Even the Wicked

by Lawrence Block

Page 7

 

  "Me?"

  "You. My guess is you stayed around. "

  "And went after him," I said. "But that was different. I knew who he was. I had a fair shot at getting him before he got me. " I frowned at the memory. "Even so, I came awfully close to getting myself killed. Elaine came even closer. She got stabbed, she had her spleen removed. She almost died. "

  "Didnt you say she left the country?"

  "That was another woman, a former girlfriend. Elaines my wife. "

  "I thought you didnt have any women in your life at the time. "

  "We werent married then. Wed known each other years previously. Motley brought us together again. "

  "Motley was the guy who wanted to kill you. "

  "Right. "

  "And after she recovered-Elaine?"

  "Elaine. "

  "After she recovered you resumed seeing each other, and now youre married. A good marriage?"

  "A very good marriage. "

  "My God," he said. "Maybe if I stick around and see this thing through Ill wind up back in Connecticut with Barbara. But its hard to imagine her without her spleen. Its the key element of her character. " He took a drink. "In the meantime, my friend, Ive got a law practice to run and a case to try. Tempting as it may be to fly off for a couple of weeks in Oslo or Brussels, I think Ill stick around and face the music. But that doesnt mean I want to get killed, nor do I think it makes much sense to leave the task of protecting me to the NYPD. Im safe here-"

  "Here?"

  "In this apartment. The building has good security. "

  "I dont think Will would have much trouble getting in here. "

  "Didnt the guy on the desk make you show ID? I told him to. "

  "I flashed a card at him," I said. "I didnt give him time to look at it, and he didnt insist. "

  "Ill have to speak to him about that. "

  "Dont bother. You cant expect very much from the building personnel. The elevators self-service. All anybody has to do is take out the doorman and hes in. "

  "Take him out? You mean kill him?"

  "Or just slip past him, which wouldnt be on the same level with getting into Fort Knox. If you want a good shot at getting through this alive, and if you wont leave town, you need bodyguards around the clock. That means three shifts a day, and Id recommend you employ two men per shift. "

  "Would you be one of those men?"

  I shook my head. "I dont like the work and I dont have the reflexes for it. "

  "Can you supply bodyguards?"

  "Not directly. Im a one-man operation. There are people I can call for backup, but not as many as youd need. What I can do is recommend a couple of agencies who can be counted on to furnish reliable operatives. "

  I took out my notebook, wrote down the names of two firms, along with a phone number for each and a person to ask for. I tore out the page and handed it to Whitfield. He read it, folded it, and tucked it in his breast pocket.

  "No point in calling now," he said. "Ill call first thing in the morning. If Will lets me live that long. "

  "Youve probably got a few days. Hell wait until the story runs, and until youve had time to worry about it. "

  "Hes a real prick, isnt he?"

  "Well, I dont suppose hes on the short list for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. "

  "Not this year, but then hes got a lot of competition. Ah, Jesus, you think your lifes in order and then something like this comes at you from out of nowhere. Do you worry a lot?"

  "Do I worry a lot? I dont know. I dont think so. "

  "It seems to me that I do. I worry about a stroke or a heart attack, I worry about prostate cancer. Sometimes I worry about having some bad gene thatll have me coming down with one of those rare diseases. I cant think of the word I want and I start to worry about early-onset Alzheimers. You know something? Its a big fucking waste of time. "

  "Worrying?"

  "You said it. You never worry about the right thing. I never worried about this son of a bitch, Ill tell you that, and now hes got me on his list. Tell me what else I can do. Besides hiring guards. You must have a few ideas on the kind of routine I should follow, the precautions I ought to take. "

  * * *

  By the time I was done suggesting ways he could increase the odds of his staying alive, hed made a pot of coffee and we were each working on our second cup. He talked about a current case of his, and I talked about a piece of work Id wrapped up a month previously.

  "I want you to know I appreciate all this," he said. "Id tell you to send me a bill, but a man on Wills list ought to keep his accounts current. What do I owe you? Ill write you a check. "

  "Theres no charge. "

  "Dont be silly," he said. "I dragged you out of your house in the middle of the night and got two solid hours worth of your professional expertise. Go ahead and put a price on it. "

  "I have a vested interest in your survival," I told him. "If you stay alive, theres a chance youll throw some work my way. "

  "Id say you can count on it, but you still ought to get paid for tonight. " He patted the pocket where hed put the slip I gave him. "Will you get a referral fee from these guys?"

  "It depends which one you call. "

  "Only one of themll pay you for a referral?"

  "I do a certain amount of per diem work for Reliable," I said, "and Wally Donn pays me a commission on anything else I happen to steer their way. "

  "Then whyd you put down the other agency as well?"

