Hounded (28 page)

“He was afraid that if they killed Pete, his fellow cops would pick up the trail. But if they got rid of him by sending him to prison, no one would follow up on his cases. They’d be home free.”

“Why did he testify like he did?” Hike asks.

“I’m not sure,” I say. “But I think that he knew if Pete was convicted, I’d never let it drop. I’d keep trying to prove the conspiracy, and he was the only one left that the truth could bring down.”

“So what do we do now?” Sam asks.

“Let’s get the son of a bitch,” Willie says.

I shake my head. “My instinct, and tell me if anyone disagrees, is to let this sit until the verdict comes in. Pete gains nothing if we announce to the world that our star witness is himself a murderer. Once we have a verdict, either way, we try and prove the case against Coble.”

There is general agreement that this is the correct approach. Laurie and I discussed it last night, and she feels firmly that what is best for Pete must be the immediate priority. So that’s what we’ll do.

“There’s one other complication,” I say before everyone leaves. “I think Coble knows that I know. It’s the way he looked at me and smiled the moment I realized it.”

The rest of the day goes by without a verdict. I try and take my mind off everything, but it’s an impossible task. Laurie recommends that I take Ricky down to the Tara Foundation building so he can see the dogs we have for rescue, but I don’t really want to. I want to just sit by myself and worry.

“He loves dogs,” Laurie says.

“So?”

“So take him, Andy. Please.”

So I do, and when I see his face when we walk in, I’m instantly glad that I did. Within two minutes he’s rolling on the floor with four of the dogs, laughing the most carefree laugh I’ve heard out of him since all this started.

Willie’s wife Sondra is there, but she says that Willie is out. “I know I shouldn’t ask this,” she says. “But is Pete going to win?”

“I know I shouldn’t say this,” I say. “But I think he will.”

It’s on the way home that I remember something about the case that I had forgotten. Rozelle, the manager of the dump apartments where Juanita Diaz was imprisoned, had asked me if we “ever talk to the cops.” I glossed over it at the time, but it might mean that he had dealt with Coble before we got there.

If he had, then there are two credible possibilities. One, that he might have some information about Coble that could be helpful when we go after him. And two, that he might be in danger, since Coble seems to have a desire to eliminate loose ends.

For that matter, I am the loosest of the loose ends. If I don’t put Coble away, every time I eat a meal I’m going to wonder if there’s a little white pill tucked away in it.

Not the best way to live.

It’s been one day and I’m going insane.

I just can’t sit around and do nothing, even though I told the team we needed to wait for a verdict. So I take a ride up to Spring Valley to talk to Rozelle. Laurie wants to go with me, but Edna is not at the house, so she needs to stay home with Ricky.

I drive up there and when I reach the building, I go around to the back where his office is. The door is locked, and no one answers when I knock. I’d called ahead, and Rozelle had said that he’d be here. I’m annoyed by this, but that annoyance dissolves into fear when I feel metal jammed into my back, and I hear Coble’s voice.

“Couldn’t let it alone, could you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, feebly.

“You looking for Rozelle? Come on, I’ll take you to him.”

He half pushes me toward his car, which is not a police car. He makes me drive, and sits in the passenger seat with his gun pointed at my head.

I am scared out of my mind.

We drive ten minutes, and he tells me to take a small dirt road for about half a mile. We get out, and we walk into a densely wooded area, about two hundred yards from the road. All of this time I am making plans to make a break for it, and then not doing it. There just doesn’t seem to be a chance at any point for me to make it.

I am going to die here.

There is a clearing, empty except for Rozelle’s body lying there, a gunshot wound in the head. “He told me you were coming to see him,” Coble says. “He thought telling me that would save his life. Instead it ended yours.”

At this point I am past panic. I am going to run, into the woods, but they are twenty feet away, and I will be dead before I get there. I know this with certainty, but I simply cannot think of anything else to do.

“You gonna make a break for it, Counselor?” Coble asks, smiling as he reads my mind.

My legs are weak and shaking. “No.” It’s a lie, or at least I think it is. If I can get my damn legs to support me, I’m going to try.

