Twenty-five years old, they made him the youngest captain in the navy.”
“Humor him,” I said, walking out with Nan. “John Paul Jones usually works when you need a naval hero.”
“Stephen Decatur, girls. ‘Our country, right or wrong,’ and all that. Died in a duel.”
“Yeah, but can you remember what you’re going to testify about in the case this week?”
“Spontaneity, Coop. You need to lighten up. You got to rock and roll with the circumstances at hand.”
“I’m rocking as best I can. What if the arraignment judge decides to let Carol Goodwin go instead of holding her for a psych exam?”
“You worried about her coming after you?” Mike asked.
“No, I’m concerned that she’s going to do something more dramatic to hurt herself and blame that on me. I kept flashing to that snapshot of her bloody arm on the bathroom floor when I should have been concentrating on other work all day.”
“Give me five minutes to close up my office and I’ll meet you outside the building,” Nan said. “Whose car?”
“I’m the wheelman.”
I took a couple of folders, shut out the lights, and headed for the elevator with Mike. The brisk night air was refreshing after an entire day inside the courthouse. I waited at the curb until Mike brought his car around.
I leaned into the window. “Would you mind checking with Central Booking as long as we’re waiting? See if you can get a status update on Goodwin?”
“You’re really nervous, aren’t you? Wait here for Nan.” Mike left the engine running and walked to the rear of 80 Centre Street, into the open garage through which prisoners were delivered for their first court appearance following their arrest and for fingerprinting.
Nan joined me in the car, and Mike returned shortly and said, “Your fruitcake won’t see a judge until sometime tomorrow. She threw a little tantrum in the ER over at Beekman, so they had to restrain her for a while to sleep it off. They’ll keep her in the psych ward tonight for observation, and she’ll be arraigned in the morning if she behaves. Feel better?”
“Yes. As long as she’s in a locked facility getting medical attention, it’ll get my day off to a better start.”
When we reached Thirtieth Street, Mike parked the car on Tenth Avenue and we walked into the construction site. Patrolmen were still guarding the entrance and the perimeter, but all of the media were gone.
When we reached the double-wide trailer that was the sandhogs’ headquarters, Mike entered first, holding open the door for Nan and me. Teddy O’Malley and a handful of men had their lunch boxes opened on desktops. The conversation stopped dead as the group stared at the three interlopers.
O’Malley got to his feet to greet us. “Hey, Mike. C’mon in. Miss Cooper.”
Mike stepped over and started shaking hands with the first two workmen closest to us. “Mike Chapman, NYPD. Nan Toth, Alex Cooper, from the DA’s Office.”
The man we had seen on our first visit-Bobby Hassett-was sitting near the rear of the room with O’Malley. He closed the lid of his tin box and stood up, jerking his head toward the door. “Let’s go.”
Like his younger brothers-identical twins who stood up at his command-Bobby Hassett was about six foot two. All three Hassetts were strapping young men, with wide, moon-shaped faces and high foreheads, heads sitting atop thick necks that widened into barrel chests. All three wore work clothes covered with dirt.
Bobby’s expression was stern and his voice sharp. “Emmet, Hal-I said, let’s go.”
The twins hadn’t moved the first time. They were as curious as the other men about who we were and how O’Malley seemed to know Detective Chapman.
“Mike, here, was hoping to talk to you guys,” O’Malley said, looking at Bobby Hassett as he spoke. There was no question who was calling the shots for the brothers. “He’s on the team that’s investigating the blast.”
Bobby stowed his lunch box above a locker and put his hard hat back on his head.
“Can’t help you, pal. I wasn’t working that night. Emmet, bring some extra cigarettes. Let’s get back to work.”
He came at us, stuffing half a sandwich in a plastic bag and pocketing it in his overalls.
Mike had moved from the door, but I was standing next to it, with Nan a few steps farther away.
“It won’t take long, Bobby,” Mike said. “There’s just some things you might be able to help us with.”
The big man put his hand on his waist, and as he turned to answer Mike, his elbow caught the side of my chest, knocking me back a few steps. I tripped over the chair leg behind me, and a stack of papers tumbled off the nearest table.
“You okay?” Nan said, grabbing my hand to pull me up.
“Take the broads and get out of here, Mr. Chapman. There’s a lot of accidents can happen around the tunnel, do you hear me? I’ve got nothing at all to say to you. Emmet, Hal-this isn’t a picnic,” Bobby said, reaching for the doorknob. “Hey, Teddy, since when are you doing the man’s bidding? Next time you want to invite me for dinner, tell me who else’ll be at the table.”
Bobby and his brothers stomped down the steps of the shack in their mud-caked boots. Mike was annoyed, his lips clamped together and his eyes darting from Teddy to the door. He hadn’t come this far to be dissed.
“Wait here,” he said, holding his hand up at Nan and me as he headed out.
O’Malley was on his heels. “That’s a bad idea, Mike. Let them be. Cop or no cop, you’ll not make them talk to you. You’d best try to set up a meeting through the union rep.”
Nan looked at me and we dashed for the exit, too. A couple of overhead lights helped us navigate around the giant machinery and over the pockmarked ground as we trailed behind O’Malley.
I couldn’t make out the words but I could hear Mike’s voice, badgering the trio of Hassetts as they made their way to the top of the cylindrical entrance to the tunnel shaft. They moved swiftly-more sure-footed on this rough terrain than either Mike or the two of us.
“They’ll turn on you, Mike,” O’Malley said. “Don’t be riding them.”
Bobby Hassett grabbed the wire cage opening on the side of the Alimak and slammed it shut as soon as the twins stepped on behind him. He flipped a switch and the bare lightbulb over his head glowed against the schist in the bedrock wall.
“You want to talk about the Quillians, Mr. Chapman? I’ll make an appointment for you to come downstairs here to my office sometime. Leave your little girls at home,” Bobby said, leering at us, his blackened fingers clutching the mesh of the cage. The grinding noise of the motor started up, Bobby raising his voice to shout over it. “Teddy knows how to find me, as you can see. Keep my brothers out of this.”
“I want to know everything there is to know about Duke Quillian,” Mike said.
“You shoulda been at the church, Detective. Teddy says Duke got himself a really deserving send-off,” Bobby said, his white teeth shining as he threw his head back and laughed. He obviously had no reason to know that Mike had been at the funeral service.
“I need to talk to you about Brendan Quillian, too.”
The Alimak started to move slowly off the platform.
“You got him in the right place, Mr. Chapman. Let’s see if you can keep him there.”
“And Bex,” Mike said. All we could see of the Hassetts were the crowns of their bright yellow hard hats. “Your sister, Rebecca. I want to ask you about her murder. I want to ask what you remember about how she died.”
The groaning wire cage disappeared down into the deep black hole, and none of the three men aboard it-a true band of brothers-said a word.
28
We had a quick dinner together at Primola before Mike put Nan in a cab for her ride home to Brooklyn Heights and dropped me in front of my door.
I left the apartment at 7 a.m., driving myself to the courthouse and parking on the empty street behind the small park in Chinatown that Mike called Red Square. Fishmongers were packing ice chips onto their sidewalk display cases, filling them with wriggling crabs and lobsters and fish whose odor would grow less appealing with the heat of the June day, while Asian farmers from rural New Jersey were unloading mounds of fresh, exotic vegetables.
