The First Law (25 page)

Outside, it was coming to dusk. The back window in the bedroom let in a thin late-afternoon light, and he looked around the room and then into the front rooms—the kitchen and living room—with something approaching real contentment.

He and Clint lived in a street-level apartment on Jones, less than a quarter mile from the Ark. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but they’d turned it into a nice home—the best place Randy had lived in since he’d left New Mexico at sixteen.

When Randy got to the Ark, he struck a momentary pose in the doorway—hip cocked, breasts thrust out. Clint was behind the bar, of course, talking to a couple of customers, and he looked up without any sign of recognition at all. Only a friendly nod, as if Randy were just another customer. Could it be he didn’t recognize him at all? Was he
that
beautiful tonight?

Taking a stool next to one of the customers, he crossed his legs and arranged himself at the bar. “Hello, Clint,” Randy said, “I’d like a vodka gimlet, please.”

Clint’s customer, a puffy-faced man, was staring at him. The other man, black, leaned over the bar. “Who’s your friend, Clint?”

Randy smiled all around and made some eye contact. He offered his hand to the closer man. “I’m Randy Wills,” he said, in his most feminine voice. “Randy with an ‘i.” ’ Then, to the other man, “Hello.” He’d get a rise out of Clint yet, he thought.

But Clint simply looked down, shaking his head. Surprisingly, the puffy-faced man didn’t take his extended hand. Instead, he proferred a badge, introduced himself and his partner.

Clint reached across the bar and put his big hand over Randy’s. “I’m sorry,” he said. “They just got here. They’re looking for John.”

“Why?” Randy turned to the inspectors. “What did he do?”

“We want to talk to him,” Russell said. “We understand he was working here last night.”

“That’s right,” Terry said.

“But you’re here tonight?”

“For another hour or two. Then John comes on.”

“Tonight?” Cuneo asked. “I understood he worked mostly days, though.”

“Mostly, I guess, you’re right. But it varies. We’re pretty flexible here, really.”

“Good for you,” Russell said. “So you weren’t here last night then?”

“No, I already told you, we . . .”

Cuneo butted in. “That’s right, you did.” He turned to Randy. “We were just talking to Clint here about what he did last night. I’d like to ask you the same thing. What you did.”

Clint started to say something to him, but Russell leaned in, one ringer extended in warning. “Uh-uh-uh. No hints.”

“What
I
did?” Randy checked with Clint, who nodded almost imperceptibly. “When? Last night?”

“That’s right, last night,” Cuneo said.

Eyes over the bar. “I was with Clint. Why?”

“We’ll get to why,” Russell said. “Just now we’d like to know how you spent your night last night. Unless there’s some reason you’d rather not tell us.”

“No. Nothing like that. Why would there be?” Another look at Clint. “Well, early we had dinner at home; then we went to Finocchio’s for the show,” he said. “We were there together. I used to work there.” Into their stony silence, he added, “I’m a dancer. Well, used to be.”

Cuneo said, “That was pretty good.” He turned to his partner. “They’ve got some code.”

Russell jumped right in. “You talk to anybody at Finocchio’s while you were there? What time was that, by the way?”

“I don’t know. What time, Clint? Eleven, twelve? Somewhere in there.”

“No hints,” Cuneo repeated. “My partner asked if you talked to anybody.”

“I suppose the waiter. He might remember.”

“Uh-huh. And what time did you get there?”

“I really don’t know exactly. I don’t remember.”

“Later than ten?”

“Maybe. It seems like it. Why? What happened last night?”

“What happened last night, he asks,” Cuneo said to Russell. Back to Randy. “As if it’s news to you, a patrol special named Matt Creed got shot dead about three blocks from here.”

Shocked and appalled, Terry put his hand to his heart. “Not Matt,” he said.

Cuneo pointed a finger at him. “Spare me that shit.” He threw an ugly look at his partner, tapped twice on the bar, obviously reining himself in. After a minute more, still fighting himself, he picked up a glass from the gutter and spun it. Finally he whirled on Randy. “So I’m asking you again, tell me what you did last night?”

“I told you. We ate and then went to a show.”

“And you were there until what time?” Cuneo pressed.

“Where?”