In the interim, my only plan is to rely on what I usually rely on, which is my mouth. If I can keep him talking, then he won’t be shooting. It’s like being down ten points with thirty seconds to go in a basketball game and constantly fouling. The cause is hopeless, so all you try and do is extend the game.

“Was this whole thing your idea?” I ask.

“I wish,” he says, then laughs. “I’m not that smart. It was Reynolds. He brought in Parker, and Parker brought me in to cover for them. Parker and I go back a ways in the service.”

“Was it all about money?”

“What difference does it make to you? You know as well as I do that you’re not getting out of here.”

“I guess I just want to know why.”

He shrugs. “It was about money to me and Parker.” Another laugh. “Lots and lots of money.”

“So why did you get rid of your partners?” I ask.

“Same reason I’m getting rid of you. Self-preservation.” He raises his gun. “Counselor, if you’re going to make a break for it, now’s the time. Or, you can choose to die with some dignity.”

I’m staring at the gun, and then I hear an incredibly loud noise as he fires it. But I don’t get hit, and he starts to lower the gun. Then I realize that it wasn’t his gun that fired it at all, and as it is being lowered, it is being showered in blood.

Coble’s blood.

So I look up, and there are three men standing there, two with guns. The third man is Joseph Russo.

“You okay that we killed him?” Russo asks.

“Yeah,” I say, trying to control the tremor in my voice. “But don’t let it happen again.”

“Willie asked us to follow you,” Russo says. “Willie’s my man.”

I nod, feeling an urge to cry as the full impact of what happened hits me, but trying not to. “Mine too.” Then, “What do we do with them?”

“Not for you to worry about,” Russo says, so I won’t. I just thank him about four hundred times, after which one of his guys drives me back to my car, and I head home.

Laurie’s waiting for me on the porch when I pull up. The look on her face is one of concern and stress, and I figure that she must know what happened.

She doesn’t. “There’s a verdict,” she says. “They’re waiting on you.” The she looks at my disheveled clothing, and she says, “Andy, is that blood?”

Apparently a small amount of Coble’s blood sprayed on me, and I hadn’t noticed. “It’s a long story,” I say, and then I run into the house to get dressed in about two seconds flat.

I tell Laurie the story on the way to court.

She is horrified, and starts to cry for only the second time since I’ve known her. She’s apparently a lot tougher for herself than she is for me.

We arrive at the court, and everyone is in place except me and Judge Matthews. The gallery is packed and restless. “Glad you could make it,” says Pete, smiling. How he can smile at a moment like this is beyond me. Then he sees my face and asks, “You okay?”

“I’ll let you know in a few minutes,” I say.

Judge Matthews comes in moments later, staring at me in a silent reprimand. If she only knew.

She brings the jury in, and asks if they have reached a verdict. They say that they have, and I can feel Pete tense up next to me. Smiling time is over.

The foreman gives the verdict sheet to the clerk, who gives it to the judge to look over. The judge hands it back to the clerk to read aloud, and Pete, Hike, and I stand. All of this takes about twelve hours, or at least it seems like it takes that long. I put my hand on Pete’s shoulder, and we wait to hear if he is going to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

She reads in a low monotone, a jumble of barely intelligible words about the state of New Jersey, and various counts, blah, blah, blah. But two words come ringing through loud and clear.

“Not guilty.”

Pete turns to me and we hug. Hugging is not something that Pete and I do, but here we are doing it in public. They’re even snapping pictures of it. It’s going to be tough to live this one down.

“You did it,” Pete says.

“The team did it.”

“I’ve never been that scared in my life. I thought I was going down.”

“Never in doubt, buddy. Never in doubt.”

“I need to calm my nerves,” he says. “How about buying me a beer?”

Richard Wallace comes over to offer us both his congratulations. Pete shakes his hand warmly; if there are any hard feelings, I don’t see them. And I’d bet anything that Richard is glad he lost.

