'Does it matter?''
Ellen had nudged her companion and the crying stopped. I took the deck of cigarettes out of my pocket and fiddled with it to keep my hands busy. The white of the wrapper flashed the light back at the sun until attention seemed to be focused on it rather than me.
'It matters,' I said. 'As the charge will state, it was a deliberate conspiracy all right, perpetrated by three citizens in good standing who saw a way to accomplish something that an elected official couldn't manage. The papers will have a field day burying you.'
He smiled. The damn fool smiled at me! 'Don't bother going through that song and dance again.'
He was getting ready to throw the book in my face when Pat spoke from the back of the room. His voice held a strained note, but it had a lot of power behind it. 'Maybe you better hear what he has to say.'
'Say it then.' The smile faded into a grimace of anger. 'It had better be good, because the next time you say anything will be to a judge and jury.'
'It's good. You'll enjoy hearing about it. We,' and I emphasized that 'we,' 'found the hole in the boat.'
I heard Pat gasp and take a step nearer.
'Ellen suggested it to you at one time and the full possibilities of the thing never occurred to you. We know how information is getting out of this office.'
The D.A.'s eyes were bright little beads searching my face for the lie. They crinkled up around the edges when he knew I was telling the truth and sought out Pat for advice. None came so he said, 'How?'
Now I had the ball on his goal line and I wasn't giving it up. 'I won't bother you with the details of how we did it, but I can tell you how it was being done.'
'Damn it... How!'
I gave him his smile back. On me it must have looked good. 'Uh-uh. We trade. You're talking to three clams unless you drop all those charges. Not only drop 'em, but forget about 'em.'
What else could he do? I caught Pat's reflection in the window glass behind the D.A.'s head and he was grinning like an idiot. The D.A. tapped his fingers on the desk-top, his cheeks working. When he looked up he took in the room with one quick glance. 'We'll finish this privately if you gentlemen don't mind. You may stay, Captain Chambers.'
As far as the two assistants were concerned, it was the supreme insult. They hid their tempers nicely though and followed the others out. I laughed behind their backs and the thing that was working at the D.A.'s cheeks turned into a short laugh. 'You know, there are times when I hate your guts. It happens that it's all the time., However, I admire your precocity in a way. You're a thorn in my skin, but even a thorn can be used to advantage at times. If what you have to say is true, consider the charges dropped completely.'
'Thanks,' I said. The women couldn't say anything. They were too stunned. 'I understand you have a man in the department who is suspected of carrying information outside.'
He frowned at Pat. 'That is correct. We're quite sure of it. What we don't know is his method of notifying anyone else.'
'It isn't hard. There's a guy with a tin ear who stands across the street. He wears a hearing aid that doesn't work. He reads lips. A good dummy can read lips at thirty feet without any trouble at all. Your man gets to the street, moves his mouth silently like he's chewing gum or something, but actually calls off a time and place, gets in a car and goes off on a raid. Meanwhile the guy had time to reach a phone and pass the word. Those places are set up for a quick scramble and are moved out before you get there. It's all really very simple.'
'Is he there now?'
'He was when I came in.'
The D.A. muttered a damn and grabbed the phone.
You know how long it took? About three minutes. He started to blab the second they had him inside the building. The voice on the phone got real excited and the D.A. slammed the phone back. His face had happy, happy smeared all over it and he barely had time to say thanks again and tell the women that their efforts were appreciated before he was out the door.
I got to Ellen and tried to put my arms around her. She put her hands on my chest and pushed me away. 'Please, Mike, not now. I... I'm much too upset. It was... horrible before you came.'
'Can I call you later?'
'Yes... all right.'
I let go of her and she hurried out, dabbing at her mouth with a damp handkerchief.
'Well,' Pat said, 'you're a smart bastard anyway. You certainly made life miserable for them for a while even if you did get them off the hook in the end.'
He held the door open and came out behind me. We walked down the corridor to his office without saying anything and when we were inside he waved me into a chair I needed worse than ever and slumped into his own in back of the desk.
Pat let me get a smoke going. He let me have one long drag, then: 'I'm not the D.A., Mike. You don't have anything to trade with me so let's have it straight. That business with the dummy outside was strictly an accident. If the D.A. wasn't so damn eager to grab Teen and Grindle he would have seen it. Two good questions would have put you right back on the spot again.'
'And I still would have had something to trade.'
'Like what?'
'Lou Grindle is dead. I killed him a few hours before I walked in here. Not only that, but two of his boys are dead. I got one and Lou bumped the other by mistake thinking he was me.'
'Mike...' Pat was drumming his fists on the arms of the chair.
