The Client (40 page)

“She live alone?”

“I think so.”

“She’d be easy, wouldn’t she? Break in, take her out, steal a few things. Just another house burglary gone sour. What do you think?”

Gronke shook his head and studied a young blonde at the bar.

“What do you think?” Barry repeated.

“Yeah, it’d be easy.”

“Then let’s do it. Are you listening to me, Paul?”

Paul was listening, but avoiding the evil eyes. “I’m
not in the mood to kill anyone,” he said, still staring at the blonde.

“That’s fine. I’ll get Pirini to do it.”

SEVERAL YEARS EARLIER, A DETAINEE, AS THEY’RE CALLED IN the Juvenile Detention Center, a twelve-year-old, died in the room next to Mark’s from an epileptic seizure. A ton of bad press and a nasty lawsuit followed, and though Doreen had not been on duty when it happened, she had nonetheless been shaken by it. An investigation followed. Two people were terminated. And a new set of regulations came down.

Doreen’s shift ended at five, and the last thing she did was check on Mark. She’d stopped by on the hour throughout the afternoon, and watched with growing concern as his condition worsened. He was withdrawing before her very eyes, saying less with each visit, just lying there in bed staring at the ceiling. At five, she brought a county paramedic with her. Mark was given a quick physical, and pronounced alive and well. Vital signs were strong. When she left, she rubbed his temples like a sweet little grandmother and promised to return bright and early tomorrow, Friday. And she sent more pizza.

Mark told her he thought he could make it until then. He’d try to survive the night. Evidently she left instructions, because the next floor supervisor, a short, plump little woman named Telda, immediately knocked on his door and introduced herself. For the next four hours, Telda knocked repeatedly and entered the room, staring wildly at his eyes as if he were crazy and something was about to snap.

Mark watched television, no cable, until the news
started at ten, then brushed his teeth and turned off the lights. The bed was quite comfortable, and he thought of his mother trying to sleep on that rickety cot the nurses had rolled into Ricky’s room.

The pizza was from Domino’s, not some leathery slab of cheese someone threw in a microwave, but a real pizza Doreen had probably paid for. The bed was warm, the pizza was real, and the door was locked. He felt safe, not only from the other inmates and the gangs and violence certain to be close by, but especially from the man with the switchblade who knew his name and had the picture. The man who’d burned the trailer. He’d thought about this guy every moment of every hour since he dashed from the elevator early yesterday morning. He’d thought about him on Momma Love’s porch last night, and sitting in the courtroom that afternoon listening to Hardy and McThune. He’d worried about him hanging around the hospital where Dianne was unaware.

SITTING IN A PARKED CAR ON THIRD STREET IN DOWNTOWN Memphis at midnight was not Cal Sisson’s idea of safe fun, but the doors were locked and there was a gun under the seat. His felony convictions forbade him from owning or possessing a firearm, but this was Jack Nance’s car. It was parked behind a delivery van near Madison, a couple of blocks from the Sterick Building. There was nothing suspicious about the car. Traffic was light.

Two uniformed cops on foot strolled along the sidewalk and stopped fewer than five feet from Cal. They stared at him. He glanced in the mirror, and saw another pair. Four cops! One of them sat on the trunk,
and the car shook. Had the parking meter run out on him? No, he’d paid for an hour and been here less than ten minutes. Nance said it was a thirty-minute job.

Two more cops joined the two on the sidewalk, and Cal started sweating. The gun worried him, but a good lawyer could convince his probation officer that the gun was not his. He was merely driving for Nance.

An unmarked police car parked behind him, and two cops in plain clothes joined the others. Eight cops!

One in jeans and a sweatshirt bent at the waist and stuck his badge to Cal’s window. There was a radio on the seat next to his leg, and thirty seconds ago he should have punched the blue button and warned Nance. But now it was too late. The cops had materialized from nowhere.

He slowly rolled down his window. The cop leaned forward and their faces were inches apart. “Evening, Cal. I’m Lieutenant Byrd, Memphis PD.”

The fact that he called him Cal made him shudder. He tried to remain calm. “What can I do for you, Officer?”

“Where’s Jack?”

Cal’s heart stopped and sweat popped through his skin. “Jack who?”

