"The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event." "In New York City's war on crime, the worst criminal offenders are pursued by the detectives of the Major Case Squad." "These are their stories." "I can't do this to him." "He's my friend." "I have to call you back." "I know this is your big night, but these need to be proofed." "Go." "You're just leaving now?" "Don't even bother, D." "Thank you." "Thank you very much." "Next up, I'm personally proud to introduce, straight out of Brooklyn, give it up for miss Kira Danforth." "The following is, as they say..." "A true story." "I'm so glad you came tonight." "That meant a lot to me." "You know what I'm saying?" "I'm like airing my dirty laundry..." "You." "You have a great novel in you." "And I want it." "Lionel says it's not a novel yet." "Lionel's not an agent." "I am." "Come on." "First drink is on me." "I have to read the whole book." "I mean, I can't believe..." "Yo, Kira, what's this?" "Ho, ho, ho, hey, hey, hey." "Hands off the lady." "Shall we?" "You know him?" "He couldn't make a sentence stand up and be noticed if he put viagra in the ink." "Dear." "Ah." "Thank you." "Hello." "Kira, where are you?" "Kira, he's very bad news." "Get out." "Just come join us as soon as you can." "Really?" "That's not real either!" "Victim's Kira Danforth." "Lot of good these locks did." "Looks like a push-in." "Ah, but what do I know, after working only 50 homicides?" "You mind telling me why major case is slumming?" "Victim worked for Ariana Cypher of Cypher press." "Oh." "Took her for a college grad." "What with all the books, milk crate furniture." "Oh, found this..." "Here near the, uh, kitchenette." "Saturday night special." "Older than the victim." "Small caliber." "Poor girl bled to death." "Looks like she's got synthetic hair extensions." "They've been singed." "This hand's burned." " Looks like coils." " Stove's electric." "So..." "They tried to, uh, shove her head into the burner." "She blocks it with her left hand." "Burns her hand and her hair too." "Whoever did this, they were looking for something." "They wanted her to talk." "Well, they might have found what they were looking for." "I got bright Green resin, crystallized." "And they say cops have the best pot." "East Flatbush kid." "Selling high-end weed to her midtown colleagues." "You know, you could store a fortune in here." "A single female... easy target." "She might not be single." "Scarface DVD." "Men's hoodies." "Where's her boyfriend?" "Somebody outside wants a word." " Family?" " Don't know." "But you're major case." "You tell me." "Kira may have come from here, but she was going places." "What did Kira do for you, Miss Cypher?" "Everything." "She was devoted, brilliant." "No matter how early I got in, she was always there first." "Right." "When she didn't show this morning, you came here?" "No." "I sent my other assistant, Paige." "She called 911." "Feel free to ask her anything." "I want the killer caught." "You'll handle this, yes?" " We'll do our very best." " I'm late." "I can't believe it." "Just last night, Kira was on top of the world." "You were with her." "At a short story reading in the East Village." "I had no idea she lived here." "Kira kept a lot close to the vest." "Like selling pot at work?" "Kira?" "Never." "Where'd you get that idea?" "She ever mention a boyfriend?" "No." "But, uh, last month, coming back from lunch, we ran into a friend of hers on his bike." "She didn't introduce us, so I did it myself." "His name was D tour." "Baggy jeans, oversized hoodie?" " Yeah." "He was..." "He was really... black." "Really black." "You mean obsidian?" "No." "I mean not like Kira, you know?" "Street." "Said he was an animator for a studio in Red hook, but he looked like a messenger." "His real name..." "Uh, we just call him D tour." "He runs errands, makes deliveries." "Uh, out sick today." "He told people he was an animator." "I told him he could work his way up." "But he's always strolling in late." "He's not exactly employee of the month, why keep him around?" "We like him." "He's a fun guy." "And it's a fun place to work." "You got all this stuff." "You got pinball machines and ping-pong." "You got roaches." "Is that why you keep D tour around, 'cause he gets the good stuff?" "Your dial-a-weed pal's a murder suspect." "Where does he live?" "All I have is a..." "pager number." "Hey, yo, D. What the deal, baby?" "How did this happen to my daughter?" "We're looking for a man Kira was involved