Paul Robertson - According to Their Deeds

“Congresswoman…?” Mr. Conway said.

“Every bit,” Charles said.

“Good morning,” Karen Liu said. “I am very pleased to meet you, Mr. Conway, and please excuse my interruption. I am here on behalf of Mr. Acevedo.”

“I’m honored, ma’am,” Mr. Conway said, very calmly. “What can I do for you?”

“I have taken an interest in this case,” she said. “Please let me make it perfectly clear that I am not using my position in the Congress of the United States, and as the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Judicial Policy, to influence the due procedures of your office. I am here only as an advocate for Mr. Acevedo, to be sure that he is being treated fairly and according to the law.”

“I can assure you he is,” Charles said. “Mr. Conway has been extremely helpful and supportive.”

“Ms. Liu,” Mr. Conway said, “are you here as a character witness for Angelo?”

“I am here as a witness for Mr. Acevedo.” The intensity of her stare had reached searchlight proportions. “I am also here as witness of the system. I am here on behalf of every person in this country who is struggling with a judicial system and an economic system that is too often set against them. Mr. Conway, I had my office review the public records of this case. I have interviewed Mr. Beale.”

The spotlight beam dimmed dramatically to a quiet glow.

“I believe,” she said, passionately, pleadingly, patiently, “that the terms of this probation should be reviewed immediately. There has been no violation of any of his probationary conditions. Mr. Acevedo has been a model employee and citizen, and I believe that an additional two years of probation is unnecessary.” With a hint more firmness she added, “And excessive.”

“The judge set the terms,” Mr. Conway said, still very calm. “He would have to make any decision to change them. I only administer the court’s orders.”

“I am quite familiar with judicial procedures,” she said. “So I would like your office to request an immediate hearing to reconsider whether the original terms are still in the best interest of Mr. Acevedo and of this state.”

“Actually, Virginia is a Commonwealth,” Mr. Conway said.

She rewarded his comment with a tight smile. “And I will be taking a personal interest in this case.”

“I’ll have my secretary call the clerk of the court right away. Judge Woody usually has a few open spots in his schedule.”

“Thank you, and please inform my office of the time. It has been a sincere pleasure meeting you, Mr. Conway.”

The door closed and the room shrank back to its normal size.

Charles jumped to his feet. “Mr. Conway-I am so sorry-I had no idea she would do such a thing.”

“It’s fine.” Mr. Conway shrugged, still staring thoughtfully at the door.

“I’ll talk to her.” He had the door open again.

“I’m just going to toss this whole thing to the judge. I’m not going to tangle with someone like that.”

“I’ll be right back, Angelo,” Charles said, and hurried out after Karen Liu.

“Congresswoman!”

In the front lobby, he caught her.

“Mr. Beale? Yes?”

“Just a moment. I’m sorry,” he said, “I have to catch my breath.”

He caught it.

“I needed to say,” he said with his breath, “we’re doing fine with Angelo. You really don’t need to trouble yourself.”

“It isn’t any trouble.”

“Then I’ll be a little more direct. I think it’s best for him to keep things the way they are.”

“I understand. I’ll be very direct.” Her eyes, as always, were. “It might be best, or it might not.” Her tone was friendlier than her words, somewhat. “But I have reasons of my own to take the trouble.”

“Could you tell me what they are?”

“Not at this time, Mr. Beale. I have an important meeting I’m already late for. I’ll repeat, though, that I have a very good reason for doing this. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

Charles watched her push through the door and jump into a waiting car.

“I’d like to know the reason,” he said.

“ ‘I am not using my position in the Congress of the United States and as the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Judicial Policy to influence you.’ ” Charles shook his head wearily.

“Was she overbearing?” Dorothy asked.

“Only in the friendliest and most cooperative way.”

“What will the judge do?”

“We will have our hearing Wednesday morning.”

“So soon?”

“So soon. People don’t like to keep a congressperson waiting. Eight o’clock sharp.”

“Will Judge Woody be offended by Karen Liu trying to browbeat him?”

“I hope not. Or I hope he is, and tells her to mind her own business.”

“I hope he doesn’t throw Angelo into prison just to show that he’s not intimidated,” Dorothy said.

“I don’t know what he’ll do. He might just do what she wants and let Angelo off completely.”

“Charles, he wouldn’t! What would happen to Angelo?”

“He’d be free. We don’t want him to be our prisoner forever, do we?”

“He’s not our prisoner,” Dorothy said.

“You should be thinking about what we do want. The judge would like a written statement from us by tomorrow morning.”

“What are we supposed to say?”

“Whatever we want.”

Dorothy sounded plenty weary herself. “Why did Karen Liu do this?”

“She has a reason. She didn’t have time to discuss it with me.”

“I thought I liked her!”

Charles was very weary. “Then let’s pull that copy of her checks out of the basement and send them to the Washington Post. That will stop her.”

“That’s not very funny, dear.”

“Today I’m doing irony.”

“Did Angelo say anything?”

“No, he’s doing granite. Why would Karen Liu take such an interest in Angelo?”

“Mr. Beale?” Alice was never weary. “There’s someone downstairs to see you. Mr. Frank Kelly.”

“Mr. Kelly. Good morning.”

“And you, too. Just stopping in. I was down in Mount Vernon.”

“You’re welcome anytime.”

“Thanks.” He lowered his voice. “And I’ve got a question.”

Charles edged closer. “Go ahead.”

“Your man, Angelo Acevedo. You said he was in the Bastien house?”

“Once, last fall. It was the first delivery I took him on.”

“Okay. Look, um…” Mr. Kelly paused. “We got a couple of the stolen pieces back.”

“Oh my! You did? How?”

“I won’t say, for now. But yeah, it was that ivory dolphin and a couple other things.”

“That’s excellent, Mr. Kelly. Can that lead you to the burglar?”

“Maybe. It wasn’t on eBay, it was somewhere else. So anyway, I need to ask you something. Your man, Acevedo. You think maybe he touched anything when he was in the house?”

“Touched anything?”

Mr. Kelly was speaking very quietly. “We’ve got some DNA off the ivory and his name came up on the computer.”

“Angelo!”

“Right. I was just looking through the list of all the matches. Most of them were no match, and there was a match with Highberg.”

“Norman? Did he sell that to Derek?”

“He did. And then one good match of your night guard.”

“That would have been six months ago!”

“Right, but Highberg’s would be that far back, too. Usually that’s way out of range, so either it got touched recently or somehow it lasted longer than usual.”

“How does DNA work?” Charles asked.

“It’s great. The new equipment we’ve got, all you have to do is touch something and you leave behind enough trace cells that we can match you. We did it with Acevedo.”

“He must have picked it up when we were there,” Charles said. “Do you want to talk to him?”