Barely Legal

24

Mookie didn’t care how long it took to straighten this one out, he slipped out and made the call.

“Give me good news,” Taperelli said.

“Can’t do it. The news is pretty bad. Fuckin’ attorney must have had a steroid shot. He came out of the gate like a new man. In fact, he’s doing pretty damn good.”

“How good?”

“He’s got the detective on the run. The prosecutor’s running scared and keeps objecting, but he’s pissing the judge off, and that’s not good. The judge keeps calling sidebars and chambers and sending out the jury. It’s still taking forever, only now it looks like they could win.”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake. Do I have to come down there and handle this myself?”

“No, don’t do that. The lawyer asked the witness flat out if Tommy Taperelli was telling him what to do.”

“He didn’t!”

“He did. And the prosecutor objected and they’re arguing about it, but if you show up in court they’ll think you do have something to do with it.”

“Wouldn’t I be interested enough that my name came up in cross-examination?”

“Yeah, but if you know it did, you must be keeping tabs on the trial, and that’s not good.”

“Sometimes you’re not so dumb, Mookie.”

“So, you want me to lean on him?”

“You might have a little talk.”

“What if the kid’s with him?”

“Tell him to take a walk, the grown-ups gotta talk.”

“How hard you want me to go?”

“Hard enough he stops asking tough questions.”