Steve Martini - The Judge

“Why would she confide some dark secret in me?”

I give her an expression that is a question mark. “Maybe he figures two women talking. . She might have more confidence in you.”

“If she did, it had nothing to do with gender,” she tells me.

“Still he’s preoccupied with the thought,” I say.

“I’m sure you could fill a casebook with his obsessions,” she says. “What’s the other?” she asks.

“Hmm?”

“You said there were two possibilities?”

“Oh that. Just a guess,” I tell her.

“What is it?”

“The fact that they found your print on Hall’s front door. It’s possible that he thinks if you went inside. .”

I leave the thought to linger.

“He thinks I found something?”

“A possibility.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.”

This sets her mind to churning. “You didn’t tell him about the Post-it with Tony’s name?” she says.

“Do I look like a fool?” I ask.

“You think he knows something about it?”

“Not unless you told him,” I say. “There are only five people who know about that note. One of them is dead, there’s Tony and Acosta, and the other two are sitting here in this room.” I am too defensive by half, and it provokes her curiosity.

“What are you going to do about the note? You haven’t told me,” she says.

“For good reason,” I tell her. “Suffice it to say, you will not be called to testify.”

“Then you’re dropping it?” she says. Lenore has another agenda. Tony. Blood is thicker than water.

“It’s not something we should talk about,” I tell her.

“But you’re not going to put me on the stand and ask about the note on the calendar?”

“No.”

There’s a palpable sigh at this point. “I’ll tell you,” she says, “I’ve had a few sleepless nights.” There is some tenderness in this as she talks.

Lenore’s loyalties with Arguillo are deep-seated, more than mere kinship. It is the kind of hook that is set in childhood, growing up on the mean streets. In an intimate moment a few months ago, her guard down, she put this in perspective. She told me of an incident when she was twelve, a group of kids, some of them older, three of them nearly adults, had wanted to get physical in ways that she did not. What evolved is that Tony and a buddy saved her from a gang rape, and took a beating for their troubles. She has never forgotten it.

“I know you have a duty,” she says. “But the note was a dead end, a meaningless scrap of paper.” There is obvious relief that I am not going to use this.

She smiles, then says, “Can I tell Tony?”

“Tell him what?”

“That he’s off the hook.”

Lenore has taken my assurances a step too far.

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you said you’re not going to call me.”

“True. I am not.”

She gives me a mystified look, and then it settles on her. “You’re not going to call Tony?”

“I can’t say anything more.”

There are elements of the case, now that she is out, that I cannot share.

“You’re making a mistake,” she says. “You won’t get a thing out of him.”

“Why? Because he won’t tell me?”

“Because there’s nothing to tell,” she says. “They had a date, and it was canceled. The only reason he had me remove the note was because of. .”

“I know. Embarrassment,” I finish before her.

“Exactly,” she says. “If you put him on the stand he’ll have no choice but to deny everything.”

I give her arched eyebrows. “Even the fact that they’d set a date, he and Hall for that evening?”

Her expression confirms that Tony would lie, even about this.

“Then he’d be committing perjury.”

“It’s irrelevant,” she says. “The date was canceled.”

“Only if the jury believes him.”

Clearly Lenore does. “But you have no evidence,” she says. “Without my testimony you can’t confirm that the note existed. Even if I testified, if I were able to produce the note, it would be hearsay.”

“It’s a possibility,” I tell her. “Let’s just say that I have a different scenario. Something I can’t discuss.” I don’t want to get into this.

“You know something else?” she says. This seems to take her back several steps. “What is it?”

I can hear Harry’s voice in the outer office. You can usually hear Harry without a phone, though at the moment he is shouting.

“What the hell’s going on out there?” I say.

She’s closer to the door than I am but ignores me.

“Are you going to tell me or not?” she says.

“I can’t.”

“So that’s the way it is?” she says. She’s picking up her papers, her briefcase, and purse.

“I wish I could,” I tell her, “but I can’t.”

At this moment I am staring into Lenore’s dark, resolute eyes, the revelation that the first person she will be talking to when she leaves my office is Tony. I have driven her there by my silence.

More shouting in the outer office. Then I realize that Harry is not on the phone. There are two voices; a second person is with him.

I get up from the desk and make my way to the door. When I open it, I’m staring into the hot, malevolent eyes of Gus Lano.

“Just the person I wanted to see,” he says. “What the fuck is this?”

He’s holding a crumpled piece of paper in one hand.

“His subpoena,” says Harry. “Seems he’s a little pissed off.”

“Wrong,” says Lano, “I’m a lot pissed off.”

It was among the last set of subpoenas that Harry sent out, to Lano and a hundred others, in the event that our evidence develops like an octopus, with tentacles in every direction.

“Fine,” he says. “You got a dog-and-pony show going on downtown. That’s your business,” he says. “But don’t try and draw me into it. Or the association,” he says. “We’ll kick your ass.”

“Seems we already did that number,” I tell him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A face that belies it.

“The quest for drugs,” I say.

“Oh, that,” he says. What passes for a smile. “Read about it in the paper. Some people think you got away with it.”

“Some people would know,” I tell him.

“In the future they’ll have to be a little faster,” he says.

“Yeah, and a lot quieter,” I tell him.

He looks at me, a question mark.

“The clink of the toilet tank,” I tell him. I can tell this fills in a blank for him-how I discovered the stuff so quickly.

He makes a mental note. Cable man is going to hear about this.

“Next time your friends go swimming in my toilet, do me a favor.”

He’s not going to ask, but he looks at me as if to say, “What’s that?”

“Tell ’em to bathe first, so they don’t leave a ring around the bowl.”

He gives me a wicked look and a cavalier denial. “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says.

“Think about it. I’m sure it’ll come to you.” I start to close the door.

“What about this?” He holds up the subpoena as if I’m actually going to withdraw it. “I’m out of the country in five days,” he says. “Vacation in Bali.”

Harry, a pencil in hand, asks him for the date of departure and Lano, without thinking, gives it.

“I wouldn’t pack the suntan lotion just yet,” says Harry.

Lano gives him a dismissive look.

“What about it?” He appeals to a higher court.

“I hope it works out,” I tell him. I start to close the door again.

“Eight thousand dollars’ worth of tickets,” he says. “Nonrefundable. It better work out.”

“You have a problem, talk to your travel agent,” I tell him. The problem here is that at least tacitly Lano is a peace officer. Once under subpoena, he cannot absent himself from the trial without accounting to the court later. There could be severe repercussions.