with." "Goes by the name D tour." "This means nothing to me." "They mean Dante, mama." "Dante Heath..." "is my sister's high school boyfriend." " He lived nearby." " In the projects." "My Kira was raised in a home, one I worked three jobs to buy." "Is that how you paid for her education?" "She won scholarships to Kingsley, Bryn Mawr." "My Kira was chosen." "She had nothing to do with that troublemaker for years." "You don't share your mother's feelings?" "Kira loved that fool." " She took care of him." " And you didn't tell me?" " D tour wouldn't hurt her." " Chayne!" "He have a history?" "Violence, drugs?" "Sells a little ganja." "You know, with his bike and cartoons, he's too much a kid to get into real trouble." "This is as real as it gets, Chayne." "But D tour must know that by now." "He's on the run." "He's scared." "I suppose he'd go where any kid would..." "Home." "To his mother." "If you can call her that." "Dante crashes with his mom in the same project he grew up in." "Kira has a degree from Bryn Mawr." "Why come back here... for him?" "What are y'all looking at?" "What the hell are y'all looking at?" "No, what happened to me was payback for stealing someone's stash." "You robbed somebody." "I was making a pickup when I heard shots." "I saw my connection and some fool both dead, all this weed on the table, nobody around." "But somebody made you." "Who?" "Before they killed Kira, they tortured her." "Why would you protect them?" "I hope they rot in hell." "But they didn't kill Kira." " How do you know that?" " 'cause she left me a message." "Said they roughed her up." "Message is still there." "You can check it your damn self." "What happened?" "She dump you, you got jealous?" "I knew I lost her at that reading." "I saw the way... the way he was touching her, speaking for her." "Who's he?" "Some white guy." "Losin' his hair." "I was mad, so..." "I just hooked up with some hood rat." "D tour and a rebound date were at Roscoe's till 3:00." "Kira's burns preceded the death by a few hours." "Looks like this torture and murder might have been two separate events." "Or D tour's friends could have been laying in wait for him the whole night." "We think they recovered their pot and cut out." "Kira left D tour this message at 11:00." "They came for your stash." "The place is a mess, and so am I. It's over, D." "Kira made two other cell calls Thursday night to the Pantheon restaurant." "The Pantheon... bright lights, big city." "Looks like Kira was juggling two worlds." "And this was the night that they both came crashing down on her." "Receding hairline?" "That's every other editor in New York." "You didn't leave the reading with Kira?" "I had homework." "And she was being mobbed;" "editors, agents." "Only TJ was getting more attention." "TJ..." "Hawkins?" "He wrote that memoir about his time in a Yemen prison?" "Throat full of glass." "Best-seller." "He and Kira are in Lionel's salon together." " Lionel..." " Lionel Shill." "He's still writing?" "He's legendary now." "As a teacher." "Guiding new writers like Kira and TJ." "It's a token." "I get it." "She's the only African-American in these photos." "She had a sense of humor about it." "Right." ""American delinquent," Hawkins." " It's his new book?" " Mm-hmm." ""to my girl Kira." "Love, TJ."" "TJ and Kira were lovers?" "No." "Like siblings." "And Lionel's pets." "In fact, Lionel invited TJ to a special dinner at the Pantheon later that night." "And TJ invited Kira?" "He did." "You liked "Throat full"?" " There you go." " Thanks." "Have a good one." "You two aren't here for autographs." "No." "But I read your last one, "Throat full of glass."" " It was intense." " Try living it." "You always write about your life?" "It's a way for me to exorcise my demons." "Done things I shouldn't have." "That include last Thursday night?" "Okay." "I gotcha." "Think I did it?" "Huh?" "Because of what... my past?" "You need to take it easy, TJ." "Is that your idea of taking it easy?" "A lawyer?" "Naw, I can handle you two." "Then sit down and answer the question." "Where were you Thursday at 2:00 AM?" "With Lionel Shill." "Call him." "Or don't." "Just throw me in Rikers." "I don't care." "Uh, hold that thought." "He's a piece of work." "Yeah, paparazzi's swarming outside." "TJ did this for the publicity." "And he got it." "You made Youlenz." "The ADA says it's performance art, not assault." "If Shill confirms his alibi, we'll have to street him." "I first met TJ about five years ago at a