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as a phone conversationalist. When on he would speak his message, then wait,
first nervously, then impatiently, for the other party to end it. He was
completely aware of what he was doing even while doing it, yet could never
smooth over with small talk. Even with a wife of half a lifetime.
"Anything else?" he asked, knowing she would resent it, yet totally unable to
think of any better course.
"No. Bye then." Her tone was disappointed. It always was. Damned, but he
wished he knew how to give her more of whatever it was she wanted. Or that she
could understand him a little better.
"Bye." He hung up with the inevitable feeling of relief.
Beth still watched with those big brown eyes. They seemed to stare right down
inside to those shadowed parts of his soul that were alien even to him. His
own gaze slid away.
Another bad habit. How come he had so much trouble meeting a woman's eyes?
Maybe he was the one who should make an appointment with the departmental
shrink.
"Uh ... I'm going out. To see O'Brien's sister."
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Beth merely nodded. Then, as he was moving out the door,
"Norm, I've got to have your LEA paperwork today."
"Aw, shit. Okay. I'll get it when I get back. Oh. Do me another favor. See if
you can track down Tommy O'Lochlain. So I can give him a call."
Beth sighed again. Cash went out thinking he should do something special for
her. He had been dumping on her a lot this morning.
Sister Mary Joseph was openly hostile this time around. Cash pretended not to
notice. Maybe he should do something for her, too.
"Just a couple questions this time," he said. The answers should have been in
the Carstairs file. The lieutenant must have carried on a remarkably narrow or
uninformed investiga-tion.
"The day your brother vanished he stole twenty thousand dollars from the
people he worked for."
He really needed go no further. Her surprise answered his question before he
put it into words.
"I wondered if he'd been home that day? If he had a package or briefcase or
anything?"
"Yes. He was there. For half an hour. To change and eat. He'd been away for
three or four days. I told you that before. But he didn't bring anything home.
I don't think. But I remember he was real happy. Excited."
"Tch. Yeah. Pretty much what I expected." He took a deep breath, plunged. "I'm
really sorry about all the trouble I've been. Can I do something, a gesture,
you know, to make it up? Maybe have you to dinner some night?"
Damn, it was hard making the feelings translate.
She was surprised. Then a ghost of a smile flickered across her lips. "Thank
you. I might take you up on that. Just to get even."
"Well, you're welcome. Annie would love having you. Just give me a call at the
station when you make up your mind."
"I will." She reached out and touched the back of his hand. He returned to the
station feeling good.
"Mr. O'Lochlain is waiting for you to call him at home," Beth told him,
handing him a note. "Your friend from New York called back. He's set it up
with the state police, and he'll get back to you in a couple days." She handed
him a second note. "I told him to ask them to check back a ways, that we have
at least one other crime involving our Groloch here."
"Good thinking. Thanks."
"John called too. He says he'll be getting the texts of those classifieds come
lunch, and he picked up the historical re-search from Mrs. Caldwell." She
passed him another note, then a fourth. "Judge Gardner will see you in his
chambers. Eleven-thirty."
"Ha! It's moving. Beth, we're closing in. I can feel it."
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"Crap, Norm. Bet you dinner you pick the place if you win that none of this
gets you an inch closer."
"You're on," he replied without thinking,, turning toward his office.
"And get on that LEA stuff. You've only got an hour."
"All right. All right. Why don't they hire somebody to take care of that
crap?" Then he muttered, "Christ. Starting to think like a bureaucrat." Paying
someone to handle LEA paperwork would absorb half the district's grant, making
the whole thing just another exercise in governmental futility.
He whipped through in time by faking half his data. Lieu-tenant Railsback was
supposed to double-check and counter-sign before sending the stuff on for the
captain's signature, but Cash knew Hank would never see it. Beth would forge
his John Hancock for him, with his blessing.
Someday they were all going to get their tits caught in the wringer.
"On my way out, Beth." He tossed her the papers. "Don't check them too close."
"Who gives a damn, Norm? They just file them. Remember that bet. I mean to
collect."
Railsback shoved in the door. "Oh. Sorry, Norm. Well, I got what you wanted.
Captain says we can polygraph every-body who had anything to do with the
stiff, long as they're willing. Only, you ain't going to like the
arrangements. Says we've got to do it on their time, meaning second shift,
which is where most of them still are."
"Gah. Annie's going to love that. When can I start?"
"How about tonight? I want this done with. Oh, one other thing. If you start
this, the captain says you have to go with it all the way. Meaning you, the
kid, Smith, and Tucholski got to take the test too."
"O joy, O joy. All right. I'll show the troops how. Be the first victim.
Beth..."
With one of her long-suffering sighs, she replied, "I'll find the people and
set it up, Norm. You want me to call your wife?"
"No. I'll handle that. No point you taking the shit for me. Look, Hank, I got
to meet Judge Gardner at eleven-thirty."
"Okay. So go."
"Norm," said Beth, "did you call Mr. O'Lochlain yet?"
"What're you doing messing around with that hood again?"
"Damn. I clean forgot. I'll do it from downtown." Cash patted his pockets to
make sure he had his keys and Beth's notes.
"I get tired of explaining about O'Lochlain," Railsback grumbled.
"He said he'd only be there till one."
"Okay. Okay. Bye, all." He sailed down the hall with Hank glaring after him.
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He had trouble finding a parking place, so was five minutes late. The judge
didn't mind. "They've turned half of down-town into a parking lot the last ten
years," the man observed, "and still there's no place to park. I have a theory
that says building a parking space spontaneously generates two cars to compete
for it. Sit down. Tell me about your case. The girl who called was pretty
vague."
Good girl, Cash thought. "Probably nerves. She's shy." He began a quick
outline while studying Gardner, whom he hadn't seen for ten years.
The man had aged well. He looked and sounded like a fiftyish Everett Dirksen.
The most amazing thing about him, in Cash's opinion, was that he refused to
use his bench as a springboard to political office.
Only the unicorn is more rare than the lawyer without po-litical aspiration.
Perhaps it was because he was so controversial. He had as many liberal enemies
as he had conservative cheerleaders. And there was some sort of fiscal foul-up
in his court which, while due only to clumsy administration, didn't look good
in the papers.
"Hold it, Sergeant. Seems to me there was another officer here with the same
story a while back."
"My partner. And you turned him down. But there's been a new development." He
explained about the counterfeit money and outlined his other plans.
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