Jack who. Byrd glanced over his shoulder and smiled at his partner. The uniformed cops had surrounded the car. “Jack Nance. Your good friend. Where is he?”

“I haven’t seen him.”

“Well, what a coincidence. I haven’t seen him either. At least not for the past fifteen minutes. In fact, the last time I saw Jack was at the corner of Union and Second, less than a half an hour ago, and he was getting
out of this car here. And you drove away, and, surprise, here you are.”

Cal was breathing, but it was difficult. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Byrd unlocked the door and opened it. “Get out, Cal,” he demanded, and Cal complied. Byrd slammed the door and shoved him against it. Four of the cops surrounded him. The other three were looking in the direction of the Sterick Building. Byrd was in his face.

“Listen to me, Cal. Accomplice to breaking and entering carries seven years. You have three prior convictions, so you’ll be charged as a habitual offender, and guess how much time you’re looking at.”

His teeth were chattering and his body was shaking. He shook his head no, as if he didn’t understand and wanted Byrd to tell him.

“Thirty years, no parole.”

He closed his eyes and slumped. His breathing was heavy.

“Now,” Byrd continued, very cool, very cruel. “We’re not worried about Jack Nance. When he finishes with Ms. Love’s phones, we’ve got some boys waiting for him outside the building. He’ll be arrested, booked, and in due course sent away. But we don’t figure he’ll talk much. You follow?”

Cal nodded quickly.

“But, Cal, we figure you might want to cut a deal. Help us a little, know what I mean?”

He was still nodding, only faster.

“We figure you’ll tell us what we need to know, and in return, we’ll let you walk.”

Cal stared at him desperately. His mouth was open, his chest pounding away.

Byrd pointed to the sidewalk on the other side of Madison. “You see that sidewalk, Cal?”

Cal took a long, hopeful look at the empty sidewalk. “Yeah,” he said eagerly.

“Well, it’s all yours. Tell me what I want to hear, and you walk. Okay? I’m offering you thirty years of freedom, Cal. Don’t be stupid.”

“Okay.”

“When does Gronke return from New Orleans?”

“In the morning, around ten.”

“Where’s he staying?”

“Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza.”

“Room number?”

“It’s 782.”

“Where are Bono and Pirini?”

“I don’t know.”

“Please, Cal, we’re not idiots. Where are they?”

“They’re in 783 and 784.”

“Who else from New Orleans is here?”

“That’s it. That’s all I know.”

“Can we expect more people from New Orleans?”

“I swear I don’t know.”

“Do they have any plans to hit the boy, his family, or his lawyer?”

“It’s been discussed, but no definite plans. I wouldn’t be a part of it, you know.”

“I know, Cal. Any plans to bug more phones?”

“No. I don’t think so. Just the lawyer.”

“What about the lawyer’s house?”

“No, not to my knowledge.”

“No other bugs or wires or phone taps?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“No plans to kill anybody?”

“No.”

“If you’re lying, I’ll come get you, Cal, and it’s thirty years.”

“I swear it.”

Suddenly, Byrd slapped him on the left side of his face, then grabbed his collar and squeezed it together. Cal’s mouth was open and his eyes showed absolute terror. “Who burned the trailer?” Byrd snarled at him as he pushed him harder against the car.

“Bono and Pirini,” he said without the slightest hesitation.

“Were you in on it, Cal?”

“No. I swear.”

“Any more fires planned?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“Then what the hell are they doing here, Cal?”

“They’re just waiting, listening, you know, just in case they’re needed for something else. Depends on what the kid does.”

Byrd squeezed tighter. He showed him his teeth and twisted the collar. “One lie, Cal, and I’m all over your ass, okay?”

“I’m not lying, I swear,” Cal said in a shrill voice.

Byrd turned him loose and nodded at the sidewalk. “Go, and sin no more.” The wall of cops opened, and Cal walked through them and into the street. He hit the sidewalk at full stride, and was last seen jogging into the darkness.

     28     

FRIDAY MORNING. REGGIE SIPPED STRONG, BLACK COFFEE in the darkness of predawn, and waited for another unpredictable day as counsel for Mark Sway. It was a cool, clear morning, the first of many in September, and the first hint that the hot, sticky days of the Memphis summer were coming to an end. She sat in a wicker rocker on the small balcony stuck to the rear of her apartment, and tried to unscramble the past five hours of her life.

