And at this point, Ben didn’t much care. He didn’t want to worry about this case; he didn’t even want to think about it. All he wanted was to get home, get a shower, feed his cat, play the piano, and think about anything—anything at all—other than this miserable affair. He knew this case would never win him any praise or benefit. The only thing he could be grateful for was that it was over. That’s how he tried to comfort himself, as he snuck out of the courtroom. It was finally over.
He couldn’t know, then, how wrong he was. It wasn’t over. The nightmare was only beginning. And it would get far worse than Ben had ever dreamed possible.
One
The Blue Squeeze
1
“SO WHAT’RE WE GONNA do about it?”
Barry Dodds didn’t want to encourage him. “We’re gonna play cards, Arlen—that’s what we’re gonna do. So play already.”
A toothpick darting out from between his teeth, Arlen Matthews tossed out a few chips. “Seems to me this isn’t something we should take lying down. Seems to me we ought to do something about it.”
Mark Callery called. “Do something? Like what?”
Dodds pressed his hand against Callery’s arm. They were about the same age, but Dodds was a captain, and he knew that because of his senior rank, Callery, unlike Matthews, respected his opinion. “Don’t encourage him.”
“I just wanted to know.”
“And I’m saying, don’t ask.”
“What’s the matter with you, Barry?” Matthews asked. “Don’t we still have freedom of speech in this country? Let the boy talk.”
“No good can come of this discussion.” Dodds was a short man with the beer belly that almost seemed like a mandatory stage in almost every police officer’s career. “You boys would be better off if you just forgot about it.”
“Is that right?” Matthews obviously didn’t agree. He addressed himself to the fourth member of the group. “What do you think, Frank?”
Frank didn’t respond immediately. He was an extremely large man; down at headquarters, they called him The Hulk. Given his enormous size, his colleagues imagined that it took longer for thoughts to make the trip from his brain to his mouth, sort of like the larger dinosaurs. “Can’t say, really.”
“That’s what I like about you, Frank. You always know exactly where you stand.” Matthews obviously wasn’t satisfied. “I tell you what I think. I think this was a travesty of justice and I think we ought to do something about it.”
“Hasn’t this mess caused you enough trouble already?” Dodds was the youngest of the four and the most senior in rank, a fact which he knew caused some trouble, even if it was never directly mentioned. “The courts have spoken. You can’t take the law into your own hands. That’s not how the system works.”
Matthews was not pleased. “Don’t lecture me on the system, college boy.”
Dodds grimaced. In truth, many of the police officers, and all of the younger ones, had college degrees. But because he had a graduate degree in criminology, because he had been promoted rapidly and he spoke the Queen’s English, to Matthews he was always the “college boy.”
“I think we should just let it alone.”
“You’d feel different if it had been you up there on the witness stand.” Matthews threw down his cards—which was no great loss since he was holding a pair of twos. “You’d feel different if that attorney had made you look like a lyin’ jackass.”
Dodds, the last player still holding his cards, scooped in the pot. “He was just doing his job.”
Matthews jumped up on his feet. “Just doing his job? Just doing his job?”
“I didn’t say I liked it, okay?” Dodds had been trying to calm Matthews down all night, and frankly, he was getting sick of it. “I just said there’s no point in acting like it was some big surprise. You know what’s gonna happen when you take the stand. The defense attorney’s going to try to make you look like one of the Three Stooges. There’s nothing new about it.”
“This is different.”
“It isn’t.”
“Like hell. This time it was one of our own. It was Joe. My partner. And if you had any loyalty to Joe—”
“Don’t you dare lecture me about Joe.” Dodds had had it, all he could take. “Joe and I went to school together, all right? I’ve known him longer than any of you. I would’ve died for him, understand? Died for him!” He stood up to Matthews and jabbed him in the chest. “So don’t you lecture me about loyalty. Don’t you dare!”
The room fell quiet. Matthews and Dodds glared at one another, like two jungle beasts waiting to see who would make the first move. No one did.
Eventually, Frank cleared his throat. “So are we gonna play cards here?”
Matthews kept his eyes trained on Dodds. “I’m sick of cards.”
“But it was my turn to deal.”
“There ain’t gonna be any more cards, got it?” Matthews pounded the table. “It’s sick. Our buddy is dead, the lyin’ whore that killed him is running free, and we’re sitting here like a bunch of pansy-assed queers playing cards!”
Callery’s voice was quiet, and his eyes were trained on the table. “You know, Arlen, you weren’t the only one who was up on the witness stand. I testified, too. I went first. You think I enjoyed it? I didn’t. I didn’t like that lawyer prying into every little thing. I didn’t like him insinuating that we botched the investigation. But it’s over now. We have to move on.”
Matthews looked away. “It’s different for you.”
“It isn’t, Arlen.”
“It is. Goddamn it, can’t you see? It is.” To his companions’ shock and horror, Matthews’s small eyes began to well up. “It wasn’t your fault, okay? I was the one who screwed up. I was the one who used Judge Bolen’s crappy warrants. It’s my fault that murdering bitch is still walking the streets.”
Dodds gently placed his hand on his colleague’s shoulder. “Give yourself a break, Arlen. You couldn’t’ve known.”
“I should’ve known, damn it. It’s my job to know. I let Joe down. He was my partner. And I let him down.” Tears began to stream down his face.
Even though it was obviously the last thing on earth he wanted to do, Frank broke his silence. “Arlen … it’s none of my business, but … I think maybe you should get some help. Maybe some counseling. Central Division’s got that woman who comes in twice a week—”
Matthews’s face swelled up with rage. “I don’t want counseling, you idiot! I want the fucking little cunt who killed Joe!”
Another silence followed, this one even longer than the one before. No one knew what to say next.
“It’s this simple,” Matthews said, his chest heaving. “Are you Joe’s friend, or not? ‘Cause there’s no way any friend of Joe’s would let what happened happen and just walk away without doing anything about it.” He leaned across the table. “So what about it, Frank? Are you Joe’s friend?”
Frank took his usual eternity to reply. “You know I am, Arlen.”
“What about you, Mark?”
Callery frowned. “Joe was my first supervisor, my first day on the job. He taught me practically everything I know.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He turned toward Dodds. “And what about you? You claim Joe was your oldest friend. You claim you’d of died for him. Was that just talk? Or does it actually mean something? “
Dodds glared back at him, not answering.
It was Callery who broke the silence. “What did you have in mind, Arlen?”