A Certain Justice

'Why not?'

'Because Mr Farrell isn't delivering Kevin Shea to the San Francisco jail, not without more assurance of security than that.'

Which was where it ended, except for the final note that Elaine thought that Abe might be working too hard, seeing things that weren't really there.

He replaced the phone gently into its cradle. It was five minutes of nine. He relayed the message to Farrell, who had been hovering, getting the gist as it developed.

'So now what?'

Glitsky stared across the room. 'I don't suppose you'd be amenable to taking your client downtown?' He didn't even wait for an answer. It was going to come down to him and Loretta, as something in him had known it would have to. Farrell started to reply but Abe stopped him with a gesture to show the question hadn't been serious. But this next one was: 'How about if I can get the senator herself?'

Farrell, embittered by Elaine's turnaround, was shaking his head. 'I don't know if she-'

'She can. Reston's her man. She could get him to promise protection, and meanwhile call off the FBI, take the message to the community, get Mohandas to call off his Dead or Alive rhetoric.' He paused. 'She's the only one who can do it.'

'But why would she? Didn't she just tell… wasn't that her daughter…?'

'She's protecting her daughter's job, her career. This is different.'

'She won't do it, Lieutenant.'

Glitsky was grim. 'She might.' He was on his feet. 'You got a beeper?'

'No. I used to.'

Glitsky pulled at his belt. 'Here, take mine. If she'll do it, if we can deliver Shea to her, if she stands up for him in public, you won't get a better guarantee than that.'

'But even if she does, how will you…?'

Glitsky pointed at his beeper. 'I'll call that number. If you get a chance, call me back and tell me where you are, where Shea is. If you get there before the FBI, get the hell out of wherever you are, go someplace else and wait for me to call you again. If not – if the feds are right behind you, call nine one one. Point is, get some other people there. Get some witnesses.'

'And what if Loretta Wager just won't do it?'

At the door, Glitsky turned. 'Same basic plan, counselor, except if you don't get beeped and do manage to get out in front of the feds…?'

'Yeah?'

'You didn't hear it from me, but ride like the wind.'

69

There was the doorbell – the limo, she supposed. She had told the mayor a half hour and apparently he was in such an all-fired hurry that he'd sent it in half that time.

She was just finishing her hair. Well, she wasn't about to do the rest of her makeup in the car. She'd tell the man he'd have to wait.

Her steps echoed on the hardwood as she walked up through the back rooms to the foyer.

'Abe!'

'I tried to call,' he said. 'Nobody answered.'

'No,' she said. 'I know. I got your message but I got in so late…'

'Elaine said she'd talked to you.' He squinted out at the sun, into the wind. 'You mind if I come in a second?'

'Well, I'm expecting a… sure.' She smiled brightly at him. 'It can only be a minute, though. I've got to get to the rally.'

He stopped midway through the door. 'You're going to the Mohandas rally?'

She reached out and touched his sleeve. 'Not what you think. The mayor asked me to deliver the permit for it, that's all.' She shrugged. 'Political favor. The limo ought to be here any-'

He brought the door to, closing it with the flat of his hand. She tried a smile – confused, actually concerned about him, the pressure he was under. She moved toward him-

'No,' he said.

She drew back. 'No what, Abe?'

His gaze was flat, without expression. Cop mode. She tried again, reaching out. He moved to the side and away from her. 'I was a half hour away from picking up Kevin Shea, getting this whole thing over with the only way I could,' he began, 'and you sandbagged me.' He was moving slowly away from her, keeping a steady distance, back through the cavernous living room toward the library.

'Abe, please, I did nothing of the kind. If anything I was trying to help you both – Elaine from making a mistake that could cost her her job, her career; you from being drummed out of the police department altogether.'

He nodded, something had been confirmed. But he was holding it close, giving nothing away. 'As opposed to what?' he asked.

'As opposed to this administrative leave, that's what. You're hurting yourself, Abe, with such a-'

'How do you know about the administrative leave, Loretta?'

A blip of lost control. A vein showed in her temple. 'Well, I…'

'I got the word around midnight last night. When did you get it?'

He had maneuvered them both back into the library, where they had come the first night. It was the closest thing in the house to his turf.

Loretta was framed by the door.

'I don't know,' she said. 'Really, I just don't know.' Her eyes looked wounded. She took a step toward him. 'Why are you being so cold, Abe? Why are you talking to me this way. All I did was tell Elaine to make sure she followed the rules.' She ventured a couple more steps, stopped. 'That's who told me about you. It was Elaine.'

'About the leave?'

'Yes.'

He nodded again. 'How did she know? I never mentioned it to her.'

A narrowing of vision. 'Well, then she didn't get it from you. Maybe she talked to Alan Reston. Maybe she heard it on the news. All I know is that she told me.' She closed the last few feet between them. 'Abe, please. Why are you doing this?'

Now, her eyes glistening from the pain he was putting her through, she lay her palm on his arm. 'Please.'

He stepped back. Her hand fell. 'I want you to call her,' he said.

'And say what?'

'Tell her I've explained things to you. How they stand. Tell her it's the right thing.'

'But it isn't. It could ruin the case, ruin her.'

'There is no case, Loretta. Kevin Shea is i

The response had the quality of a reflex, but she took a little extra time to phrase it. 'No white men are i

He'd heard this a thousand times in one form or another, and it had no effect on him now. 'Some are,' he said simply. 'Kevin Shea's one of the good guys, Loretta.'

'Oh, so why don't we put up a statue to him?'

'He didn't do it and you've railroaded the whole country into thinking he did.'

She narrowed her eyes. 'So what?'

'So what? You can undo it.'

'Get a life, Abe. Even if this boy himself didn't do it – don't you see? – he represents what happened.'

She stood firm. 'What would be worse, Abe, is if no one got arrested or punished for what happened to Arthur Wade… If it just went unavenged.'

Suddenly he'd had enough. He wasn't here for politics or philosophy. 'You have to call Elaine.'

Her back stiffened. 'I'm not going to do that. It could ruin her, it could end her career, everything she's worked for-'

'No,' he said, 'it could ruin yours.'

She let a brittle laugh escape. 'You think this is about me. Abe, please, come on…' She kept following him, slowly moving in closer, one step. Another. Hesitant on the face of it, a confidence underneath. It had always worked before. 'This is about Elaine. Only Elaine, not me.'

She was cornering him, giving him no other way – he didn't want to take it as far as it could go, not unless – until – she forced him. And that's what she was doing.

He knew what he knew, but if he could just get her to back off on Kevin Shea that would be enough. Enough for him. There would be a certain justice in that, and sometimes that was all you got.

But she wasn't going to leave Elaine. She couldn't leave her – Elaine was something she hadn't ever wanted to use in this way, but now it was developing that she must. It could end this impasse with Abe. It could save her…