could get there if Lira wasn't there, the police or on scene team planted it or the killer planted it, right? So who has the most to gain, Sam Jr. or Mary. Mary has a very wealthy husband as she mentioned, seven figure income, multiple houses, she does pretty well for herself as well with her book sales, wasn't in the will before other than a token, removed at her request, she is still the executor of the will. A look into Sam Jr's finances, nothing spectacular, has money in the bank, had a mortgage, but paid it off with a gift from his father,"
Mike "nice if you can get it"
Connie "yeah, but there are regular cash withdrawals, every Tuesday, a look at his metro card and he goes to Chinatown every Tuesday, with additional withdrawls some Tuesday evenings."
Mike "Sounds like Sam Jr. might be visiting establishments of illegal gambling, bad boy."
Connie "There was an extra cash withdrawal on the Friday, before the murder, enough to buy a gun"
Mike "Circumstantial, speculation…"
Connie pressed on "So I looked into Sam Jr.'s wife Nicole, she is a special effects make-up artist for movies and TV, looking at her IMDB page, she seems to specialize in horror movies and prosthetics. There's a link to her MyFace page and on her MyFace page there's a link to her personal art page." Pulls up the webpage "Where she sells replica casts of animals, insects and- body parts" Clicks on a picture of a very realistic chopped off foot"
Mike sat up straight, looks from the website to Connie "Any hands?"
Connie "Not exactly but it wouldn't seem that much harder to cast now would it."
Mike "No, it would not.
Connie "And as far as the not exactly, I had the techs go back through cache'd history and there were photos of hands on the site but they were removed the week before the murder"
Mike "more interesting"
Connie now smiling broadly "Have you ever had a manicure Mike?"
Mike eyebrows raised "Is this a trick question"
Connie "Well if you get the full works manicure," she looks at her nails, "I indulge on occasion, they dip your hands in wax and let it dry and then peel off the wax, sometimes in one mass peel, want to guess what Nicole did before becoming a special effects make-up artist?
Mike "Hmm, I wonder-a manicurist"
Connie "Ding ding. And according to Teresa, about five years ago Nicole was getting her manicurists license and needed some practice clients, female and male, so she gave Teresa and Robert a manicure. Nicole was very methodical according to Teresa"
Mike "Could she really have made a cast of a hand from that leftover wax?"
Connie "If she took a good enough impression, she'd just have to fill the left over wax impression to make a cast of the hand. It would explain the issues with the ridges not being good enough for the first fingerprint match and the unnatural angle" She demonstrated how your hands usually look when you put your hand in the wax, "Also on her IMDB page is her current job working on a TV show, "Law Enforcement", a procedural TV show about cops and DA's, I browsed through the description of episodes, there was an episode where the cops made an impression of a victims hands"
Mike tapping his hand against his mouth "We need that hand, this isn't enough to convict. Or we need the gun or something else to put them at the scene of the crime, this is all circumstantial"
Connie quietly "I know"
Mike "Cell phones, metro cards"
Connie shook her head "Both cellphones were at Sam Heath Jrs place of residence at the time of the murder, they pinged off the cell tower, plus we have downloads made at 2:45 am and time logged into Myface, posting items. No usage of any metro cards purchased on credit by the Heaths"
Mike "They both were using their cell phones at 3am huh."
Connie "yeah, like someone needed to solidify an alibi, rookies-each other would have sufficed"
Mike "Speaking of alibi's" and Connie's eye's lit up seeing where he was going" how did they know Robert was going to be home alone? If he's staying at his girlfriends, there's an alibi witness, blows the scheme out of the water.
Connie excitedly "They knew he had an early shift the next morning and probably knew he usually went home, but how could they be sure unless they were watching him. His apartment faces the street, you could see right in it. "
Mike "They'd have to coordinate. Get a subpoena for any burner cell phones called."
Connie smiling broadly, started typing up the request.
Xxxxxx
DA's Conference Room
Robert Lira and his attorney enter the DA conference room,
Robert angrily – "I don't get why I'm here, I'm not going to say I killed Sam or Margie"
Mr. Garcia "Let's hear what they have to say Robert"
Mike "We just want to clarify some things Mr. Lira"
Connie walks in with Sam Heath Jr and his wife Nicole.
Sam Heath, aggravated "What's he doing here, "He killed my parents, I don't want to be in the same room with him"
Mike "We just need to clarify some things with you Mr. and Mrs Heath, for our case" and Mike looked at Connie, it was her show.
Connie directed her laser focused gaze "Nicole, we understand that you used to be a manicurist before your current job as a special effects make-up artist, is that right"
Nicole, squirms a little at the mention of manicurist, "Yes, yes that's right"
Connie " We have an affidavit from Teresa Quizada that you needed clients before getting your license, so you gave Ms Quizada a manicure, the works, Mr. Lira, did you also receive a manicure at the same time"
Robert looking puzzled "yeah, it was free and Nicole needed men and women, so what"
Connie "As part of that manicure, did Ms. Heath apply wax to your hands, in fact encasing them in wax, one or more times"
Robert, starting to get agitated, "Yes, twice in fact, she said I had really nice hands, but they were really dry so she had to do it twice and with a different wax machine where I stuck my hand in and left it there for a couple of minutes" Nicole is visibly agitated at this point.
