Good talking to you.”
JACK PUT T11E TWO CUPS OF COFFEE DOWN ON THE TABLE AND looked at Luther.
Jack sat down and looked at his empty legal pad.
“Luther, if you don’t start saying something I’m going to have to just
make it up as I go along.”
Luther sipped the strong coffee, looked out the barred window at the
single bare oak tree next to the station. A thick, wet snow was falling.
The mercury was plunging and the streets were already a mess.
“What’s to know, Jack? Cut me a deal, save everybody the hassle of a
trial and let’s get this over with.”
“Maybe you don’t understand, Luther. Here’s their deal.
They want to strap you onto a gurney, insert an IV into your arm, pump
nasty little poisons into you and pretend you’re a chemistry experiment.
Or I think now the commonwealth actually gives the condemned a choice.
So you can opt for having your brain fried in the electric chair. That’s
their deal.”
Jack stood up and looked out the window. For a moment the flash of a
blissful evening in front of a toasty fire in the huge mansion with the
big front yard with little Jacks and Jennifers running around went
through his head. He swallowed hard, shook his head clear and looked
back at Luther.
“Do you hear what I’m saying?”
“I hear.” Luther eyed Jack steadily for the first time.
“Luther, will you please tell me what happened? Maybe you were in that
house, maybe you burgled the safe, but you will never, ever make me
believe you had anything to do with that woman’s death. I know you,
Luther.”
Luther smiled. “Do you, Jack? That’s good, maybe you can tell me who I
am one of these days.”
Jack threw his pad in his briefcase and snapped it shut.
C611 m going to plead you not guilty. Maybe you’ll come around before we
have to try this thing.” He paused and added quietly, “I hope you do.”
He turned to leave. Luther’s hand fell on Jack’s shoulder.
Jack turned back to see Luther’s quivering face.
“Jack.” He swallowed with difficulty, his tongue seemed as big as a
fist. “If I could tell you I would. But that wouldn’t do you or Kate or
anybody else any good. I’m sorry.”
“Kate? What are you talking about?”
“I’ll see you, Jack.” Luther turned and stared back out the window.
Jack looked at his friend, shook his head, and knocked for the guard.
The SNOW HAD CHANGED FROm FAT, sloppy FLAKES To PELLETS OF ice that
clattered against the broad windows like handfuls of slung gravel.
Kirksen paid no attention to the weather but looked directly at Lord.
The managing partner’s bow tie was slightly askew. He noticed it in the
reflection from the window and angrily straightened it. His long
forehead was red with anger and indignation. The little fuck was going
to get his. No one talked to him like that.
Sandy Lord studied the dark clusters making up the cityscape. A cigar
smoldered in his right hand. His jacket was off and his immense’belly
touched the window. The twin streaks of his red suspenders jumped out
from the background of his highly starched monogrammed white shirt. He
peered intently out as a figure dashed across the street frantically
chasing down a cab.
“He is undermining the relationship this firm, you, have with Walter
Sullivan. I could only imagine what Walter must have thought when he
read the paper this morning. His own firm, his own attorney actually
representing this, this person.
My God!”
Lord digested only a fraction of the little man’s speech. He hadn’t
heard from Sullivan for several days now. Calls to his office and home
had gone unanswered. No one seemed to know where he was. That was not
like his old friend, who kept himself in constant contact with an elite
inner circle of which Sandy Lord was a longtime member.
“My suggestion, Sandy, is that we take immediate action against Graham.
We can’t let this lie. It would set a terrible precedent. I don’t care
if he has Baldwin as a client. Hell, Baldwin is an acquaintance of