In the Midst of Death

by Lawrence Block

Page 7

 

  I thought about it. "I could name a dozen names," I said. "And thats off the top of my head. "

  "Right. And if you included ones where you think theyre probably guilty, you could name six dozen. All those guys that Lee Bailey defends and gets off, everybody is always positive the bastards are guilty. More than once I heard cops say So-and-so must be guilty or why would he need Bailey to defend him?"

  "Ive heard the same line. "

  "Of course. My lawyers supposed to be good, but I need more than a lawyer. Because I want more than acquittal. And I cant get anything out of the cops. The ones who caught this case love it just the way it is. Nothing makes them happier than seeing me with my head on the block. So why should they look any further? All theyll look for is more ways to nail me to the wall. And if they find anything that hurts their case, you can guess what theyll do with it. Theyll bury it so deep itd be easier to reach if you started digging in China. "

  * * *

  WE went over a few more things and I wrote down various items in my notebook. I got his home address in Forest Hills, his wifes name, the name of his lawyer, and other bits and pieces. He took a blank sheet of paper from my notebook, borrowed my pen, and wrote out an authorization for his wife to give me twenty-five hundred dollars.

  "In cash, Matt. And theres more money if thats not enough. Spend what you have to. Ill back you all the way. Just fix it so I can put that tie on and get the hell out of here. "

  "Where does all the money come from?"

  He looked at me. "Does it matter?"

  "I dont know. "

  "What the fuck am I supposed to say? That I saved it out of my salary? You know better than that. I already told you I was never a Boy Scout. "

  "Uh-huh. "

  "Does it matter where the money came from?"

  I thought about it. "No," I said. "No, I dont guess it does. "

  ON our way back through the corridors the guard said, "You were a cop yourself, right?"

  "For a while. "

  "And now youre working for him. "

  "Thats right. "

  "Well," he said judiciously, "we dont always get to choose who were gonna work for. And a mans got to make hisself a living. "

  "Thats the truth. "

  He whistled softly. He was in his late fifties, jowly and round-shouldered, with liver spots on the backs of his hands. His voice had been roughened by years of whiskey and tobacco.

  "Figure to get him off?"

  "Im no lawyer. If I can turn up some evidence, maybe his lawyer can get him off. Why?"

  "Just thinking. If he dont get off, hes apt to wish they still had capital punishment. "

  "Whys that?"

  "Hes a cop, aint he?"

  "So?"

  "Well, you just think on it. The present time, we got him in a cell by his lonesome. Awaiting trial and all of that, wearin his own clothes, keepin to hisself. But lets just say hes convicted and hes sent up to, say, Attica. And there he is in a prison full to overflowing with criminals who got no use at all for the police, and bettern half of em coons who was born hating the police. Now there is all kinds of ways to do time, but do you know any harder time than that poor bastard is going to serve?"

  "I hadnt thought of that. "

  The guard clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Why, hell never have a minute when he wont have to be worryin about some black bastard comin at him with a homemade knife. They steal spoons from the mess hall and grind em down in the machine shop, you know. I worked Attica some years ago, I know how they do things there. You recall the big riot? When they seized the hostages and all? I was long out of there by that time, but I knew two of the guards who was taken as hostages and killed. Thats a hell of a place, that Attica. Your buddy Broadfield gets hisself sent there, Id say hes lucky if hes alive after two years. "

  We walked the rest of the way in silence. As he was about to leave me he said, "Hardest kind of time in the world is the time a cop serves in a prison. But I got to say the bastard deserves it if anybody does. "

  "Maybe he didnt kill the girl. "

  "Oh, shoot," he said. "Who cares a damn if he killed her? He went and turned on his own kind, didnt he? Hes a traitor to his badge, aint he? I dont care a damn about some filthy prostitute and who killed her or didnt kill her. That bastard in there deserves whatever he gets. "

  Chapter 5

  I went there first because of the location. The Tombs is on White at Centre, and Abner Prejanian and his eager beavers had a suite of offices four blocks away on Worth between Church and Broadway. The building was a narrow yellow brickfront which Prejanian shared with a couple of accountants, a photocopying service, some import-export people, and, on the ground floor, a shop that repaired shoes and reblocked hats. I climbed steep stairs that squeaked, and too many of them; if hed been a flight higher I might have given up and turned around. But I got to his floor and a door was open and I walked in.

  On Tuesday, after my first meeting with Jerry Broadfield, I had spent almost two dollars worth of dimes trying to reach Portia Carr. Not all at once, of course, but a dime at a time. She had had an answering machine, and when you reach an answering machine from a public phone you usually lose your dime. If you hang up fast enough, and if youre lucky and your reflexes are good, you get your dime back. As the day wears on, this happens less and less frequently.

