Justice

by Doug Sutherland

  “There isn’t much to it.” Brent said. “You already know we picked up Stromberg and we’ve charged him. He and Karen had a fight the night before at Saunders’ place, bad enough that one of the bouncers got involved and Stromberg dropped him.”

  “And?” Cunningham gave him a sharp look.

  “Saunders wasn’t there,” Brent shrugged, “and nobody called it in.”

  Henry had heard that already but it was even harder to process the second time. One phone call and Karen would still be alive. It was clear Brent wanted to get past that thought too.

  “We have an eyewitness, Edith Springer,” he said, as if it was good news, “who heard Stromberg and Karen Dennison get in an altercation, not unusual for them, except this time it obviously went too far. She got to her own door in time to see Stromberg leave the apartment and go down the stairs.”

  “What does he have to say for himself?”

  “He says he didn’t do it.” Brent dared a wry smile. “Says he went to her place in the morning to make up. When he got there the door was unlocked, he went in, and he found her dead on the floor. Then he called 911. We have a record of the call. He’s a pretty good actor.”

  “And you’ve got him,” Cunningham said. “That’s good work, Brent.”

  It was the first time in a while Henry had seen Williams look pleased with himself. Henry half expected Brent to roll over on his back so Cunningham could scratch his belly. Scuttlebutt had it that Williams had been skating on very thin ice with Cunningham, but the Stromberg arrest had changed all that.

  “Was she assaulted?” Cunningham asked, “I mean sexually.”

  “No.”

  Small mercies, Henry thought. He’d finally gotten his act together this morning, checked in with Brent on the phone, got the pro formas done right. He’d even steeled himself to read Wagner’s autopsy report and nearly lost it all over again. The last thing he wanted to do was sit through another recitation of the facts just to satisfy whatever trip Ed Cunningham was on.

  The whole damn nightmare couldn’t be more straightforward, but Stromberg had been smart enough to get Laura Henderson on his side. Henry had tangled with her before and he knew she’d be looking at the mechanics of everything associated with Stromberg’s arrest. He just wanted to make sure that Brent Williams and the Mayberry police department hadn’t made any mistakes that Laura Henderson could fasten on like a terrier. She was that good, and in some ways she reminded Henry of himself. His ego prevented him from acknowledging that her abilities could extend to beating him straight up in a courtroom, but crazy perverse things happened everywhere in life and courtrooms were no exception.

  “There’s something you should know,” Brent said hesitantly. “There’s a rumor that Laura Henderson is trying to get Frank Stallings involved.”

  “When did that happen?” Cunningham demanded.

  “Not sure if it’s true or not,” Brent shrugged. “It’s just something I heard.”

  Cunningham looked like he was expecting Brent to elaborate, but Brent kept his mouth shut. Cunningham turned back to Henry.

  “Did you know about this?”

  “No,” Henry told him. It was something Brent should have told him about, but this was not a time to get into recriminations with Brent. “And it doesn’t matter anyway. It’s a slam dunk, Ed. Laura Henderson could bring in the Lone fucking Ranger and it wouldn’t change the facts of the case.”

  There was a light tap on the door and Julie poked her head in.

  “Ed, you’ve got that meeting in a couple of minutes.”

  Meeting, my ass, Henry thought. It was just one of Cunningham’s many devices to demonstrate how busy he was. Ed nodded absently to Julie and she closed the door. Ed started going through the motions of wrapping things up, even though Brent and Henry wanted out of this meeting far more than he did.

  “Okay,” he said briskly, “I think you know where I’m coming from. I want this fast-tracked.”

  “Ed, I don’t answer to you.” Henry said coolly. Out of the corner of his eye he could feel Brent’s eyes on him. “It couldn’t be fast-tracked, as you put it, any quicker than it has been already. Stromberg is done, end of story.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Ed told him, “I want him gone and forgotten. I don’t like what’s been happening to this town.”

  Ed, you stupid fuck, you’re what’s been happening to this town, Henry thought. He and Brent didn’t say much to each other on the way out. They didn’t have to. Both of them had as much skin in the game as Cunningham did.

  43

  “What’s he doing here?” Stromberg asked.

  “I wanted him here.” Laura said, “You need all the help you can get.”

  Frank winced. He hadn’t agreed to anything, other than to see Stromberg, try to get a read on him. After that, he’d see, but there was no use getting into that now.

  “Tell me what happened, Alex.”

  “You’re not going to believe me anyway.”

  Frank heard Laura’s frustrated and sudden intake of breath but he ignored her, kept his eyes locked on Stromberg’s.

  “You don’t want me here? I can leave right now,” Frank said, “but if I leave that’s it, I’m not coming back. Doesn’t cost you anything to talk to me. Your call.”

  The two men stared each other down for a few seconds longer.

  “Don’t fuck this up, Alex.” Laura told him. “We’re the only two people in town willing to listen to you.”

  Frank stifled a smile. He hadn’t expected that kind of language from her. Stromberg brought his eyes back to Frank and held on a moment longer before he spoke, just to show he could.

  “Yeah,” he shrugged, “what the hell.”

  “Did you kill her, Alex?” Frank asked. He could sense rather than see Laura’s startled reaction.

