Amy Gutman - Equivocal Death

9858_00_i-viii_1-2_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:53 PM Page i equivocal death 9858_00_i-viii_1-2_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:53 PM Page ii 9858_00_i-viii_1-2_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:53 PM Page iii equivocal death a n o v e l amy gutman l i t t l e , b r o w n a n d c o m pa n y b o s t o n n e w y o r k l o n d o n Copyright 2001 by Amy Gutman All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Quotations from Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and ForensicTechniques, 3d ed. , by Vernon J. Geberth, Retired Commander, Bronx Homicide, NYPD, 1996 by CRC Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Quotation from the Buddha from A Heart As Wide As the World: Stories on the Pathof Lovingkindness by Sharon Salzberg 1997.

Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston. Quotations from Sexual Harassment of Working Women by Catharine A. MacKinnon 1979 by Yale University. Reprinted by permission of Yale University Press. Lines from Mnaghtens Case, as reprinted at pages 968970 in Criminal Law andIts Processes: Cases and Materials, 5th ed. , 1989 by Sanford H. Kadish and Stephen J.

Schulhofer. Published by Little, Brown and Company. Reprinted by arrangement with Aspen Law and Business Panel Publishers. The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Warner Books 1271 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 An AOL Time Warner Company Visit our web site at www.twbookmark.com.

ISBN: 0-7595-9834-7 First eBook Edition: June 2003 9858_00_i-viii_1-2_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:53 PM Page v For my family 9858_00_i-viii_1-2_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:53 PM Page vi 9858_00_i-viii_1-2_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:53 PM Page vii Equivocal death investigations are those inquiries that are open to interpretation. There may be two or more meanings and the case may present as either a homicide or a suicide depending upon the circumstances.... The deaths may resemble homicides or suicides; accidents or naturals. They are open to interpretation pending further information of the facts, the vic-timology, and the circumstances of the event. Practical Homicide Investigation, 3d ed . Vernon J. Geberth Those who are heedless, or unmindful, are as if dead already.

The Buddha 9858_00_i-viii_1-2_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:53 PM Page viii 9858_00_i-viii_1-2_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:53 PM Page 1 equivocal death 9858_00_i-viii_1-2_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:53 PM Page 2 9858_01_003-152_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:57 PM Page 3 Wednesday, December 23 Ice cold. He pressed his hand to the window and watched the frost 3 dissolve, felt the moisture collect on his palm. Hed switched off 4 the lights, and the interior darkness mirrored the inky void out-5 side. Standing immobile, he could almost imagine that he was 6 alone in the world or better yet that he did not even exist, that he 7 was simply a part of this floating emptiness, transported by waves 8 of black snow. But his lungs filled with air. He felt the rhythm of his breath, 10 stark and fatal as an accusation.

He was alive. And there was work to be done. Moving away from the window, he switched on a Bestlite floor 14 lamp, acquired from a British import company during his last year 15 of school. He liked things to be well made. He surveyed the scene 16 before him. The space where he stood was cavernous, at least 17 sh thirty feet long and twenty feet wide.

Part of a former warehouse, 18 re 9858_01_003-152_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:57 PM Page 4 A M Y G U T M A N it was isolated enough to meet his needs. His desk faced a sweep of 2 tall windows, while his clothes Brooks Brothers suits, several 3 shirts, a tux hung neatly on a portable chrome garment rack. A 4 Bose CD player sat on an antique table. He was pleased with the space. Everything was just as he liked 6 it. The barren surroundings only underscored the beauty and fine-7 ness of his few selected possessions.

His eyes traced the narrow 8 confines of his life. Then, decisively, he made his entrance. Moving to the CD player, he pushed Play. Instantly, the room 11 filled with the opening chords of Cherubinis Medea. A 1959 recording. Remarkable music. Potent.

Full of a terrible rage. He 13 glanced down at the CD cover, at the diva Maria Callas. Arched 14 nose. Raven hair. Hands splayed like claws. What was it he saw 15 there? A passion for vengeance for justice that matched his 16 own.

The promise of its fulfillment. And with this, an unflagging 17 sense of order, of timeliness, of fate. It was this he needed above all 18 else. For even as the time for action grew closer, his confidence had 19 started to ebb. Why had he waited so long? The plan that had 20 seemed so brilliant when he first conceived it could at times seem 21 almost absurd. Again, he tried to push back these thoughts.

It was 22 dangerous to think this way. Sitting down at his desk, he turned on his laptop computer. The 24 screen flashed bright. From here on, it was almost too easy. The 25 most profitable law firm in the country. Thirty-seven partners who 26 counted themselves among the most respected lawyers in the 27 world.

Power brokers and advisers, they counseled governments, 28 corporations, and the rare private individual with sufficient wealth 29 to pay their fees. And yet cracking their computer safeguards had 30 been childs play. Strange, the unerring detection of their clients vulnerabilities 32 and the utter disregard of their own. Samsons computer network 33 had just been overhauled at huge expense. The mere fact of this in-ort 34 vestment had seemed to assuage their concerns. There was some-reg 35 thing touching in this navet, the almost childlike belief in 9858_01_003-152_r5hb.qxd 9/28/00 3:57 PM Page 5 E Q U I V O C A L D E A T H money.

Their computer network was top of the line. Nothing more 1 need be said. Besides, the elder statesmen of Samson disdained technology, 3 the proliferation of desktop computers. They yearned for the days 4 of dictation. Of pretty secretaries, heads bowed, recording their 5 every word. But in the end, even Samson had been forced to sub-6 mit.

The firms quaint refusal to communicate by e-mail, once seen 7 as a charming relic of its patrician past, had begun to interfere with 8 business. And Samson was, first and foremost, a business. Bowing 9 to the inevitable, the firm edged its way into cyberspace, a territory 10 as alien to its rulers as the planet Mars. E-mail. The Internet. Stan-11 dard issue for more than a decade in the modern business world but 12 still suspect intruders at Samson.

And so he found himself in the happy position of breaking and 14 entering an unlocked house. The attorneys secret passwords 15 gave the illusion of privacy but none of its substance. Remarkable, 16 really, the faith placed by these brilliant men and women in a tech-17 nology they didnt understand. Hubris. The fatal flaw. He typed in her user ID, mwaters. Then came the password 19 prompt.

He grinned as he typed in the response: password. That 20 was it. The same word for everyone. Something easy to remember. She could have changed the defaults, of course. It would have 22 taken only a minute.

But she hadnt taken the time. Like the oth-23 ers, she couldnt be bothered. A few more clicks, and he was scrolling through a list of her files. Luckily for him, she was one of the new breed, treating her hard 26 drive like a filing cabinet. Hed dipped into these files in the past, 27 not out of any real interest, but for the thrill he took in the fact 28 that he could. Confidential memos outlining trial strategies for 29 lawsuits worth tens of millions of dollars.