what the job was and that you had a fight with Deirdre, it puts a whole new face on the investigation.”
“You don’t think they’ll think it was me? She’s my daughter, for Christ’s sake!” Now he was mad.
“They know that. Pretty soon they’ll know about the two million she had coming to her. Who gets it in the event she didn’t live to collect?”
He paused. “Her heirs and assigns. If she didn’t make other arrangements, that’d be me and Gloria. Her mother. Even split. What the hell are you saying?” Mad at me now. Hormones were colliding all over the place.
“I’m talking about the cops, not me. I just asked the question first. When they put the answer together with the fifty grand you gave me to pay him to walk away, they won’t see it as a father’s concern for his daughter’s welfare. They’re not paid to.”
“You said it was an accident!”
“That’s where the fight comes in. You didn’t let it end there—where was it, by the way?”
“Here in the house, but—”
“You followed her to Bairn’s place, they’ll say, or went looking for her there. It started all up again. There was a scuffle. That’s manslaughter, or at worst wrongful death. Money makes it something else. If the right one don’t get you, the left one will. Prosecutor’s dream.”
“Jesus.” It sounded like a prayer.
I paused. The attendant had brought up my car and got out to look at me, waiting for his money. He had a ball cap on backward and half a tin of Skoal under his lower lip. I stared at him until he turned, spat, and went into his booth. I walked a few yards away and lowered my voice. “There’s something else.”
“You already said that,” Fuller said.
“The cops confiscated the fifty.”
“Shit. Detroit cops? Shit.”
“They’re not all bent. I’ll get it back, but if you tell themI’m working for you they’ll reconstruct the whole thing like the archaeologists they are, and the rest will play out like I said.”
“You’re something,” he said after a moment. “I don’t know what, exactly, but when a man goes out of his way to tell someone not to help him stay out of jail, you got to trust him like a good catcher. How you figure to stay out long enough to do squat?”
“Same as always: Keep fouling ’em off till I get the pitch I want.”
That was the end of the conversation. He started to say something, choked, and clicked off after a second of dead air.
I hoped it wasn’t an act. I was out on the same old dead limb and I didn’t bounce as well as I used to.
SEVEN
W hen the day starts to run down there’s no place like the office for a think. There are no clever decorative touches to distract the tired brain, no witchy PC to dangle the temptations of a walking tour of the hanging gardens of Babylon or a pornographic website in Milwaukee, no flashing lights on the telephone; just the same old dust-trap desk and file cabinets and scrap rug and flakes of cigarette ash waltzing in the current from the electric fan on the windowsill. The half-dozen other businesses that hung on three floors like leaves on a dead tree had closed for the day and down in the street the feral dogs crossed against the light without incident. Some of them still wore collars; the U of D and Wayne State University students had neglected to remove them when they turned their pets loose at the end of the term. The Dogs of Summer were a problem. They roamed in packs, scattering garbage, preying on small pets, and mauling children. Meanwhile the city had discontinued Animal Control on weekends to save money.
After I locked the door to the outer office I unzipped the compartment in the lining of my belt and took out the paperDarius Fuller had given me to have Bairn sign once money had changed hands. As evidence it was dynamite, and I couldn’t count on the cops not making a more thorough search next time. The safe was good only for prop comedy. I opened a desk drawer, dumped the staples out of the
“You don’t think they’ll think it was me? She’s my daughter, for Christ’s sake!” Now he was mad.
“They know that. Pretty soon they’ll know about the two million she had coming to her. Who gets it in the event she didn’t live to collect?”
He paused. “Her heirs and assigns. If she didn’t make other arrangements, that’d be me and Gloria. Her mother. Even split. What the hell are you saying?” Mad at me now. Hormones were colliding all over the place.
“I’m talking about the cops, not me. I just asked the question first. When they put the answer together with the fifty grand you gave me to pay him to walk away, they won’t see it as a father’s concern for his daughter’s welfare. They’re not paid to.”
“You said it was an accident!”
“That’s where the fight comes in. You didn’t let it end there—where was it, by the way?”
“Here in the house, but—”
“You followed her to Bairn’s place, they’ll say, or went looking for her there. It started all up again. There was a scuffle. That’s manslaughter, or at worst wrongful death. Money makes it something else. If the right one don’t get you, the left one will. Prosecutor’s dream.”
“Jesus.” It sounded like a prayer.
I paused. The attendant had brought up my car and got out to look at me, waiting for his money. He had a ball cap on backward and half a tin of Skoal under his lower lip. I stared at him until he turned, spat, and went into his booth. I walked a few yards away and lowered my voice. “There’s something else.”
“You already said that,” Fuller said.
“The cops confiscated the fifty.”
“Shit. Detroit cops? Shit.”
“They’re not all bent. I’ll get it back, but if you tell themI’m working for you they’ll reconstruct the whole thing like the archaeologists they are, and the rest will play out like I said.”
“You’re something,” he said after a moment. “I don’t know what, exactly, but when a man goes out of his way to tell someone not to help him stay out of jail, you got to trust him like a good catcher. How you figure to stay out long enough to do squat?”
“Same as always: Keep fouling ’em off till I get the pitch I want.”
That was the end of the conversation. He started to say something, choked, and clicked off after a second of dead air.
I hoped it wasn’t an act. I was out on the same old dead limb and I didn’t bounce as well as I used to.
SEVEN
W hen the day starts to run down there’s no place like the office for a think. There are no clever decorative touches to distract the tired brain, no witchy PC to dangle the temptations of a walking tour of the hanging gardens of Babylon or a pornographic website in Milwaukee, no flashing lights on the telephone; just the same old dust-trap desk and file cabinets and scrap rug and flakes of cigarette ash waltzing in the current from the electric fan on the windowsill. The half-dozen other businesses that hung on three floors like leaves on a dead tree had closed for the day and down in the street the feral dogs crossed against the light without incident. Some of them still wore collars; the U of D and Wayne State University students had neglected to remove them when they turned their pets loose at the end of the term. The Dogs of Summer were a problem. They roamed in packs, scattering garbage, preying on small pets, and mauling children. Meanwhile the city had discontinued Animal Control on weekends to save money.
After I locked the door to the outer office I unzipped the compartment in the lining of my belt and took out the paperDarius Fuller had given me to have Bairn sign once money had changed hands. As evidence it was dynamite, and I couldn’t count on the cops not making a more thorough search next time. The safe was good only for prop comedy. I opened a desk drawer, dumped the staples out of the
Similar Books
