it off.
“Trying to keep from going insane,” he mumbled, apparently embarrassed to be caught watching the show. “What do you want?”
“We need to talk to you about this whole case,” Lucas said.
“I talked to a guy in the hospital,” Kline said, “And he told me that one thing I shouldn’t do is talk to the cops. You’re probably recording all of this.”
“We’re not recording it, and we don’t want you to say much anyway. We’re here more to make a presentation,” Lucas said.
“A presentation?”
“Yes. All you have to do is sit there and listen.”
Kline looked from Lucas to Del, and back and forth a couple of times, and then, “I guess I can do that. But I’m not answering any questions.”
“Just listen,” Lucas said.
Kline said to Del, “Nice tie, dude.”
“Hermes,” Del said, in his best French.
The place smelled weird, like hot dogs and sweat, brittle yellowed wallpaper and dry rot, with a little old- bathroom smell thrown in. The couch was covered with newspapers, and when Lucas looked for a place to sit, Kline said, “Throw those papers on the floor,” and Del did that, making a stack and dropping it beside one couch arm.
Lucas took the paper out of his briefcase, put the case between his feet, and started talking:
“Don’t say anything. Don’t argue with me, just listen,” he said. “Now, we know you were involved in this theft from Polaris. There’s no question in our minds about that.”
“Oh, bullshit, you’re-”
“Shut up,” Lucas said. “Just listen to the case.”
Lucas laid it out piece by piece. How ICE had found two back doors into Polaris and had documented them before she took them out. How they had to be done from the inside. How Kline had migrated to Hennepin National, where he’d hooked up with three other people for the theft: Turicek, Sanderson, and eventually, Albitis.
“We can tie you to the other three. We can tie Turicek to Albitis, and Albitis to the gold purchases. We believe we can tie Sanderson to the attack on Albitis-she called nine-one-one on a phone Albitis used to call Turicek, and I recognized her voice on the tape. The tape is being analyzed in our laboratories now, and after we get the forensic voice analysis done, we’ll be able to hook that to Sanderson. So, we’ve got you all in a bundle.”
Kline broke in, shaking his head: “You don’t have me. All you have on me is that I sat in the same office. And I’ll tell you what: banks deal with each other all the time, system to system. I think Ivan found a way into Polaris from our system, picked out an account to loot, and did it. He never told me about it. I think it was him and Albitis, and everything else you’re telling me is bullshit.”
Lucas shook a finger at him: “Not bullshit. I think we can make a powerful case. But you’re right about one thing-our case against you is the weakest. We don’t care about Turicek, because he’s dead. So it comes down to you and Albitis and Sanderson. We’ve decided to settle for two out of the three. We’re going to give somebody partial immunity, in return for testimony against the other two.”
“Partial immunity,” Kline scoffed. “That’s worth a lot. Go to prison and get killed for being an informer … get banged by a bunch of faggot convicts … that’s an attractive deal.”
Del said, “Listen, Jake, you know what happened here. The Brookses, David Rivera, the cop from Mexico, Pruess, the VP from Polaris … we’re not going to come after you for stealing a little money. We’re coming after you for multiple murder. You and the others touched this off. How old are you? Close to thirty? You’ll be sixty years old, under Minnesota law, before you’d have your first chance to see the outside again.”
“But I’m innocent,” Kline said.
“Oh, bullshit, Jake,” Lucas said. Then, into a moment of deadlocked silence, “But there’s something else. And I brought some stuff to show you.”
“I need to talk to a lawyer.”
“You do, but for now, listen another two minutes,” Lucas said. “Have you been watching television? All the news reports about these Mexican gangsters?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen it.”
“I’ll tell you what-they don’t have the gold. We’re lying about that, hoping to confuse things.”
“So they can’t go back,” Kline said. “The killers. That’s cruel. Funny, but cruel.”
“Sooner or later, the truth is going to come out,” Lucas said. “When it comes out, these gangsters are going to say to themselves, ‘Jacob Kline and Kristina Sanderson and Edie Albitis have our twenty-two million dollars.’ They’re going to come after you. They’re going to want their money. You understand?”
“I understand what you’re saying, I’m not sure I believe it. There seems to be a lot of bullshit going on here.”
“So look at this,” Lucas said. “Does this look like bullshit?”
He reached down between his feet, got the color prints of the murder scenes, the Brookses, Rivera lying in a puddle of blood, the Mexican guys shot on the couch and in the middle of the parking lot, Pruess folded like an old banana in the dumpster, and then lying on the street partially unwrapped, one butchered hand sticking out on the blacktop.
Lucas pushed out a close-up of a finger joint. “This belonged to Patrick Brooks. Cut them off one at a time. Used them to write a message on the wall.”
Pulled out the “Were coming” scrawl.
Kline looked at the photos, first in fascination, then in revulsion, and finally he turned away and said, “I don’t want to see that shit.”
Del said, “This is what they were going to do to you, dude. You were smart enough to get away, but you might not get away the next time.”
Lucas added, “They’ll get you, unless you get some protection…. If we get that gold back, and make a news story out of it, that’ll take away any reason for them to come after you.”
“What about revenge?” Kline asked. “They’ll still want revenge.”
“Listen, the average life span of these guys, these gangsters, is a couple of years,” Lucas said. “We cover you for a couple of years … we could make that part of a deal. Eventually, they’ll forget about it. It’ll seem pointless, if the money’s gone.”
“I’ve got no idea about the money,” Kline said.
“If you help us out with Sanderson and Albitis, one of them will cough up the money,” Del said. “We think Sanderson took out Albitis because of the gold.”
Kline put his head down, seeming to think about it, reached out and pushed one of the photographs aside, to expose a shot of the dead Brooks children, and said, finally, “I’m innocent. But maybe I can find a way to help you. I’ve got to talk to a lawyer first. I’ll start calling around today, see when I can get one. Maybe this afternoon.”
“You need to move fast,” Lucas said. “I’ll tell you what, if Albitis wakes up, and if she’s willing to cooperate … then our deal with you is off. She gets the protection, you get the thirty years.”
“You can guarantee this deal?” Kline asked.
“You get your attorney, you work through the terms, and we’ll put you with a county attorney to get the deal in writing,” Lucas said.
“I’ll start looking for a guy right now,” Kline said.
Lucas said, “Good.” He started gathering the murder pictures.
Del smoothed down his new silk tie and said, “Let me tell you something, Jake. You’re a smart guy. If you think really hard about this, you’ll realize it’s the best deal you’ll get. It might be the best deal of a lifetime. Don’t fuck it up.”
Kline whined and prevaricated and lied some more, wheeling around the apartment, and eventually Lucas and Del picked up the pictures, gave him a last warning about how little time he had to act, and left.
Out on the street, Lucas asked, “Did he buy it?”
