Legal Tender

“I don’t care if there’s a firm or not, I won’t work with you. I know you killed Mark.”

It fell like a blow. “No I didn’t. Why do you think I’m the killer?”

She leaned forward. “You saw Mark leaving you and taking R amp; B with him. You loved him and the firm, and you saw them both slipping away. You had to stop it. And you’re big enough and strong enough to do it, and you have no decent explanation for where you were at the time.”

“That’s all circumstantial. None of it proves anything. The cops haven’t even charged me.”

“Whether they ever do or not doesn’t matter to me. I know you did it. I know how angry you are inside.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She eased back into her chair. “What’s the point? I told myself I wasn’t going to talk about this with you, and I’m not. Our association is over. I dropped off those books you lent me. I told the cops what I knew.”

“Told the cops what? What do you know? There’s nothing to know!”

“I told them about that day we ran the steps at Franklin Field,” she said, the conviction in her tone infuriating.

“What day? What did I do?”

“It’s what you said.”

“What Isaid? You trying to hang me for something Isaid? I hired you, brought you along, and now you’re trying to hang me? Don’t you know you’re playing with my life?” I stood up and Renee stood up, too.

“I don’t have to lie for you, just because you gave me a job!”

“What lie? What are you talking about?”

“Get out of my office! I don’t need you in here, shouting at me.”

I almost laughed, but it hurt too much. “No, Renee. I still own this place.You get out. Put your papers on my desk. Be gone in an hour.”

I walked out of her office, stalked down the hall, and went into my office and slammed the door. I stood there for a moment, shaken. What did Renee tell the cops? What was she talking about? All I remembered was I took her ru

I took a deep breath. There was one way to find out. Retrace my steps. Go for a run. I needed to manage my stress anyway. My head felt like it was going to burst, and I hadn’t exercised since the shit hit the fan. I changed quickly into the ru

“Any comment, Ms. Rosato?” “Did you do it?” “What about the will?” “Going for a run?” “Ms. Rosato, Ms. Rosato, please!” I sprinted off, leaving the reporters behind, and it wasn’t until I’d turned the corner of the backstreet that I saw him.

Detective Azzic. He sat, smoking, in a dark blue car parked on Twenty-Second Street. He was barely hidden, so he must have wanted me to know he was watching. He expected me to run scared. On the contrary. I sprinted down the row of parked cars until I reached the unmarked Crown Vic.

“Hey, good lookin’,” I said, popping into his open window. “What’s your sign?”

“Leo the Lion.” He stubbed his Merit out in an overflowing ashtray, his mouth a twisted line. “Once I dig in I don’t let go.”

“Sounds sexy. So, what time you get off?”

His eyes remained flinty through leftover smoke. “You think it’s fu

“No, I think it’s harassment, Azzic. Don’t you have anything better to do? Suspects to beat up? Bribes to take?”

“I’m just doin’ some routine surveillance. Anytime you wa

“Is this an invite? Will there be a cheese-ball? And are you go

“If you talk, I’ll listen. Leave the Boy Wonder at home. I think you can handle it on your own. I was surprised to see you takin’ orders, big-time lawyer like yourself.”

I smiled. “You’re trying to get my Irish up, Detective, but I’m not Irish. I think.”

His broad shoulder dipped as he started the car’s huge V-8. “You know, I used to wonder why lawyers like you do what you do. Now I just don’t care.”

“It’s cops like you that keep me in business.”

“Oh, we do it, that’s it?” He snorted. “Not the murderers, the rapists, the critters whose money you take.”

“You mean my clients? They have rights, the same as you. The right to an honest police force. The right to a fair trial. I never understood it better than I do now.”

He gu

“I was a waitress before I was a lawyer. So what?”

“I know right from wrong.”

“I see, this is God’s law you’re enforcing now. You got a personal relationship with the Chief Justice in the sky. He picked you, out of all the weird ties.”

Azzic shook his head. “You don’t believe in God, do you, Rosato?”

“That’s kind of personal,” I said, to jerk his chain, but the answer was no. I stopped believing when I realized my mother lived a nightmare, every day of her life. Haunted, terrified, every single second.

“All right, don’t answer, I don’t give a fuck. Here’s how it is. I have twenty other cases on my desk, but this is the most important.”

“Is it my perfume?”

“Let me tell you something, fu

“You got a C average? You’ll never get into law school with that, pal.”

“It means I’m on your ass, wherever you go, ’til the day I put you behind bars.”

“Oh yeah? Then catch me if you can, Detective.” I ducked out of the car and took off.

The engine roared as Azzic pulled away from the curb, but I darted across the street and bolted the wrong way up the block. In two one-way streets, up Spruce Street and Pine, I had lost the local constabulary and was ru

One, two, three, breathe. One, two, three, breathe.

Franklin Field is a football stadium and ru

One, two, three, breathe. I pounded from bleacher to bleacher, bench to bench. Straight up, at a fifty-degree grade. We called it ru

At the top were old wooden benches that had weathered to gray and splintered. Here and there a new plywood board had been installed, and heavy bolts, black with age and tarnish, stuck incongruously through the new wood. I played a game as I ran up the middle of the benches, sidestepping the bolts and letting my mind wander. It was the only way to remember. And I needed to remember.

One, two, three, breathe. Land on the balls of the feet. I raced up, my footsteps thundering as I reached the vertiginous heights of the stadium. I darted out of the sun and toward the airy top deck, under the painted iron rafters that supported the upper level of the stadium. It was breezy here, dark and cool. Still, up, up, up. Sweat poured down my forehead. My heart pumped like a piston. I’d run hard like this with Renee, that day. I tried to reconstruct it in my mind.