Six months later
“OYEZ, OYEZ, OYEZ, ALL RISE. All those having business in Supreme Court Part 42, State of New York, New York County, draw near and ye shall be heard. The Honorable Supreme Court Justice Vince Dermondy presiding.”
Chief Administrative Court Clerk Duffy McIntyre stepped back and nodded to Dermondy, who sat down at his dais. “Be seated,” the judge announced. “We’re here in the matter of the State of New York vs. Wellington Constantine. The defendant is present with counsel, Mr. Michael Arnold. The People are represented by District Attorney Roger Karp and Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Katz. The jury is present, so let us proceed.”
Dermondy looked over at Karp, who had remained standing and was looking down at his yellow notepad. “You may call your next witness.”
“The People call Dean Mueller.” Karp nodded to Fulton, who stood next to a side door leading from the witness waiting room. The detective opened the door and the witness shuffled into the courtroom dressed in a jail jumpsuit.
Nearly six months after the conviction of Mueller, and three weeks into the trial of Wellington Constantine, Karp was laying out his case with all the attention to detail and structure of a master builder. So far he’d weathered the storm of media attacks and denunciations by politicians, “community organizers,” movie stars and musicians, and the liberal establishment, who’d rallied to Constantine’s accusations that the charges were politically motivated and untrue.
As predicted by Jaxon, there’d been a lot of threats and even one poorly constructed explosive device that had been found by NYPD bomb squad dogs outside the family loft on Crosby Street. Poorly constructed or not, it had been enough to ship the family off to New Mexico, where Marlene reported that the boys were not missing the start of summer in New York City in exchange for playing cowboy on the ranch.
Alone at night in the weeks leading up to and into the trial, he missed his family, but it allowed him to concentrate on the case. The only other change to his normal schedule was a concession to Fulton to allow extra security outside his building and a promise to let Ewin drive him back and forth to the Criminal Courts Building rather than enjoy his customary walk.
After the opening statements, Karp proceeded to lay the foundation for the prosecution of Constantine much the same as he had with the Mueller case. The crime scene was described with the diagram and photographs, and Assistant ME Gail Manning had ascertained the cause and manner of Swindells’s death for this second jury. In every murder case, there are two things that the People have to prove: that the deceased is in fact dead, and that the deceased died as a result of the criminal acts of the defendant.
After the “official” witnesses, Sasha Swindells was called to the stand. She testified that her father had been deeply concerned about something that had occurred during his last tour of duty while stationed in Saudi Arabia. He had not told her about any specifics, she said, but she knew it was connected to a text she received asking her to deliver something to Ariadne Stupenagel.
“Did you know Ms. Stupenagel?”
“I met her once, a few minutes before my father was shot,” Sasha had testified. Up to that point, the young woman had done her best to present herself as a newly commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, but now she broke down and cried the tears of a daughter.
Wisely, Arnold had not tried to cross-examine her. There was nothing to be gained by grilling the daughter of the deceased.
Sasha Swindells’s testimony had been followed by Ariadne Stupenagel, whom Karp eased into her testimony by having her describe how she knew Colonel Swindells, as well as her career as an investigative journalist.
“What prompted you to go to Central Park to speak to Colonel Swindells?” Karp had asked after several preliminary questions to set the stage.
“A source told me about a black ops mission in Syria in which a file, code-named MIRAGE, had been seized,” Stupenagel said. “During this mission, several highly placed people connected to the governments of Russia, Syria, and Iran, as well as a leader of the terrorist group ISIS, were killed just prior to U.S. forces arriving.”
“Do you know, or were you told, who killed them?” Karp asked.
“I was told they were killed by a Russian assassin named Nadya Malovo,” Stupenagel said. “The source also informed me that one other person had been expected at the meeting but wasn’t present, a wealthy, well-connected American.”
“Did this source tell you the name of this American?”
“No. The source did not have that information.”
“Did the source know any details about MIRAGE?”
“Only that it involved powerful people with connections to the governments of these other countries and had something to do with black-market oil.”
“In Central Park, did you ask Colonel Swindells about MIRAGE?”
“Yes, I did.”
“What was his reaction?”
“He told me to forget about it, that he was looking into it but that it was too dangerous for me. He even voiced concerns over his own safety and mine. He said I would be swimming in shark-infested waters.”
“Was there anything else he said to you?”
“Just that I shouldn’t contact him again for my own safety.”
“Did you take his advice?”
“Not after he was killed,” she replied, and described how she, Sasha Swindells, and “a government agent named S. P. Jaxon” came to be in possession of a flash drive that the colonel had secreted in a book at the West Point library.
“Do you know what is on the flash drive?”
“No. Apparently it contains encrypted information. But according to Colonel Swindells’s Gold Book I mentioned, it is somehow connected to MIRAGE.”
As he built his case, Karp knew that the jurors would be waiting for the proverbial smoking gun, that aha moment when it would all be made clear. But this wasn’t that sort of case, and the moment of truth wasn’t going to arrive until the end, when he could put all the pieces together for them. Following Stupenagel’s testimony, the next piece was Dean Mueller, who now took the stand and sat with his head down. The first thing Karp did was establish that the witness was the man who pulled the trigger that killed Colonel Swindells.
