The First Law

by John T Lescroart

  It showed in his drawn and worried face. "But there's no reason to come after me. I'm no threat anyway if Freeman ..." His voice wound down.

  "Maybe they don't know that."

  Hardy's voice grew hard. "Meaning maybe you think I should tell them I'm out of it? Just roll over?"

  Glitsky spread his hands. "Meaning nothing. My favorite theory is they weren't after you anyway. Whoever it was, they wanted Holiday."

  "How'd they know he was there?"

  "How'd they know you were? Somebody followed somebody, that's all. Happens all the time. The tail figures out your destination is Coit Tower, calls for the cavalry in the gray sedan, you're there when they arrive twenty minutes later. Then it's sorry, no hard feelings, but it's bad luck to leave witnesses breathing."

  "Maybe," Hardy said. "But what's the deal with Blanca?

  I mean, early afternoon yesterday he's the perfect cop.

  Wanted to know everything I had. Impressions, suspicions, you name it. We talked about David, getting a lead on these cretins ... anyway, three hours later he's a different guy."

  "Maybe he ate lunch at Lou's in the meanwhile, got a stomachache."

  Hardy kept talking. "He knows it wasn't Sephia. Plus he wasn't going after Panos until he got some physical evidence. Then he asks me how come I hadn't told him I was with Holiday up at Coit? Didn't I think that mattered? It's like, suddenly, I'm the bad guy. What, I'm making this stuff up to ruin his day? I wanted to go, 'Hey, remember me?

  I'm the guy who got shot at. I am the victim here.' Anyway, he tells me he'll call if something comes up, but I'm not holding my breath."

  "Probably smart." Glitsky stood up, walked over to the fireplace, moved some of the glass elephants on the mantel.

  "So what's your next move?"

  "That's why I called you. Though it pains me to admit it, I think I need some advice."

  "Strategic?"

  "Emotional, philosophical, strategic, I don't care." He came forward with some difficulty, rolling his shoulder against the pain. "They whack my car Wednesday, they shoot at me on Friday. Tell you the truth, I'm a little concerned."

  Glitsky stared out through the blinds of Hardy's front window. A muscle worked by his temple. When he spoke, it was with an exaggerated calm. "For what it's worth, it's probably not you. It's Holiday."

  "It was my car, Abe, on Wednesday. Holiday wasn't anywhere near it."

  "That, in fact, might really have been random. Vandals."

  "Right. Just like David was." Hardy took a beat. "Come on, Abe. Two attacks in three days. You know it wasn't random. I'd like a little hint about what to do here. I don't like people coming after me. To say nothing about my family. It makes me a little uptight. We had two crying kids last night. Frannie's talking about taking them out of school, all of us going away for a week or two."

  Glitsky just nodded.

  "What?" Hardy asked.

  "You already said it. If you're absolutely sure it's Panos ..."

  "Of course it's Panos! Whether the target is me or Holiday, either way it's Panos."

  "Okay, so what you do is you call Dick Kroll and tell him you're out. At least until Freeman's up and around again. Explain the situation without threatening him or accusing him or his client, if that's in your arsenal of legal moves. That takes you out of it, am I right?"

  "So far. Maybe."

  "All right. Meanwhile, make friends with Blanca again.

  Find out what happened.

  It's probably just some misunderstanding—you know how cops can be if they feel you haven't been completely straight with them. Apologize.

  Then, of course, turn over Holiday."

  "No way."

  Glitsky's mouth went tight. "There's that flexibility you're so famous for."

  "He's not going to jail again, Abe. He's been there once and didn't like it. He thinks Panos will have him killed."

  "In jail?" Glitsky barked a laugh. "That's just stupid and you know it, Diz. Wade may be the big bad wolf on the streets, but essentially he's a rent-a-cop, okay? He doesn't have secret operatives working in the jail to enforce his wishes. Trust me on this. The truth is that if somebody is out to get your client, he's safer in jail than he is out of it."

  "And then what?"

  "And then what, what?"

  "I mean, after I drop my lawsuit and John's in jail, then what? They just win?"

