“Am I being cross-examined now?”
“One phone call from any of this foursome could’ve saved the man’s life.”
“He’ll be no use if he can’t get a night’s sleep.”
“Mr. Mahon. I’m not the one getting in the way of Twomey’s shut-eye. You’re the one made the request to keep this long consultation going so long. I mean, I admire your staying power tonight. Any other solicitor would be gone hours ago.”
“Your mind is made up?”
“It is.”
“Let me phrase it a different way. What is it exactly you are expecting from him tonight?”
“That he tells us what really happened. I’m more than content to wait until tomorrow and argue the same thing in the Circuit Court.”
Mahon rubbed at his eyebrows, and then looked over Minogue’s shoulder at the open door.
“You’re here because this is a high-profile case. A lot of pressure too?”
“That’s immaterial and irreverent,” Minogue replied with a shrug.
“I know you have the girls here too. And you’re playing everyone off against the other.”
“The world isn’t flat, Mr. Mahon. It hasn’t been flat for quite a long time.”
“Questionable process there. Juveniles, questioning at this hour of the night?”
“Phone a judge,” said Minogue. “Have a go. No hard feelings, whatever happens. Or doesn’t happen.”
“Kids that age will say anything.”
Minogue gave him the eye.
“Your client already said so. Several times, if I remember. No one is saying either one of these two girls is sugar and spice.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that.”
“Which always means the opposite, in my experience. You’re driving at…”
“That people have blind spots. All people.”
“Specifically?”
To his credit, Mahon wasn’t flinching.
“That girls wouldn’t be capable of doing it. That maybe the men here — boys really, or at least my client, I regard him as a boy really — have a misguided loyalty.”
Minogue raised an eyebrow. Mahon raised one back.
“Mr. Mahon, let me tell you something. I’d want you on my side, I really would. To be sure, people do the right thing for the wrong reason, and all the rest of it. I don’t for a minute doubt what young ones — girls — can do, what they come up with.”
Minogue took a step back toward the doorway.
“So, on account of my admiration for what you’re doing here tonight — and I am not joking one bit, now — here’s what had been going through my mind. The two young ones set Mr. Klos up and then they told the two lads when they showed up. All part of a plan. Who’s to say the two girls didn’t even lend a hand? Or a boot, should I say. But that doesn’t diminish what your client did. What I allege he did. Why I oppose bail.”
“You have forensic evidence to back all of this.”
It was unworthy of Mahon, Minogue believed, but he was tired and frustrated too, no doubt.
Mahon cast a glance again at the doorway.
“We’ll have to leave it at that,” Minogue said.
Chapter 36
The car creaked as Cully stretched again. He sat back and closed his eyes.
“Well can I get out? Or open the window a bit?”
Cully looked at his watch.
“Wait a minute and I’ll get out with you.”
Cully reached under his seat and pulled out the shopping bag that held the pistol. He unwrapped the nylon pouch, releasing an oily smell into the car, and he lifted out the pistol.
“Here you go,” he said. “Tell me what you’re going to do first.”
“I’m going to put gloves on.”
“No, you’re going to ask me to check it’s safe. Safe is, it’s empty, no rounds in it.”
“Okay.”
Cully remained still. Fanning knew he was staring at him.
“Can you do that then?” he asked Cully. “Please?”
Cully nodded slowly.
“Raring to go, aren’t you?”
“Just want to get it done and get out of here,” said Fanning.
“Cully pulled the ammunition clip from the bag.
“Clip is out, okay? But you always assume there’s one in the chamber. Ever see that?”
“On television.”
“Pull back the slide, empty. Here.”
“You want me to…?”
“Sure. You’ve got to see what it’s like. Heavy, isn’t it?”
Fanning held it on his palm and lowered it to his lap.
“Hold it, go on. The grip there.”
“The grip.”
“The handle you call it. Yeah, hold it.”
“Finger inside here?”
“Outside the guard.”
Fanning heard his own breath escaping through his nose.
“Breathe,” said Cully. “I’m not joking.”
Fanning let out his breath in small, controlled breaths through his mouth.
“So what do you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“Sure you do. You just don’t want to say it.”
“Okay. Whatever.”
“It’s power,” said Cully, “right?”
“I suppose.”
“You suppose? You have one, the other guy doesn’t. That’s power. No one can hurt you. You can say what you like can’t you? Pretty well do what you like. It’s all up to you. Right?”
Fanning nodded. His heart rate wasn’t slowing.
“Keep your head, show self-control and you’re going to be able to do things. You see? But if you’re an idiot, what you’re holding there is only going to speed things up, until you crack. You have the gun, the gun doesn’t have you. You know what that means?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Okay then. We’re going out there to take a bit of a stroll. Not far. I’ll bring the clip.”
Cold night air from the forest washed over Fanning’s face. He felt his heels sink into the needles and he closed the car door. There was no door light in the car. It had probably been Cully’s doing. He waited for Cully’s dark form to come around the boot of the car.
“Christ,” said Cully, “dark enough.”
“I can’t see anything out here.”
“Anything?”
“I can see a few patches of light in the sky there.”
Cully tapped the trunk with his knuckles before he made his way around.
