Lisa Scottoline - Devil's corner

"What is? What are you saying?"

"Project Clean Sweep, remember? Strauss's push to get guns off the street. Started last year, before you came. Big success. I had a lotta pressure on me to get convictions. Pressure from Strauss, pressure from the media." Bale stepped closer, lowering his voice needlessly, and Vicki smelled the rum that was undoubtedly loosening his tongue. "You know the reports the gun dealers make, of the multiple purchasers. I took a little shortcut, paid some folks to say they knew the people on the reports and that they resold the guns. Reheema was on the list."

"You paid Jackson to frame Reheema?"

"Yeah," Bale admitted, his voice low.

" Chief ." It was all Vicki could say.

"Oh come on, get real. You know they resold the guns. Why else they buying eight or nine semiautomatic weapons? Glock, Taurus, Ruger, Smith and Wesson? We knew they did it. We just couldn't prove it without the witness."

"Reheema didn't do it. She didn't-"

"She's the only one, and you know it. With the rest, it was going through the motions."

"The motions are due process ." Vicki felt sickened and angry. "And where'd you get the money for this?"

"Don't ask too many questions, Vick. Take it from me, it's the government, there's money around."

"How many people did you do this to?"

"Let it lie, Vick, they're in prison now, and I'm about to get the big job. Play ball and it'll go away. It was a one-shot deal, I won't do it again." Bale's tone turned almost plaintive, as if the tables were turned, and Vicki were the chief and he the AUSA. "I learned my lesson, believe me, I did. This thing got way outta control."

Vicki couldn't believe her ears. "Chief, did you really send Montgomery to kill Reheema?"

"Look, I had to. I was exposed, with Bristow. She's got an attitude problem, that one, I heard from the way she mouthed off at the detention hearing. When Jackson got killed and the case against Bristow fell apart, I knew she wouldn't shut up."

"Chief, that's conspiracy to murder!"

"It wasn't all my fault. You got into it and you wouldn't let it go! This whole thing woulda gone away if you-"

"Murder doesn't go away!" Vicki interrupted, incredulous. "Montgomery murdered Reheema's mother! He tried to murder her! You can't get away with that!"

"Don't think of it that way, Vick. Just let it go. Montgomery's dead and gone, so I have no exposure. Let it go, and I'll take care of you."

" Let it go ?" Vicki repeated, horrified.

Suddenly, the wooden door opened, and Angelo's bartender came out in a black knit cap and a Flyers jacket. He nodded to them both and walked up the street in the storm. Bale gestured her away from the entrance, and Vicki followed him to the next little overhang that covered the entrance of a low-rent jewelry store. The lights were off inside the store, and in the front window, a blue neon sign glowed, DIAMONDS BOUGHT AND SOLD. Velveteen display stands in the window stood empty, the diamonds gone.

Vicki tried to gather her thoughts, but they wouldn't gather, she was so appalled. "Chief, how can I just let it go? How can you ?"

"Look, Montgomery was just insurance, in case another one blackmailed me. Everybody in the neighborhood knew him, he kept everyone in line. I swear, I didn't really think I'd have to use him."

" Another one?"

Bale ignored the question. "Come on, when I made the deal with Montgomery, I didn't know the case against Reheema would fall apart. I didn't know those kids would kill Jackson and Morty that night. How would I know that Browning didn't pay his bills? Like I say, it just got outta control."

"It's wrong, Chief, all wrong. You have to turn yourself in."

"Oh, please!" Bale snorted, the neon blue outlining the contours of his cheekbone. "Are you kidding? Right now, when I'm this close? When I finally got over ? Are you nuts ?"

"You have no other choice!"

"You want me to do time with the clowns I convicted, Vick? Ruin my wife and family?"

"No, I don't, but it's the only way."

Bale stepped back in anger, as if pushed. "You're pretty high and mighty for a kid, you know. So full of yourself. So naïve, so gullible . You think I'm the only one who cuts a corner or two? You're a rich kid, you don't know jack about how things get done."

"Chief-"

"You think I worked alone?" Bale's eyes flashed in the blue darkness. "You know I didn't. You know I was in it with a white man. Don't you want to know who he is?"

The white guy .

"Guess. We'll play a little game. Guess the white man who worked with me to set Bristow up. Guess the white man who found Jackson in the first place."

"It's not Dan, is it?" Vicki blurted out, before she realized she'd even suspected him.

And Bale smiled.

" That altar boy?" Bale said. "Malloy? No way."

"Not Strauss."

"The boss?" Bale snorted. "Nah, he didn't know a thing. He turns his head away. He only knows what he wants to know. He doesn't like to get his hands dirty."

"Then who?"

"Morty."

Vicki felt stunned, as if from a blow.

"Yes, it was Morty."

No . "Chief, you're lying."

"The hell I am! Your great Morty, your beloved Morty, everybody's beloved Morty." Bale looked almost gleeful. "It was Morty who knew Jackson, not me. He found her for me. He was the white man with me that night, when we went to her house, to get her ready for Bristow's trial."

Morty . "That can't be. He would never-"

"Yes, he would. He did . He was dedicated, all right. He wanted the guns off the street and he did what it took. Ha!" Bale seemed to draw strength from revealing the secret, a seasoned prosecutor saving his best argument for last. "Your case, Bristow, was the last case, the last one , and we woulda made it happen if those kids hadn't broken in that night!

Morty didn't see that one comin,' poor guy."

"But why would he-"

"Morty wanted the guns off the street, Vick! You know that! You heard at the wake, nobody worked harder. He was happy to do whatever he could do, and you should be, too. You know, you and him were a lot alike."

Vicki felt too heartsick to ask what he meant.

"You and Malloy, you think I don't know about you two? The way you look at each other? Mixing business with pleasure. Morty was, too. Had to go and fall in love with the CI, with Jackson. She was twenty years younger than him." Bale leaned over. "And it was his baby she was carrying."

The baby in the postmortem report. She was mixed race.

"He was gonna marry the bitch! That's Morty for you! That's the real Morty! Married to the job, for real! Surprised?"

Vicki couldn't speak. She flashed to the night Morty was killed. Him lying there, blood bubbling on his lips. The first thing he'd asked: "How's the CI?"

"See, that's my point, Vick. Morty was in on it because it was the right thing to do. It got us what we wanted, what we're all working for."

Vicki remembered Mrs. Tillie Bott, telling her that Shayla had said she was going to change her life. She'd been planning a future with Morty.

"If it was good enough for Morty, isn't it good enough for you?"

Vicki couldn't answer. Agent Thompson, just today, had said, " He seemed so happy since you two have been working together, this past year ." But it was Shayla Jackson whom Morty had been with this past year. He'd fallen in love and was going to be a father.

"You should've let it go, Vick. I told you to get off it, I warned you to get off it! I even assigned you to another case, but you wouldn't let it go."

"How can I, Chief?" Vicki asked, aching. "You have to." "I can't. I won't." "Come on, kid. What're you doin' here? What're you doin' to me?" Bale's gaze shifted, suddenly jittery. "You're backin' me into a corner here, you know that?"