Show of Evil

got to slick up a little.'

Vail laughed. 'You mean go legit?'

'Exactly, go legit. Get a haircut, get your pants pressed, stop kickin' everybody's ass.'

'Why bother? I'm having a good time.'

'Because you want to move to the other side of town. You want what everybody wants, bow and scrape, tip their hat, call you mister and mean it. You don't want to cop pleas for gunsels the rest of your life. Yancey needs you, son. Venable's left him. He's lost all his gunslingers. His balls're hanging out. Hell, he never did have the stones for that job. He's a politician in a job that calls for an iceman. What he wants is to make judge - eight, nine years down the line - and live off the sleeve for the rest of his time. To do that, he needs to rebuild his reputation because you've been makin' him look like Little Orphan Annie. Twice in one year on headline cases - and you burned up his two best prosecutors to boot. Silverman's still in a coma from the Pinero case and Venable's on her way to Platinum City. He needs you, son.'

'Is that why you dumped this Rushman case on me?'

'Ah, you need a little humility, Martin. Besides, they want a monkey show out of that trial and you'll give it to them.'

'So that's what it's all about, getting a good show and teaching me a little humility?'

Shaughnessey just smiled.

Now, ten years later, nothing seemed to have changed.

'Now what the hell's that mean, I got to start acting like one?' Vail responded.

'This thing between you and Eric - '

'He's an incompetent ass-kisser.'

'He's chief of police. You two got to work together - '

'Listen, Roy, in my first nine months in office, I lost more cases than in the entire nine years I'd practised law. Know why? Eric Eckling.'

'Just work with him instead of going out of your way to make him look like a schmuck.'

'Eckling's cops reflect his own incompetence. They lose evidence, lie, fall apart on the witness stand, put together paper cases, violate civil rights…'

'Maybe that's because you stole his best cop.'

'I caught him on the way out the door. He couldn't stand Eckling, either. The only thing these guys are competent at is screwing up. We do our own investigating now. And we don't lose cases anymore.'

'Why not practice a little discretion, would that hurt anything?'

'What are you, Mr Fixit, the jolly negotiator?'

'It doesn't help anybody - this friction.'

'Hell, you're getting mellow in your old age. You used to tell, not ask.'

'Everybody else I tell. You I ask. Hell, I'm just trying to keep a little peace in the family, yuh mind?'

'Family! I'm not in any goddamn family. What is it, you been talking to Firestone?'

'He bellyaches to a mutual friend, it works its way back to me, I get a call or two. You really pissed him off, you know. What'd you do, tell him to kiss your ass?'

'No, I told him I wasn't there to kiss his.'

'He's vice chairman of the city council, for Christ sake. Do you have to not get along with him? It's like you and Yancey used to be.'

'Yancey and I get along fine. We have an understanding. The only time we have problems is when he forgets it.'

'Firestone is very friendly with the police and firemen. And he's not a big booster of that kindergarten of yours.'