Suddenly Cuneo grabbed a glass from the bar’s gutter and flung it at the bottles behind the bar, where everything exploded in a spray of glass and noise.
“You want to fuck around, you fucking queen? You want to fuck around with me? I’ll show you fuck around!”

But Russell was up, next to Cuneo, ready to restrain him if he took it any further.

Terry had ducked, then backed away, and now he’d come back forward, his hands shaking on the bar. “Really, inspectors, really. We didn’t do anything. We didn’t do
anything.
”

For a long dead moment, there was nothing but the sound of labored breathing in the bar. Then Russell leaned over and punched a finger into Clint Terry’s chest. “This isn’t close to over,” he said. “Don’t leave town. Stay where we can find you.” He turned to Cuneo. “Let’s get out of here before somebody gets hurt.”

The inspectors killed an hour at the building housing the Tenderloin Task Force, talking to the Patrol Special liaison to see if any information had surfaced on the beat or with any of the regular patrol cops during the day. Nothing.

Then, calmed slightly and primed to finally get a word with John Holiday, they came back, yet again, to the Ark. It was full dark outside and the place had six paying customers. Terry and Wills were gone and a man fitting the description of Holiday was behind the bar. Before they’d even sat, he had napkins down in front of them.

“Good evening, inspectors,” he said. They hadn’t even started and he was ahead of them. “What’re you drinking?”

“We’re not,” Cuneo said. He put his badge on the bar and sat on his stool. “We’d like you to answer a couple of questions.”

“Sure,” he said, then smiled. “Give me just a minute, though, would you?” He walked down the bar, had a word with a customer and pulled a bottle of beer out of the refrigerator. After he’d opened and poured it, he was back in front of the inspectors. “It’s bad luck in the bar business to let your customers get thirsty.” Another smile. “You sure you don’t want anything? It’s on me.”

Cuneo had gotten himself seated. The fingers of both hands were already tattooing the bar. “Enjoying yourself, aren’t you?”

A nod. “Every minute, inspector. Life’s short enough and this isn’t dress rehearsal. Now what did you say I could do for you fellows?”

“You can answer some questions,” Russell said. “Like where were you last Thursday night?”

Holiday clucked as though he were sorely disappointed. “Oh,
that
kind of question. This is about a crime, isn’t it?”

“You know what it’s about,” Cuneo snapped.

“Actually, I’m not sure,” Holiday said. “I was working here last night when Matt Creed got shot, so it’s not for that. But if it’s about any crime at all, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”

“Last Thursday night,” Russell said again.

“Darn,” Holiday said. “It’s sad, too, because I know the answer to that one and I think you’d like it. But my lawyer told me he’d kill me if I answered questions from you guys about any crimes without calling him first.”

“So you talked to your lawyer?” Russell said. “Why’d you do that?”

Holiday had his smile stuck in place. “We’re close friends,” he said. “We talk all the time. He’s a great guy, really. Dismas Hardy. You know him?”

“And he told you not to talk to us?” Cuneo asked. “Why was that?”

“I had some legal troubles a while ago. He just found it a better policy. Your lawyer’s not there, some policemen take advantage. You wouldn’t believe.”

“So call him,” Cuneo said. “Tell him to come down.”

“I would, but it’s Date Night. He and his wife, they go out every Wednesday. He says it’s the secret to his happy marriage. It wouldn’t do any good, anyway—if he came down—he wouldn’t let me talk to you. He’s really strict about it.”

“How much money did you lose at Silverman’s?” Cuneo asked.

Holiday sighed. “Can’t say. Question. Oops, look at that. Another customer with an empty glass. Back in a New York minute. Don’t go away.”

Holiday went down the bar again, took two drink orders. As he was pouring the second, the inspectors filed past him on their way out.

“Nice talking to you!” he called after them. “Have a nice night!”

13

D
ate Night might have been the key to the Hardys’ marriage, but they weren’t having a happy one.

It had started, naturally, with another stop at the hospital. Hardy hadn’t wanted to go again—it would be his third visit there today—but Frannie insisted that she wanted to see David. Before she’d seen the damage, she had some sense that in some way she could help. Make him more comfortable, maybe bring him cookies tomorrow. Something.