Sam, very excited, "We don't have to stay here and be treated like this" Stands up to leave.
Mike coldly "Sit down Mr. Heath." getting a little more heated, voice raising "Maybe Mr Heath you were a little mad at your father for accepting Mr Lira here as a surrogate family member, as an almost adopted son, did that make you jealous, did it make you angry"
Sam, wildly agitated "You don't have anything, this is just speculation"
Connie cold but controlled "We have a call from Ms Heath's cell phone to a burner cell at 12am the morning of the murder, pinging off a tower by Mr. Lira's apartment. We have that same burner cell phone pinging off the tower by your father's house at 3:15 am calling Ms. Heath's cellphone, that would be right after the murder. You had a wax cast of Mr. Lira's hand and you brought it to the scene of the crime and pressed it into your father's blood and then pressed that onto the door. "
Robert interrupting "what did you do!"
Connie continuing, on a roll "Det Lupo is executing a search warrant at your apartment and workshop to see if we find the wax cast, but really that's just gravy, we already have enough to make a jury see what a cold blooded pair you are"
Mike "Almost the perfect murder, almost"
Bernard and some uniforms walk in and arrest Mr. and Mrs. Heath Jr. "You are under arrest for the murders of Sam Heath and Margarite Heath, anything you say …."
Connie kindly, turning to Robert "We're very sorry for your ordeal Mr. Lira, we will process the paperwork to release you immediately"
Robert crying "It's all my fault, if Sam hadn't changed his will, if I wasn't around, they never would have done this, they wouldn't have had anyone to pin it on, its my fault"
Mike "Mr. Lira, to plan something so cold-blooded, I think they would have done it eventually, with or without you."
Xxxxxx
In Jack's office, Mike "Turns out it was a planted bloody handprint, just not planted by the good guys, Sam Heath Jr. took thirty to life, Nicole his wife took fifteen for conspiracy,"
Jack "Almost the perfect murder, so those two will allocute to the murder, yes?"
Mike nodding "Good thing you didn't have the junior prosecutors working this one"
Jack looks at Mike over his glasses, "Good work you two"
Mike "It was all Connie"
Connie blushes "Not all me"
They walk out of his office.
Xxxxxx
Connie "Their plan was almost perfect, they had Robert Lira's hand modeled from a wax cast your sister-in-law had made years ago when she had given him a free manicure. I guess she had kept it because it had come out so perfectly. They used this to leave the handprint at the scene. It was almost the perfect crime. Sam Jr admitted it was because he was angered that your father had given a piece of his inheritance to Robert and to being jealous of how close your father was to Robert "
Mike "Your brother has accepted thirty years to life, your sister-in-law 15 years for conspiracy to commit murder."
Mary verging on crying "My brother was always restless, always concerned about getting things his way, always jealous of what everyone else had. My parents were very generous, they gave us everything we ever needed, they told him not to worry about everyone else. My parents were kind they didn't deserve this.
Connie kindly shaking her head, "No they didn't. What will you do with the stores now?"
Mary "I've asked Robert to take over, he's still heartbroken, said he doesn't want anything to do with the stores, he blames himself for my parents deaths, if my dad hadn't changed the will they'd still be alive. You know he married Teresa as soon as he got out of jail, he realized he shouldn't let her get away. I asked him to consider how my dad would have wanted him to continue his legacy, his stores. He's considering it for my Dad. You know, I've lost my parents, my brother and Robert too, I considered him if not a surrogate brother, a friend, but after accusing him of being a murderer, it's hard to go back"
Connie "With time maybe… " letting that linger
Mary "I study nature vs. nurture, my brother grew up with the same wonderful parents that I did, in a loving, accepting home and he becomes a cold blooded murderer. Robert grew up with a cold, cruel, vicious, killer for a parent, under the worst of childhood situations, two strikes against him and yet he's a model citizen, a kind and gentle hearted soul. Nature vs nurture indeed."
Mike solemnly "Indeed"
The Law and order ending, dun dun
Xxxxxx
A little extra Mike & Connie ending
Across the table, Mike gazed at Connie, raised his glass, "Well Connie, Mr. Lira can thank you for seeing through the perfect murder and exonerating him, cheers."
Connie smiling back and clinking his glass, "Well he can thank us both, you didn't have to reexamine everything, you had a pretty solid case."
"He can thank us both for being very good at our jobs." He smiled at her, "How about coming back to my place tonight?"
Connie frowned, "No, it's a workday tomorrow and I don't have any of my stuff with me."
Mike considering for a moment, he looked into her eyes "We could circle back by your place and you could pick up what you need. Maybe pick up some extra stuff, you know, that you could leave at my place, whatever you'd need" Connie raised an eyebrow at him as he continued "That is, if you want to"
Connie grinning, "I'd like that." Definitely into uncharted territory now she thought happily.
