Final judgment lm-5

by Joel Goldman

  “But accurate. I liked things the way they used to be.”

  She took a deep breath. “Okay. No. It’s not okay. You’re using me to find the connection between these guys and I don’t like being used.”

  “Then let it all go. Enjoy your night out on the town, forget about it and forget who you saw here.”

  Rachel shook her head. “Like there’s any chance of that.”

  “I know. It’s what you do. What about our trade?”

  Rachel scooped up the rest of the photographs, stacked them like playing cards, and dropped them in her purse. She looked squarely at Mason, her eyes narrow and cautious.

  “The FBI officially declined to comment about Rockley, but not everyone there is quite so official.”

  Mason reached across the table, his hand on her wrist. “Who was it?”

  She delicately removed his hand. “I’d sooner give up my virtue than give up a source.”

  “You gave up your virtue years ago.”

  “But I’ve never given up a source and I’m not starting now.”

  FIFTY-ONE

  Mason followed Rachel from the booth back to the bar. Myles Cartwright and the rest of the trio, sans the sax player, were back onstage, easing into a gentle number that would pull the crowd along like a lazy current before shooting the rapids. Chatter receded into the background as the music swept the room.

  Rachel raised her arm, waving toward the entrance. Mason couldn’t see who she was waving at but assumed it was her friend. He was glad she’d finally arrived because now he could gracefully bow out. The day had been so long that he would have to check the fossil record to reconstruct what had happened before lunch.

  He glanced around for Blues to tell him he was leaving, not paying attention as Rachel and her friend embraced. When he looked back at them, Abby was standing next to Rachel, her cheeks flushed, her eyes wet from the wind, and her mouth an expectant half-moon.

  “Hey,” he said, instinctively taking her hand.

  “Hey, you,” she answered, covering his with hers.

  It was what they’d said the first time they’d met. He’d taken her hand then as well, not giving it back until she told him he’d have to feed her if he didn’t. Since then, it had become their special way of greeting one another reserved for the end of a hard day, or after they’d been apart or had a fight. It was code for Let’s pick up where we started.

  “Whew,” Rachel said. “I didn’t realize how late it was. I’m sorry, but I’ve got an early day tomorrow. I’ve got to get going.”

  Mason and Abby traded grins. Mason looked at Rachel, about to apologize for questioning her loyalty. He opened his mouth and she shook her head, telling him to forget about it.

  “Okay, then,” Rachel said, clapping her hands. “Am I good or what?”

  “Very good,” Mason answered.

  “The best,” Abby said.

  Mason led Abby through the crowd, up the back stairs and to his office. He closed the door and turned on the light. Abby turned it off, leaving them bathed in the glow of yellow streetlights and purple neon shimmering through the large window overlooking Broadway. She slipped her arms around his back, her face against his chest.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmured.

  “Me too,” she said.

  “Overs?” he asked, invoking the playground plea for second chances.

  “Over and over,” she said, nudging him to the sofa, knocking files and a crumpled sweatshirt and sweatpants to the floor.

  They made love and, afterwards, lay tangled together as much by the narrow reach of the sofa as by their fear of letting the other go. They whispered more apologies and explanations.

  Abby said that she had told Rachel what had happened Saturday night at the Republican Party dinner and about Mason’s phone message that morning. Rachel said that Mason would probably end up at Blues on Broadway if he was working late and offered to go with her so she wouldn’t look desperate if he didn’t show up.

  She told him that Senator Seeley fooled around, that his wife knew it and was suspicious of all the women on his staff, especially her after she’d made the mistake of hugging Seeley on camera on election night. Since then she had kept her boss at arm’s length, telling herself that nobody was perfect, that the work was important and she needed a job. None of the excuses made her proud, she admitted.

  She had invited Mason to the dinner to discourage Seeley and reassure his wife and should have told him so. More than that, she should have told him how much she missed him-that though she didn’t want to live in his violent and desperate world, she didn’t want to live in her world, where he was only a distant image.

