As much as James hated to admit it, lunch with Isobel had lightened his mood, even though he still had to make amends to Jayla and Lily. In a way, Isobel had been both the most and least scary of the three to face. But in retrospect, he should have known that, approached delicately, she’d make things easy for him. She had, and he was grateful. Lily was less likely to be so magnanimous, and Jayla…well, he didn’t want to contemplate where that conversation would go. Fortunately, she was on her honeymoon, so he could postpone it for another few weeks. Lily was a different story, but he decided to invoke “one day at a time” and give himself the rest of this one off. Besides, in order to complete his amends to Isobel, he had to follow through on his promise to find a record of inmates at that horrific youth camp.
There but for the grace of God, he thought.
He flashed his ID at the top of the school escalators and rode down to the lobby level, where he passed through the airy concourse to the New Building and his class in Administration of Correctional Programs for Juveniles. Professor Zoe Lin was a steely, laser-focused woman in her late thirties, who favored gray pantsuits and tortoiseshell glasses. He found he paid more attention than usual today to her lecture about probation issues and wondered what, if anything, she knew about Empire State Youth Camp.
After class, he waited for the small knot of admiring girls surrounding Professor Lin to disperse before he approached her.
“Professor? I wondered if I could ask you about a particular correctional facility.”
“Which one?” she asked, stuffing papers into her bag.
“Empire State Youth Camp.”
She paused, a notebook in her hand. “What about it?”
“I wondered if it would be possible to get a list of inmates. Actually, defendants who were sent there by a particular judge.”
“Which judge?”
“Willard Harrison.”
Without a word, she strode across the room and closed the door. She pulled two chairs over to her desk and gestured for him to join her.
“He’s dead. You know that, right?”
James nodded. “A friend of mine was there that night. She was one of the actors in the murder mystery show.”
“Why do you want the names of people he sent to Empire?”
“My friend thinks maybe one of them killed the judge for revenge.”
Professor Lin thrummed her long, plum-colored fingernails on the desk. “It’s certainly possible. He sent enough kids there over the years.”
“Boosting his profits,” James said.
She looked up sharply. “What?”
“He was one of the investors in the camp.” He paused when he saw the look on her face. “I’m guessing this is news to you.”
“How on earth did you find that out?”
“My friend’s brother did some kind of database cross-check and got a list of the camp’s investors.”
She shook her head in disbelief. “How? Where?”
James glanced at his knees. “He’s kind of a computer whiz—”
“A hacker?”
“No,” James said quickly. “Just really smart. He’s not—he didn’t break the law. I don’t think.”
She brushed off his concern. “As long as we know that proof exists, we can do what’s necessary to obtain it so it’s admissible as evidence. Please keep this confidential. You can tell your friend, but this is not something I want you discussing with anybody else.”
James nodded, his pulse quickening.
Professor Lin took a deep breath and leaned forward. “I’m part of a task force that has been investigating irregularities in juvenile courts throughout the tristate area. We’re independently funded, and we’ve taken care not to present anything to the authorities until we have concrete evidence of any wrongdoing. We don’t want to be stonewalled, and you’d be amazed how quickly ranks close in the judicial system.”
“And you were investigating Harrison?” James asked.
“Everyone knew it was bad news to land in his court. He rarely dismissed anyone with just a warning. And his hearings would last two, three minutes tops. It was not justice.”
James marked the bitterness in her voice. “So that’s what led you to suspect…what, exactly?”
“We aren’t sure, but there have been too many complaints over the years about his peremptory rulings, and we know he sent plenty of kids to Empire State.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “But if what you’re telling me is true, that he had a financial interest, it constitutes a miscarriage of justice on a different scale entirely. I’m just sorry he’s dead and we can’t prosecute him. How much do you know about the camp?”
“Just that it exists.”
Professor Lin’s face clouded. “It’s the opposite of rehabilitative. It’s demoralizing and abusive, and the worst part is how many kids are sent there for ridiculously minor offenses. Some of them can’t even be described with a straight face as offenses. Like the seventh grader who wrote on her desk at school with a Sharpie.” She slapped her hands against her thighs in disgust. “I mean, really. Who didn’t do that?”
James felt a surge of anger well up from his gut. He had spent his childhood watching his peers get carted off for all kinds of crimes, major and minor, and have to navigate the legal system without an advocate to explain, defend, or exonerate. It was one of the reasons he wanted to be a lawyer. His plan, before he was derailed by a bottle of tequila, had been to hang out a shingle in his Harlem neighborhood offering affordable legal assistance to those who couldn’t afford it otherwise. Though from what Professor Lin was saying, a good lawyer wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference if you’d landed in front of Harrison.
She interrupted his thoughts. “Can you give me proof of his financial involvement?”
“Can you get me a list of offenders he sent to the camp?” James countered.
Professor Lin sighed. “Unfortunately, no. But I beg you, please. At least tell me the names of the other investors. If we know who we’re looking for, we can get our own computer geniuses on the case.” He said nothing, and she continued, her words coming out in a rush. “Think of the kids being sent there. We have to find a way to close that place down.”
He held her gaze. “Get me a list.”
She clenched her fists in frustration. “I told you, I don’t have access to it.”
He picked up on the word she had emphasized unconsciously.
“Who does?”
She folded her arms across her chest like a shield. With a flash of insight, he grasped the reason for her hesitation.
“Look,” he said gently, “if one of those kids killed him, that person needs help. I’m not saying it wasn’t understandable, but murder is murder, right? One of the other Empire State investors is already dead.”
Professor Lin stiffened. “Who?”
James shook his head, and they stared at each other for a moment. Finally, her composure broke, and she looked suddenly fragile, ten years younger. She opened her notebook and pulled a pen from her jacket pocket.
She exhaled slowly. “Tell me who else is dead, who the other investors are, and I’ll point you to someone with a list.”
“The real estate developer, Angelina Rivington, is dead. Her body was found in the Hudson.”
Professor Lin’s eyes widened. “Recently?”
“The day before the judge was shot.”
She hesitated a moment, her expression unreadable, and then scribbled the name. “Who else?”
“Mason Crawford, Rivington’s second-in-command.” Professor Lin gripped her pen more tightly. “And Gordon Lang, Harrison’s lawyer.”
“James, thank you.” She held up the notebook. “We can work with this.”
“Glad I could help,” he said, and he was. “Now, who has those names?”
She spoke quickly and assuredly. “There’s a lawyer who represented a lot of those kids, and he’s made it his mission to help them all when they get out. I know he’s got a list.”
James smiled broadly. “As you say, we can work with that. Who’s the lawyer?”
“Peter Catanzaro. A Google search should turn up his particulars.”