"Well, you're welcome. Annie would love having you. Just give me a call at the station when you make up your mind."
"I will." She reached out and touched the back of his hand. He returned to the station feeling good.
"Mr. O'Lochlain is waiting for you to call him at home," Beth told him, handing him a note. "Your friend from New York called back. He's set it up with the state police, and he'll get back to you in a couple days." She handed him a second note. "I told him to ask them to check back a ways, that we have at least one other crime involving our Groloch here."
"Good thinking. Thanks."
"John called too. He says he'll be getting the texts of those classifieds come lunch, and he picked up the historical research from Mrs. Caldwell." She passed him another note, then a fourth. "Judge Gardner will see you in his chambers. Eleven-thirty."
"Ha! It's moving. Beth, we're closing in. I can feel it."
"Crap, Norm. Bet you dinner-you pick the place if you win-that none of this gets you an inch closer."
"You're on," he replied without thinking,, turning toward his office.
"And get on that LEA stuff. You've only got an hour."
"All right. All right. Why don't they hire somebody to take care of that crap?" Then he muttered, "Christ. Starting to think like a bureaucrat." Paying someone to handle LEA paperwork would absorb half the district's grant, making the whole thing just another exercise in governmental futility.
He whipped through in time by faking half his data. Lieutenant Railsback was supposed to double-check and countersign before sending the stuff on for the captain's signature, but Cash knew Hank would never see it. Beth would forge his John Hancock for him, with his blessing.
Someday they were all going to get their tits caught in the wringer.
"On my way out, Beth." He tossed her the papers. "Don't check them too close."
"Who gives a damn, Norm? They just file them. Remember that bet. I mean to collect."
Railsback shoved in the door. "Oh. Sorry, Norm. Well, I got what you wanted. Captain says we can polygraph everybody who had anything to do with the stiff, long as they're willing. Only, you ain't going to like the arrangements. Says we've got to do it on their time, meaning second shift, which is where most of them still are."
"Gah. Annie's going to love that. When can I start?"
"How about tonight? I want this done with. Oh, one other thing. If you start this, the captain says you have to go with it all the way. Meaning you, the kid, Smith, and Tucholski got to take the test too."
"O joy, O joy. All right. I'll show the troops how. Be the first victim. Beth…"
With one of her long-suffering sighs, she replied, "I'll find the people and set it up, Norm. You want me to call your wife?"
"No. I'll handle that. No point you taking the shit for me. Look, Hank, I got to meet Judge Gardner at eleven-thirty."
"Okay. So go."
"Norm," said Beth, "did you call Mr. O'Lochlain yet?"
"What're you doing messing around with that hood again?"
"Damn. I clean forgot. I'll do it from downtown." Cash patted his pockets to make sure he had his keys and Beth's notes.
"I get tired of explaining about O'Lochlain," Railsback grumbled.
"He said he'd only be there till one."
"Okay. Okay. Bye, all." He sailed down the hall with Hank glaring after him.
He had trouble finding a parking place, so was five minutes late. The judge didn't mind. "They've turned half of downtown into a parking lot the last ten years," the man observed, "and still there's no place to park. I have a theory that says building a parking space spontaneously generates two cars to compete for it. Sit down. Tell me about your case. The girl who called was pretty vague."
Good girl, Cash thought. "Probably nerves. She's shy." He began a quick outline while studying Gardner, whom he hadn't seen for ten years.
The man had aged well. He looked and sounded like a fiftyish Everett Dirksen. The most amazing thing about him, in Cash's opinion, was that he refused to use his bench as a springboard to political office.
Only the unicorn is more rare than the lawyer without political aspiration.
Perhaps it was because he was so controversial. He had as many liberal enemies as he had conservative cheerleaders. And there was some sort of fiscal foul-up in his court which, while due only to clumsy administration, didn't look good in the papers.
"Hold it, Sergeant. Seems to me there was another officer here with the same story a while back."
"My partner. And you turned him down. But there's been a new development." He explained about the counterfeit money and outlined his other plans.
"You're coming out of left field and I think you know it. You want me to let you go looking for the money because you hope you'll find something else. You know perfectly well that anything you found would be constitutionally questionable."
"I know. What I'm really after is a gap in the old lady's story. She knows a lot more than she's telling."
"They all do. That's not the point. To be frank, I think you're getting damned near harassment. I can't do anything the way it stands. Suspicion of possession of counterfeit is a federal thing anyway. And I doubt if they'd be interested. First, statute of limitations. Second, you couldn't pass one of the real bills nowadays."
"Well, if you can't, you can't. Thanks for your time." Cash rose.
"Hang on. First run out your other leads: O'Lochlain; these polygraph interviews. If you come up empty, and only if-no, if you get something supportive, too-call me back. I'll see how I feel about it then. I go by intuition sometimes. But you make damned sure you've tracked that money, that you've eliminated all the other possibilities. You'd better check with the Secret Service, too. See what their attitude is."
"Yes sir."
Cash couldn't help whistling as he waited for a down elevator.
He grabbed a quick lunch at a chili joint four blocks east. His stomach didn't know how to take it. It had grown accustomed to an endless progression of Big Macs. After browsing through a bookstore, picking out a couple mysteries as a peace offering to Annie-he had wanted The Dreadful Lemon Sky, but the clerk told him the paperback wasn't due till September-he called home. Annie was more understanding than he had expected, though still irritated.