'Would it bother you?' Z said.
'Some,' I said. 'But I'd get over it.'
'He probably should do time, anyway, for being a creep,' Z said.
'Probably,' I said. 'Maybe he can make a deal.'
'Swap Nicky Fellscroft for a light sentence?' Z said.
'Might,' I said. 'If they press charges.'
'They might kill him,' Z said.
'Also possible,' I said.
'Easier than killing us,' Z said.
I nodded. I could hear the rain outside my front windows. Z looked at his half-full glass.
'Ain't a lot of happy endings here,' he said.
'There often aren't,' I said.
'That's how it is,' Z said. 'Isn't it.'
''Fraid so,' I said.
He nodded and sipped his drink and kept nodding slowly, as if in some kind of permanent affirmation.
'That's how it is,' he said.
I don't think he was talking to me.
62
I SPENT THE MORNING with Quirk and a black woman with wide-spaced eyes from the Suffolk County DA's office. Her name was Angela Ruskin. I told them what I knew, and what I thought. They listened.
When I got through, Quirk said, 'I don't think there's enough.'
'We can't prove it didn't happen the way he said it did,' Angela Ruskin said. 'We might be able to get him for trying to pretty up the scene.'
'How much time would he do?' Quirk said.
Angela shrugged.
'Not much,' she said. 'Probably none, if Rita represents him.'
'I don't want to arrest him,' Quirk said.
'Because?' Angela said.
'Because I don't think he did anything. Unless being a creep is illegal.'
'And you believe Spenser,' she said.
'Yes,' Quirk said.
She nodded and scanned the notes she had taken. Then she closed the notebook and stood up.
'I'm inclined to believe him, too,' she said. 'Despite all the publicity, this isn't a winner for us. We don't prosecute and we're giving him a bye because he's a big star. We prosecute and don't convict, it's because we're incompetent, and probably giving him a bye as well. We prosecute and convict and he's sentenced appropriately, we're all soft on him because he's a star.'
'Only way to win is to get him convicted of something he didn't do, or get him a sentence that won't stand on appeal,' Quirk said.
Angela smiled.
'I'll consult with my colleagues,' she said.
After she left, Quirk leaned back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head, and looked at me for a while.
'Heard there was three people killed at a construction site in Somerville last night,' he said. 'Two of them killed with a knife. One with a .40 caliber handgun.'
'World's going to hell in a handbasket,' I said.
Quirk nodded.
'Guy shot to death was Stephano DeLauria, who is the husband of Jumbo Nelson's agent.'
'Tough on Alice,' I said.
Quirk nodded.
'He was a button man,' Quirk said. 'For an L.A. Mob.'
'Really?' I said.
'Had a big rep, I'm told,' Quirk said.
