John Lescroart - Nothing But The Truth

‘What do you mean?’ But that effort at deflection went about as far as Hardy had imagined it would – nowhere.

Glitsky was propped on the corner of his own desk, hovering a foot or two over where Hardy sat in his hard chair, pressed back against the office wall. As Glitsky intended, this posture made Hardy uncomfortable. ‘What do I mean?’ he repeated with an edge. ‘Let’s see if I can explain it. You know the whereabouts and most of the life history of everybody who’s even remotely involved in the death of Bree Beaumont. You discover that Carl Griffin’s death is probably connected, too. And today Canetta makes that pretty much a certainty. We’ve got four or five suspects and no righteous alibis for any of them, but you don’t appear to have any suspicion at all about the one I feel the best about. If you’re keeping score here, that would be Ron.’ Glitsky had his arms folded, his game face on, and it wasn’t any kind of an act. The eyes were unyielding. He wasn’t going to be breaking out the peanuts in his desk drawer for a little philosophical chat.

Hardy sucked air and held it in, then let it out in a rush. ‘You won’t like it.’

‘I didn’t expect I would.’ Glitsky waited through another pause.

‘I’m in this for his kids.’

The eyes, so lately flat, narrowed. Glitsky’s nose flared and the scar in his lips went white. He took a breath or two and when he finally spoke, it was in a terrifyingly controlled voice. ‘You’ve seen him? You’re representing him?’

Hardy knew that any attempt to finesse this would only infuriate Abe more. ‘I’ve seen him once. Friday night, before things had gotten anywhere near here.’

‘So where was this?’

‘The Airport Hilton.’

‘So he was leaving town? Has he left?’

‘No. Neither. He was ready to if he had to. That was all.’

‘That was all. That’s nice. And then somehow you decided it wasn’t important to let me know about any of this?’

‘No. I never made that decision. You were specifically not looking for Ron at that point.’

‘Well, I am now. Where is he?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘My ass.’

Hardy shrugged. ‘I’m not lying to you. I haven’t ever lied to you, Abe. I’ve omitted what you didn’t need to know.’

‘Well thank you so much.’ Glitsky made a face of disgust, his voice now rising in indignation. ‘How about if that’s not your decision to make? How about if it’s my job to do this, not some hobby I can pick up and lay down when the mood strikes me? That ever occur to you, Diz? You ever think about any of this ?’

But Hardy wasn’t about to go begging for mercy or forgiveness. He’d done what he felt he’d had to do. He believed it was defensible. ‘Look. Ron called me last night. The answering machine is still in my office with the message on it. You can come listen to it anytime you want. I don’t know where he is. or how to reach him and it pisses me off just a bit myself.’

‘But it’s not your job , Diz.’

‘Don’t kid yourself, Abe. It’s a hell of a lot more than my job. First it’s my wife, then my house; next it’s maybe me, my life. If I had even the smallest suspicion any of this was Ron, you think I’d gamble all of that? You don’t think I’d give him up to you? Hell, I’d lead the parade.’

‘Not if he was your client.’

Hardy lowered his own voice. ‘He’s not it, Abe. You’ve known that all along. You go after him, you’re barking up the wrong tree.’

‘Yeah, but that’s what I do, bark up trees. Things fall out, I pick ’em up, and maybe it points me to another one.‘

‘Maybe it doesn’t.’ Hardy came forward in his chair. ‘There isn’t time, Abe.’

Glitsky glared, very little of the fury gone. After a couple of seconds, he stood up, walked back to the door, opened it, and left the room.

He was standing at the back windows of the homicide detail, arms folded, looking out through the black fog to the jail across the way.

Hardy came out of Abe’s office and walked up behind his friend. ‘I’ll tell you everything I can,’ he said to his back, ‘but there’s some things I can’t.’

Glitsky didn’t turn.

‘Ron has a situation that makes it awkward for him to get formally involved with the law or the courts. If he gets in the system, his kids suffer. That’s why Frannie couldn’t give him up. It’s what she couldn’t talk about. You heard what the supe in his building said, Abe. The guy’s a good father. Like you and me, right.’

Still no answer, but Hardy noticed that Glitsky’s shoulders rose and fell. He was listening.

‘I know, I know. Why didn’t I tell you sooner? Why’d I do things with Canetta? I don’t know. I didn’t know. I was trying to figure it out. If it’s any help, I paid my dues around it, wouldn’t you say? And the bottom line is Ron didn’t kill Bree.’

Finally, the lieutenant half turned. ‘Except if he did,’ he said.

‘He didn’t.’

Glitsky was a statue.

They both became aware of footfalls in the hallway, moving fast. Hardy turned just as an excited Asian man appeared in the doorway. He was slightly out of breath and tried to compose himself in the few steps over to them.

‘One of last ones I try, Abe. Sorry. But it match up.’

‘You got a match?’

‘Yeah. Same as on glass, whoever that was.’

‘From the prints in the penthouse?’

Ghattas nodded and nodded. ‘Definite sure.’

Hardy spoke up. ‘Kerry?’

Ghattas looked at him, then to Glitsky for permission. The lieutenant nodded. ‘Looks like.’

‘What is that?’ Ghattas asked. ‘ The Damon Kerry?’

Glitsky nodded. ‘If you’re sure about the glass, he was at Bree Beaumont’s and said he wasn’t.’

‘Oh, definite sure.’

‘Then it was Kerry.’

‘Well, shit,’ Ghattas responded. ‘Very shit.’

‘My thought exactly, Paul. Good work. And thanks for coming down tonight. It was a big help. You need a lift home?’

‘No. I call my wife. Ten minutes, she’s here.’ He nodded and was gone.

Silence reigned again and Hardy waited. Glitsky chewed the inside of his cheek.

‘You’re probably remembering right now that it was me who picked up that glass,’ Hardy said.

Jim Pierce sat in the pilot’s seat on the flying bridge of his yacht, bundled against the weather. He was drinking rum neat from a metal cup and sucking on the butt of a Partagas cigar. The craft was plugged into the marina’s power source, and he had the small television going, although he wasn’t faced toward it – it was background noise, that was all. Laugh track. A brisk sea wind carried a load of wetness in through the open windshield.

He felt a movement in the boat, but didn’t turn.

‘Do you know what time it is?’

His wife was a vision as usual. Even more so now, as she was flushed from the cold and the slight exertion to get out to the boat. Her hair had gathered the fine drizzle and, backlit, turned it into a halo. ‘I would guess around nine o’clock,’ he said evenly.

‘What were you waiting for out here?’

‘You to come and get me? And look, now you have.’

‘The police have been around again.’

‘Well, when it rains, it pours. What did they want this time?’

‘There’s been another murder apparently. A policeman.’

‘And they came to see me?’

‘Apparently he was related somehow to Bree.’

Finally, he met his wife’s eyes. ‘Well, I’m not related to Bree.’ He took a pull of his liquor.

‘Don’t get hostile with me, Jim. Please. Where have you been?’

He kept looking at her. ‘Right here,’ he said. ‘I told you. Waiting for you to come and get me.’