Immoral Certainty (28 page)

“Now
you’re
going to try. And to make it easy for you, since you probably don’t have any experience at it, we’ll do it like baseball. You get three strikes. Three lies I catch you in and you get a new lawyer, and believe me, Felix,
I
dump you and you’re going to wind up with an ambulance chaser that’ll fuck it up so bad they’ll reinstate the electric chair just for you.

“So here’s the first question. When did you decide to kill this Mullen woman?”

“I didn’t kill anybody!” said Felix sulkily, looking down at the table.

Klopper smiled unpleasantly. “Strike one,” he said.

“What did the doctor say?” asked Karp anxiously. Marlene had been sick every day for over a month. Previously slim, she now approached the unnatural dimensions of a fashion model or a Dachau alumna. During that time Karp had been nagging at her in increasing desperation to see a doctor, and that morning she had finally agreed to see a local M.D.

She let out a bitter laugh. “He gave me a scrip for Valium.”

“There was nothing wrong with you?”

“Only with my head, according to Dr. Herman Myers. Another hysterical broad—I could see him thinking it. Give her some dope and get rid of her. Maybe I’ll fill it. I could take the whole bottle—”

“Oh, shut up! I can’t stand it when you talk like that.”

“Sorry,” she said and laughed again, without much humor. “This is wearing me down. I can’t work, I can hardly watch TV. Maybe I
should
see a shrink—or an exorcist, one.”

The two of them were standing near the circular information desk in the first floor lobby of Centre Street, in the area reserved for people with official business. From this vantage one could see the main entrance doors as well as the lobbies where the elevators let out. If you stayed there long enough, you would see pass by (a depressing thought) virtually everyone connected with the criminal justice system in New York County.

“Who’re you waiting for?” asked Karp, to change the subject.

“Judge Rice. His office said he’d be coming in about now, and I hate to make an appointment to see him in chambers just for a couple of minutes.”

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with him. What are you seeing him about now?”

“Wouldn’t
you
like to know? A girl could have her little secrets,” she said with a spark of her old spirit.

“He’s too old for you.”

“You’re
too old for me, if it comes to that. I’m obviously going to retch my way to an early grave. Maybe I should just immerse myself in young flesh for the little time that remains to me. That one’s about right.”

“Who, that little kid?” asked Karp, following her pointing finger with his eyes.

“Yeah, isn’t he gorgeous? Why should the male perverts have all the fun?”

Marlene had indicated what appeared to be a boy of about eight or ten, walking deep in conversation with a coffee-colored man of extraordinary appearance. They were an odd couple even for this milieu. The smaller figure was dressed in a blue suit, as if for an elementary school assembly. He had that finely chiseled, preternatural beauty often obtained when the inheritance of all the human races are combined: curled fine chestnut hair, high cheekbones, large dark, almond eyes, and a flawless complexion in a permanent sun tan shade. He was slender and stood somewhat under five feet in height.

His companion, by contrast, was chocolate brown and a giant, taller than Karp by half a foot, and dressed in the panoply of the successful street dude: a suit of some rich, pale nubby material over a peacock blue silk shirt open halfway down his chest. Apartheid was obviously not one of his big causes, for he wore enough gold rings, bracelets, and chains to support the Republic of South Africa for the better part of a year.

“I know that guy,” announced Karp, as the mismatched pair approached.

“Who, the kid?”

“No, the big one.”

And, in fact, as the two passed by the information desk, the giant glanced at Karp, made to go by, stopped, looked Karp up and down, scowled, and then pointed at him with a finger like a center punch.

“Hey, I know you, man,” he said in a deep rumble of a voice. “I played Rucker ball with you.”

“Yeah,” agreed Karp, “a million years ago. Matt Boudreau, isn’t it?”

The big man broke a grin, showing yet more gold. “Yeah! Matt the Cat. Well, how about that! And you’re, don’t tell me—Butch, something …”

“Karp,” said Karp sticking out his hand, which the other shook enthusiastically. “Man!” exclaimed Boudreau, “we played some ball, didn’t we?” To his companion he said, “Junior, this guy used to play ball with me in the Rucker League. Best white bread ball player I ever saw. Hey, Karp, this my partner, Junior Gibbs.” Karp shook the tiny hand, then introduced Marlene.

