I'm scared to leave this fucking apartment."
"Whose place is it? I always thoughtFuhrmann lived in my neighborhood."
"He's in the West Fifties. That your neighborhood?" I nodded.
"Well, this place is mine, Matt. I've had it a little over a year. I got the house out inForest Hills and I figured it'd be nice to have a place in town in case I needed one."
"Who knows about this place?"
"Nobody."He leaned over, stubbed out his cigarette. "There's a story they tell about these politicians,"
he said. "This one guy, the polls show he's in trouble, his opponent is wiping the floor with him. So his campaign manager says, 'Okay, what we'll do, we'll spread a story about him. We'll tell everybody he fucks pigs.' So the candidate asks if it's true, and the campaign manager says it's not. 'So we'll let him deny it,' he says. 'We'll let him deny it.' "
"I follow you."
"Throw enough mud and some of it sticks. Some fucking cop is leaning on Portia, that's what's happening. He wants me to stop working withPrejanian and in return she'll drop the charges. That's what it's all about."
"Do you know who's doing it?"
"No. But I can't break it off withAbner . And I want those charges dropped. They can't do anything to me in court, but that's not the point.
Even without going to court they'll have a departmental investigation.Except they won't be investigating a damn thing because they already know what conclusion they want to come up with. They'll suspend me immediately and they'll wind up kicking me out of the department."
"I thought you resigned."
He shook his head. "Why would I resign, for Christ's sake? I got better than twelve years, close to thirteen. Why would I quit now? I took a leave of absence when I first decided to get in touch withPrejanian .
You can't be on active duty and play ball with the Special Prosecutor at the same time.
The department would have too many openings to shaft you. But I never even thought about resigning.
When this is over I expect to be back on the force."
I looked at him. If he really meant that last sentence, then he was a whole lot stupider than he looked or acted. I didn't know his angle in helpingPrejanian , but I knew he was finished for life as far as the police department was concerned. He had turned himself into an untouchable and he would wear the caste mark as long as he lived. It didn't matter whether the investigation shook up the department or not. It didn't matter who was forced to put in for early retirement or who went to slam. None of that mattered. Every cop on the force, clean or dirty, straight or bent, would mark JeromeBroadfield lousy for the rest of his life.
And he had to know it. He'd been carrying a badge for over twelve years.
I said, "I don't see where I come in."
"Freshen that drink for you, Matt?"
"No, I'm fine. Where do I come in,Broadfield ?"
He cocked his head, narrowed his eyes. "Simple," he said. "You used to be a cop so you know the moves. And you're a private detective now so you can operate freely. And- "
"I'm not a private detective."
"That's what I heard."
"Detectives take complicated examinations to get their licenses.
They charge fees and keep records and file income tax returns. I don't do any of those things. Sometimes I'll do certain things for certain friends.As a favor. They sometimes give me money.As a favor."
He cocked his head again,then nodded thoughtfully, as if to say that he had known there was a gimmick and that he was happy to know what the gimmick was. Because everybody had an angle and this was mine and he was sharp enough to appreciate it. The boy liked angles.
If he liked angles, what the hell was he doing withAbnerPrejanian
?
"Well," he said. "Detective or not, you could do me a favor. You could see Portia and find out just how tied up in this she wants to be.
You could see what kind of a hold they got on her and how we could maybe break the hold. One big thing would be finding out who it is that's got her filing charges. If we knew the bastard's name, we could figure out how to deal with him."
He went on this way, but I wasn't paying too much attention. When he slowed to take a breath I said,
"They want you to cool it withPrejanian . Get out of town, stop cooperating, something like that."
"That has to be what they want."
"So why don't you?"
He stared at me. "You got to be kidding."
"Why did you tie up withPrejanian in the first place?"
"That's my business, Matt, don't you think? I'm hiring you to do something for me." Maybe the words sounded a little sharp to him. He tried softening them with a smile. "The hell, Matt, it's not like you have to know my date of birth and the amount of change in my pocket in order to help me out.Right?"
"Prejaniandidn't have a thing on you. You just walked in on your own and told him you had information that could shake up the whole department."
"That's right."
"And it's not as though you spent the last twelve years wearing blinders. You're not a choirboy."
"Me?"A big, toothy grin. "Not hardly, Matt."
"Then I don't get it. Where's your angle?"
"Do I have to have an angle?"
"You never walked down the street without one."
He thought about it and decided not to resent the line. Instead he chuckled. "And do you have to know my angle, Matt?"
"Uh-huh."
He sipped his drink and thought it over. I was almost hoping he would tell me to fuck off. I wanted to go away and forget about him. He was a man I'd never like involved in something I couldn't understand. I really didn't want to get mixed up in any of his problems.
Then he said, "You of all people should understand."
I didn't say anything.
"You were on the force fifteen years, Matt.Right? And you got thepromotions, you did pretty good, so youmusta known the score. You had to be a guy who played the game. Am I right?"
"Keep talking."
"So you got fifteen years in and five to go for the meal ticket and you pack it in. Puts you in the same boat as me, doesn't it? You reach a point where you can't hack it anymore.The corruption, the shakedowns, the payoffs. It gets to you. Your case, you just pack it in and get out of it.
I can respect that. Believe me, I can respect it. I considered it myself, but then I decided it wasn't enough for me, the approach wasn't right for me, I couldn't just walk away from something I had twelve years in."
"Going on thirteen."
"Huh?"
"Nothing.You were saying?"
"I was saying I couldn't just turn my back and walk away. I had to do something to make it better. Not all the way better, but maybe just a little bit better, and that means some heads will have to roll, and I'm sorry about that, but it has to be that way."A wide grin, sudden and alarming now on this face that has been so preoccupied with the business of being sincere. "Look, Matt, I'm not some fuckingChrister .
I'm an angle guy, you called me on that and it's true. I know things thatAbner has trouble believing. A guy who's absolutely straight, he's never going to hear these things because the wiseguys'll dummy up when he walks into the room. But a guy like me gets a chance to hear everything." He leaned forward.
"I'll tell you something. Maybe you don't know it, maybe it wasn't quite this bad yet when you were carrying a badge. But this whole fucking city is for sale. You can buy the police force all across the board. Straight on up to Murder One."
"I never heard that."Which wasn't quite true. I'd heard it. I'd just never believed it.
"Not every cop, Matt. Not hardly. But I know two cases- that's two I know for a fact- where guys got caught with their cocks on the block for homicide and they boughttheirselves out from under. And narcotics, fuck, I don't have to tell you about narcotics. That's an open secret.
Every heavy dealer keeps a couple of thou in a special pocket. He won't go out on the street without it. That's calledwalkaway money- you lay it on the cop who busts you and he lets you walk away."