“Were you convicted of this heinous murder?” Karp asked.
“Yes. I pulled the trigger.”
“Did you know the deceased?”
“Yes. He was my commanding officer.”
“Did you know what you were doing when you shot him in the head?”
“I was there to kill him.”
Karp let it sink in for a moment before backtracking. “Describe your professional relationship to Colonel Swindells.”
“I was assigned to the colonel’s staff after we returned from Saudi Arabia.”
“And how did that lead to you murdering him?”
“I was contacted by a man who said he represented a wealthy businessman,” Mueller said. “He told me that his employer wanted something that the colonel had in his possession.”
“Did he say what it was?”
“Yes. A flash drive.”
“Did he give it a name?”
“He said to look for anything connected to the word ‘mirage.’ ”
“Were you offered compensation for locating this flash drive?”
“I was told I would receive two million dollars if I returned it.”
Karp raised his eyebrows. “That’s a lot of money. Did you have any other information?”
“I knew it was connected to a black ops raid conducted by another group and that upon their return to Saudi Arabia they were intercepted by Company D of the 148th, which was the colonel’s brigade.”
“Is there anything in particular you know about Company D?”
“Yeah, a bunch of cowboys. They don’t follow the usual chain of command, and in fact bypassed the colonel who was our commanding officer. They supposedly do a lot of missions no one wants anybody else, especially the public, to know about.”
“Were you able to locate the flash drive?”
“I was able to locate a flash drive that was in a file marked MIRAGE. But it was a fake. Apparently the colonel suspected that someone was after the real flash drive. He couldn’t prove I took it, but I was forced to resign with an Other Than Honorable discharge to avoid court-martial.”
“What was the reaction to this fake flash drive from the man who represented the wealthy businessman?”
“He was pissed off,” Mueller said. “He said they weren’t paying for nothing. He also said that he’d learned that Colonel Swindells was pursuing charges against me and was going to have me sent to Leavenworth federal penitentiary.”
“Did this other man suggest a way to make up for your mistake as well as prevent prosecution?”
Mueller nodded. “Yes. He said I had to kill Colonel Swindells. But the colonel was being real careful. It was hard to find a time when he wasn’t on guard. This other man learned he’d be at the picnic.”
“Was there anybody else with this man when you met?”
“Yeah, there was a guy he said was a New York City detective and was going to be part of the plan.”
“Why did you shoot Colonel Swindells in broad daylight in front of witnesses?”
“It was part of the plan,” Mueller said. “I know it sounds idiotic now. But like I said, it was hard to get at the colonel. But the way it was supposed to work was I’d shoot the colonel and then act crazy. Like I was out of my mind. Then the detective guy would take me into custody and back up my story that I appeared to be out of it. The first guy, the big guy, said they’d get me off on an insanity plea. I’d do a couple years in some cushy hospital, but then I’d have four million, twice the initial offer, waiting for me when I got out.”
“Did something happen after you shot the colonel that convinced you there was something wrong with the plan?”
“Yes. I heard another gunshot. I looked around, and that detective had just taken a shot at me but hit someone else. I shot back and wounded him.”
“What did you do next?”
“I realized it was a setup. So I took off running.”
“If you knew it was a setup, what convinced you to go to trial and enter a not guilty by reason of insanity plea?”
“They got to me with their lawyer, Robert LeJeune. He convinced me that the detective was just trying to stop the guy who tried to tackle me after I shot the colonel. That I had misunderstood what was going on. They waved that money in my face, and I went for it.”
“After you were convicted, why did you agree to testify in this case for the People?”
Mueller shrugged. “I knew that if I went to prison, they’d kill me. I was a loose end, which that big guy was always talking about. I figured I might stand a chance if I testified.”
“Did I offer you any kind of deal to testify?”
“No. You said that if I testified truthfully, you’d note that to the judge when I get sentenced for killing the colonel. You also said that I might be able to serve my time in a minimum security federal penitentiary.”
“Did you subsequently reach an agreement with a federal agency regarding your forthcoming incarceration?”
“Yes. Again if I testify truthfully, I will get a new identity and be housed in administrative segregation so that I don’t have to be in with the general population. I wouldn’t last a day in there.”
“Do you have any hope of getting out of prison eventually?”
“It’s possible if the judge takes into consideration that I’m telling you the truth now. But I’ll be an old man.”
Mueller ended his testimony with Karp entering into evidence his photo array lineup identification of Detective Ted Moore as the other shooter in the park, and Shaun Fitzsimmons as the man who represented the wealthy businessman.
“One last question, Mr. Mueller,” Karp said. “Was there another reason you decided to testify today for the People?”
“Yeah,” Mueller said, looking over at Constantine. “These guys with money, they get away with everything. They start the wars so that they can make a profit selling oil or guns. Guys like me, the soldiers, as well as a lot of innocent people, die because of them. Then if they need some dirty work done to clean up their messes, they wave the cash around and get guys like me to do it. But guys like me, we end up in prison or dead while they’re having dinner at the White House and golfing with the president. I figured if I was going down for this, so was he.”
Karp followed his glare over to the defense bench, where Arnold smirked and Constantine looked up at the ceiling as if bored. “Thank you, no further questions.”