  “No, I didn’t.” Alex said.

  “They have a witness who said you were there.”

  “Well, I wasn’t.”

  “So where were you?”

  “Home.”

  “Can anybody confirm that?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, Alex.” Frank sighed heavily and glanced at Laura. She didn’t look back at him. “So there you were, home alone. Laura and I know what happened at Saunders’ place. Shows you’ve got a bad temper but we kinda knew that already. Here’s the thing. You have a night like that and then you just go home, pour yourself a beer and watch the Weather Channel? Most people would be bouncing off the walls.”

  “I was fucking bouncing off the walls,” Stromberg told him, “but I thought I’d gotten smart. We’d had fights before, and I was usually the one who tried to get her back. She’d told me before that she didn’t like that, didn’t like to be pushed. It was hard but I figured I’d back off for once, leave her alone.”

  It sounded good but Frank wasn’t sure he believed it.

  “So you were at the bar, you got in a row with Karen, some bouncer tries to get you out of there and then you beat the shit out of the bouncer.”

  “I didn’t beat the shit out of him,” Stromberg snapped, “I hit him maybe twice. If I wanted to beat the shit out of him he’d be dead.”

  “Well, that’s kind of the problem, Alex,” Frank said easily. “You strike people as somebody who could do something like that. Beat the shit out of somebody. Somebody like Karen.”

  “Fuck you, Stallings,” Stromberg said.

  “Alex!” Laura snapped. “That’s exactly the kind of comment you’re going to have to deal with if this comes to trial. Actually, it’ll be a lot worse. Whittaker would love to have you blow up in that courtroom. If he gets you on the stand he’ll try to make you blow up.”

  Privately Frank thought she’d be out of her mind to let Stromberg testify, but she didn’t need his opinion. Stromberg looked away from them both, maybe trying to make up his mind about something. When he turned back to them the hard mask was gone.

  “Look,” his voice was almost a whisper, “I know what I am. I’m a
fucking sonofabitch and I didn’t deserve her. I knew it and she knew it. You can laugh at me if you want, Stallings, but I love her – I loved her and I knew she wanted to get rid of me and she was fucking right and I hated that she was right.”

  His voice broke for a moment and he dropped his head down onto his chest, made a visible effort to get himself under control. Sounds like a confession, Frank thought. If Stromberg kept acting like this even Brent Williams would be able to get one out of him. Laura was silent but he could tell it sounded that way to her too.

  “I’ll tell you what happened,” Stromberg said. “It happened the way I said it did. I was trying to be a good little boy and give her some space and all that other bullshit so I did fucking go back to my place that night and I stayed there. Then in the morning I came over and she didn’t answer her door so I went in and I found her there on the floor.” His shoulders convulsed and his voice trailed off into all the sorrow in the world and Frank and Laura just sat there watching until he finally looked back up at them again. “I don’t know how long I was there but then I called 911. The cops came and they were all right until Williams got there and he and I don’t like each other anyway and he went next door and when he came back he’s acting all of a sudden like I’m the one who killed her. And he’s needling me,” he glared at Frank, “the way all you bastards do, and I guess he got what he wanted. I just fucking lost it and I nailed him. That’s all I can tell you because I got hit from behind and I blacked out.”

  No one said anything for probably a full minute. Frank actually felt sorry for Laura. It was always going to be a hard case, but now it had become even harder. She was, as far as he knew, an entitled little upper middle class law school graduate and the things she was hearing were part of an alien world that only he and Stromberg knew anything about. He wondered what she was thinking, but it was Stromberg who broke the silence.

  “I should have been there,” he said. “If I hadn’t been such an asshole we wouldn’t have had that fight at the bar and I would have been with her all night and there’s no way anybody could have hurt her. They would have had to go through me.”

  44

  “Not much help there,” Laura said.

  She sounded disappointed, and Frank wondered if she was talking about Stromberg or him. Her expectations might have been too high. Maybe she’d thought of Frank’s involvement as some kind of magic bullet, but he ditched that thought almost as soon as it came to him. He didn’t have that kind of ego and Laura Henderson was smarter than that anyway.

  They were on their way out of the station when Lori waved them over.

  “Frank, Brent wants to see you for a minute.” She looked embarrassed. Frank was tempted to just say no and walk out of there.

  “It’s okay, Frank,” Laura told him. “I’ll be outside. Sorry if I’ve caused a problem.”

  “There’s a problem alright,” Frank said, “but it isn’t you.”

  Lori went back to her desk and made a point of concentrating on her paperwork. Frank took his time going back to his old office. He hadn’t been there very often since his suspension. It still felt like he was knocking on his own door.

  “Come on in, Frank.”

  Brent didn’t stand, scribbled the finishing touches on some sort of meaningless prop document. That was a move he’d probably picked up from Hizzoner Ed Cunningham. Frank didn’t wait to be asked, plunked himself down in the chair across from Brent’s desk.

  “What’s up?” he asked. He was damned if he was going to dutifully sit there and wait to be spoken to.

  “That was going to be my question, Frank.”

  “Laura just asked me to tag along, that’s all. I think Stromberg scares her a little.”