Marlene looked closely at the beautiful boy when she shook hands, and realized with a start that he was not a little boy at all, but a miniature man in his late teens or early twenties.

“You still play ball, Karp?” Boudreau was asking.

“No, I got hurt in school. My knee. You?”

“Yeah, still the king of the playground. I played three years at Kentucky. I woulda gone pro, I mean, I had the moves, you know? But I had a couple of problems at school …” He smiled and shrugged, and Karp vaguely recalled a gambling scandal a decade past. Matt the Cat didn’t seem inclined to pursue it. He said, “So what you doin’ here? You a lawyer, or what?”

“A D.A.”

“No shit? I’m in wholesale myself.” They chattered a while about games past and what had happened to what schoolboy player. Marlene searched the crowd for Rice, while Junior Gibbs shot blazing smiles at her whenever he happened to catch her eye.

After about ten minutes of this Karp began to look pointedly at his watch. Boudreau seemed to have no pressing engagements. Karp excused himself at last, saying it was his morning for sitting in calendar courts. He did this as often as he could, to keep his subordinates honest, or rather, to keep the necessary crookedness within decent limits.

“I’m going to watch Kirsch,” he said. “God help us.”

“He still a problem?” asked Marlene.

“Yeah, but not for long. I hear the private sector beckons—he’s getting out soon.”

With that, Karp waved and stomped off, followed soon after by Matt Boudreau. Gibbs did not appear anxious to leave, in fact, seemed delighted to have Marlene all to himself.

“So you’re a D.A. too, huh?” he said.

“Yes. And what do you do, Mr. Gibbs?”

“Hey, call me Junior. Oh, a little of this, a little of that. Hey, you like to dance? You ever go to clubs?”

“No, I have a wooden leg,” said Marlene, looking around desperately for someone to rescue her from what experience had told her was going to be an embarrassing proposition. She found it in a slouching bearish man lugging a bulky cardboard carton toward the main doors—Peter Balducci. Marlene waved him over with enthusiasm. He rested his carton on the edge of the information counter and sighed, massaging the small of his back.

“Long time no see, Peter. You must be getting short.”

“Yeah, I hand in the potsy in a few weeks.”

“Good for you. What’s in the box? Bribes?”

“I wish. No, it’s the stuff from the trash-bag case. I left a message for you—we’re transferring out of here now that the action’s in Queens.” He saw her expression change and he said kindly, “Don’t worry, kid—we’ll catch the mutt. And maybe the doll and the stuff we collected here’ll do some good.”

“Yeah, maybe,” said Marlene doubtfully. “You got the doll in there?”

“Uh-huh.” Balducci lifted the lid of the carton and hoisted up the top of Lucy Segura’s Belgian doll, wrapped in a plastic bag. He chuckled. “It still knocks me out—ten, twelve grand for a doll!”

“That doll’s worth twelve grand?” exclaimed Junior Gibbs, standing on tip-toe to get a better look. Balducci seemed to notice him for the first time. He frowned and said, “Hello, Junior.”

“You two know each other?” asked Marlene.

“Yeah, Junior and I go back a couple of years. Still going through the transom, Junior?”

“Nah, I’m clean now, Balducci. Ask my parole officer.”

“Yeah, right. You’re hanging around the courthouse for old times’ sake,” said the detective, picking up his carton. “Marlene, don’t tell this mutt where you live—he goes through keyholes. See you around.” He headed for the doors.

“You’re a burglar?” asked Marlene, fascinated.

“I done some,” admitted Gibbs, flashing his boyish grin. “But I was younger then, you know …”

“How old are you now?”

“Old enough, baby, old enough. How old are
you?”

“Too old to be standing around jiving with crooks. See you in court, Junior.” She turned to go, having spotted Judge Rice coming through the main revolving door, but Gibbs tugged at her sleeve and asked, “Hey, lady, is it true about that doll being worth twelve large?”

Marlene nodded. “True. It’s a collector’s item. Some folks have dozens of them, and some worth more than that. It’s an unfair world, Junior.”

Gibbs registered innocent amazement. “No kidding. Like what folks is that?”

And now, as she looked into his greedy, perfect little face, Marlene did something she would regret profoundly later on, something she knew was wrong and stupid at the time, but which, as sick and angry and frustrated as she was then, she found irresistible.