  Mason stroked her face, lacing her hair around his fingers. He wanted to tell her that he had until Friday to stop a blackmailer from destroying his career and Vanessa Carter’s; that he wished he’d stayed at the dinner so that he and Lari Prillman wouldn’t have been shot at; and that if he lost her again he wouldn’t care about blackmail or bullets. He was afraid that if he pulled her back into his world her love would finally drown in his dark water. Instead he told her he was sorry about everything, cloaking his sins in vague regret.

  “Rachel told me about your client, the one named Fish,” she said.

  He laid on his back, cradling her to his side, her head on his chest, his arms tense even as he held her. “It’s complicated, but I’ll get it worked out.”

  “You’re in it, aren’t you?”

  “I’m his lawyer.”

  “But you’re in it like your other cases. You’re in trouble. I can tell by the way you hold me, like you’re afraid to let go.” She raised her head, searching his face.

  He breathed deeply, letting it out slowly. “It’s complicated,” he repeated, watching her reaction, waiting for her to pull away.

  She put her head down again. He felt a tear on his chest. “I called Mickey after I got your message. He’ll be here in the morning. He’ll help.”

  Mickey Shanahan had worked for Mason until Abby took him with her to Washington. He had been part office manager, part scam artist, and part wingman, covering Mason’s flank while Blues took Mason’s back. Abby had recruited Mickey by appealing to his ambition to work in politics. Her pitch disguised her maternal instinct to protect him from the dangers of working for Mason. Now, she had brought Mickey home.

  “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “You had a hole in your heart,” she told him, pressing her palm over the scar on his chest. “The surgeon fixed it. Now I have one,” she said, moving his hand to her heart. “I need you to fix mine.”

  He answered her with a kiss that promised to fix them both. They slept under an afghan he kept in the closet for those nights when he couldn’t make it home. He rose before dawn, stiff from their close quarters, careful to cover her as she curled into the space he’d left. He picked his sweats off the floor, slipped them on, and sat behind his desk, watching her sleep.

  Confession soothed her soul. Making love eased her heart. Commitment bound her to him. It may be enough for her, but it wouldn’t be enough for both of them unless he could give the same to her. Overs. A clean slate, he said to himself. He couldn’t keep his promise to Abby as long as he and Judge Carter were exposed to a blackmailer. Time was running out and he was not close to a solution.

  Confession might be his least bad and only option. A blackmailer depended on the victim’s fear of exposure. Take that away, and the blackmailer is out of business. Could he do that? he wondered. Could he sacrifice Judge Carter and himself? What if he could protect the judge, take the fall himself? Would he do that? He found the answer in the gentle rhythms of Abby’s sleepy breathing.

  Abby stirred, rolling onto her back and pulling herself up on her elbows. Groggy, she swept her hair off her face, focusing on him across the room.

  “Is that you or the boogeyman?”

  “Just me. I gave the boogeyman the night off.”

  “What time is it?”

  Mason looked at
the clock on his desk. “Five-thirty.”

  “Ugh. I hate five-thirty. Make it go away.”

  He reached for the lamp on his desk, the light enough to make them both blink. “It worked. It’s five thirty-one.”

  “Swell. I’ve got a breakfast meeting with the senator.”

  She gathered her clothes, dressing with nonchalance as though they were an old married couple, and kissed him, neither noticing their sour morning breath.

  “Tonight,” she said. “Dinner, enchanting conversation, and a real bed.”

  “I’ll bring the conversation. You bring the bed.”

  “Deal. I love you,” she said and left.

  He turned on the rest of the lights and saw his calendar for the day. Dinner-Samantha Greer-birthday.

  “Shit!” he said, snatching a dart off his desk and flinging it at the board hanging on the back of his door, missing the bull’s-eye by a wide margin.

  He shoved his chair away from the desk, swiveling and stopping in front of the fax machine sitting on the credenza behind him. A five-page fax from Lari Prillman lay in the tray. It was her telephone records, the call made from her office Saturday night circled and starred. Next to it she’d written a note. Cell phone. Stolen. What now?

