been five hundred black men standing in the line-up.’
‘What did Gehringer do about the note?’
‘He talked informally with the police, especially the one who first interviewed Mohan in hospital and showed her mug shots. But this cop, who was called Ferraro, told him an entirely different story, saying Mohan had picked out Duval right away. When it came to court, Ferraro said exactly the same thing. Gehringer did his best to shake him, but he couldn’t – after a while, Judge Bronstein got impatient and told him to move on.
‘So they lost the case, which didn’t surprise Gehringer, though even he was taken aback by the severity of the sentence – Bronstein had given Duval fifty years. He’d had nothing to work with in the trial except testimonials to Duval’s unblemished character – the fire chief in St Louis sent a letter about his bravery that Gehringer had read in court. Though even then, one of the character witnesses had pulled out at the last minute.’
Robert wondered who that could have been. ‘And that was it as far as Gehringer was concerned?’
‘No. He wanted to appeal, but there weren’t any grounds for it – Bronstein might have been a monster, he said, but he did things by the book. He didn’t put a foot wrong during the trial, and his instructions to the jury were unimpeachable. Gehringer said there simply weren’t any grounds.
‘But he said the case gnawed at him; he couldn’t forget it. It was a long shot, but he went to see Ferraro. He still denied that Mohan hadn’t fingered Duval at once, but Gehringer thought there was some uncertainty in the policeman, maybe even guilt. But when he saw him again, he actually went out to Ferraro’s home on the West Side – this time Ferraro wouldn’t talk to him. Ferraro must have asked his boss to call Gehringer’s boss, because back at the office Gehringer was told to leave Ferraro alone or he’d be suspended. After that, Gehringer’s hands were tied.’
Robert said, ‘He would have been scared he’d lose his job if he persisted.’
‘Gehringer wouldn’t give a toss about that,’ she said, and she looked at Robert as if he didn’t understand. ‘This is a man who’s truly committed to helping people. But if he got fired, he wouldn’t be in a position to do that any more. That’s what kept him from pursuing Ferraro.’
She stood up and went to the window, where the lowering sun cast a long carrot of light across the front lawn. Robert found himself dreading that she planned now to confront Ferraro herself, and he tried to pre-empt this. ‘Maybe there wasn’t anything to it. You said yourself Gehringer admitted it might have been some twisted attempt at revenge. Or a nasty rumour – bar talk. Doesn’t mean it was true.’
‘Yes, well, we’re never going to know for sure.’
He was puzzled by this apparent abdication. ‘Why?’
‘Ferraro retired twelve years ago. He moved to Meyer’s Beach on the Gulf side. I spoke to his wife on the phone this afternoon. She was a nice-sounding woman.’
‘Yes, but what did Ferraro say?’ How typical of a woman to start talking about how nice another woman sounded on the phone.
‘He didn’t. It turned out I was speaking to his widow.’ She paused, her voice suddenly dull with disappointment. ‘Ferraro died three years ago. When I asked her about Duval’s case, she said she didn’t know what I was talking about.’
‘Oh, shit,’ he said, but it wasn’t because he was sharing Anna’s sense of let-down. It was because he could guess what she was going to do next.
3
The weather got warmer still, hitting 90 by noon the next day. The mothers and kids in the playground formed a vivid tableau of skin and scanty clothes, and a hydrant burst down the street, shooting an angled stream of water into the steaming air. That morning the radio had announced the water temperature in Lake Michigan would hit 75, which meant even Anna would find it warm enough to swim. They could spend all Saturday in the water at the dunes, he decided, with a picnic on the beach. Then he remembered the Saturday appointment in Evanston with Duval.
Just before lunch, he had a phone call from David Balthazar. Their conversation was short and to the point, and when Robert put down the phone he called out to Vicky. She came in, carrying the copy of Nicole Krauss she was reading. ‘Could you please ask Dorothy to come