  When I wasnt wasting dimes that day I tried a few other approaches, and one of them involved a girl named Elaine Mardell. She was in the same line of work as Portia Carr and lived in the same neighborhood. I went over to see Elaine, and she managed to tell me a few things about Portia. Nothing firsthand- she hadnt known her personally- but some gossip she had heard at one time or other. That Portia had specialized in SM fantasy fulfillment, that she was supposedly turning down dates lately, and that she had a "special friend" who was prominent or notorious or influential or something.

  The girl in Prejanians office looked enough like Elaine to be her sister. She frowned at me and I realized that I was staring at her. A second glance showed me that she didnt really resemble Elaine that closely. The similarity was mostly in the eyes. She had the same dark deep-set Jewish eyes and they dominated her entire face in much the same way.

  She asked if she could help me. I said I wanted to see Mr. Prejanian and she asked if I had an appointment. I admitted I didnt, and she said he was out to lunch, as was most of his staff. I decided not to assume she was a secretary just because she was a woman, and started to tell her what I wanted.

  "Im just a secretary," she said. "Do you want to wait until Mr. Prejanian gets back? Or theres Mr. Lorbeer. I believe hes in his office. "

  "Whos Mr. Lorbeer?"

  "Staff assistant to Mr. Prejanian. "

  That still didnt tell me a great deal, but I asked to see him. She invited me to have a seat, pointing to a wooden folding chair that looked about as inviting as the bed in Broadfields cell. I stayed on my feet.

  A few minutes later I was sitting across an old oak veneer desk from Claude Lorbeer. When I was a kid, every schoolroom I was ever in had a desk just like that for the teacher. Id had only female teachers except for gym and shop, but if Id had a male classroom teacher he might have looked something like Lorbeer, who certainly looked at home behind that desk. He had short, dark brown hair and a narrow mouth with deeply etched lines like paired parentheses on either side of it. His hands were plump with short, stubby fingers. They were pale and looked soft. He wore a white shirt and a solid maroon tie and he had his shirt-sleeves rolled up. Something about him made me feel as though I must have done something wrong, and that my not knowing what it might be was no excuse at all.

  "Mr. Scudder," he said. "I suppose youre the officer I spoke to over the telephone this morning. I can only repeat what I said earlier. Mr. Prejanian has no information to make available to the police. Any criminous action which Mr. Broadfield may have performed is beyond the scope of this investigation and surely not in any
way known to this office. We have not yet spoken to members of the press but will of course take the same tack with them. We will decline to comment and will stress that Mr. Broadfield had volunteered to make certain information available to us but that we had taken no action in respect to information furnished by him nor do we anticipate so doing while Mr. Broadfields legal status is undefined as it is at present. "

  He said all of this as though he was reading it from a prepared text. Most people have trouble speaking in sentences. Lorbeer spoke in paragraphs, structurally complicated paragraphs, and he delivered his little speech with his pale eyes fixed on the tip of my left shoulder.

  I said, "I think youve jumped to a conclusion. Im not a cop. "

  "Youre from the press? I thought- "

  "I used to be a cop. I left the force a couple of years ago. "

  His face took on an interesting cast at this news. There was some calculation in it. I got a rush of d?j? vu looking at him, and it took me a minute to put it in place. He reminded me of Broadfield at our first meeting, head cocked to the side and face screwed up in concentration. Like Broadfield, Lorbeer wanted to know what my angle was. He might be a reformer, he might be working for Mr. Clean himself, but in his own way he was as much on the make as a cop looking for a handout.

  "Ive just been to see Broadfield," I said. "Im working for him. He says he didnt kill the Carr woman. "

  "Naturally hed say that, wouldnt he? I understand her body was found in his apartment. "

  I nodded. "He figures he was deliberately framed for her murder. He wants me to try and find out who framed him. "

  "I see. " He was somewhat less interested in me now since I was just trying to solve a murder. Hed been hoping I was going to help him louse up an entire police department. "Well. Im not certain how our office would be involved. "

  "Maybe youre not. I just want a fuller picture. I dont know Broadfield well, I just met him the first time Tuesday. Hes a tricky customer. I cant always tell when hes lying to me. "

  A trace of a smile appeared on Claude Lorbeers lips. It looked out of place there. "I like the way you put it," he said. "He is a subtle liar, isnt he?"

  "Thats whats hard to tell. How subtle is he, and how much does he lie? He says he just came over and volunteered his services to you people. That you didnt have to force him into it. "

  "Thats quite true. "

  "Its hard to believe. "

  Lorbeer made a tent of his fingertips. "No harder for you than for us," he said. "Broadfield just walked in off the street. He didnt even call first to tell us he was coming. Wed never heard of him before he barged in offering us the earth and asking nothing in return. "

  "That doesnt make sense. "

  "I know it. " He leaned forward, his expression one of great concentration. I suppose he was about twenty-eight. His manner put extra years on him, but when he grew intense those years dropped away and you realized how young he was underneath it all. "Thats what makes it so difficult to place credence in anything the man says, Mr. Scudder. One can see no possible motivation for him. Oh, he asked for immunity from prosecution for anything he might disclose that implicated himself, but we grant that automatically. But he didnt want anything beyond that. "