'The coat's a lot longer than the skirt.'
'Let's just go back to sleep. I'll talk to Sievers in the morning.'
'Should I get a lawyer?'
'It probably wouldn't hurt.' He sighed. 'That isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, was it?'
'No.'
She looked out. They were working the far end of the alley now, their beams faint as lightning bugs in the gloom.
'Still there.'
'He'll probably put some more people on it tomorrow. I want to work on it all I can but I'm on the Allbright case full-timeyou know, the socialite murder. Sievers is getting a lot of heat about it.'
'I don't understand why they're doing this.'
He frowned. 'A suspect's residence or place of employment is important to check out.'
'''Suspect.' Boy, that has a nasty ring, doesn't it?' She hesitated. 'I didn't think things like this actually happened to people like me.'
'Jill, nothing has happened to you. At least, not so far. That's what you've got to keep in mind.'
'It's just been routine?'
'Pretty much.'
'Including my blouse in the dumpster?'
Even in the darkness she could see that he averted his eyes.
'We'll have to see about that. I'll check with Sievers first thing in the morning.'
'I'm trying not to be scared, Mitch.'
'Sleep will help.'
'I can't sleep. I'm going to get up and put on some coffee.' She closed her eyes momentarily. 'Tell me again not to be scared, Mitch.'
'Don't be scared.'
'I'm glad you came over tonight.'
'So am I. This'll all work out, Jill. I promise.'
'You and me or Eric's murder?'
'Both.'
'I wish I felt guiltier.'
'About Eric?'
'Uh-huh.'
'Sometimes you're numb for a while.'
'I guess I was that way about Peter. After the execution, I mean.'
'Try not to think about that tonight.'
'Blue skies and butterflies? You know how you say that's all I should worry about.'
'Blue skies and butterflies. That's all that should be in your head.'
'I really didn't kill him,' Jill said.
'I know.'
'Even if that was blood on my blouse.'
'I know.'
'Oh Mitch, I don't know how to deal with any of this at all. I can't keep second-guessing everything I say.'
'That's what lawyers are for.'
She laughed. 'I knew they served a purpose. So that's it, eh?'
'You know Deborah Douglas, right?'
'Did a portrait of her last year.'
'She's a very good criminal attorney. Call her in the morning.'
'Mitch?'
'Yes.'
'Do you think I can convince Sievers I'm innocent?'
'Absolutely.'
But the unspoken truth was that she didn't believe that, and Mitch probably didn't, either.
Then she set about the difficult task of filling her mind with blue skies and butterflies as she went into the kitchen and made coffee.
CHAPTER 47
A city councilman had paid an early visit to Lieutenant Sievers and was discussing something at length inside the Lieutenant's office.
Mitch could see the two men sitting on either side of the desk, talking. Every few minutes, the councilmanHank O'Mally was his namewould shove a document at the Lieutenant and then the Lieutenant would shove it right back.
'This could go on for a while,' one of the detectives said to Mitch. 'O'Mally's trying to get this constituent's charges dropped.'
'What'd he do?'
'Allegedly raped his fourteen-year-old babysitter. O'Mally comes up here every couple of days.' The detective winked at Mitch. 'The constituent must really have somethin' on O'Mally.'
Mitch smiled, nodded. This was a daily occurrence, somebody with power (real or imaginary) coming up here and trying, unsuccessfully, to get Lieutenant Sievers to drop some charge or other. Sievers was a great cop, liked and admired by all the men and women in the department. Wayne Sievers was middle-aged, a great racquetball player, and had lived for many years with a man who was obviously his lover. But that was nobody's business. Sievers didn't ask them about their sex-lives and they didn't ask him. He was a damned good cop and that was all that mattered.
Mitch watched the day begin as he sat nervously at his desk, waiting his chance with Sievers. Roll call over, the sixteen detectives filling the sixteen desks that were sprawled across the big dusty room now worked the phones, lining up witnesses and suspects to hit for information on their various cases.
O'Mally didn't wrap up for another twenty minutes.
When Lieutenant Sievers' door finally came open, O'Mally, a lean man in the expensive gray suit of a banker, was saying. 'He's done a lot for this community, Lieutenant and this girl well, she isn't exactly from a real good family.'
'That's supposed to convince me she didn't get raped, is itthat she isn't from a real good family?'
'No, but it does bring her motives into question.'
'Oh yeah?'
O'Mally sighed, a thirtyish man with the faint air of weariness that touches all public officials after a few years. 'I think so. Here's a girl who hasn't had much in life. She sees the nice home he lives in, the nice car he drives her home in… and she gets resentful.'
'So she accuses him of rape?'
'That's how I see it.' O'Mally put out his hand. 'I hope you'll give it a little more thought.'
Lieutenant Sievers frowned. 'I just wish she'd gotten in here sooner. Too late for any kind of DNA evidence or anything like that.'
'I'm not even sure the DA'll want to press charges.'
'No?' Lieutenant Sievers said, irritated. 'You talk to him, did you?'
O'Mally's cheeks turned red. 'I just meant that he tends not to go ahead unless a case is very strong'
Lieutenant Sievers was still angry. 'You leave the DA to me, all right, O'Mally?'
'Yessir.'
'Now get the hell out of here.'