She’d heard the word “unconscious,” of course, but the concept and reality of deep coma hadn’t yet struck home. She confessed this forty minutes later to her husband, before she’d even gotten her glass of wine, while she was silently crying in their back corner booth at Fior d’Italia. “I couldn’t even see him, really. I’ve never seen anybody so bandaged. His whole face . . .” Her eyes pleaded with him, as though somehow hoping he could make any part of it better.

Hardy knew that she was trying to find a place to order her impressions, but they’d assaulted her too violently for that. He put his hand over hers on the table. She just needed to talk. “It didn’t even happen to me and I feel so violated,” she said. “I don’t know how this kind of thing can even happen.”

“That’s almost exactly what Gina said.”

“And poor Gina. And after the whole wedding . . .” She stopped while the sensitive waiter, delivering their drinks, averted his own eyes from her. Hardy had ordered Pellegrino. The waiter took their meager orders—they were splitting the antipasto and then a plate of carbonara. Sensing that it wasn’t the night either for a sales pitch on the special, or for glib, he retreated.

“No appetite,” Hardy said. “Except for maybe killing whoever did that to David.”

“You think that would help?”

“I don’t see how it could hurt.” Hardy wasn’t speaking ironically. He had no humor left in him. With his jaw set, staring fixedly ahead, he slowly turned his glass of water in the circle of its condensation. “Sons of bitches,” he said. “If they think this is going to soften me up, they’re making the biggest mistake of their lives.”

“Who is? I thought nobody knew anything about who did this.”

“Nobody does.”

“So who’s trying to soften you up?” Clearly, he’d let slip something he’d have preferred to hold close. His mouth twisted in a slight grimace. Frannie knew his looks, and in his rage he was very close to losing control. “Dismas?”

He picked up his glass and drank it all off. “I don’t even know how to find out.”

“Find out what?”

“How to prove it.” He hung his head in disgust. “I should just go shake their tree.”

“That is definitely not a good idea. If they did this to David . . .”

“And of course that’s what they’re counting on. Everybody’s scared and nobody does anything.”

She leaned in toward him. “Do you really think you know who did this?”

“I’ve got some idea. I might be wrong, but I bet I’m not.”

“Well, then. Tell the police. I know they’ll look. They know you.”

“Uh-uh. You and I may remember me as the cop I once was, or the hard-hitting prosecutor I became, but that’s all ancient history. Now I’m a defense attorney. I’m not on their side anymore. . . .”

“There’s no side. Whoever beat up David . . .”

But he was shaking his head. “According to the cops’ best guess, whoever beat up David is probably either a bunch of kids or a well-coordinated band of random muggers, neither of whom stole anything. Do either of those theories make even the tiniest bit of sense to you?”

“No.”

“Which leaves what?”

“Somebody with a reason.”

“Exactly. Somebody who stands to lose thirty million dollars if David takes him to court, for example.”

“The man in your lawsuit, what’s his name?”

“Wade Panos. Good guy. Private cop. Pillar of the community.”

“He’s not beating people up, Dismas. That doesn’t make any sense, either.”

“He doesn’t have to do it himself, Frannie. He’s got people.”

“So we’re back to where we were. Tell the police.”

Hardy calmed himself with a deep breath. “No, now we’re back to where we were, I’m a defense attorney.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you, Susie Citizen, can have something bad happen and you go to the cops and give them some reasons why your suspects might have done it and they’ll listen to you with something like an open mind. Whereas, I, defense cretin that I am, I say something and first it’s got to make it through the prism of doubt. And especially when I’m accusing somebody who’s facing me in court. You, knowing me as the caring human being that I am, possibly can’t see that in reality every word out of my mouth is a self-serving lie and every act of kindness is a cynical manipulation.”

“I think you’re exaggerating.”

“Not by much.”

“Abe doesn’t see you that way.”

“Maybe not all the time, but you’ll recall we’ve had our bad days. And even with Abe, it’s always been over this same issue, this inherent lack of credibility. When I walk in the door, first it’s what’s my agenda? What am I
really
doing? The idea that I’ve got something to give them for free that might help in some way just never occurs to them, and they wouldn’t believe it if it did. And besides, Abe’s not really a cop anymore.”

She frowned at that characterization. “I bet he’d help you with this if you asked.”