From outside the apartment door, he heard the same cop asking, 'Mr Proctor? You going to open this door for us?'
'Yeah, I'll be with you in a minute,' he yelled and went to the closet and look from a hanger the eleven-hundred-dollar Ralph Lauren camel hair coat he had stolen on New Year's Eve, and then he went to his dresser and look from the same top drawer containing his undershorts and handkerchiefs a .22-caliber High Standard Sentinel Snub he had stolen last year sometime from a guy who also had a stamp collection, and then he yelled to the door, 'Just putting on my shoes, be there in a second,' and went out the window.
He came down the fire escape skillfully, not for nothing was he a deft burglar with the courage of a lion tamer and the dexterity of a high wire performer. There was no way he was going to have any kind of discussion with any representative of the law, not when he was looking at a renewed stretch in the slammer for breaking parole. So he came down those fire-escape ladders as fast as he knew how, which was damn fast, because he knew that the cop in the hallway would be kicking in the door if he hadn't already done it, and him and his partner, they always traveled in pairs, would be in that apartment in a flash, and the minute they went in the bedroom-
'Hello, Proctor,' the man said.
The man was looking up at him from the ground just below the first-floor fire escape. The man had a gun in one hand and a police shield in the other.
'Detective Carella,' he said.
Proctor almost reached for the gun in the pocket of the coat.
'Just lower the ladder and come on down,' Carella said.
'I didn't do anything,' Proctor said.
He was still debating whether he should go for the gun.
'Nobody said you did. Come on down.'
Proctor stood undecided.
'My partner's up there above you,' Carella said. 'You're sandwiched.'
Proctor's hand inched toward the coat pocket.
'If that's a gun in there,' Carella said, 'you're a dead man.'
Proctor suddenly agreed with him.
He lowered the ladder and came on down.
* * * *
10
The Q & A began in Lieutenant Byrnes's office that Monday evening at ten minutes past six. Present were the lieutenant, Detectives Carella and Meyer, Martin Proctor, a lawyer named Ralph Angelini who'd been requested by Proctor, and a stenographer from the Clerical Office, as backup to the tape recorder. The detectives did not know as yet whether Proctor had asked for a lawyer because he was facing a return trip to Castleview on the parole violation, or whether he knew that the subject about to be discussed was murder. Twice.
The lawyer was Proctor's very own and not someone supplied by Legal Aid.
A nice young man in his late twenties.
Carella knew that even thieves and murderers were entitled to legal representation. The thing he couldn't understand was why honest young men like Ralph Angelini chose to defend thieves and murderers.
For the tape, the lieutenant identified everyone present, and then advised Proctor of his rights under Miranda-Escobedo, elicited from him his name and present address, and turned the actual questioning over to his detectives.
Carella asked all of the questions.
Proctor and his lawyer took turns answering them.
It went like this:
Q:Mr Proctor, we have here a report from the . . .
A: Just a minute, please. May I ask up front what this is in reference to?
Q: Yes, Mr Angelini. It is in reference to a burglary committed on New Year's Eve in the apartment of Mr and Mrs Charles Unger at 967 Grover Avenue, here in Isola, sir.
A: Very well, go ahead.
Q: Thank you. Mr Proctor, we have here a report from the Detective Bureau's Latent Print Unit . . .
A: Your police department?
Q: Yes, Mr Angelini.
A: Go ahead then.
Q: A report on latent fingerprints retrieved from a window and sill in the Unger apartment, and those . . .
A: Retrieved by whom?
Q: Retrieved by the Crime Scene Unit. Now Mr Proctor, the fingerprints retrieved from the Unger window and sill match your fingerprints on file downtown. Can you tell me . . . ?
A: Do you have a copy of that LPU report?
Q: Yes, Mr Angelini, I have it right here.
A: May I see it, please?
Q: Yes, sir. And may I say, sir, that in this Q and A so far, your client has not been allowed to give a single answer to any of the questions I've put. Pete, I think maybe we ought to call the DA, get somebody here who can cope with Mr Angelini, because I sure as hell can't. And I'd like that left on the record, please.
A: I believe I have every right asking to see a report purporting to ...
Q: You know damn well I wouldn't say we had a report if we didn't have one!
A: Very well then, let's get on with this.
Q: You think maybe your client can answer a few questions now?
A: I said let's get on with it.
Q: Thank you. Mr Proctor, how did your fingerprints get on that window and sill?
A: Is it okay to answer that?
A: (from Mr Angelini) Yes, go ahead. Answer it.
A: (from Mr Proctor) I don't know how they got there.
Q: You don't, huh?
A: It's a total mystery to me.
Q: No idea how they got on that window and sill just off the spare bedroom fire escape.
A: None at all.
Q: You don't think you may have left them there?
A: Excuse me, Mr Carella, but . . .
Q: Jee-sus Christ!
A: I beg your pardon, but . . .
Q: Mr Angelini, you are perfectly within your rights to ask us to stop this questioning at any time. Without prejudice to your client. Just say, 'That's enough, no more,' you don't even have to give us an explanation. That's Miranda-Escobedo, Mr Angelini, that's how we protect the rights of citizens in this country of ours. Now, if that's what you want to do, please do it. You realize, of course, that on the strength of the LPU report, the DA will undoubtedly ask for a burglary indictment, which he'll undoubtedly get. But I thank you should know there's a more serious charge we're considering here. And . . .
A: Are you referring to the parole violation?
Q: No, sir, I'm not.
A: Then what charge are you . . . ?
Q: Homicide, sir. Two counts of homicide.
A: (from Mr Proctor) What?
A: (from Mr Angelini) Be quiet, Martin.
A: (from Mr Proctor) No, just a second. What do you mean homicide? You mean murder? Did somebody get murdered?