Dmitri looked up, puzzled. “What?”
“I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay on as my father’s bodyguard.”
“What about…you know, the other thing?”
“We’re going to forget about that.”
Dmitri was watching him, warily. “Why? What do you want me to do?”
“I’d like you to be my eyes and ears here. I need someone to keep an eye on my father, and let me know what goes on.”
“Why should I?”
“Because if you do as I say, I’m not going to turn you over to the Russians. And because I’m going to make you a rich man.”
Dmitri Kaminsky studied him a moment. A slow grin lit his face. “I’ll stay.”
It was the opening gambit. The first pawn had been moved.
That had been two years earlier. From time to time, Dmitri had passed on information to Tyler. It was mostly unimportant gossip about Harry Stanford’s latest romance or bits of business that Dmitri had overheard. Tyler had begun to think he had made a mistake, that he should have turned Dmitri in to the police. And then the fateful telephone call had come from Sardinia, and the gamble had paid off.
“I’m with your father on his yacht. He just called his attorney. He’s meeting him in Boston on Monday to change his will.”
Tyler thought of all the humiliations his father had heaped on him through the years, and he was filled with a terrible rage. If he changes his will, I’ve taken all those years of abuse for nothing. I’m not going to let him get away with this! There is only one way to stop him.
“Dmitri, I want you to call me again on Saturday.”
“Right.”
Tyler replaced the receiver and sat there, thinking.
It was time to bring in the knight.
Chapter Sixteen
In the Circuit Court of Cook County, there was a constant ebb and flow of defendants accused of arson, rape, drug dealing, murder, and a variety of other illegal and unsavory activities. In the course of a month, Judge Tyler Stanford dealt with at least half a dozen murder cases. The majority never went to trial since the attorneys for the defendant would offer to plea bargain, and because the court calendars and prisons were so overcrowded, the State would usually agree. The two sides would then strike a deal and go to Judge Stanford for his approval.
The case of Hal Baker was an exception.
Hal Baker was a man with good intentions and bad luck. When he was fifteen, his older brother had talked him into helping him rob a grocery store. Hal had tried to dissuade him, and when he couldn’t, he went along with him. Hal was caught, and his brother escaped. Two years later, when Hal Baker got out of reform school, he was determined never to get in trouble with the law again. One month later, he accompanied a friend to a jewelry store.
“I want to pick out a ring for my girlfriend.”
Once inside the store, his friend pulled out a gun and yelled, “This is a holdup!”
In the ensuing excitement, a clerk was shot to death. Hal Baker was caught and arrested for armed robbery. His friend escaped.
While Baker was in prison, Helen Gowan, a social worker who had read about his case and felt sorry for him, went to visit him. It was love at first sight, and when Baker was released from prison, he and Helen were married. Over the next eight years, they had four lovely children.
Hal Baker adored his family. Because of his prison record, he had a difficult time finding jobs, and to support his family, he reluctantly went to work for his brother, carrying out various acts of arson, robbery, and assault. Unfortunately for Baker, he was caught flagrante delicto in the commission of a burglary. He was arrested, held in jail, and tried in Judge Tyler Stanford’s court.
It was time for sentencing. Baker was a second offender with a bad juvenile record, and it was such a clear-cut case that the assistant district attorneys were making bets on how many years Judge Stanford would give Baker. “He’ll throw the book at him!” one of them said. “I’ll bet he gives him twenty years. Stanford’s not called the Hanging Judge for nothing.”