  "What's the hurry? You let things cool off awhile, see how things stand with Freeman, get some new partners to work on the lawsuit later. Then, with Holiday, you press for a speedy trial and get him off on the evidence. You said he's got alibis for all the murders. If that's true, he's out after the prelim."

  "And back on the street, where they can try again."

  Glitsky broke his second smile of the day, a personal record. "You can't have it both ways, Diz. He's either safer on the street, or safer in jail."

  "How about neither? Whoever really did these killings wants to pin them on him. If he dies, with the evidence they found at his place, the case is closed."

  Glitsky walked back to his chair, stood looking down at his friend. "Because you've been through recent psychological trauma and I don't want to embarrass you, I've kind of been avoiding that pesky little evidence problem."

  Hardy's eyes narrowed. "Abe, I swear to God, somebody shot at us yesterday. Really. I'm not kidding you."

  Glitsky registered surprise. "I don't doubt it. But what's that got to do...?"

  "Somebody planted that evidence. Get used to it. That's the truth. And that happens to be Nick Sephia's specialty."

  "Which makes it especially unfortunate he wasn't here in the city."

  "I'm working on that."

  "Well." Glitsky stood again. He checked his watch. "You get something, let me know. Meanwhile, call Kroll at his home, talk to your client. Be convincing. It could all be settled by tonight."

  Glitsky met his wife and daughter where he'd dropped them at a bookstore on California Street. They presented a Saturday Children's Hour that Rachel enjoyed—it also got everybody outside of the duplex, which was to the good. In the car, Treya drove while Abe turned himself around and sang some nonsense songs to his daughter, then tickled and laughed with her, enjoying himself. Treya put a hand on his thigh. "What are you so happy about? Not that I'm complaining."

  "I've successfully resisted temptation, so I'm taking a few minutes to bask in my virtue."

  She threw him a look across the car seat. "That's nice.

  Was the temptation female?"

  He put his hand down on hers. "Never in the world. He was subtle enough about it, but Diz wanted me to check up on the efficiency of the current homicide team. I politely declined."

  "What is it," Treya asked, "some kind of virus? First your dad, now Diz."

  "I know. But I can't be mad at him. He's legitimately worried."

  "I'd be worried, too. But what did he expect you to do about it?"

  "He thinks John Holiday's getting framed. He wanted me to pass it on."

  "To Lieutenant Gerson?"

  "Who else?" He grunted. "My close friend Barry, who is hanging on my every word. I told Diz that wasn't the way to go. You would have been proud of me."

  "Always," she said, "but somebody's trying to find who shot at him, aren't they?"

  "Absolutely. He reported it, so that's what they've got to do." He glanced across at her. "What's the problem?"

  "People shooting at our friends. That's a pretty serious problem, don't you think?"

  He shook his head. "They weren't after Diz."

  "No? What would have happened if, say, they'd killed Holiday after all?"

  "What do you mean, what would have happened? He'd be dead and ..."

  "And that would be the end of it? What about these other killings he supposedly did? Those cases would be closed, too, wouldn't they?"

  Glitsky didn't answer right away.

  "You see what I'm asking? Doesn't it make sense?"

  He nodded. "It's more or l
ess what Diz was getting at.

  But it doesn't have to be Panos, or anybody connected to Panos."

  "But whoever it was had to be at Silverman's, right? I mean, the money, the jewels. And didn't the young man you talked to ..."

  "Matt Creed."

  "Right. He told you it wasn't Holiday and his friends, didn't he?"

  "No. He only said he couldn't say for sure that it was."

  "But did he ever get to tell that to the inspectors in homicide? Did he have time before he got shot?"

  "I don't know."

  "Now that might be worth finding out."

  They were going shopping next and pulled into a space at the Safeway. Treya turned off the engine, but Abe didn't move to get out of the seat. Instead, he sat there, rubbing his scar with his index finger. "I thought you didn't want me getting involved in any of this. It's not my job.

  Remember?"

  "I know. I do remember." After a long moment, she said, "You're right. I just hope somebody really is looking for whoever shot at Diz."

