I wonder where he’s left his entourage, for Tony is seldom seen alone. Invariably he trails a wake of indentured subordinates, young lawyers on the move, whose sole mission with the firm, it seems, is the palpitation of the Greek’s ego. Fate shined on me, for Ben spared me this duty during my time with the firm.
Without asking, Skarpellos drops his body into the chair across from mine. Tony played Eliza to Potter’s Higgins through most of his career. The son of immigrants, he’s a proud man, and in his eyes at least, he has clawed his way to the top-on his own. He’s a natural glad-hander, more adept in the political arena than in a courtroom. It was, in fact, his abilities and influence with parochial governing boards, planning departments, and the myriad city councils in the area that from the beginning secured his place with the firm. Tony has the Midas touch when it comes to real estate. For the right fee he can produce zoning variances like the poor propagate children.
We pass a few pleasantries; it’s an awkward context for small talk. There are the obvious regrets, the universal human emotion following any suicide-some expressions of self-recrimination for what we might have done to prevent it. For his part, it soon becomes a litany of reminiscences-nostalgic tales of him and Ben as young men struggling in the jungle of a provincial and crude local judicial system to carve out civilization.
He stops in mid-sentence, looks at me as if some matter of high consequence has just crawled in from the subconscious.
“What the hell happened between the two of you, anyway? One day you’re there and the next you’re history.”
It is as I expected. Ben kept his own counsel in the matter of my affair with Talia. True to form, he was a man much possessed of appearances, and pride. In the eyes of his closest confidants, my departure from the firm continues to be viewed as the result of some falling-out over an obscure matter of business.
“It was between the two of us,” I say. “One of those things that happens sometimes between friends.”
“You make it sound like you were pokin’ his wife.” He laughs, turns, and snaps his fingers for a drink. For an instant I think that he’s been talking to an oracle. The waitress is on us before he can look back-before he can read the confession in my eyes. When he finally turns to face me again, his expression is a vacant smile. I breathe a little easier now, confident that Skarpellos, after all, has no special talent for clairvoyance.
“Let me buy ya a drink,” he says.
“Got two already.” I hold up a full glass.
He orders a double bourbon and returns to the subject of the firm and my leaving. I make a mental note to use a different line if asked the reasons for my departure from the firm in the future.
As it turns out, Cooper was right. Two days after our conversation at the Emerald Tower I was visited by the cops, a quiet FBI agent in tow. They asked me about my conversation with Potter at Wong’s. I bit my tongue and lied, a little white omission. I told them of his disclosure to me, the fact that he was destined for the court. I left out our heart-to-heart about Talia. They finally got to it. They wanted to know why I left the firm. Any disagreement, hard feelings between Potter and me? I denied it roundly and capped our conversation with Ben’s offer to have me serve as the trustee of the Sharon Cooper memorial fund. This was something they could check with the law school, a little corroboration. It lasted less than ten minutes. They seemed satisfied as they left.
“What the hell was it? You guys argue over a case or somethin’?” says Skarpellos.
“Something,” I say.
“You know, you should’ve come to me.”
“Why’s that?”
“I had a good amount of influence with Ben. He respected me.”
I say nothing but our eyes meet, and this time he reads my mind.
“No, it’s true. Ben did respect my judgment.”
I wonder what the Greek’s been smoking.
“We’d been together too long not to have developed a good degree of mutual respect,” he says.
I remove the smirk from my face, turn serious, but say nothing.
“There was no reason to lose talent like yours. I’ll bet I could’ve patched it up between the two of you.”
“Well,” I say. “One thing’s for sure.”
“What’s that?”
“We’ll never know now, will we?”
“That’s true,” he says. “Ain’t that the truth.”
There’s a translucent quality in his eyes. I can sense that he’s searching for something lyrical, a little poignancy to be remembered later, repeated to others, a message from Ben’s partner to the world. Verse dies on his lips as the waiter arrives with his drink. He takes the glass, and by the time he looks back he’s forgotten what it was he was searching for.
“Been meanin’ to call ya,” he says. “Somethin’ we need to talk about.”
I look at him-a question mark.
“It’s a little delicate,” he says.
This has never stopped Skarpellos, I think.
“You got a client-the Hawley girl?”
I nod, wondering what interest he could have in Susan Hawley.
“A good piece of tail, from what I’ve heard.” He gnaws on a little ice.
“What’s your interest?”
“Got a client in a little pickle-a little trouble,” he says.
If Tony’s client knows Hawley, it’s more likely that his pickle got him in that trouble.
“Maybe this Hawley broad can help,” he says.
“In what way?”
“Can’t talk here,” he says. “Maybe my office in a few days. I’m in a good position to deal. Make it worth your while.”
This is Tony’s idea of lawyering, a quick deal, no ethics asked.
“What’s it about?”
He waves me off with the back of the hand holding his drink. “Harold Stone,” he says. He nods back over my shoulder. “Do you know Justice Stone?”
I shake my head.
“A prince,” he says. “Absolute prince. I’ll introduce ya.”
Oh joy, I think.
Skarpellos hoists himself out of the chair.
“Tony Skar-pell-os.” The name emanates from a grating bellows of a voice. Like molten phlegm from Vesuvius, it erupts behind me. Skarpellos is motioning me to my feet. I rise and turn.
“Harold, it’s good to see you again.” This is the stuff the Greek lives for, prattle on a first-name basis with the judicial brass.
Stone is an immense man of awkward proportions, a face dominated by sagging, fleshy jowls. Threadlike veins seem to erupt at the surface of loose flesh that wallows like waves on his cheeks as he speaks.
His expression suddenly turns moribund. It’s an easy transition.
“My sympathies, Tony. You have the condolences of our entire bench.”
For a moment Skarpellos looks down at Stone’s hand and I wonder if he’s about to kiss his ring finger. Then I realize that the Greek’s just buying time, the bard, again at a loss for words, this time with a more influential audience.
“He was a great man, Harold.” Skarpellos sucks a little saliva and completes the thought. “It will be many years, if ever, before this town sees his likes again.” He delivers the lines as if his eyes have just peeled the words from some mystical idiot board.
Their voices drop deeper, to the diaphragm, as private chatter is exchanged. I begin to feel like the proverbial potted plant, standing here. Finally Skarpellos looks over at me.
“Harold, I’d like you to meet someone. Paul Madriani. Paul used to be with the firm.”
A limp hand comes out to meet mine and I get the once-over by Stone. He’s keyed on that all-important phrase-“used to be.” There’s a quick, pained smile, and he returns his undivided attention to Skarpellos.
“Paul, I think we should talk again, when I have more time.”
“Excuse me?”