Джо Горес - Gone, No Forwarding

O’Bannon spoke regretfully, “Well, hell, Dan. I have that Crescent Motors flooring check to get out this afternoon. I’ve been carrying it around for two days...”

“I’ll get that billing file from your car.”

Neither man spoke again until they were outside and standing under the skyway where their voices were half-drowned in the thunder and growl of overhead traffic, just in case someone was getting really fancy and using a shotgun mike on them from some adjacent building. “Infinity transmitter in the phone, like I thought,” said Kearny.

Infinity transmitters, sometimes called butterfly mikes, are tiny senders which operate without wires or outside connections. They broadcast not only phone conversations but anything within thirty feet of the phone, once they have been activated by the phone being rung from outside and an electronic signal being sent to them. A voice-activated tape recorder takes down whatever is said.

“Somebody spent a lot of time and money on this one,” said O’B. “Think one of our people let them through the alarms?”

“More likely they got a wiring diagram from the alarm company and cut our electricity from outside long enough to go in and plant the thing. Two, three minutes inside is all they would need. I’ll be going back to the hearing in a bit, I can alert Giselle, but would you find a pay phone and call Sacramento? Tell them to radio Ballard on the CB and find out where he’s staying and tell him not to phone in. No explanations. I don’t want our office up there knowing what’s going on.”

“Will do.”

Kearny returned to his office and lit a cigarette and stared at the bugged telephone. Who? Some agency of the State? He rejected that out of hand, as he did anyone from the city cops. So it was the organized crime people who ran Padilla Drayage as one of their quasi-legal fronts. The bug had served them well, alerting them to Benny Nicoletti’s secret witness; but that wasn’t why it had been placed — that had just been a bonus. What was there in the DKA license squabble with the State that was worth all that time, effort and expense?

There was only one answer: to find out how close Bart Heslip was getting to Verna Rounds, so they could get to her first. But why? What could she possibly know that would be of use to them?

Maybe he’d know more after he talked with Benny Nicoletti tonight. In person. Find out when Benny’s witness was discovered, when he’d cracked, when Benny had talked with Pivarski at Hawkley’s office — things like that. Meanwhile, he had time to catch the end of Hec’s attack on Jeffrey Simson.

“Complainant’s objection is overruled,” said the Hearing Officer. “The document will be received in evidence as Respondent’s Exhibit A.”

“I believe that is all of this witness,” said Tranquillini.

“Any redirect?”

Delaney picked up his copy of Simson’s affidavit. “Did you prepare this document, Mr. Simson?” He looked over at the court reporter. “I am referring to Respondent Exhibit A.”

“I wrote what is there, yes, sir.”

“Mr. Dan Kearny asked you to prepare this document, did he not, on October twenty-second of this year?”

“I believe that was the date.”

“Are the words in this document your own words, Mr. Simson?”

“Well, sir, it’s... hard to answer that just yes or no. Mr. Kearny and Mr. O’Bannon came to my apartment in Los Angeles and they... were present at the time I wrote it. As... each sentence was written, Mr. Kearny was looking... at the wording of my sentences...”

You are goofing it, Johnny-me-bhoy, thought Tranquillini as he mentally rehearsed his objection. This line of questioning makes it impossible for you to claim that Simson altered circumstances in his affidavit to help out his old friend Dan Kearny.

“Did he make any comments to you as to what actually must have happened?” asked Delaney.

“Yes, sir,” said Simson eagerly, “he made comments and...”

“And suggestions as to what should go into the affidavit?”

“Need I remind the witness that he is under oath?” asked Tranquillini off-handedly, “and that the witnesses to this conversation are still alive and able to testify?”

Simson cleared his throat. “Mr. Kearny... um... made no suggestions per se, no, sir.”

“Mr. Hearing Officer, I have a great deal of difficulty in examining the witness on this document because I don’t understand in what way it impeaches his sworn testimony.” Delaney’s voice was angry and baffled, as if he were just realizing the mistake he had made in emphasizing the prior antagonist relationship between Kearny and Simson due to Simson’s dismissal from DKA in February.

Tranquillini was on his feet. “I believe I can explain to counsel how this document impeaches his witness if I could have permission, from time to time, to go slightly beyond the docu—”

“Objection,” said Delaney.

“I haven’t said anything yet.”

The Hearing Officer said, “I will rule on the admissibility of counsel’s statements as they occur.”

“Thank you, Your Honor. After the witness stated that he tried to call my office and got no answer on November fifth, I had my answering service’s records searched. No call, none at all, was logged in during the hour and date in question.”

“I would point out,” said Delaney hurriedly, “that answering service records are not kept according to the rules of evidence.”

“Noted. Please proceed, Mr. Tranquillini.”

“In his affidavit the witness stated that only he and Miss Onoda were in the office that evening, with Ms. Rose Kelly on the front office switchboard. We now have located Ms. Kelly, who is willing to testify that she was not on the switchboard that day and hour in question.”

Delaney had started to rise to object, but he hesitated, then sank back down while staring thoughtfully at Simson on the stand.

“Faulty recollection on the witness’s part?” asked Tranquillini. “Perhaps. His memory seems very convenient. But his affidavit also states that the Pivarski transaction was ‘just a normal collection’ — his own words.”

He raked Simson with scorn-filled eyes. “Four days ago, when he wrote this statement, that was all he could remember, Your Honor. Yet now he remembers, under oath, the letter Pivarski is supposed to have gotten Kathy Onoda’s signature on. This, even though the State cannot produce this signed letter. He remembers a call to me of which there is no record. He remembers Miss Onoda fraudulently writing and destroying a normal DKA receipt for the Pivarski payment. Yet he cannot remember the address where he lived six months ago. Only with difficulty can he remember the address where he lived for two years. He cannot remember the name of one other of the two thousand accounts he serviced as a DKA collector...”

Tranquillini waved a hand as if too disgusted to continue. “Your Honor, I have no desire to go any further at this time. The document speaks for itself. The Hearing Officer will review this witness’s testimony in relation to the document, to determine if it does impeach.” He turned cold eyes on Simson. “You are excused.”

Delaney began, “Mr. Hearing Officer—”

The Hearing Officer cut him off curtly. “At the end of yesterday’s hearing, I directed Complainant to present Mr. Pivarski to this hearing. We are now ready to have Mr. Pivarski sworn in.”

“I... cannot produce him at this time, Your Honor,” said Delaney in an uncomfortable voice. “I have been assured by his attorneys that we can have him here Monday morning, but...”

After a long pause the Hearing Officer looked over at Tranquillini. “Counselor?”