  "I might be able to ask around about that. It's not homicide."

  "That might not be bad."

  They got out of the car and Rachel, who'd fallen asleep in the baby seat, was making some discontented noises as Glitsky leaned in, pulled her out, and brought her in close to him, bouncing her gently. While Treya walked a few steps ahead, he kept up a singsong patter all across the lot.

  By the time they got her fastened into the seat in the shopping cart, she was gurgling happily again, mimicking her father's words. "Ay-so, ay-so."

  "What do you have her saying?" Treya asked, smiling.

  Glitsky, his smile quotient for the day all used up, fixed his wife with a serious look. "Key childhood words," he said. "One in particular."

  "What's that?"

  "Chainsaw," he said.

  Nat had his own key and had let himself in. Abe and Treya heard the stertorous rumbling that marked Nat's sleep from down on the sidewalk.

  He was on the living room couch. The rule was not to wake him up on purpose, although occasional, accidental noise in the background was considered kosher and often did the trick. So Abe put on a CD of the opera Turandot, which featured his middle son Jacob in his first commercial recording, albeit among the chorus, where Abe swore he could pick him out. With the music at conversational level, they parked Rachel in the playpen with some toys and began unpacking their groceries in and around the kitchen.

  They hadn't quite finished the first bag when Nat was in the doorway, scratching his white hair around his yarmulke, pulling his sweater down over his belt. "For a minute with that music," he said, "I thought I must have died and gone to heaven."

  "He sounds great, doesn't he?"

  "Outstanding."

  "You guys talking about Jacob?" Treya asked. "I don't think he's on this track."

  Father and son exchanged a look. "You don't hear him?"

  Nat asked. He paused, listening, pointed. "There!"

  "Ah." Treya smiled at her father-in-law, turned back to her groceries. "Oh, there."

  "She doesn't hear him," Abe said.

  "I do," she insisted. "Right in the middle of those other voices. He really stands out." She pushed it for her husband's benefit. "It's like he's in the next room." But then something struck her and she turned, suddenly all business.

  "But wait a minute. It's Saturday, Nat. What are you doing here? Is everything all right?"

  Nat was an observant Jew and spent a great deal of time inside his synagogue. He took the Sabbath seriously, and normally he would not move from his apartment except to walk to temple, where he'd remain until sundown. But at Treya's question, his expression went blank for a beat.

  Then he remembered. "Ach, this Silverman thing again."

  Abe stopped pulling groceries from his bag. "What about it?"

  He shrugged. "I'm talking to Sadie today outside temple."

  "How's she holding up?" Treya asked.

  "You know. A good few minutes, a bad day or two. It's still so soon. We only just laid him down, when...?" Nat lost his thread to sadness for a second. "Anyway, she asks would I please thank you for telling her about this man they arrested, this friend of your friend Hardy."

  "They haven't arrested him yet, Dad. He's still at large."

  Nat took on a querulous tone. "I swore you said they arrested him."

  "No. Not yet."

  After a moment, Nat shrugged again. "Well, maybe that's just as well."

  "Just as well? Why do you say that?"

  "Because this morning she's watching the television and the news has the story of all the evidence they found at this man's house—the money and the rings and so on. Especially this one sapphire ring."

  "What about it?"

  "What about it is that Sam only had one ring like they described—this one—and it definitely wasn't missing when Sadie and I went to take the inventory there. Remember?

  When you came that night? We never got too far, but we looked in the jewel case. The ring was in there that night.

  She was sure of it."

  "Maybe the one they found was another ring like it, Dad.

  This one had Sam's tag on it."

  He shook his head. "That's what I'm saying, Abraham.

  Listen to me. It was Sam's, all right, but it was still in his case when we went there. So whoever killed him didn't take it during the robbery. Something's got to be wrong with this, don't you think?"

  Treya, too, had stopped unpacking groceries. She stood with her arms crossed, leaning back against the counter.

  "Does Sadie think she's sure about this, Nat?"