Narconon meeting." "Researching a new book?" "Yes." "TJ was the real thing." "Oh, the stories he told." "Once he was..." "So you invited him into your salon." "I told him that writing could be his salvation, and, ah, today he's an author." "So you invited him to the Pantheon." "Was that to impress anyone?" "Au contraire." "I knew he'd be delighted to meet my dear friend Phillip Green who just won the Nobel." "TJ showed up about 9:00." "After dinner, we retired here." "I wish you wouldn't." "Those were gifts to me from Paul Bowles!" "TJ invited Kira too." "Did she come?" "No, she called." "She was with Gareth Sage." "Snake of a man." "A snake." "So he's an agent." "Yes, he doesn't handle many women clients today." "Perhaps because of the way he..." "handled them." "Kira called you again at 11:00." "Did she mention Sage?" "I couldn't make out a word." "She was very upset." "I told her to call 911." "Here's "White flight, black hate"." "It's about a young man who shoots a cop in the Newark riots." "I read this when I was in college." "I taught that young man to read while he was in prison." "He died of AIDS." "I'd show you my new one that's due out in a month, but my publisher would kill me." "But you may keep that one." "I'm happy to sign it for you." "Not necessary." "It's..." " But we will take Sage's number." " Okay." "Go ahead." "No, no, Tom..." "The detectives aren't staying." "You know what?" "I'll have one of those." "Thanks." "Thank you." "Hey!" "And call the Today Show." "Tell them if they don't take my call, I'm gonna go right to Zucker." "Okay." "I liked her reading." "We went to a bar, Thor, and... we discussed her future." "Did you give Kira a lift home?" "No." "I went back to the wife and the brat in Glen Cove." "All right, after your drink with Kira, she called a friend." "She was very upset." " You have any idea why?" " I can't imagine." "I'd just told her I was gonna handle her novel." "Well, we heard you don't represent women." "Oh, I see..." "Lionel Shill." "Jerking you and me around." " Well, you can ignore him." " Mr. Sage, Today Show on one." "Hi." "Yeah." "Look." "TJ was terrific on Leno last year." "Why are you making me work so hard, huh?" "Tom, Tom, would you please show the detectives out?" "Yeah." "Well, this book is a lot better." "Let me tell you." " Thank you, Tom." " You're welcome." "I found Gareth Sage stories all over a message board devoted to bad bosses." "You just happened to be looking there." "He forced a woman to lick up coffee she spilled on his desk." "He's a successful, powerful agent, and he's hard on his assistants." "You need a message board for that?" "At least three women have charged him with sexual harassment." " But there's no record of assault." " No." "Because Sage always settles out of court." "Where's your partner?" "He's on a reading binge." "Hawkins, Shill." "Sage is gonna lawyer up the next time you and Goren go to see him." "Before you do, see if any of these women will talk." "I won this lit prize at Columbia." "There was a ceremony." "I read." "Gareth was there." "Took me out for a drink." "I told him I had a novel at home." "And he asked to read it." "He gave me a ride in his Jaguar." "And that's when he harassed you." "I tried to fight him off, but he overpowered me." "But you fought him in court." "And lost." "I got a little hush money, but..." "He said he'd bury me." "It's not exactly the future you hoped for?" "Sharks like Gareth Sage..." "They don't pay for their sins." "This is Sage and his wife." "But it turns out he has another type." "He gave Sharon a ride home to pick up her novel." "Who's to say he didn't drive Kira to get hers?" "Eames, it's a reach." "He still drive a Jag?" "A new one every three years, just like his harassment suits." "If he drove his other victims home, you might have enough for a search warrant on his car." "Lionel, the..." "the new one, it's not..." "You know... sometimes your greatest triumph can be your Albatross." "This life I have..." "the one you've given me..." "I can't go back." "Have a drink." "It's okay." "You'll feel better." "This is synthetic hair." "Your wife's extensions, Mr. Sage?" "Hang on." "Compact." "That's an odd shade for a blonde." "You gave Kira a ride after all." "Does your client recognize these women?" "Only as shakedown artists." "Those charges were settled." "Each liar received her quick buck." "Well, your client told us that he left Kira Danforth in a bar." "But we found proof that she was in his Jaguar." "So