Dear Diary, it's been a productive day. My new-found capacity as Homeland Security agents does not impress the locals anymore that it used to impress me. Point in case – the receptionist of Doug Coupland (esq.), one big mama called Clarissa, gave me as much sass as I've taken in a while. Telephone was not productive, so Wilmot and I drove all the way up there, under escort from one of Thirteen's best. And oh, dear diary, he can read minds. So my attempt to slip into the store and use a payphone.... Well, Justin no phone home. Let's leave it at that. No news from Homeworld, and Thirteen is not very forthcoming. Things are under way. Sure they are.
We'd been brainstorming in the morning, and trying to get our search for Stenneau (we don't really need to pretend anymore that we are engaged in legitimate police investigations), we have copies of the murder case file on the late Mrs. Edwards, and Firth went forth to retrieve our files on the Davis case from the NO Field Office. I spoke to Devlin on the phone. Charming, as always. Parisi – still as charming as always. A bit less exuberant, but I suppose I would not be in much better shape if I'd just been killed and resurrected. Which brings me back to the question: why oh why did they have to bring him back? Question of balance, I suppose. Were resurrected in the course of history: Christ, Holy J.; Parisi, Gregory. The side of light is behind.
Back to the Crook case. Our boy Crook is one very unlucky homie. Coupland, who was his defense lawyer, is the real deal – no drunken stupor hack, but a tough, dedicated criminal defense lawyer, who, I get the feeling, gave his everything. But the odds were too lopsided. The police investigation was nothing if not one-sided. Evidence disappeared – Crook's jacket, for instance. Lost in 6th Precinct, where Vanessa Williams walked the beat. she probably knew where the corpses – or, in this case, the jacket – would normally have been buried. Which is probably how Vanetta Davis got a hold of it. Crook's alibi: he had been held by some other homeboys for several hours, then released on to the street, where he was picked up and “positively identified” by some witnesses, whereas some were more doubtful. The doubters never showed up at the trial. He could not identify his abductors, so that sunk his alibi. It would seem that someone went out of his or her way to make sure that Boy Teche (still like the Scarlet Pimpernel, by the way – we seek him here, we seek him there, we seek him everywhere) got his first major hit just right. Coupland had a bad hand dealt to him, but he might have made something out of it, if it had not been for the prosecution's Royal Flush – Assistant DA Edwards, recently widowed. His closing was a sight to behold, apparently. Shit, Matlock, Perry Mason, and Alan Shore could not have saved that one.
I walked away with one thought, though. We've been discussing it over and over. Frost kept hammering away at the fact that Edwards would want to bury the case to cover up a miscarriage of justice, and that's why he's snooping around. I don't buy it. Coupland was a BELIEVER. He believed that Crook has killed his wife, and he believed it enough to be able to convince a jury to convict Crooks to death, in the face of lopsided but still only circumstancial evidence. My take on it is – if he learns that the killer of his wife still walks free... he'll flip, and he'll spill what he knows (he already suspects something, which explains his snooping around). He must know something. He's on our interview list for tomorrow. Chief is going to handle that one. It's going to be delicate, and I know my limitations.
Incidentally, Frost almost got his ass capped by MJ-12's finest, in a standoff over the possessions of the late, great Simon Chandler. One of these days, I'm going to explain Frost the basic etiquette when it comes to handling enspelled gizmos, such as “DO NOT SHOVE THEM IN PEOPLE'S FACES.” My mind is still reeling. Also, Simon seemed to have made the spellbook equivalent of an iPod playlist. Frost seems giddy over it. I tried talking Firth into letting me try and contact Brooks to help us on these things. It would seem that I know more about the subject that Thirteen combined. There's a scary thought... So, of course Firth said “no.”
No offence, A-Cell, but I could really do with some backup here.
Journals 
