In the Midst of Death

Of course she'd had to come to pick him up. And she would take it easy for a day or two, and then she'd let him know how things stood.

She'd said she didn't expect much trouble from him. She was certain he didn't love her and that she had long since ceased to be important in his life. But I was to give her a couple of days, and then she would call.

'Well, that was pretty exciting,' a voice behind me said. 'I figured maybe we were supposed to throw rice at the happy couple, something like that.'

Without turning I said, 'Hello, Eddie.'

'Hello, Matt. Beautiful morning, isn't it?'

'Not bad.'

'I suppose you're feeling pretty good.'

'Not too bad.'

'Cigar?'Lieutenant Eddie Koehler didn't wait for an answer, put the cigar in his own mouth and lit it. It took him three matches because the wind blew out the first two. 'I oughta get a lighter,' he said. 'You check out that lighter Broadfield was using before? Looked expensive.'

'I think it probably is.'

'Looked like gold to me.'

'Probably.Though gold and gold plate look pretty much the same.'

'They don't cost the same, though. Do they?'

'Not as a general rule.'

He smiled, swung out a hand, and gripped my upper arm. 'Aw, you son of a bitch,' he said.

'Lemme buy you a drink, you old son of a bitch.'

'It's a little early for me, Eddie.Maybe a cup of coffee.'

'Even better.Since when is it ever too early to buy you a drink?'

'Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll take it a little easier on the booze, see if it makes a difference.'

'Yeah?'

'Well, for a while, anyway.'

He eyed me appraisingly. 'You sound like your old self a little, you know that? I can't remember the last time you sounded like this.'

'Don't make too much out of it, Eddie. All I'm doing is passing up a drink.'

'No, there's something else. I can't put my finger on it, but something's different.'

We went over to a little place on Reade Street and ordered coffee and Danish. He said, 'Well, you sprung the bastard. I hate to see him off the hook, but I can't hardly hold it against you. You got him off.'

'He shouldn't have been on in the first place.'

'Yeah, well, that's something else, isn't it?'

'Uh-huh. You ought to be glad the way things worked out. He's not going to be a tremendous amount of use to Abne Prejanian because Prejanian's going to have to keep a low profile for the next little while.

He doesn't look too good himself now. His assistant just got nailed for killing two people and framing Abner's star witness. You were complaining that he loved to see his name in the papers. I think he's going to try to keep his name out of the papers for a couple of months, don't you?'

'Could be.'

'And Knox Hardesty doesn't look too good, either. He's all right as far as the public is concerned, but the word's going to get around that he's not very good at protecting his witnesses. He had Carr, and Carr gave him Manch , and they're both dead, and that's not a good track record to have when you're trying to get people to cooperate with you.'

'Of course he hasn't been bothering the department, anyway, Matt.'

'Not yet. But with Prejanian quiet he might have wanted to come on in. You know how it goes, Eddie.

Whenever they want headlines they take a shot at the cops.'

'Yeah, that's the fucking truth.'

'So I didn't do so badly by you, did I? The department doesn't wind up looking bad.'

'No, you did all right, Matt.'

'Yeah.'

He picked up his cigar, puffed on it. It had gone out. He lit it again with a match and watched the match burn almost to his fingertips before shaking it out and dropping it into the ashtray. I chewed a bite of Danish and chased it with a gulp of coffee.

I could cut down on the drinking. There would be times when it got difficult. When I thought abou tFuhrmann and how I could have taken that call from him.Or when I thought about Manch and his plunge to the ground. My phone call couldn't have done it all by itself. Hardesty had been pressuring him all along, and he'd been carrying a load of guilt for years. But I hadn't helped him, and maybe if I hadn't called-Except you can't let yourself think that way.What you have to do is remind yourself that you caught one murderer and kept one innocent man out of prison. You never win them all, and you can't blame yourself whenever you drop one.