  FIFTY-TWO

  The FBI had converted the phone in Fish’s kitchen into a government party line, the kind where the person on the other end didn’t know he’d been invited to the party. Everything Fish and Sylvia McBride said would be recorded, the text simultaneously appearing on a laptop computer as Pete Samuelson, Kelly Holt, and Mason used headphones to listen. A scruffy technician, his FBI identification tag hanging from a chain around his neck, double- and triple-checked the connections before giving Samuelson and Kelly a thumbs-up.

  An order signed by a federal magistrate judge permitting the government to wiretap Fish’s phone lay on the kitchen table, partially obscured by the morning paper, one corner held down and stained by a coffee mug. Mason flinched when he saw the order, instinctively recoiling at the tool the government had so often used like a crowbar to break into his clients’ lives. He picked it up, reading the dry prose that blessed the raw invasion of Sylvia McBride’s life, the government’s allegations of reasonable cause accepted as gospel. Dropping the order on the table, he turned to Fish, motioning him into the living room.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Mason asked him when they were alone.

  “What choice do I have? They’ve got me by the short hairs and, even at my age, the short hairs can still hurt.”

  “There’s always a choice. Some are harder than others.”

  “Not this one. That bastard partner of mine got into my shorts for fifty grand. He played me like I was buying a time-share, then made me cry at his funeral. Now the FBI is going to help me balance the books and give me a pass on my indiscretions. That’s not a choice, my friend. That’s an opportunity and America is the land of opportunity.”

  Kelly Holt appeared in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. “Let’s get going.”

  Fish left him as Mason lingered for a moment, glancing at the mantle above the fireplace where he saw Fish’s tallit and tefillin. The tallit was a prayer shawl worn by Jews during religious services. The tefillin were two small black boxes with black straps attached to them. Some Jews wore them while reciting morning prayers, one box strapped on their head, the other strapped to one arm.

  “Don’t worry,” Fish said, looking back at him. “I prayed for both of us this morning.”

  “Did God laugh when you mentioned our names?”

  “No. He said quit complaining.”

  Mason followed Fish into the kitchen. Kelly handed out copies of a photograph of Sylvia McBride taken as she got out of her car in a parking lot, an office building behind her. The picture was stamped with the date it had been taken a month earlier. The sky in the background was cloudy, the pavement asphalt, her car black. Dressed in gray, she was late fifties, early sixties; slender, almost shapeless; her indistinct brown hair cut short. Though the picture had been taken from a distance, the zoom lens had captured her plain face, free of expression, her flat countenance giving nothing away. Only her eyes showed any life, though her gaze was guarded. She was practically invisible.

  Mason slipped headphones over his ears, the soft pads muting Samuelson’s last-minute instructions to Fish, who listened patiently, patting Samuelson on the shoulder as if to say, Relax, sonny, and watch me work. Fish was wearing a green warm-up suit that made him look like an overripe bell pepper, but his face was calm, his eyes sharp.

  Sylvia answered on the third ring, saying hello in a voice that had the husky resonance of cigarettes and booze. If she wasn’t five years older than Mason had guessed from her picture, her life expectancy was at least that much shorter.

  “It’s Avery Fish. How are you, Sylvia?”

  She missed a beat in her reply, the hesitation enough to make Samuelson break a sweat. “After all these years. I thought I recognized your number on my caller ID. I’m fine, Avery. My God, it’s been what? Ten years?”

  “Give or take, but what’s a decade between old friends? Right?”

  “Nothing at all. It’s good to hear your voice. It’s been too long.”

  “I should’ve stayed in touch more. I still miss Wayne. It’s been a long time.”

  “Me too,” she sighed.

  “You remember how he used to imitate my voice, call you up and pretend to be me?”

  “It made me so mad,” she said with a laugh. “The two of you were always playing jokes on me.”

