The phone rang; Ed grabbed it. An extra click–Inez picking up in the bedroom.
“Hello?”
“Russ Millard, Ed.”
“Captain, how are you?”
“It’s Russ to sergeants and up, son.”
“Russ, have you heard about the car and the guns? The Nite Owl’s history.”
“Not exactly, and that’s why I called. I just talked to a Sheriff’s lieutenant I know, a man on the Jail Bureau. He told me he heard a rumor. Dudley Smith’s taking Bud White in to beat confessions out of our boys. Tomorrow morning, early. I had them moved to another cellblock where they can’t get at them.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“The savior indeed. Son, I have a plan. We go in early, confront them with the new evidence and try for legitimate confessions. You play the bad guy, I’ll play savior.”
Ed squared his glasses. “What time?”
“Say 7:00?”
“All right.”
“Son, it means making an enemy out of Dudley.”
The bedroom line clicked off. “So be it. Russ, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Sleep well, son. I need you alert.”
Ed hung up. Inez in the doorway, wearing his robe–huge on her. “You can’t do this to me.”
“You shouldn’t eavesdrop.”
“I was expecting a call from my sister. Exley, you can’t.”
“You wanted them in the gas chamber, they’re going there. You didn’t want to testify, now I doubt if you’ll have to.”
“I want them hurt. I want them to suffer.”
“No. It’s wrong. This is a case that demands absolute justice.”
She laughed. “Absolute justice fits you like this robe fits me, _pendejo_.”
“You got what you wanted, Inez. Let it go at that and get on with your life.”
“What life? Living with you? You’ll never marry me, you’re so deferential around me that I want to scream and every time I’ve got myself convinced you’re a pretty decent guy you do something that makes me say, ‘_Madre mia_, how can I be so dumb?’ And now you’d deny me this? _This little thing?_”
Ed held up his report. “Dozens of men built this case. Those animals will be dead by Christmas. _Todos_, Inez. _Absolutamente_. Isn’t that enough?”
She laughed–harder. “No. Ten seconds and they go to sleep. Six hours they beat me and fucked me and stuck things in me. No, it’s not enough.”
Ed stood up. “So you’ll let Bud White jeopardize our case. Ellis Loew probably arranged this, Inez. He’s thinking airtight grand jury presentation, a two day trial with half of it him grandstanding. He’d jeopardize what he’s already got for that. Be smart and recognize it.”
“No, you recognize that the fix is in. The _negritos_ die because that’s the way it is. I’m just a witness nobody needs anymore, so maybe tomorrow Officer White takes a few licks for my justice.”•
Ed made fists. “White’s a brutal disgrace of a policeman and a slimy, womanizing son of a bitch.”
“No, he’s just a guy who calls a spade a spade and doesn’t look six ways before he crosses the street.”
“He’s shit. _Mierda_.”
“Then he’s my _mierda_. Exley, I _know_ you. You don’t give a damn about justice, you just care about yourself. You’re only doing that thing tomorrow to hurt Officer White, and you’re only doing it because you know that he knows what you are. You treat me like you want to love me, then you give me nothing but money and social connections, which you’ve got plenty of and won’t miss. You take no risks for me, and Officer White risks his estüpido life and doesn’t weigh the consequences, and when I get better you’ll want to fuck me and set me up someplace where you won’t have to be seen in public with me, which is revolting to me, and if for no other reason I love _estupido_ Officer White because at least he has the sense to know what you are.”
Ed walked up to her. “And what am I?”
“Just a run-of-the-mill coward.”
Ed raised a fist, flinched when she flinched. Inez pulled off her robe. Ed looked, looked away–at the wall and his framed army medals. A target–he threw them across the room. Not enough. He took a bead on a window, reared back, hit soft padded curtains instead.