Sleight of Hand

CHAPTER Nine

Carrie Blair stormed upstairs, with Mary Maguire and Justin Wing following close behind. As soon as they were in her office, Blair slammed the door.

“What the f*ck happened, Justin?”

“Honest, Carrie, I have no idea. Hurley gave me the baggie at the lab. It tested positive for cocaine.”

“Could you have made a mistake?” Carrie asked.

“There is no way the powder could have tested for cocaine if it was baking soda. You weren’t in court. The powder fizzed.”

“So what’s your explanation?”

“The only one that makes sense is that someone switched the cocaine for baking soda.”

“When could that have happened?”

“It had to have been after I tested it at the lab. Either someone got into the vault or it happened in the courtroom, because I put the baggie in the vault and I took it out of the vault and I had it in my possession until I gave it to the bailiff.”

“Tell me everything that happened in court with the ziplock bag,” Carrie said to Mary Maguire.

The young prosecutor walked Blair through her examination of Officer Wing and the beginning of Benedict’s cross. Then she told her supervisor about Kyle Ross’s outburst.

“Wait!” Blair said. “Where was the baggie when Kyle started shouting?”

“Charles Benedict had it.”

“Go step by step from the time Benedict got possession of the exhibit.”

“He . . . he took it. Then Ross jumped up and . . .” Maguire paused. “I was watching Ross so I don’t know what Benedict did. I know he handed the baggie back to the bailiff. I saw him do that. He only had it for a few seconds. Then he calmed down his client.”

“What happened after Ross calmed down?”

“Benedict asked the judge for a recess so Ross could compose himself.”

“And the judge called a recess?”

“Yeah.”

“Where was Benedict during the recess?”

“He . . . he talked to his client. Then . . . I stayed in court and I think . . . yeah, he left the courtroom.”

“F*ck!”

Blair grabbed her phone and called the head janitor. “This is Carrie Blair. I’m the head of the narcotics section in the commonwealth attorney’s office. I think someone flushed cocaine down one of the toilets in the fifth-floor men’s room. Where would the coke go if that happened?”

Blair listened for a few minutes. “Shit!” she swore the moment she hung up.

“You think Benedict switched the dope?” Maguire asked.

“I know he did, but we’ll never be able to prove it.”

“But how? The bailiff had the baggie, and Benedict only had it for a few seconds.”

Blair put her head in her hands. She knew exactly what had happened. She’d seen Benedict pull one of his sleight-of-hand tricks in the bar at the Theodore Roosevelt. She was certain another magician could explain the disappearance of the cocaine and how Benedict had substituted the baking powder.

“Justin, can you look in the toilets and pipes in the men’s room and tell if the cocaine was flushed down it?”

“I might be able to find traces if no one used the toilets or sinks after it was flushed but there’s probably a lot of traffic in that restroom.”

“Get a crew up there. I’ll have the janitor close the room.”

Wing left and Blair called the janitor again.

“What do you want me to do?” Maguire asked.

“Go home. This isn’t your fault.”

“But I—”

“Stop. You are not to blame yourself, do you hear? I know who’s to blame.”

Seconds after Mary Maguire and Justin Wing left her office, Carrie’s cell phone rang.

“Yeah,” she said distractedly.

“It’s me, Charlie.”

“You son of a bitch . . .”

“Calm down. I know you’re mad, but we have to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about unless you want to confess.”

“It’s about your prenup.”

Carrie froze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

“I know all the details but I don’t want to discuss this over the phone. Drive to my condo at eleven tonight. Go down the back alley and park in my garage. I’ll leave the garage door up.”

“I’m not going to your house.”

“Then I’ll have to show Horace the DVD.”

“What DVD?”

“Tonight, eleven o’clock. Don’t be late.”