Fanatics by Richard Hilary Weber Read Free Book Online Page B

silent presence alone, seated with the defendant’s team, spoke volumes. The judge and every assistant district attorney in the courtroom recognized and respected the homicide detective lieutenant.
    Patrolmen Magee and Dente certainly knew exactly who she was, and they were less than pleased to see Flo pulling up a chair at the defendant’s side, next to Keating, the criminal defense bar’s bright, shining dazzler and a royal pain in the ass.
    Almost a half hour after the scheduled time on the docket, the clerk called Annie Agron’s case. Golden Bobby set aside his documents with a phlegmatic sigh and rose to face Judge Lydia Compton.
    The judge said, “Are there any objections to starting now?”
    Golden Bobby shook his head. “Absolutely not. Not as far as we’re concerned.”
    The young assistant district attorney, an Indian American woman named Uusha Chandra Roy, walked to the middle of the floor in front of the judge’s bench. She was younger than any other lawyer in the room, a thin woman with a firm, confidently set expression that was belied by a mere shadow of hesitation in her dark eyes.
    The judge addressed her: “Would the prosecution please restate the facts of this case?”
    “The People maintain that Annunziata ‘Annie’ Agron, on a Saturday morning, committed an armed robbery outside the ATM cash point on the corner of Seventh Avenue and President Street in Park Slope, Kings County. The victim was a seventy-eight-year-old woman in a motorized wheelchair who’d just withdrawn three hundred dollars. Patrolmen William Magee and Antonio Dente attempted to arrest Ms. Agron at the scene of the robbery and met with resistance. And so she is also guilty of assaulting a policeman in the course of his duty and resisting a lawful arrest.”
    “And counsel for the defense says?”
    “Not guilty. Not guilty in a million light-years. This is a Keystone—if you’ll pardon the expression—Kops blunder of incredible proportions. Truly mythic, Your Honor.” Golden Bobby turned to the patrolmen and said, “You have my sympathies, Officers, you really do, arresting someone as innocent as…well, let’s just say, as innocent as a vanilla ice cream cone.” Everyone appeared to ponder the exact implication of this unusual image. “The charges should be dismissed, Your Honor.”
    Judge Lydia Compton was a portrait of patience and forbearance. “Okay, this time let’s just try to flesh out the outline of the arrest, of the allegations and charges. Let’s clarify all the details of exactly what happened.”
    Assistant District Attorney Uusha Chandra Roy proceeded to pursue her presentation to its conclusion, unruffled, in spite of repeated headshaking, audible sighs, and occasional suppressed laughs from her opposing counsel, defense attorney Golden Bobby.
    Briefly, the prosecution’s case was a factual narrative without embroidery. Shortly after eleven a.m. Annunziata “Annie” Agron approached an ATM to withdraw cash, she claimed, to finish her Saturday morning shopping on Seventh Avenue. As she was going up to the cash point machine, the bank customer preceding her, Sadie Sienkiewicz, a seventy-eight-year-old arthritis sufferer in a motorized wheelchair, was attempting to pass by Ms. Agron on her way back onto the sidewalk, when she was held up by Ms. Agron, who was wielding a carving knife. Sadie Sienkiewicz, fearing for her life, gave Ms. Agron all the cash she’d just withdrawn for her Saturday morning shopping, three hundred dollars. Before Ms. Agron had a chance to flee the scene of her crime, an observant bystander waved to a police cruiser that was double-parked just across the street on the other side of Seventh Avenue, where Officer Dente had entered a Chinese take-out place, Madame Chang’s, to pick up lunch for himself and his squad car partner, patrolman William Magee. Officer Dente was carrying two spring rolls, a pint of General Hsu lamb, a pint of sweet-and-sour chicken and shrimp, and a