Hardball

“In that case, I can send this letter without making changes to it.” I handed Yeoman a copy of the letter I’d written his client. Of course, I didn’t say Joh

On my way back to my office I stopped at Fit for Your Hoof. The man who’d been there on my first visit was sweeping the sidewalk again, singing to himself, but when he saw me his eyes widened in fear and he bolted into the shop.

When I followed him in, he was clutching Curtis Rivers’s leather apron. “She go

“No, she’s not, Kimathi, because I won’t let her.” Curtis folded his newspaper under his arm and led the frightened man into some i

When Rivers came back, he glared at me. “What did you say to Kimathi to frighten him so badly?”

“Nothing.” I was bewildered. “He saw me and ran for cover. What’s he afraid of?”

“If you don’t already know, it’s none of your damned business to find it out. What is it you’re really after, Ms. Detective Warshawski? Who you protecting or hurting or covering up for?”

No one else was in the shop. I sat on one of the stools next to the tiny chess table. “What’s that supposed to mean? I told you what I wanted and why. Who’s suggesting it’s something else?”

“That’s well done, all i

I clasped my fingers under my chin, studying him. “You’re protecting this guy who’s hanging around your shop. I don’t know how to persuade you I’m not here to hurt anyone-”

He slapped his paper onto the small space between us. “You can’t.”

“But I’m starting to think you know where Lamont Gadsden went all those years ago. Is it his mother who’s got you so angry? She is a difficult woman, I know. Is there some secret from the old days that I don’t know about?”

“I think I already said more than you needed to hear.” He got up and went behind his counter.

“Rose Hebert saw you enter the Waltz Right I

“Now I know you’re lying!” He crashed a fistful of tools onto the counter. “Rose Hebert in the Waltz Right I

I smiled through thin lips. “You might not jump to conclusions if you listened more closely. I didn’t say Ms. Hebert was in the bar. I said she saw you enter it. Just as she’d watched Lamont and the Hammer a few minutes earlier. Wishing she could be part of everyone else’s good time.”

Rivers shifted a pair of shears from hand to hand, measuring me. At least he was thinking over what I said. “I wouldn’t dispute a lady’s word, especially not a lady as sanctified as Miss Rose. But I went to the Waltz Right I

“Is it Joh

“Maybe you scare easier than me, and maybe there’s a reason for that.”

“What about Steve Sawyer? I know now he was convicted of murder, but he’s disappeared, too. There’s no record of him in the Department of Corrections. Is he the person you’re trying to protect?”

“How dare you! How dare you, bitch, come in here and flaunt him at me!”

My jaw dropped. “All I know about him is that he’s vanished as completely as Lamont Gadsden.”

“You wish. You wish, don’t you? Get out of here before I land these scissors inside you.”

The rage in his face was heart-stopping. I parted the handbag-laden ropes, trying to walk naturally, trying not to let the shaking in my legs show. I’d forgotten the train whistle. Its blast made me stumble as I opened the outer door.

A woman passed me at the door, holding a scuffed pair of pumps. “Noise always gets to me, too.”

I tried to smile, but Rivers’s fury made my mouth wobble. I drove slowly to my office, staying off the Ryan: I wasn’t steady enough to deal with semis roaring around me.

11

AT MY OFFICE, I FOUND PETRA HAD WRITTEN THANK YOU in big Magic Marker capitals on a piece of paper with a giant cookie from the coffee shop across the street taped to it. The ingenuous message made me feel marginally better, although I gave the cookie to Elton, who was outside again.

I also found a message from my temporary agency saying they had a Marilyn Klimpton available who met all my requirements including familiarity with legal databases. She’d start in the morning. That was a mercy.

Still, the only thing that would really make me feel better was to understand why Rivers was so furious with me. I spent the rest of the day trying to find out more about both him and Sawyer. My first search had been superficial. Now I went deeper into databases that cost more money. I couldn’t charge these to Miss Ella, but I needed to learn what lay behind Rivers’s rage.

Nothing came back to link either man to me. Rivers had served in the army from May 1967 through July 1969, with his year in Vietnam sandwiched in near the begi

When I’d exhausted the Net, I dragged out the boxes I’d brought with me from my three years with the public defender. Of course, most of the material had stayed in their offices at Twenty-sixth and California, but my own notes and records still made a tidy pile when I’d emptied them onto my big worktable. I couldn’t possibly check all those old cases, but I did pull out my files on Joh

I called a friend of mine who had co

I slid all the papers back into their boxes and tried to turn my attention to other jobs. I was wrapping things up for the day when my friend at the SA’s office called back.

“No record of a Steve Sawyer in 1966 or ’67, but things were a little sloppy back then. Any hints on the exact trial date?”

I looked through the notes I’d made at the university library. “The vic’s name was Harmony Newsome, but I don’t know the trial date.”

He promised to have another look in the morning. Right after he hung up, my cousin Petra phoned.

“Vic, you were a lifesaver to let me use your computer! Did you get your cookie? Do you remember you and Uncle Sal are coming to Brian’s big fundraiser next week? I need to get names on a list since the president might come.”

“Yes, indeed, your uncle Sal is counting the minutes. You spell Warshawski W… A…”

“Yeah, I know. It’s like a warrior in a rickshaw going skiing. How do you think I passed first grade? I was the only kid in my school who knew what a rickshaw was.”

We both laughed, and I felt better when I’d hung up. Maybe Mr. Contreras was right. Maybe I did need to be more like my cousin, learn to charm the socks off rocks.