  He looked at the two of them. "Not just Sadie. I saw it, too. We even talked about it, how it was good Sam never had to sell that one, his favorite piece in the shop. He thought it was lucky, for the cards, you know. So no. No question. It was there."

  "Anybody shoot at you recently?"

  "No."

  "You call Kroll yet?"

  "I'm still deciding."

  "How about Holiday?"

  "How about him? Why, what's up?"

  "You know how I wasn't going to get involved?"

  "It filled me with admiration."

  "Me, too.

  But alas, short-lived.

  There's been a development."

  "Talk to me."

  The way Glitsky decided he had to play it was to have Sadie call the police and appear to take care of the matter herself. His own involvement under any guise wasn't going to be appreciated, no matter what spin he put on it. He felt pretty much out of spin in any case.

  Sadie lived in a stand-alone bungalow on Palm Avenue, not far from the synagogue. Inside, the place was a pin-neat kitsch warehouse. Every conceivable surface—the top of the television set, the breadbasket in the kitchen—every inch of flat space was covered with a doily and then a knickknack or doll, a porcelain piece or souvenir. Coney Island! Disneyland! Niagara Falls! The Grand Canyon!

  Tiny dogs and cute little cats. Pincushions.

  Sadie cleared a spot big enough to hold a teapot and cups on the small table in front of the sofa in the living room. It had grown dark outside by now. With two small sconced wall lights by the door providing the only illumination, Glitsky thought it probably wasn't light enough to read, but neither his father, who sat next to her on the couch, nor Sadie herself seemed to mind, or even notice.

  She poured his tea and sat expectantly while he tried to explain. "I know that because I'm with the police, it seems like I would be the natural choice to take your information, especially since I know you. You know Nat. We're all a little like family. But that's not really how it works."

  "I know how offices work," she said, laying a frail hand on his. "Somebody's afraid you're going to get the credit."

  "Maybe there's some of that. But basically there are two inspectors in the homicide detail who are handling the case—in this instance probably all of these cases—and whatever information comes to the police ought to be funne
led through them."

  Sadie was smiling at him as though he were somehow feeble. She had left her hand, cool and crepe-skinned, over his, and now she exerted some slight pressure for emphasis.

  "I'll do whatever you tell me and talk to anybody you want.

  All I know is what I saw."

  "I saw it, too," Nat repeated, and Sadie rewarded him with a grateful look.

  "And that's the ring, this sapphire ring?"

  "Well, yes, that one stands out. But really, there wasn't any jewelry taken at all, although that would of course be harder to prove."

  "And why is that?"

  "Because they may have taken something I'd never seen.

  Maybe Sam had taken in some stones or something that day. I wouldn't have known they were there, then, would I?"

  "No. Of course you're right." Glitsky decided he'd fallen into the error of assuming that Sadie wasn't as sharp as a younger person might have been. Enough of that. "So you could swear that the sapphire ring was in the case when you went there with Nat?"

  "Yes. No doubt of it. We—Nat and I—we even wrote it on the inventory before you stopped us. I've got it saved."

  Given the condition of the house, this didn't surprise Glitsky, but he was still glad of it. "That's good. You might want to bring that with you when you talk to the inspectors."

  "Well, shall we call them now?" she asked. "I'd like to get this out of the way. It just doesn't seem right that this other man..."

  "John Holiday?"

  "Yes, that was it. That this Mr. Holiday—well, I don't see that he killed Sam, let's put it that way. I think somebody must have been trying to be too clever by half. Maybe they didn't know—they must not have known—that Nat and I had been in the shop that other night. If it had only been the money, that would have been stronger."

  Glitsky felt a small shiver at the back of his neck. "Let me ask you something else, if I may. Didn't I hear that Sam had stopped using the Patrol Specials last summer?"

  She nodded. "It just didn't seem to be worth it. Mr.

  Panos was asking more and more. We hadn't had any kind of trouble for years and years. We talked about it, but just finally thought ..."

  Nat reached over and patted her hand. "It's all right,"

  he said. "They were there that night and it didn't save him anyway, did it?"

  "No," she said with great sadness. "You're right. You're right. It wasn't that."