The Burglar in the Closet - By Lawrence Block Page 0,61
that they’d do that to me but I don’t want to take any chances.”
“So do you want to call your lawyer?”
“I was just thinking about that. My lawyer’s always been fine at representing me because I’ve always been guilty as charged. But what good would he be at representing an innocent man? It’s exactly the same problem Craig had with Errol Blankenship.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“I want you to do me a favor,” I said. “I want you to call Craig. I want him to get hold of his lawyer, What’s-his-name, Verrill, and I want the two of them to meet me in his office.”
“Mr. Verrill’s office?”
“Let’s make it Craig’s office. That way we all know where it is. Central Park South, nice convenient location. It’s twelve-thirty now so let’s set the meeting for four o’clock because I’ve got a couple of things I have to do first.”
“You want Craig there too?”
I nodded. “Definitely, and if he doesn’t show up tell him I’m going to throw him to the wolves. He set me on the hunt for Crystal’s jewelry. That fact is the only trump card I’ve got. The last thing he wants is for me to tell the police about our little arrangement, and there’s a price for my silence. I want Verrill on my side. I want him to arrange the surrender to the police and I want the best defense money can buy. Maybe Verrill will wind up hiring a criminal lawyer to assist, maybe he’ll bring in private eyes. I don’t know how he’ll do it and we can arrange that this afternoon, but if the two of them don’t show up on schedule you can tell Craig I’ll sing my little heart out.”
“Four o’clock at his office?”
“That’s right.” I reached for my jacket. “I’ve got some things to do,” I said. “Some places to go. Make sure they get there on time, Jillian.” I went to the door, turned toward her. “You come along, too,” I said. “It might get interesting.”
“Are you serious, Bernie?”
I nodded. “I’m a threat to Craig,” I told her. “If that’s my trump card, I don’t want to throw it away. He and Verrill might agree to anything just to get me to turn myself in. Then they could forget all about it and leave me stranded after I told my story the way I promised. I want you around as a witness.”
I had a busy afternoon. I made some phone calls, I took some cabs, I talked to some people. All the while I kept looking over my shoulder for cops, and now and then I saw one. The city’s overflowing with them, on foot and in cars, uniformed and otherwise. Fortunately none of the ones I saw were looking for me—or if they were I saw them first.
A few minutes after three I found the man I was looking for. He was in a Third Avenue saloon. He had his elbow on the bar and his foot on the brass rail, and when he saw me coming through the front door his eyes widened in recognition and his mouth curved in a smile.
“Cutty on the rocks,” he said. “Get your ass over here and have a drink.”
“How’s it going, Dennis?”
“It’s going. That’s all you can say for it. How’s it with you, Ken?”
I extended my hand horizontally, palm down, and wagged it like an airplane tipping its wings. “So-so,” I said.
“Ain’t it the truth. Hey, Ace, bring Ken here a drink. Cutty on the rocks, right?”
Ace was wearing a sleeveless undershirt and an uncertain expression. He looked like a sailor who’d given up trying to find his way back to his ship and was making the best of a bad situation. He made me a drink and freshened Dennis’s and went back to the television set. Dennis picked up his glass and said, “You’re a friend of Frankie’s, right? Well, here’s to Frankie, God love her.”
I took a sip. “That’s a coincidence,” I said, “because I was trying to get hold of Frankie, Dennis.”
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
He frowned. “I saw you last night, didn’t I? ’Course I did, you were drinking coffee. We were talking with Knobby. And I was waiting for Frankie to show up.”
“That’s right.”
“She never showed. You didn’t hear, Ken? I guess you didn’t. She took her own life, Ken. Booze and pills. There was something bothering her about her friend, girl named Crystal. You know about Crystal, don’t you?” I nodded. “Well, she