  “What have you been doing?”

  “After Wayne died, I moved up here to be with my sister because she had cancer. I was her only family except for a son and a stepson. Neither one of them had time for their mother. After I buried her, I thought, ‘Well, Sylvia, this is God’s way of telling you to start over.’ So I did. I went to work nine to five. Took some getting used to, but I did it.”

  “I don’t blame you a bit. I should have started over too.”

  “I saw you on television. I’m sorry for all your troubles.”

  “Yeah. I made CNN. How about that?”

  “I saw it. You could lose a little weight, Avery. It’s not good for you being so heavy.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got no appetite these days.”

  “Keep fighting.”

  “I have to. I’m innocent, Sylvia. I had a few unhappy customers like any businessman, and the government is making a federal case out of it.”

  “CNN said they found a body in the trunk of your car.”

  “Bad luck. His and mine. I had nothing to do with that.”

  “I believe you, Avery. You wouldn’t hurt a flea. I hope it all works out for you. It was nice to hear from you, but I’m going to be late for work.”

  “Sylvia, give me another minute,” Fish said, adding a touch of desperation. “I need a favor and I don’t have anyone else to ask.”

  “I work at a call center now,” she said, her voice stiffening. “Eight hours a day of customer service. It’s very boring, but no one comes to me for favors. I told you, Avery. I started over.”

  “The government has frozen all my bank accounts, but I’ve got a lot of cash they don’t know about. It’s for my grandkids. It’s too much to leave in a suitcase under my bed. I need to move it, clean it, until this is over.”

  “I can’t help you. I wouldn’t know how and I don’t want any trouble.”

  “Don’t worry. My phone isn’t tapped. I’ve got a guy who checks it every day. No one is listening.”

  “I’m listening. And, I’m not interested.”

  “Sylvia, you remember the money I gave you when Wayne died? It was my cut from the last deal we did.”

  “I remember. Wayne didn’t leave me much. I’m grateful for what you did, Avery. But that doesn’t mean I owe you.”

  “I don’t mean it that way. You’re right. You don’t owe me a thing. But I’ve got more than twenty times th
at to move. I’ll give you a cut and you can buy your own call center.”

  Mason listened as Sylvia hacked-clearing the phlegm from her throat, making way for the bait and hook Fish had tossed her.

  “Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t know how to do it. Wayne always took care of the money.”

  “Then bury it in your backyard and dig it up when I’m dead. Just promise me you’ll get it to my grandkids. You can take whatever you think is fair for your trouble, but I’ve got to move the money in the next couple of days. I’ve got a hundred grand hidden at home. The rest is in a safety deposit box under a phony name. The feds have me under twenty-four-hour surveillance. I can’t go near the money. You and Wayne are the only ones I could ever trust with something like this, and he’s dead. Will you at least think about it?” His question hung unanswered. “Sylvia? Are you there?”

  “I’m here.”

  “Well?”

  “I’ve got some sick days saved up. I’ll think about it,” she said and hung up.

  FIFTY-THREE

  “Where’s the money?” Fish asked.

  Kelly lifted an aluminum briefcase onto the kitchen counter, snapped open the locks, and raised the lid, revealing neatly wrapped bundles of hundred-dollar bills packed tightly together like tiles. Fish elbowed Samuelson out of the way to get a closer look.

  “Old money?”

  “Heavily circulated, nonsequential serial numbers,” Kelly said.

  “You can trace that?”

  “Completely. Don’t get too ambitious. You’ve got enough problems as it is.”

  Fish laughed. “You don’t have to worry about me, Miss Holt. You’ve already put me out of business. It’s my former partner who’s got ambitions.”

  “You think Sylvia will call back?” Samuelson asked.

  “She’ll call, and when she does, you better have the rest of the money,” Fish answered.

  “Hold on,” Samuelson said. “It was hard enough to get the hundred thousand. You don’t really think we’re going to come up with another million and stick it in a safety deposit box for you to play with?”