The cops had called her at one-thirty, said there was an emergency at her office, and asked her to come down. She’d called Clint, and together they had gone to her office, where a half dozen cops were waiting. They had allowed Jack Nance to finish his dirty work and leave the building before they nailed him. They showed Reggie and Clint the three phones and the tiny transmitters glued into the receivers, and they said Nance did pretty good work.

As she watched, they carefully removed the transmitters and kept them for evidence. They explained how Nance entered, and more than once they commented
on her lack of security. She said she wasn’t that concerned about security. There were no real assets in the office.

She’d checked her files, and everything appeared to be in order. The Mark Sway file was in her briefcase at home, and she kept it there when she slept. Clint examined his desk and said there was a chance Nance went through his files. But Clint’s desk was not well organized to begin with, so he couldn’t be certain.

The police had known Nance was coming, they had explained, but they wouldn’t say how they knew. He was allowed easy access into the building—unlocked doors, absent security guards, etc.—and they had a dozen men watching him. He was in custody now, and so far had said nothing. One cop had taken her aside, and in hushed confidence explained about Nance’s connection to Gronke, and to Bono and Pirini. They had been unable to find the latter two; their hotel rooms had been abandoned. Gronke was in New Orleans, and they had him under surveillance.

Nance would serve a couple of years, maybe more. For an instant, she’d wanted the death penalty.

The cops had gradually left. Around three, she and Clint were left alone with the empty offices and the startling knowledge that a professional had entered and laid his traps. A man hired by killers had been there, gathering information so there could be more killings if necessary. The place made her nervous, and she and Clint had left shortly after the cops and found a coffee shop in midtown.

And so with three hours’ sleep and a nerve-racking day about to begin, she sipped her coffee and watched the eastern sky turn orange. She thought about Mark, and how he’d arrived in her office on
Wednesday, barely two days ago, wet from the rain and scared to death, and told her about being threatened by a man with a switchblade. This man was big and ugly, and waved the knife and produced a photo of the Sway family. She had listened with horror as this small, shivering child described the switchblade. It was a frightening event to hear about, but it had happened to someone else. She was not directly involved. The knife was not pointed at her.

But that was Wednesday, and this was Friday, and the same bunch of thugs had now violated her, and things were a helluva lot more dangerous. Her little client was safely tucked away in a nice jail with security guards at his beck and call, and here she was sitting alone in the darkness thinking about Bono and Pirini and who knew who else might be out there.

Though it couldn’t be seen from Momma Love’s house, an unmarked car was parked in the street not far away. Two FBI agents were on guard, just in case. Reggie had agreed to this.

She pictured a hotel room, clouds of cigarette smoke hanging along the ceiling, empty beer bottles littering the floor, curtains drawn, and a small group of badly dressed hoodlums hovering over a small table listening to a tape recorder. She was on the tape recorder, talking to clients, to Dr. Levin, to Momma Love, just chatting away as if everything were private. The hoods were bored for the most part, but occasionally one would chuckle and grunt.

Mark didn’t use her office phones, and the strategy of bugging them was ridiculous. These people obviously believed Mark knew about Boyette, and that he and his lawyer were stupid enough to discuss this knowledge over the phone.

The phone in the kitchen rang, and Reggie jumped. She checked her watch—six-twenty. It had to be more trouble, because no one called at this hour. She walked inside and caught it after the fourth ring. “Hello.”

It was Harry Roosevelt. “Good morning, Reggie. Sorry to wake you.”

“I was awake.”

“Have you seen the paper?”

She swallowed hard. “No. What is it?”

“It’s a front-page spread with two big pictures of Mark, one as he’s leaving the hospital, under arrest as it says, and the other as he’s leaving court yesterday, cops on both sides. Slick Moeller wrote it, and he knows all about the hearing. He’s got his facts straight, for a change. He says Mark refused to answer my questions about his knowledge of Boyette and such, and that I found him in contempt and sent him to jail. Makes me sound like Hitler.”

“But how does he know this?”

“Cites unnamed sources.”