what does that make him?" "Okay." "I drove her home, and that's it." "Kira rejected you, and you were afraid that she'd talk, so you came back to make sure that she wouldn't?" "No." "Kira ran up to get her novel." "Now, I can't afford mixed messages, so I waited in my car..." "When I realized where I was, in my Jag in the 'hood." "So I set my GPS for civilization, and I got the hell out." "Here's his GPS log." "Mr. Sage was home by 10:30." "Why didn't you tell us this before?" "I was afraid of how it would look, given that people like to tell lies about me." "These women, they're sworn to secrecy as part of their settlement." "So who you talking about?" "Lionel Shill?" "Why is he mad at you?" "He's mad at himself for squandering what little talent he had." "He projects his loathing onto me and anyone else that he might be jealous of." "You're saying that that would include Kira?" "Well, Kira had two things that Shill lacks..." "A voice and a future." "Gareth was home long before Kira was shot." "Which means we're back to square one." "Maybe not." "This is the galleys to Shill's new novel." "It's about a young black painter's rise from poverty to Manhattan's posh art scene." "He's calling it "Token"." "So..." "How closely does it hew to the novel Kira was gonna give Gareth?" "We haven't been able to find it." "Kira's computer was smashed the night she was killed." "Just how desperate is Mr. Shill?" "Well, his last six novels crashed and burned." "He makes a living on the lecture circuit." "You know, Ariana Cypher, she said that Kira was always the first person in the office." "Maybe she came early to work on her novel." "Take another pass at Kira's work computer." "Don't tell Ariana why." "Can you do that?" "I wanna talk to one of the characters in Shill's novel." "I never read what she wrote." "Writing stuff wasn't my bag." "Kira loved ya." "She loved the way you sang." "What was the song?" "Forgot what tune it was." "Uh..." "Made her smile..." "Shine eye girl." "How you know that?" "Because I read it." "Kira wrote about me?" "I'm not sure I'm feelin' that." "Why, you got something to hide?" "I was 16." "I stole a beemer." "Ended up in Spofford for a year." "And Kira... she came to see me every week." "Well, she didn't write anything about that." "Look, she ever tell you what Shill thought about her novel?" "He never let her read it in front of his group." "She'd come home in tears." "No matter how hard she worked, he said it wasn't enough." "Kira's manuscript was in a file on her hard drive titled budgets." "You know, I spoke to D tour, and Shill stole her voice." "Kira's last phone calls were to Shill." "Yeah, but he might have snapped if she told him that Sage was interested in her novel." "I don't know if I see Shill leaving his West Village townhouse to shoot his protege in a Brooklyn ghetto." "Yeah, but the guy is desperate for a comeback." "If Kira exposed him for what he is," "I can't see that guy surviving humiliation like that." " I know guys like this." " I know you do." "I've met your mentor." "Well, it's not about that." "It's about finding the truth." "We gotta bring this guy in now." "Let's talk to Shill on his own turf." "You know, Phillip Green could attest that the three of us were home all night." "Of course, he's in Stockholm, so perhaps it would be easier to contact TJ." "Your loyal protege TJ Hawkins." "Now, he owes his career to you." "Well, he's been kind enough to say so." "In the same way that you owe Kira your comeback." "Pardon?" "You stole her book." "Right?" "Your new book." "Kira's life is an inspiration, but I..." "Would you do me a favor?" "Could you read this?" "I marked it here..." "Can you read this for me?" "Look, just..." "Yeah." ""He was making chicken stew." ""The fetor of garlic pulled her back, but she was determined to go."" "That's a nice piece of writing." " Thank you." " "D cooks stew chicken."" ""The smell of garlic burrows into my silk blouse." "I leave, reeking of home and feeling like a traitor."" "We found Kira's novel." "It's not as purple as your prose, but..." "I don't know, to me it rings truer." "Everyone's a critic." "And you're a plagiarist, aren't you?" "You're a fake." "A hack." "If word got out, those lecture fees would dry up." "Kira trusted you, and you stole from her." "And you are being hyperbolic, detective!" "I'm not done!" "I'd like for you to say that you're a fraud." "Have a seat." "Go ahead." "Come on." "I'd like you to say it." "Okay." "You pulled back the