Josh spread his arms and smiled. “So, Herbie, what do you think?”
“I can see why you want to expand.”
“Yeah. Everyone’s defense crazy these days. I could use another driving track and a rifle range or two.”
“You have your own ambulance?”
Josh grinned. “That’s mainly for show. People see it, they take care. Injuries have gone down since I bought it. It’s a great deterrent.”
“I can imagine.”
“The last time I spoke to you, you were being shot at. How did that work out?”
“Not well.”
Herbie told him about Yvette’s murder.
Joshua’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God! You’re ‘New York Midtown lawyer’? Oh, for goodness’ sakes. I haven’t spoken to Mike in days. I was going to call him this weekend. He’d have clued me in. What’s the upshot? They thought you did it but they don’t now?”
“More or less.”
“So what brings you here?”
“I need a gun.”
“And you came all the way up here? There’s that place in the city where the cops all shop. Why didn’t you get one there?”
“Because the cops all shop there. It would get back to Dino.”
“Why would that be bad?”
“Same reason you don’t announce covert operations on TV. Dino would act, and people would die. And the fact that I had a gun would be moot.”
“Is this something I can help you with?”
Herbie considered the offer. Josh would be a valuable ally if he just knew how to use him. “Thanks. I’ll let you know. Could you be prepared to move on a moment’s notice?”
“Just say the word. You really want a gun?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll have to get a carry permit.”
“I’ve got one. You got it for me when this place opened and I took your course.”
“So you need a gun. I understand you don’t want to go to a cop store. But there must be a dozen places in the city you could have got it without driving all the way up here. What’s the deal?”
“It been a long time, Josh. I need a lesson.”
Joshua Hook nodded. “Okay. Show me what you got.”
Herbie didn’t have much. Josh started him off on one of the indoor ranges, shooting a short distance at a paper target. He watched while Herbie emptied the magazine, then reeled the target in. There wasn’t a single hole in it.
“You’re shooting high to the right,” Josh said.
“What do I do?”
“Aim low to the left.”
Herbie gave him a look.
“Here’s the thing,” Josh said. “For years you’ve been a civilian. You haven’t gotten in trouble, you haven’t fired a gun. But way back when, aren’t you the guy who put two shots in the head of Carmine Dattila?”
“Yeah.”
“How many shots did you fire?”
“Two.”
“You know why? Because you had to. There was something at stake. The fact that you hated the guy didn’t hurt, but here’s a bully, an aggressive madman who’s going to kill you on a whim. So you walk in the door and, bang, bang! It’s not aiming, it’s not target shooting. It’s just like pointing your finger.”
Josh gestured to the door. “Okay, let’s go outside.”
“Why?”
“What you lawyers call a change of venue.”
Josh took Herbie to one of the four outdoor shooting ranges.
“Okay, here we go. I’ll walk you through the obstacle course. The targets jump out at you. No time to aim.”
“Nothing to remember?”
“Just squeeze the trigger. Don’t jerk it high right.”
“Fuck you.”
“That’s the spirit. You got the layout? You go alone. Those are real bullets, and I don’t want one.”
Herbie walked through the course, firing as the targets popped up. Josh hadn’t told him to, but he found himself crouching as he went. He came out feeling good.
“How’d I do?”
“Much better. You actually hit some of the targets. You also hit a cop, a nun, and a kid on a bicycle, but nobody’s perfect.”
“The nun looked suspicious.”
“You want to go again?”
Herbie shook his head. “As long as I’m hitting something, I’m fine.”
“So now you want a gun?”
“Can you sell me one?”
“No, but I’ll give you one.”
“Oh?”
“I figure I owe you.”
“Why’s that?”
“When you took my course, you refused to run. You said there was no reason to make everyone do it just because I could. You said I’d do better treating the students as professionals rather than raw recruits.”
“I was a wiseass in those days.”
Josh shook his head. “Not at all. Best advice I ever got. So I figure I can give you a gun.”
“Okay. Which one do you want to give me?”
“The one in your hand. Stick it in your pants, and you’re good to go.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Yeah. I’ll give you a hip holster. But that’s your gun.”
“Thanks, Josh.”
Josh walked Herbie out to the car. Herbie got in and started the engine. Josh rapped on the window. Herbie rolled it down.
“Yeah?”
“Try not to shoot any nuns.”
84
Judge Buckingham looked down at the defense table. “Mr. Fisher is not in court?”
“No, Your Honor,” Stone said. “Mr. Fisher was unavoidably detained. I will carry on in his absence.”
“Very well. Bring in the jury and return the witness to the stand.”
When that had been done, Stone Barrington stood and approached the witness.
“Have you consulted your notes, Detective Kelly?”
Kelly looked smug. “Yes, I have.”
“And can you tell us who advised you that David Ross would be at the party?”
“No one.”
Stone frowned. “No one? Then why were you at the party?”
“I was told there would be drugs at the party. I was sent there to make an arrest.”
Stone frowned. Herbie had told him to accept the answer and quit, but he couldn’t let that statement go unchallenged. “Detective, I have been over the transcript and I am certain that you testified that you were at the party because you were acting on intel that David Ross would be there selling drugs. Not just anyone, but David Ross specifically. Do you recall making that statement? We can have the transcript read back, if you need to refresh your memory.”
Clearly, Detective Kelly was prepared for the question. He was quite unruffled. “I’ll take your word for it,” he said magnanimously. “If I made that statement, I was mistaken. The intel was merely that drugs were being sold at the party, and a major source of narcotics would be there. It turned out the major source of narcotics was David Ross, but we didn’t know it until we caught him selling drugs.”
Stone blinked. The answer to the question had made things ten times worse. A major source of narcotics, indeed. He could object and get most of the answer thrown out on the grounds of being conclusions on the part of the witness and assuming facts not in evidence, but that would just underline the testimony for the jury. It didn’t matter if it was in the record. They’d heard it, and the damage was done.
“You were mistaken when you said that you were acting on intel that David Ross would be selling drugs at the party?”
“That’s right.”
“You realize you were under oath?”
“I wasn’t lying. I misspoke.”
“Are you claiming you accidentally committed perjury?”
Detective Kelly was unruffled. “It’s only perjury if you make a false statement knowing it to be false. When I made that statement I thought it was true. It was only after I was asked to research it that I realized I was mistaken.”