  "Because theyre good. "

  "Well, Ill use Reliable," he said. "That goes without saying. And Id still like to pay you for your time tonight. "

  "Theres no need. "

  "In that case, Ive got a better idea. Id like to hire you. "

  "To do what?"

  "To go after Will. "

  I told him all the reasons why it didnt make sense. Half the police force was already assigned to the case, and the cops had access to the available data and evidence along with the scientific apparatus to learn something from it. On top of that, they had the manpower to knock on every door and run down every lead and phone tip that came their way. All I could do was get in their way.

  "I know all that," he said.

  "So?"

  "So I still want to hire you. "

  "Why? As a way of paying me for this evening?"

  He shook his head. "I want you on the case. "

  "What for?"

  "Because I think theres a chance youll make a difference. The first time I hired you, you know, was on Ray Gruliows recommendation. "

  "Yes, I know. "

  "He said you had a good mind and caught on fast. Give him the first sentence and hes got the whole page, thats what he said. "

  "He was being generous," I said. "Sometimes I move my lips. "

  "I dont think so. He also said good things about your character and personal integrity. And he said something else, too. He said you were dogged. "

  "Its a nicer word than pigheaded. "

  He rolled his eyes. "Youre a hard man to compliment, arent you? Matt, offense is the best defense. Thats true in the courtroom and its true on the street. I dont know what the hell you can do that the cops cant, but the one thing I dont have to worry about these days is money, and if I can throw a little of it your way I can tell myself Im doing something to see that Will gets nailed before he nails me. Now why dont you just say youll take the case so I can write you out a check?"

  "Ill take the case. "

  "See? Youre stubborn, which may be part of the job description for what you do. But Im persuasive, which is very definitely part of my job description. " He went over to the desk, got out his checkbook and wrote me a check, tore it out and handed it to me.

  "A retainer," he said. "Good enough?"

  The amount was two thousand dollars. "Thats fine," I said.

  "You have anything else youre working?"

  "Not at the moment," I said. "I dont know what Im going to do, but Ill start doing
it in the morning. "

  "And Ill call Donn at Reliable and see about getting my body guarded. What a thing to have to do. Can I tell you something? Dont repeat this, but until this afternoon I sort of liked Will. "

  "You did?"

  "Lets say I had a grudging admiration for him. He was a kind of urban folk hero, wasnt he? Almost like Batman. "

  "Batman never killed anybody. "

  "Not in the comic books. He does in the movies, but Hollywoodll fuck up anything, wont they? No, the real Batman never killed anybody. Listen to me, will you? The real Batman. But when you grew up on the comic book thats how it seems. "

  "I know. "

  "For Christs sake," he said, "Im Adrian Whitfield, Im a fucking lawyer. Thats all I am. Im not the Joker, Im not the Penguin, Im not the Riddler. Whats Batman got against me?"

  4

  Elaine was still up when I got home, watching a wildlife documentary on the Discovery channel. I joined her for the last ten minutes of it. During the credit crawl she made a face and switched off the set.

  "I should have done that when you came in," she said.

  "Why? I didnt mind watching. "

  "What I have to learn," she said, "is always to skip the last five minutes of those things, because its always the same. You spend fifty-five minutes watching some really nice animal, and then they ruin the whole thing by telling you its endangered and wont last out the century. Theyre so determined to leave you depressed youd think they had Prozac for a sponsor. How was Adrian Whitfield?"

  I gave her a summary of the evening. "Well, hes not depressed," she said. "Bemused, it sounds like. Why me? "

  "Natural question. "

  "Yeah, Id say. How much did you say the retainer was? Two thousand dollars? Im surprised you took it. "

  "Cop training, I guess. "

  "When somebody hands you money, you take it. "

  "Something like that. He wanted to pay me for my time, and when I turned him down he decided he wanted to hire me. We can use the money. "

  "And you can use the work. "

  "I can, and maybe Ill be able to figure out something to do. I just hope it wont involve buying a computer. "

  "Huh?"

  "TJ. He was on my case earlier. When did he leave?"

  "Half an hour after you did. I offered him the couch, but he didnt want to stay over. "

  "He never does. "

  " What you think, Is got no place to sleep? I wonder where he does sleep. "

  "Its a mystery. "

  "He must live somewhere. "

  "Not everybody does. "

  "I dont think hes homeless, do you? He changes his clothes regularly and hes clean about his person. Im sure he doesnt bed down in the park. "

  "There are a lot of ways to be homeless," I said, "and they dont all involve sleeping on the subway and eating out of Dumpsters. I know a woman who drank her way out of a rent-controlled apartment. She moved her things to a storage locker in Chelsea. She pays something like eighty dollars a month for a cubicle eight feet square. Thats where she keeps her stuff, and thats where she sleeps. "