Laurie waits until after we have dinner, tuck Ricky in, and then make love, before she brings up the issue that has been hanging over us. “Andy, I know what you’ve been through, so if this isn’t a good time, I’ll understand. But at some point we need to talk about Ricky.”

“There’s something I need to tell you,” I say. “I was positive I was going to die today. You know how they say your life flashes in front of you? Well, mine didn’t. What flashed in front of me was my obituary. And it said that Andy Carpenter had died, and that he was a lawyer. A prominent lawyer.”

“So?”

“So I realized what I really want my obituary to say. I want it to say that Andy Carpenter was a loving husband and father.”

“Husband and father?” she asks, emphasizing the word “husband.”

“Husband and father.”

“That’s your idea of a wedding proposal?”

“No good?” I ask.

“Plenty good,” she says, and her smile says she means it.

This beautiful, incredible woman actually wants to marry me.

Go figure.

Charlie’s has never had an event as classy as this.

There are balloons everywhere, paper tablecloths on the tables, and the beer is flowing like, well, beer. It’s the first wedding in the history of the place, so we’re pulling out all the stops.

It’s hard to believe we planned all this in two days; it must have taken almost that long to blow up the balloons. But once we confirmed with Ricky that he and Sebastian were okay with the plan, we sprung into action.

I had been worried about the conversation, so of course I let Laurie take the lead. “Ricky,” she had said, “we love you and want you to be part of our family.”

He didn’t respond, so I added, “Forever.”

“Sebastian too?” he finally asked.

Laurie smiled. “Of course. Sebastian too.”

“Cool,” he said, and that was that.

We do the wedding ceremony first. Ricky gives Laurie away, Tara is her maid of honor, and Sebastian is my best man. Ricky has dressed Sebastian in a top hat, but Tara doesn’t wear anything except a rose in her collar. Tara is a no-nonsense girl.

There are about fifty people there. Our whole team, of course, and Pete and Vince, and a bunch of our friends. Cindy Spodek has come down from Boston with her husband. I invited Richard Wallace, and am glad that he showed up.

It’s a quick ceremony, and before I know it I am kissing the bride, as the place erupts in applause. “I love you,” Laurie says, and I say, “That makes us even.”

“Is this going to change anything?” I ask.

She nods. “We’ll stop having sex.” And then she smiles. “But we can start the new policy tomorrow.”

As soon as the ceremony is over, we take a picture of the five of us: me and Laurie, Tara, Sebastian, and Ricky, our son. I probably should have worn my new sneakers, but I think Tara will block them in the photo anyway.

Then we have a great party. The TVs are turned to the Mets game, and they are winning. All is right with the world.

Edna tells me that she has decided not to retire after all, that she thinks she can do both, maybe even train for her crossword puzzle tourneys in the office, when we’re not busy. Since I have no intention of taking on any clients, I tell her it’s workable.

She also has an idea. “Maybe I can wear a sweatshirt at the tournaments with your name on the back, like ‘For a great lawyer, call Andy Carpenter.’ You know, like advertising.”

I tell her that may not be workable.

Marcus has brought his wife, Jeannie, to the party. This surprises me in a couple of ways. For one thing, I had no idea that Marcus was married, and for another, she refers to him as “my Markie” when I’m talking to her. She makes it sound like he’s a poodle. Jeannie is spectacular-looking, but I would doubt that too many people would try and hit on her with “her Markie” around.

Hike pulls me aside at one point and sincerely wishes me a long and happy marriage, but adds, “although based on the statistics, the odds are against you.”

Willie apologizes to me for telling Joseph Russo to follow me, but in light of subsequent events, I decide to forgive him. I’m very gracious that way.

Pete has been reinstated in full to the police force, and tomorrow is his first day back on the job. “You did good,” he says to me. “You were worth every penny.”

“You didn’t pay me,” I say.

He nods. “My point exactly.”

All in all it’s a great night, but one highlight sticks out. I overhear Ricky and Vince talking, and I hear Ricky call him “Uncle Vince.” But then he refers to “my dad.”

And he’s talking about me.

ALSO BY DAVID ROSENFELT

ANDY CARPENTER NOVELS

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