“Folks like Mrs. Irma Dean,” she said, and gave him the address.

As that afternoon wore on, Karp was sitting, with a newspaper and a miscellany of overdue paperwork, in the back of an unused jury box watching the unstately progress of Part 45 of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. The jury box was empty because Part 45 was a calendar court, today operating in Karp’s favorite courtroom, the one with the mural behind the presidium—a faded allegory featuring a robed 1930’s-style woman who stood, amid groves, in some uncertain relationship to two small children, a boy with a sword and a girl. It was untitled, and what it represented no one knew, although V.T. had once remarked that it ought to be called the “Spirit of Mopery.” Karp thought it was a good symbol for the business transacted beneath it: obscurely comforting but essentially void of meaning.

Above the mural was another of Karp’s delights, the motto that read, because of an apt crumbling of old paint, “In Go We Trust.” This, in fact, captured perfectly the spirit of the calendar courts, where alacrity of process had usurped all other legal considerations.

In the cockpit of this contraption sat Judge Herbert Rice, driving it well, Karp had to admit. It was a matter of tone, Karp decided. A judge sitting in a calendar court could influence the process in a number of ways that had little to do with what was in the statute books. By being serious, by
pretending
seriously that the people had a right to justice, a judge could lend some gravity to the plea-bargaining game.

This was what Rice did; Karp could see why Marlene liked him. Right now a defense attorney was arguing that the felony charge of first-degree burglary against his client should be dropped to the misdemeanor of trespassing.

The A.D.A., who happened to be Tony Harris, was hanging tough. He pointed out that Mr. Ortiz had fourteen prior arrests, and two convictions, for which he had served a total of nine months in prison; he had been captured by the police when an alert officer had noticed during a routine traffic stop that Ortiz had an unusual amount of electronic equipment in his car, including a mammoth projection TV that occupied the entire back seat. It was a good, clean pinch and Harris was asking for three to five.

Defense counsel asked to approach the bench. Karp leaned back and turned to his newspaper. He knew what was going on off the record. The defense would argue the guy was a pillar of the community, steady job, family, and Harris would say the obvious, that he was also a pro burglar. The defense would say he hadn’t hurt anyone, and Harris would come back with since when is burglary a victimless crime. With a hard-ass like Rice on the bench, the defense would offer a bullet, a guilty plea in return for a sentence to one year upstate. Karp hoped Harris would hang tough for three to five.

He did. Rice rumbled ominously and said to the defense attorney, “Mr. Lowry, I’m the judge of what’s fair in this courtroom. That’s why they call me the judge. You’ve heard what the people have offered—I’m prepared to set a trial date right away.”

The defense went for the trial. Next case, although Karp knew it still might not go to trial, and the mutt might still get off with a light sentence. But it was better to be ahead in the bottom of the eighth than behind. Harris spotted Karp, waved, and came over. “How’d I do?” he asked, grinning.

“Not bad for a punk kid. You get that bug order for Nyack set up yet?”

“Yeah, it’s all set up. The affidavit and the court order are on your desk. You have an appointment to see a Judge William Armand in New City tomorrow at eleven-thirty. That OK?”

Karp said it was, Harris scooted off to his next appearance, and Karp settled back for a peaceful afternoon. As he watched the parade he made notes when it was one of his staff in the A.D.A. slot, notes about personal appearance, demeanor, preparation, and whether he thought the People had been rooked.

Here was Freddie Kirsch: no problem with appearance, nice clear voice, pure class. Freddie had a string of cases in this court: hit-and-run, a manslaughter, a homicide, another homicide. It was getting late and Karp was getting dull and he might have missed it except for the defense attorney. He sat up. Henry Klopper was always fun to watch and he wondered how Freddie would do up against the legendary Chopper Hank.

Klopper was being quiet, Karp observed, which was always a sign that he was pulling a fast one. He mumbled, too. Karp caught the words “summary dismissal.” He saw Rice nodding. He saw
Freddie
nodding! Something was seriously wrong.

Karp went over the rail of the jury box and was at Kirsch’s side in an instant.

“What’s going on here, Freddie?” he demanded.

Kirsch seemed surprised to see him and not pleasantly so. “Oh, hi, Butch. Just running through some routine calendar junk.”