to drink yourselves into oblivion.”
“If that’s all, sir, may I be excused?” Olivia asked.
“Olivia, I hope you understand that was an attempt at humor. We’re going to have a very few drinks, and then dinner.”
“I have a headache, sir.”
“I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
“No, thank you. I just don’t feel-”
“I understand,” Washington said, as, ever the gentleman, he rose to his feet. “I’m sure you’ll feel better by morning.”
“Would you like me to take you to the motel, Olivia?” Matt asked.
“I’ll get a cab, thank you just the same.”
“I don’t know if they have cabs,” Matt said.
And really hope they don’t.
“We have the next best thing,” Chief Yancey said. “Kenny?”
Kenny spoke to the microphone pinned to his shirt.
“Barbara-Anne, send whichever car is closest to the Grand Hotel to give Detective Lassiter a ride to her motel. She’ll be outside the front door.”
“Thank you very much,” Detective Lassiter said.
They watched her walk out of the Bird Cage Lounge.
“Didn’t want to ride with you, huh?” Mickey O’Hara asked. “Is that what they call ‘a lover’s quarrel’?”
“Go to hell, Mickey,” Matt snapped.
“What is bothering her, Matt?” Washington asked. “Something obviously is.”
“I think she thinks I arranged for her to be sent back,” Matt said.
“I can quickly straighten that out, if you’d like.”
“She wants to stay in Homicide,” Matt said. “Is there any chance she can? She’s a pretty good cop.”
“Your loyalty is commendable…”
“Is that what it is, ‘loyalty’?” Mickey said.
“Mickey,” Washington said, coldly angry, “sometimes, as now, you don’t know when to stop.” He turned to Matt. “As for her staying in Homicide, that, I’m afraid, is self-evidently out of the question. And you should know it is.”
Matt couldn’t think of a reply.
“And I just thought of something else,” Washington said. “When I spoke with Commissioner Coughlin, he suggested that your father might like you to call. And I had the feeling that the commissioner would not consider a call from you to be an unwelcome intrusion on his time.”
“Well, I guess I’d better do that right now,” Matt said. “Before I become incoherent.”
He got up from the table and went through a plate-glass door to an area between the hotel building and the bay. They could see him taking out his cellular.
“I think what we have here is raging testosterone,” Cohen said. “And I’m not making fun of him.”
“For that reason, I was deaf to his insolence,” Washington said. He looked between Chief Yancey and Sergeant Kenny.
“I think a word of explanation is in order. Sergeant Payne is carrying his father’s badge. Shortly before Matt was born, his father was killed on duty, answering a silent alarm. Deputy Commissioner Coughlin was his father’s best friend. He is Matt’s godfather.”
“Being a cop’s in his blood, huh?” Sergeant Kenny said.
“Prefacing this by saying I am-perhaps too obviously- fond of our young sergeant, I sometimes wonder if he’s not flying a little too high for his experience.”
“He did a good job with Daniels, Jason,” Steve Cohen said. “Absolutely professional.”
“And now he knows it. That’s my point, Steve. Our Matty is not burdened with over-modesty.”
“And he’s going to be money in the bank on the stand,” Cohen pursued. “If we’re taking a poll, I’d say Matt is a hell of a good cop.”
“I associate myself with the shyster,” O’Hara said. “Now, can we get something to drink, for Christ’s sake?”
“The Nesbitt residence,” the Nesbitt butler answered the call.
“Brewster Payne, Porter. Is Mr. Nesbitt available?”
“I’m sure he will be at home for you, Mr. Payne. One moment, please.”
Several moments later, Chadwick Thomas Nesbitt III, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Nesfoods International, Inc., who had been practicing with a new putter on the practice green behind the left wing of his home, came on the line.
“If you weren’t my lawyer, I’d be happy to hear from you. What’s the bad news you really hate to have to tell me this time? IRS, or something else?”
“Actually, Tom, this does have a certain IRS connection.”
“Oh, God, now what?”
“Your assets have been seized and you may have to go to prison.”
“I don’t think that’s funny.”
“I had drinks with Denny Coughlin at the Rittenhouse just before I started home.”
“Jesus, I didn’t even say the appropriate things about Matty, did I? It was all over the TV. You must be proud as hell of him. Hell, we all are.”
“I am. I just spoke to him. He confirmed what Denny Coughlin told me. There’s no doubt this is the fellow who killed the Williamson girl.”
“And now what happens to him? He pleads he had an unhappy childhood, and they award him damages?”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen. As a matter of fact, the only thing Denny seemed worried about is how to get him back to Philadelphia.”
“He’s going to fight extradition? Do we have diplomatic relations with Alabama?”
“The problem is one of transportation, Tom. Bringing him back on the airlines poses a number of problems, as you can well imagine. The press, for one. The restrictions on even policemen carrying firearms on airplanes, for another.”
“Cut to the chase, Brewster. Your pal Denny Coughlin would like to use Nesfoods’s Citation to bring this character back here, right? And suggested you call me?”
“No, he did not. I really don’t think using your airplane has ever entered his mind.”
“This is your idea?”
“Which I had moments ago, just before I called.”
“After drink number what?”
“Four, possibly five.”
“You’re my legal counsel- counsel me. Why should I?”
“Well, for one thing, all expenses would be fully deductible.”
“As you have so often pointed out to me, you have to spend money before you can claim it was spent for business purposes and is thus deductible from income. You know how much it costs to operate that airplane.”
“It would have undeniable good public relations aspects, Tom.”
“And your pal Denny had nothing to do with this idea of yours, right?”
“I told you he didn’t, Tom,” Payne said. There was a chill in his tone.
“So you did. And I’m still listening.”
“My thought is that there would be benefits to both parties if you were to telephone Alvin Martin and say it has come to your attention-you may use my name, if you like-that the police are having a problem transporting this fellow back here, and that Nesfoods International, as concerned, good, corporate citizens of our fair community…”
“And you just happen to have the mayor’s unlisted number, right?”
“No, but I have one he gave me in case I ever wanted to get in touch with him, day or night.”
“Let’s have it.”
