"Or you could write us a statement," Jack says. "Like, now."
Teddy lifts his middle finger, sticks it in his mouth and sucks it, then points it at Jack.
Out in the hallway, Jack says to Bentley, "We gotta get a statement. We can't let Guzman testify."
"Man knew what he was getting into," Bentley says.
"Teddy'll have him banged out."
"I'm not losing an arson-murder," Bentley says.
Jack shakes his head. "Either we get Teddy's statement or we just say fuck it."
Bentley looks at the floor for a long time. Finally says, "You do what you think you have to do."
The selective use of the second person doesn't elude Jack.
He asks, "We're together on this?"
They look at each other while Bentley thinks it over. Then he says, "Yeah."
They go into the room. Bentley leans against the wall in the corner as Jack sits down across the table from Teddy. Jack turns on the tape recorder, says, "You don't know how to write, you can give it to us on tape."
Teddy leans over the desk, gets into Jack's face.
"You don't got no fuckin' gas can, you don't got no fuckin' prints," he says. "What you got is a fuckin' witness, and by the time this thing gets to trial… well, don't you just hate it when bad things happen to good people? Ain't it a real bish?"
Jack turns off the tape recorder. Takes off his jacket and lays it on the back of the chair.
Jack's a big guy. Six-four and muscled. He comes around behind Teddy, says, "Teddy Coooool." Then cups his palms and slams them against Teddy's ears.
Teddy screams and slumps down in the chair, holding his hands over his ears and shaking his head. Jack picks him up and tosses him against the wall. Catches him on the rebound and bounces him off the other wall. Does this three or four times before he lets Teddy fall to the floor.
"You set the fire, Teddy."
"No."
Jack picks Teddy halfway up, then drives his knee into Teddy's chest. The air comes out of Teddy's lungs with a grunt that makes Jack sick. But it's like, Do the job and do it right, so he knees Teddy two more times then shoves him down so that his head bounces off the concrete floor.
He backs off and Teddy goes fetal.
"Don't you just hate it," Jack says, "when bad things happen to good people?"
"You're crazy, man," Teddy moans.
"That would be a good thing for you to keep in mind, Teddy," Jack says. "Now, are you going to give it up or do we start again?"
"I want a lawyer."
Jack knows he has to move him, and quick. Teddy gets a lawyer, he'll find out there's a murder rap hanging out, and then it's over.
"Did you say something?" Jack asks. "Because you're really tripping, man. Bouncing off the walls. PCP, Teddy? Or did you get hold of some skanky meth?"
Jack stomps on him, four times, hard.
Teddy balls up.
"C'mon," Jack says. "It's an arson. You'll get eight, serve what, three? You can do three."
Teddy's lying on the floor sucking for breath.
Bentley's turned away, his face into the corner.
"Or do you want to start again, Teddy?" Jack asks. "Because this time I'm really going to hurt you. I go about two twenty, so if I jump and land on your back…"
"Maybe I did the fire."
"Maybe?"
"I did the fire," Teddy says. "But Azmekian hired me to do it and I'll say that in court."
Jack feels the weight of the world go off his shoulders. He's been carrying Guzman's life and he didn't want to drop it.
About ten seconds later Teddy's in the chair, writing like mad. Gives it up totally. When he's done, Bentley says to him, "Asshole, a guy died in the fire. You just wrote yourself a murder beef."
Which just cracks Bentley up.
Jack's down the hall, he can hear Bentley laughing and Teddy screaming, You motherfuckers! You lying asshole motherfuckers!
Gets over that, though, and really starts laying it on Azmekian, giving up other fires, all kinds of shit. Teddy's digging like a fucking gopher, man, trying to tunnel away from that body in the warehouse.
Jack, he's in the can puking.
He never lit a guy up before.
End of the workday, he goes and finds his dad and they surf until it's black out. Tells Letty he doesn't want company that night.
27
The story on Jack Wade, Part Three.
Jack's on the stand in Azmekian's criminal trial.
Jack listens to the DA's question, turns to the jury and says, "The modus operandi of the fire matched that of several known arsonists, including Mr. Kuhl. We brought Mr. Kuhl in for questioning, confronted him with the evidence against him, and he wrote a statement confessing to setting the fire and implicating Mr. Azmekian."
"What sort of evidence?"
Jack nods. "Mr. Kuhl left behind one of the gasoline cans at the scene, and we found fingerprints that matched Mr. Kuhl's."
Jury's eating him up.
"Was Mr. Kuhl under any duress to sign the statement?"
Jack smiles. "None."
The DA calls Kuhl, who looks properly criminal-like in jailhouse Day-Glo orange. Kuhl's in County awaiting his own trial, so he has a lot riding on his testimony. He doesn't get the job done on Azmekian, he gets to carry the dead night watchman. They get through the preliminaries and then the DA throws the big fat pitch across the plate.
"Did you set the fire at the Atlas Warehouse?"
"No."
Goddamn Billy's in the gallery and he about swallows his teeth because Cal Fire has denied Azmekian's fire claim based on Teddy Kuhl's statement. Azmekian filed a lawsuit, of course, and they're three months from the civil trial. Which will be a slam dunk if Azmekian has to shuffle to the stand in ankle bracelets.
The DA isn't all that thrilled, either. He gulps and asks a question that provides commuter entertainment in the Greater Orange County legal community for weeks to come.
He asks, "You didn't?"
"Nope."
The DA goes back to his table and starts scrambling through his papers. Comes up with Kuhl's statement, and starts reading it out loud. Then asks, "Didn't you write this statement and testify to its truth under oath?"
"Yeah," Kuhl says, and pauses with a jailhouse joker's perfect timing. "But I lied."
Jack gets this sinking feeling.
His career, going right through the floor and into the shifter.
As the DA croaks, "No further questions."
Azmekian's lawyer has a few, though.
"You said you lied in that statement, Mr. Kuhl."
"Yeah."
"Why did you lie?"
Kuhl grins at Jack, then says, "Because Deputy Wade there was beating the crap out of me."
He goes on with great glee to say that Wade threatened to really hurt him if he didn't give up Azmekian. How he would have said anything to stop the beating. How he doesn't even know Azmekian. No, sir, never set eyes on him before today.
Jack's sitting there watching this performance and wondering who got to Kuhl. Who was so scary that Teddy would trash his deal and risk a murder conviction?
Then he hears the lawyer ask, "Do you recognize Deputy Wade in this courtroom?"
"Sure," Kuhl says. "The cocksucker's sitting right there."
The predictable hell breaks loose.
The judge bangs his gavel, the defense attorney moves for dismissal, the DA demands that Kuhl be arrested for perjury on the spot, the defense attorney demands that Jack be arrested for perjury on the spot, the bailiff whispers to Teddy he better not fucking say cocksucker on the stand ever again or he'll whale the living shit out of him in the van, the defense attorney moves for a mistrial, the DA moves for a mistrial, the judge says there's not going to be any mistrial, not on his damn calendar, anyway, and the next thing Jack knows the judge has sent the jury off and is holding an evidentiary hearing where Jack is the star witness.