Lawrence Block: The Burglar In The Closet

He was still talking, earnest, sincere, when I cradled the receiver.

“I’ve got him on the run now,” I said to Jillian. “He’s starting to panic. He knows I’m closing in on him and he’s scared.”

“Who, Bernie?”

“Well, that’s a good question. If I knew who he was I’d be in a lot better shape.”

“You said Grabow killed her.”

“I know.”

“But if Grabow killed her, who killed Grabow?”

“Grabow didn’t kill her.”

“But it worked out so perfectly. The counterfeiting and the dental scalpels and everything.”

“I know.”

“So if Grabow didn’t kill her-”

“Somebody else did. And killed Grabow so that I’d get blamed for it, although why I’d kill that gorilla in my own apartment is something else again. And whoever it was scattered some of Crystal’s jewelry around so that I’d be locked into her murder, as if I wasn’t already. That would be really intelligent of me, wouldn’t it? Killing Grabow with another convenient dental scalpel and then tucking one of Crystal’s bracelets under the corpse.”

“Is that where they found it?”

“How in hell do I know where they found it? Nyswander found it, whatever the hell it was. Diamonds, emeralds, I don’t know. I haven’t seen any of that garbage since I got it all packed up for someone else to steal. How the hell do I know where it was? I barely remember what it looked like.”

“You don’t have to snap at me, Bernie.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ve got my head in a frame and I can’t think straight. It’s all crazy, it’s all circumstantial evidence and it doesn’t make any sense, but I think they’ve got enough to nail me.”

“But you didn’t do it,” she said, and then her gaze narrowed slightly. “You said you didn’t do it,” she said.

“I didn’t. But if you put twelve jurors in a box and showed them all this evidence and I stood up there and said I didn’t do it and they should believe me because it would have been stupid for me to do it that way-well, I know what my lawyer would say. He’d tell me to make a deal.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’d arrange for me to plead guilty to a reduced charge. And the District Attorney’s office would be glad to get a sure conviction without the hazard of a trial, and I’d cop a plea to something like manslaughter or felony murder and I’d wind up with, I don’t know, five-to-ten upstate. I could probably be back on the street in three years.” I frowned. “Of course it may be different with Grabow dead, too. With two corpses in the picture they’d probably hold out for Murder Two and even with good behavior time and everything I’d be out of circulation for upward of five years.”

“But if you were innocent, how could your lawyer make you plead guilty?”

“He couldn’t make me do anything. He could advise me.”

“That’s why Craig switched lawyers. That man Blankenship just assumed he was guilty, and Mr. Verrill knew he wasn’t.”

“And now Craig’s out on the street.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Even if I had a lawyer who believed in me, he’d have to be crazy to go to court with what they’ve got against me.”

She started to say something but I wasn’t listening. I felt a thought slipping around somewhere in the back of my mind and I went after it like a dog trying to catch his tail.

I got the phone book. What was Frankie’s last name? Ackerman, Frances Ackerman. Right. I found her listed as Ackerman F on East Twenty-seventh Street, just a few blocks from all her favorite bars. I dialed the number and listened to the telephone ring.

“Who are you calling, Bernie?”

I hung up, looked up Knobby Corcoran’s number, dialed it. No answer.

I tried Frankie a second time. Nothing.

“Bernie?”

“I’m in a jam,” I said.

“I know.”

“I think I’m going to have to turn myself in.”

“But if you’re innocent-”

“I’m wanted on murder charges, Jillian. Maybe I’ll even wind up copping a plea. I hate the idea, but it looks as though I might not have any choice. Maybe I can get lucky and some new evidence will come to light while I’m awaiting trial. Maybe I can hire a private detective to investigate this thing professionally. I’m not having much luck as an amateur. But if I keep running around like this I’m taking the chance of getting shot by some trigger-happy cop. And the corpses are just piling up around me and I’m scared. If I’d turned myself in a day ago nobody could have framed me for Grabow’s murder.”

“What are you going to do? Go down to police headquarters?”

I shook my head. “Kirschmann wanted me to surrender to him. He said I’d be safe that way. All he wanted was to be credited with the pinch. What I want is to have a lawyer present when I turn myself in. They can keep you incommunicado for seventy-two hours, just shuttling you around from one precinct to another without formally booking you. I don’t know that they’d do that to me but I don’t want to take any chances.”

“So do you want to call your lawyer?”

“I was just thinking about that. My lawyer’s always been fine at representing me because I’ve always been guilty as charged. But what good would he be at representing an innocent man? It’s exactly the same problem Craig had with Errol Blankenship.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“I want you to do me a favor,” I said. “I want you to call Craig. I want him to get hold of his lawyer, What’s-his-name, Verrill, and I want the two of them to meet me in his office.”

“Mr. Verrill’s office?”

“Let’s make it Craig’s office. That way we all know where it is. Central Park South, nice convenient location. It’s twelve-thirty now so let’s set the meeting for four o’clock because I’ve got a couple of things I have to do first.”

“You want Craig there too?”

I nodded. “Definitely, and if he doesn’t show up tell him I’m going to throw him to the wolves. He set me on the hunt for Crystal’s jewelry. That fact is the only trump card I’ve got. The last thing he wants is for me to tell the police about our little arrangement, and there’s a price for my silence. I want Verrill on my side. I want him to arrange the surrender to the police and I want the best defense money can buy. Maybe Verrill will wind up hiring a criminal lawyer to assist, maybe he’ll bring in private eyes. I don’t know how he’ll do it and we can arrange that this afternoon, but if the two of them don’t show up on schedule you can tell Craig I’ll sing my little heart out.”

“Four o’clock at his office?”

“That’s right.” I reached for my jacket. “I’ve got some things to do,” I said. “Some places to go. Make sure they get there on time, Jillian.” I went to the door, turned toward her. “You come along, too,” I said. “It might get interesting.”

“Are you serious, Bernie?”

I nodded. “I’m a threat to Craig,” I told her. “If that’s my trump card, I don’t want to throw it away. He and Verrill might agree to anything just to get me to turn myself in. Then they could forget all about it and leave me stranded after I told my story the way I promised. I want you around as a witness.”

I had a busy afternoon. I made some phone calls, I took some cabs, I talked to some people. All the while I kept looking over my shoulder for cops, and now and then I saw one. The city’s overflowing with them, on foot and in cars, uniformed and otherwise. Fortunately none of the ones I saw were looking for me-or if they were I saw them first.

A few minutes after three I found the man I was looking for. He was in a Third Avenue saloon. He had his elbow on the bar and his foot on the brass rail, and when he saw me coming through the front door his eyes widened in recognition and his mouth curved in a smile.