Show of Evil

Perfect target.'

'Please, Abel. That's over. Heintz is dead, Shoulders is doing ten years.'

'Once warned…'

'Okay. You know I appreciate your concern. I just need a little privacy every once in a while. Kinda like sneaking out when you were a kid.'

'I never sneaked out when I was a kid.'

'I think I knew that, Abel.'

Stenner looked at Vail's wrinkled suit and twisted tie. 'You want to go home and change?' he asked.

'Hell with it,' Vail said.

'You're in court this morning and Naomi says you have a lunch with Paul Rainey.'

'Butterfly's, Major. I want breakfast. Anyway, it's not my case, it's Parver's. I'm just going to sit in the back of the courtroom and spectate.'

'How about the lunch with Rainey?'

'I'll pick up the tab. He won't care what I'm wearing.'

Seventeen

When Vail and Stenner arrived at Butterfly's, Naomi Chance and Dermott Flaherty were already there, immersed in the morning papers. Naomi looked disapprovingly at Vail as he sat down.

'Didn't get too close to your razor this morning,' she commented.

He couldn't think of an appropriate answer, so he said nothing. Instead he turned to Butterfly, who loomed over the table staring down at him.

'Two poached, sausage, white toast,' he said.

'Poached,' she snarled. 'God!' And slouched away.

'And that suit -' Naomi began.

'I don't want to hear about my suit or shaving or anything else,' Vail said.

'You can grab a quick shave in your private bath,' Naomi said.

'Screw my private bath. It's not a bathroom, it's an afterthought. They put a sink and a shower in a broom closet and called it a bathroom.'

'It's convenient.'

'It's the size of the can in an airliner.'

'There's a clean shirt and a tie in one of your file cabinets and your grey pinstripe is in the closet, take you fifteen minutes before you go down to court,' Naomi said, scanning the front page of USA Today.

'What is it with everybody today?' Vail grumbled. 'I'm not posing for GQ, you know. Why don't you pick on Flaherty? He wears that same black suit every day.'

'I have four black suits,' Flaherty said without looking up from his paper. 'I don't wear the same one every day.'

'Don't you find it a little bizarre that he dresses like Johnny Cash every day ' Vail said. 'Why don't you pick on him?'

Stenner said, 'I think some variety might be in order.'

'I'm comfortable in black,' Flaherty said, ending the conversation.

Further discussion was cut short by the arrival of Okie Okimoto, who looked smug and important as he approached the table. He was carrying his briefcase.

Butterfly frowned at him. 'We don't serve sushi in here,' she growled.

'I have no desire to eat here, Madame Butterfly. Hopefully I can survive a cup of coffee.'

'Smartass,' she muttered, and dragged her feet into the kitchen.

Okimoto sat down at the round table, opened his case, and took out a file folder.