Across the street there was something hanging in Linda's office window. I looked harder. It was a big red heart. I smiled. The phone rang. It was Vinnie.
'For crissake, don't you know better than to ask for Joe,' he said.
'Self-amusement,' I said. 'You still want to help me on the Paultz thing?'
'Depends.'
'I need some people to keep Bullard Winston alive.'
'The minister or whatever the fuck he is?'
'Yes. He's all we've got on Mickey.'
'You with him now?'
'No. Hawk's got him.'
'He's safe enough for now,' Vinnie said,'Unless he annoys Hawk.'
'How about you pick it up at eight o'clock, give you time to organize it.'
'Sure. Where is he?'
I told him. 'I'll be there at eight to meet you. Come yourself so I'll know they're your people.'
'No sweat, just make sure you don't jerk us off on this one, buddy boy. We do this and you don't dump Paultz and Joe is going to say it ain't cost-effective. You understand?'
'Would I mislead you, Vinnie?'
'Yes,' Vinnie said. 'But only once.'
I said, 'See you at eight,' and hung up. Before I left the office I drew a large smile face on a piece of typewriter paper and taped it into my window facing Linda's heart.
CHAPTER 27
Vince Haller drew up a trust agreement for me that was twenty-eight pages long and read like the Rosetta Stone.
'They give courses in gobbledygook at law school?' I said.
'Law school is gobbledygook,' Haller said. 'No need for a special course.'
'If it had been written by a sentient being, what would it say?' I was in Haller's office in the penthouse suite at 5 Staniford, thirty-eighth floor. Genuine antiques, original oils, Oriental rugs, word processors, good-looking secretaries, twelve attorneys. There was gold in gobbledygook.
'It would say that all earning of the capital funding of this trust would be paid to the Reorganized Church of the Redemption, in the person of Sherry Spellman, or her designee, and successors in perpetuity. It would say further that money deposited to this trust was deposited irrevocably.'
'Who administers the trust?' I said.
Haller smiled. 'Me,' he said. 'Or my designee and successors.'
'Fee?'
'No fee,' Haller said. 'A tax deductible donation of time at our standard billing rate will be made each month.' He was wearing his trademark white suit and a wide maroon knit tie with a gold collar pin.
'So all I have to do is get the thing funded and we're in business.'
Haller handed me a deposit slip. 'Got the account all ready. Opened it with a one-hundred-dollar tax deductible donation of my own. Checks should be made out to the Reorganized Church of the Redemption Trust.'
'I have a feeling that the deposits will be in cash,' I said.
Haller shrugged. 'Always a negotiable instrument,' he said. 'You want to come out to the house for dinner Sunday? Mary Margaret has been On my ass to invite you out.'
I shook my head. 'Thanks, Vince, but I can't make it Sunday.'
Haller nodded. 'How are you?' he said.
'Still here,' I said.
'I got a bottle of Black Bush,' he said, 'that I brought back from Ireland last time. Want to drink it with me and talk a little?'
'No,' I said. 'I talk too much as it is.'
'How alone are you?' Haller said.
'Paul's with me, and I see Hawk a lot.' Haller shook his head.
'And I've met a very wonderful woman,' I said.
'They're all wonderful,' Haller said.
'Well, many of them,' I said.
'I love them,' Haller said. 'The way they talk, how they smell, the way they touch their hair, everything.'
'I know,' I said.
'I never thought one woman was enough,' he said.
