Scott Turow - Presumed innocent

"You think I'd have been out of my mind to stay with her?"

"You askin my opinion?"

"I seem to be."

"You're better off without her. You're givin her way too much credit. You're believin in a whole lot of accidents."

"How's that?"

"The way you're lookin at this whole thing."

"For instance?"

"Your prints. They're on the glass, right?"

"Right."

"And only you would know? You can't make an I.D. yourself. Gotta get the lab to do it. That means somebody else comes up with your name."

"Yeah, but I'm a big dummy. I was supposed to recognize the glass-not ask for prints."

"In a major murder case you ain't gonna ask for prints?"

I take a moment. "Maybe she didn't know they could make a laser match. My prints are there just to keep me from dropping a dime on her."

"Sure," says Lip. "And in the meantime the lab is lookin at the gism, figurin things out. And they got your carpet fibers."

"Nobody ties those things to me."

"What about your phone records, if somebody should think to look? You said yourself she probably knew you'd been usin this phone to call Carolyn. Why's she dial from here, while you're around the house? Why take that chance instead of goin to a pay phone? You don't think that lady knows from MUDs? Or fibers? Or whose prints are on file? After twelve years of listenin to your stories?" Lip chucks down the rest of his whiskey. "Champ, you don't got this figured right."

"No? What do you figure?"

"I figure she wanted Carolyn dead and you in the slammer for doin it. I'd say the only thing that happened that she never counted on was that you beat it. Maybe two things."

Lipranzer grabs one of the kitchen chairs and sits down astride it. We are now face to face.

"I bet she was world-class pissed when you ended up with this case. She'd have never guessed that on the front end. You're the chief deputy. You don't horse around these days with homicides. You don't have the time. You got a frickin office to run while Horgan's tryin to save his butt. The only thing she'd know is Raymond would be tear ass-he'd want to keep this thing in-house, right under his thumb. Anybody'd know Raymond would make damn certain the police assignment was Special Command. I think she figured that some smart homicide dick was gonna nail you. Somebody who'd look at too many doors and windows open, who'd get a report about what was in the wad and see it was all a setup-somebody who'd go lookin for a real bright guy who'd know just how to do it. That's what she was countin on-somebody who knows you real good. Somebody who goes with you to the Red Cross drive and knows your blood type. Maybe even knows you well enough to think you were keepin company with a certain dead lady. Knows what color carpet you got at home." Lip suddenly, and inappropriately, yawns as he looks out to the living room. "Yeah," he says, "when I come for you with the cuffs, that'd put the knife in pretty deep. That's what I figure."

Lipranzer eyes me sagely. Then he nods, convincing himself.

"That's possible," I say, after a moment. "I've thought of that. But she said things didn't go the way she'd expected."

"Meanin what?" he asks. "They didn't fry your ass? I mean, what else you gonna hear but hearts, and flowers: Honey, I'da saved you if I had to. What would you do? Say, Go head and turn me in?"

"I don't know, Lip." I look at him, then I slug him softly in the shoulder.

"Fifteen minutes ago you thought I was the one who killed her."

In response he makes his sound.

"I don't know," I say again. "I believe two things. She did it. And she was sorry. I'll always believe she was sorry." I straighten up. "And anyway, it never would have done me any good to tell."

"Speakin of tellin, did you let your lawyers know, at least?"

"Nope. Neither one. Right at the end I had this idea Sandy might have figured it out. He talked to me one night about putting Barbara on the stand-and I got a clear feeling he didn't have the slightest interest in really doing it. And the kid, Kemp, had some notion, too. He knew something was out of whack with the phone records. But I'd never have put either one of them in that position, having to choose between my wife and me. I didn't want to be defended that way. Like I said, I couldn't see taking his mother from my son. And besides, it would never wash. If Barbara really figured all this out, Lip, then she knew that, too. Nico had a beautiful argument if I got up there and accused her. He would have said this was the perfect crime. An unhappy marriage. A prosecutor who knows the system inside out. A guy who's become a misogynist. He despises Carolyn. He hates his wife. But he loves the boy. If he and his wife split, he'll never get custody. He'd have said I planned it this way. Made it look like her set-up. Right down to gettin her fingerprint on the glass or injecting the spermicide. Maybe he'd say I was using Barbara as a fail-safe, the person I'd like to see nabbed in case the whole house of cards fell in on me. There are plenty of juries that might buy that."

"But it isn't true," says Lip.

I look at him. I can tell that I have left him out there again, floating uneasily in the nether regions of disbelief.

"No," I tell him, "that isn't true."

But there is that flicker there, the brief light of an idle doubt. What is harder? Knowing the truth or finding it, telling it or being believed?

When Raymond called, I told him the idea was absurd. "Instant rehabilitation, " he said.

"It is impossible, " I answered.

"Rusty," he said, "give a guilty conscience a chance." I was not sure if he was referring to himself or everyone in Kindle County. But he insisted it could happen, and at last I told him that if everything could be arranged I would think seriously about it.

In January, as a result of the petition drive the City Council authorized a recall election. Bolcarro could have prevented it, but he displayed a marked neutrality toward Della Guardia. Nico campaigned actively to retain his office and he nearly pulled it out. He fired Tommy Molto with about two weeks left, but various civic leaders, including Raymond, Larren, and Judge Mumphrey, came out against him, and Della Guardia was recalled with a margin of about 2,000 votes. He has not given up. He is going to run for City Council from the South End, and I expect him to win.

Bolcarro formed a citizens' commission to make recommendations on the new P.A. Raymond was a member that was what led him to call me. Rumor has it that Mac was the first choice, but she refused to leave the bench. Raymond promised me that the papers had been sounded and that I would receive universal support. I could not think of a good reason to say no. On March 28, four days short of the anniversary of Carolyn Polhemus's murder, I became the acting Kindle County prosecuting attorney.

I took the position with the understanding that I will not run for re-election. The mayor has told me a couple of times he thinks I'll make a fine judge, but he has not put that on paper. Right now I enjoy the job I have. The news stories refer to me as 'the caretaker P.A.' My relations with lots of people have all kinds of peculiar strains and edges, but it is no worse at work than when I walk down from my apartment to buy a dozen eggs. I accepted that this would be the case when I did not leave Kindle County. It is not that I am brave, or even stubborn. I just don't think the problems of a new life somewhere else would be any easier than dealing with what is here. I will always be a kind of museum piece. Rusty Sabich. The biggest bullshit thing you've ever seen. Set up, no question about it, and then Della Guardia covered Molto. Really pathetic, the whole business. The guy is not quite the same.

The murder of Carolyn Polhemus, of course, remains unsolved. No one talks about pursuing it, surely not with me, and it's a practical impossibility anyway to try two people for the same crime. A few months ago they had some Jailhouse crank who was trying to confess. I sent Lipranzer over to take his statement. Lip quickly reported to the department his judgment that it was a bunch of crap.