curtain, and you found a pathetic old man... who coveted a brilliant young writer's future." "Perhaps he... he took her words." "Only her words." "Not her life." "You killed Kira to save your legacy." "What legacy?" "My last novel sold less than a thousand copies." "I was here..." "As I am every night, drinking..." "All right!" "I'll give you Phillip's number." "I was..." "I was hoping to spare him this, but he will certify that I was home all night." "My god, if I didn't know better, I'd swear this was personal." "I just woke up a very cranky Phillip Green in Stockholm." "He says he and TJ and Shill got to Shill's home around 11:30 where he spent most of the night in the guest room recovering." "Recovering from what?" "An overabundance of Grappa." "Why don't you go back to the one guy in this mix who actually admits to being a murderer?" "The poser without a motive?" "Eames..." "We've seen the bitter fate of being a one-hit wonder." "Do you have any idea what was on Kira's mind the night of the reading?" "What, you couldn't beat an answer out of Lionel?" "He's mad at me." "Is that because I went after your mentor like that?" "Look, Kira was your friend." "She was in trouble." "She didn't tell you anything?" "I didn't have time to talk to her before the reading." "Then she hooked up with Sage." "And when she called the restaurant?" "I didn't know she called." "Phillip was holding court, telling stories about smoking pot in the white house with Allen Ginsberg." "Well, Shill told us that she was distraught and..." "He didn't share that with you at all?" "Maybe he thought you'd break out into a violent rage." "You know, he showed you off as his prized pupil, but maybe he thought deep down you were still an animal." "Let me do it." "Here, come on." "Go ahead." " You don't wanna stand there." " Come on. / Yeah?" " Come on, TJ." " Okay." "Let's see what you got." "Come on." "Give it your best shot." "That's it?" "That's... that's what you have?" "Is that it?" "That's all he's got?" "Okay, maybe this'll make it easier for you, look." "Oh, Bobby..." "Sorry about the flies." "They're all over the place." "Show me something." "Come on." "Show me something." "I only start what I can finish." "Well, I guess there weren't enough cameras around for him to give us a show." "Well, he gave us a tell." "Turned his back when he walked away." "Which would have been the first thing he'd learn not to do in the pen." "Thank you very much." "Ashkourak." "You two punched in early." "Well, they're seven hours ahead of us in Yemen." "The jail that TJ claims to have served time in burned down in 2004." "And the state department has no record of TJ ever being in Yemen." "I may be dense, but what has this got to do with Kira Danforth?" "TJ's new book, "American delinquent"." "Now, he doesn't name the juvie detention center, but he writes about it." "He says that he could smell raw meat from his cell." "The produce and meat center in the Bronx." "It's Spofford." "That's where D tour spent a year for stealing a car." "Now, I called D tour again and told him some of the things that TJ says in this book." "He laughed." "TJ did enough research to sound convincing." "It was just his bad luck that Kira's boyfriend was actually there." "Okay, but how can she hurt him?" "She's an unpublished writer." "He's on the top of the best-seller list." "But not with "American delinquent"." "The Daily Times hasn't published a review yet." "Powerhouse author like Hawkins, that review should have run in time with the release." "Unless whoever wrote it..." "could turn it in." "Okay, I should have told you that Kira was going to review TJ's book." " In the Times." " Yes." "When did you tell TJ?" "I didn't." "I didn't want TJ pressuring Kira." "It was too risky." "The night that you took Kira out after the reading..." "You knew that you didn't want to represent her novel." "TJ and Kira were friends." "I would assume that the review would be a rave, sure." "But I wanted to cover my bases." "Hey, any chance the Times let you see that review?" "Kira never handed it in." "It was due the day after she was killed." "Great!" "Just my luck." "Now they're gonna have to reassign." "The thing could take weeks." "Well, I'm sure you can come up with someone else who can write it." " What are you saying?" " Well, Kira's unpublished." "She couldn't have gotten the gig at the Times unless someone cashed in a favor." "The day they let agents choose who's gonna review books is the day even I think