  Both of them knew Laura Henderson didn’t scare easily. The silence stretched out a little too long.

  “Anything going on I should know about, Frank?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Are your working for Laura now? I thought you were leaving town.”

  “I am leaving town. And I’m not working for anybody. “

  Brent took a deep breath, stood up from behind his desk. He was a big man and most of the time that would be enough to intimidate the person in the hot seat. It didn’t have a chance in hell with Frank.

  “Frank, we’ve got this guy,” he said, “I don’t know how you got dragged into this but it’s a waste of time. You know him just as well as I do. He’s an animal, and it’s a miracle he hasn’t killed somebody before now. If you get involved with this it’s going to confuse people, undermine the case.”

  Frank decided he was tired of looking up at Brent and he definitely didn’t want to be lectured by a former subordinate, especially someone who’d played a role in suspending him from the police department. It was time to leave anyway. He stood up himself.

  “I told you, Brent,” he said, “I’m just spam in a can. Laura asked me to babysit her, that’s all. And I’m not trying to undermine anybody. That’s your department.”

  • • •

  Laura was outside waiting for him.

  “What was that all about?” she asked.

  “Pissing contest with Brent.”

  “Really?” She gave him a wry smile. “How’d that work out?”

  “Not well.”

  The smile went away and her face clouded.

  “I didn’t think this through, did I?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The implications. I mean, I know that technically you’ve been suspended and Brent is acting Chief. Presumably they could still lift the suspension and bring you back.”

  “Presumably,” Frank allowed, “but mostly that was just Cunningham keeping his options open. You saw the FOR SALE sign, Laura. I’ve had enough.”

  “Don’t blame you.”

  Frank wondered what her opinion had been before the Stromberg thing came up and she thought she’d need his help. There wasn’t much use in asking, especially since he already knew the answer. They looked at each other for a moment, an unspoken agreement not to go there.

  “So what do you think?” she asked instead. “About Stromberg. Did you pick up anything I might have missed?”

  “I don’t know what you might have missed.”

  She colored, started to say something.

  “Sorry.” Frank held up a hand. “No, I don’t think I picked up a damn thing you wouldn’t have already, and he isn’t helping. You probably noticed Stromberg and I don’t like each other very much.”

  “Yeah, I did get that.”

  “For that reason alone I may not be the right person for this.”

  “Are you saying you don’t want to help?”

  “No, I’m not saying that, at least not yet. Personally I don’t care if he likes me or not, except that he’s not being forthcoming with either of us. He’s too busy being a tough guy.”

  “He’s not very smart, is he?”

  “Laura, he isn’t sitting in there because his career in astrophysics didn’t work out. The real problem is the one you already knew you had. No alibi, an eyeball witness, and his DNA and prints are all over that apartment, whether he was there that night or not.”

  “Aren’t you a ray of sunshine.”

  “Sorry, but I wouldn’t be any good to you if I blew smoke.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” she admitted. “You and I are a little alike. I’m no good at blowing smoke either.”

  “Really?” Frank gave her a grudging smile. “How the hell did you become a lawyer?”

  45

  Frank opened the door and got slapped in the face. Hard.

  “You bastard!” Angie shrieked.

  She lunged at him, pummeling him with her fists until he finally wrapped his arms around her to make her stop. She was muttering angrily against his chest, her body trembling against his. The door was still open and he could hear cars going by in front of his house. He had no idea what was going on.

  “He killed her!” She pushed him away. “And you’re helping
him!”

  It took him a moment to realize what she was talking about. For the thousandth time Frank was mystified by how fast word could travel.

  “Angie –”

  “Karen was a friend of mine. You never thought to ask me? You just decide to defend that sonofabitch? Fuck you, Frank!”

  For a moment it looked like she was going to hit him again. He let go of her and dropped his hands, decided it was just better to let her do it. Instead she stared at him, her eyes narrowing to defiant slits.

  “Angie, I don’t know who you’ve been talking to but I’m not helping anybody. Laura Henderson came to me and asked me to look into it. That’s all.”

  She looked at him, disbelieving.

  “I didn’t know she was a friend of yours, Angie,” he said. “I had no idea. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you and Karen were close.”

  “We used to be,” Angie said. “Not now, years ago. We were just stupid kids, thought we had the world by the ass. Now Greg and Karen are both dead, just like that.”

  “When was the last time you saw her?”

  “Oh God,” she shrugged listlessly, “I don’t know, maybe a few weeks ago. Before that it had been years, except maybe for just running into her once in a while. Then a bunch of us from the office went into Saunders’ place after a ball game. She was working at the bar and she was really busy so we just said hi, we should just get back in touch and get together some time but we never did. It was kind of sad, really. All the big ideas we had back then and she ends up working in a bar and I’m trying to peddle real estate in a place where everyone’s trying to get out.”

  “I hear you,” Frank told her, “but that’s what happens with friends. Sometimes you just drift away from each other.”

  “It wasn’t like that with us. With us it was more like karma. Everything seemed to just go bad all at once. It was like flipping a switch. We were really close and then bang, we just couldn’t stand the sight of each other. Now it’s too late to change any of it.”