the business is too sleazy." "Okay, if it wasn't you, how'd Kira get the assignment?" "How did she get the assignment?" "Who do you think the Times editor studied under?" "Shill got Kira assigned to review his protege's book," "Kira's first big break." "Goren." "Oh, is that right?" "All right, thanks." "Ballistics." "They got a hit on that .22." "They already ran that gun." "Came up empty." "Yeah, in New York." "I had a friend run it in Jersey." "Turns out, it was used in the Newark riots to shoot a cop." "That boy Shill taught in prison..." "He not only got a novel out of him." "He got the kid's gun?" "Same as the book, right?" "Kid gives the teacher the gun for safekeeping." "Kira was swimming with sharks." "Shill's a thief." "TJ's a fraud..." "Either one of them could have taken that gun to brooklyn." "I wanted to open with something memorable." "Well, my dear, two things:" "First, it wasn't memorable." "It was like Joyce Carol Oates on barbiturates." "Secondly, your opening sentence must be a promise of a truth worth reading." "Anything less is blasphemy." "They followed me in." "They have badges." "We're in the middle of our salon." "It's okay." "I wanted to see the..." "Master at work, you know, plotting the..." "psychological intrigue." "The way that you manipulate lives, as if..." "They were characters in your own life novel where you play god." "Show some respect, Sherlock." "Respect." "That's important, isn't it?" "Where'd you learn that, at that hellhole in Yemen or at Spofford?" "Hard time is hard time." "Been good for you." "How's that second book..." "Oh, wait." "It hasn't really caught on fire yet." "You still waiting on the Times review?" "A good friend like Kira singing your praises." "That would have been a slam dunk." "Did you know that Mr. Shill got Kira the job, conned an editor friend of his over there into glossing over Kira's conflict of interest?" "She was the perfect choice, wasn't she, because of her connection to the material?" "I love Kira's life spent a year in Spofford." "She knows the truth of that place, you know?" "When she read your book, she saw it for what it was." "It was pure fiction." "Her expose would have been front page news." "So you had to stop that." "How did you know that he was a fake?" "Did Kira tell you that, or you figure that out on your own?" "You know this is absolute nonsense." "Kira show you this?" "It's Kira's novel in progress." "Here." "I'll take it." "You should have a look at it." "You'll recognize it." "He stole her voice and her life." "He put his name on it." "You're lying." "Read it." "Second call that she made to you..." "She had been beaten up, you know." "She was hurt." "She was scared." "She reached out to you, and what did you do?" "I could not understand a word she was saying." "No, you showed TJ her review." "Oh, TJ, they're trying to provoke you." "Come on, TJ." "He set you up to kill Kira, not because she was gonna expose you, but because she was gonna expose him." "You know, you don't wanna read that thing?" "That's fine." "Read Shill's." "Let's have a look at yours." ""She rides the train to Midtown." ""The other black women in their secretary vest eye her." ""Sample sale clothes." "Straightened hair."" "You son of a bitch." "You knew I was down about my book, afraid I was gonna..." "lose everything." "He wound you up." "He gave you a gun." "Where would I get a gun, TJ?" "Lamar Styles." "Remember him?" "He shot a cop in the Newark riots in '67." "The bullets they found in Kira were from that same gun." "He gave it to you, didn't he?" "Yes." "But before he did, he cut me a line of coke." "I'd been clean for five years." "He told me I deserved it." "Then he cut another one." "Told me to go get the cigar box from his desk." "Oh, you ingrate." "He told me to take the piece." "Be the man I wrote about." "When I got to Kira's apartment, I..." "I confronted her about the review." "Yeah, but she didn't want to hear about any review." "Not from a fraud like you." "She told me I would never be able to use a real gun 'cause I wasn't real." "She mocked me, taunted me." "You needed to show her that you were real." "I pulled the trigger." "But you didn't even have the courage to finish the job." "Kira bled to death." "TJ Hawkins, you are under arrest for the murder of Kira Danforth." "Lionel Shill, you're under arrest for conspiring in the murder of Kira Danforth." "TJ." "From my triumph to my Albatross." "See those writers?" "They're gonna have a hell of a story."