A Criminal Defense

Chapter 29

Except for the motion and whoosh of cars and trucks, there was little change from the shadow and neon of the Backroom Bar and the night and neon of the sidewalk onto which Donnally and Lemmie stepped. It reminded Donnally of what a deceased friend used to say. Walking from a dark bar into sunlight reflecting up off concrete was like descending into hell.

The distress still showing on Lemmie’s face suggested she was stuck in purgatory, and Donnally knew he could do nothing for her. He wasn’t sure that even solving her brother’s murder would provide an escape. He thought he’d at least try to break the mood by asking her how she got her nickname.

“When we were kids, I was the adventurous one. Whenever we went someplace new, like the circus, when there was a ride to try or a high dive at the pool, I would always scream, ‘Let me, let me, let me.’ Over time, that became Lemmie.”

She paused and gazed at the oncoming traffic, seemingly oblivious to the headlights jittering on the uneven pavement and the rumble of tires. Finally, she said, “As it turned out, Mark was the aggressive one as an adult, and I’ve spent my life holed up in front of a computer monitor living the lives of imaginary people.” She half smiled. “My nickname now should be Leemee, as in leave. . me. . alone.”

“Does that include me?” Donnally asked.

She shook her head. “I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

Donnally nodded. “Have any reporters made the connection between you and your brother?”

“Not yet. My parents are refusing to talk to the press and I haven’t placed an obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle. After time passes and things have died down, maybe I’ll step out of the closet on that one.”

Donnally hailed her a cab, watched it take her down toward Market Street, then turned and started back toward Hamlin’s office. He stopped with an after-work crowd at the crosswalk and waited for the switch from “Wait” to “Walk.” Most of those around him already wore their bovine BART faces, preparation for the see-nothing, hear-nothing, think-nothing, no-eye-contact commute from urban work to suburban home. Even the eyes of those texting on their cell phones seemed vacant.

He sensed people crunching up behind him, followed by jostling, then someone crowding him from behind. He felt something hard dig into the middle of his back, then a male voice with a light Vietnamese accent whispered into his ear, “Don’t move.”

A hand locked onto his left bicep.

“And don’t look around.”

Donnally pressed his right arm tight against his side so the man couldn’t too easily get to his gun, then looked down, trying to catch a glimpse of the man’s shoes and pants. Neither was what he expected. He spotted creased wool suit slacks and black alligator penny loafers, unblemished.

“Let the people pass around you.”

The signal changed.

What Donnally understood to be a gun barrel jabbed hard against his spine. He also understood that even a small caliber slug would paralyze him from that spot down to his toes. And spinning and grabbing for the gun would likely cause it to discharge into one of the pedestrians, shocking them awake from their after-work slumber just in time to watch one of them die.

He decided to do what the man said until they were in a spot that would be safer for him to make a move.

Those to the front of him stepped off the curb and into the street. The ones behind him worked their way past.

“You look at me and I might as well shoot,” the man said, once the area around them had almost cleared. “I may shoot anyway, but there’s no need to force the issue.”

As the last of the pedestrians ran to beat the light, the man said, “Keep your eyes facing the direction you’re going and turn right and head down the sidewalk. There’s a parking garage a half block up. We’re going in there.”

It was the same eighty-year-old structure where Donnally had parked his truck. He wished both that he’d paid more attention to the layout and that he’d chosen one to park in with better lighting. Walking toward it now, he imagined the third floor where he’d left the truck was more shadow than light. But, at the same time, it might not be too isolated since office workers would be coming to collect their cars for the ride home.

After they made the turn onto the ramp rising to the first floor, the man prodded him toward the stairs. Now Donnally was certain that they were heading toward his truck.

He was wrong.

As they approached the second floor door, the man said, “This is where we get off. Step through and hang a left along the wall.”

Donnally followed his orders and saw that the gunman had planned well. All of the spaces were taken up by vehicles used by a medical delivery service, their workday done, the engines cooling, ticking in the silence. The man had either cased the area searching for the perfect place for what he had in mind or worked in a nearby office building and already knew the layout.

Fifty feet farther, Donnally found himself boxed in by the soot-caked corner of the building and a gray panel van. The shoulder-width space was too tight for him either to make a go for his gun or spin and take a swing.

That was also smart planning on the crook’s part.

“Don’t you think you should tell me what this is about?” Donnally said. “Maybe you’ve got the wrong guy.”

The gun jabbed him in the back again.

“Raise your arms.”

Donnally followed the order and felt the tug and rip of Velcro and the yanking of his semiautomatic from its holster. He then felt two barrels against his back.

“I know exactly who you are,” the man said, “and I’ll tell you exactly what this is about. First, I want to know where my money is, and second, what was the deal you had with Hamlin.”

“What money?”

“Don’t fuck with me.”

“I found some money, but it’s been seized by SFPD. I couldn’t get it for you now even if I wanted to. And with that gun at my back, trust me, I want to.”

“I don’t believe you. The only reason you’re involved in this is because you and Hamlin had to be partners and you’re protecting your interest. Last thing you’d do is let the police grab a quarter of a million dollars.”

“I didn’t find two-fifty. I found about one-forty in cash, that’s it. There are witnesses who watched me count it and hand it over. A homicide detective and Hamlin’s assistant.”

The man didn’t respond. Donnally felt the gun barrels move against his back, the man’s outward movement reflecting inward uncertainty.

Finally, the man said, “What do you mean seized? Like forfeited?”

Using the word “forfeited” sounded to Donnally like an inadvertent admission that the funds were the proceeds of crime.

“No, just booked into evidence.”

The man mumbled to himself. Donnally could only make out the words “none” and “cash” and “?d·u ma,” a Vietnamese swearword that Janie’s father had taught him: motherfucker.

“I take it that it wasn’t supposed to be in cash,” Donnally said.

“That son of a bitch.”

“Maybe you should’ve checked into that before you killed him.”

“If I killed him, we wouldn’t be standing here. I would’ve gotten what I wanted first.”

“Sometimes accidents happen.”

“Keep playing the fool and an accident may happen to you.”

He’s wrong about that, Donnally thought. Nothing would happen to him as long as the slick-shoed gunslinger believed Donnally controlled Hamlin’s money.

“You have to give me a hint,” Donnally said, “How will I go about finding it if I don’t know who it’s from, or what it’s from, or why you gave it to him, or how you gave it to him.”

The man didn’t respond.

“Or were you expecting me to write a two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar check made out to To Whom It May Concern?”

The man still didn’t respond.

“There was no inside deal that brought me into this,” Donnally said. “And I didn’t want to do it. Other than when Hamlin cross-examined me in homicide trials, I only talked to him once. And that was a year ago and on the phone.”

The man mumbled again. Donnally could only make out the swearwords, and they seemed directed at himself, rather than at Donnally or Hamlin. There must’ve been something the man had been good at, or at least good enough to afford the clothes he was wearing, but it wasn’t kidnapping. As if to confirm Donnally’s opinion, what the man said next just sounded stupid.

“If he had the cash you found,” the man said, “maybe there’s more. In fact, I’m thinking that there has to be. Lots.” Another jab with a barrel. “And you’re going to find it and hand it over.”

“You got a business card or something?” Donnally said. “We’ll need to keep in touch.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll hear from me.”

“Maybe we can do lunch.”

“Fuck you.”

Donnally heard the shoe scrapes of the man backing away, and asked, “What about my gun?”

“I’ll. .” The man hesitated. He hadn’t thought this part through. Donnally guessed he had to decide whether he was a crooked businessman trying to recover money or a just a mugger. “I’ll leave it in the wheel well of the car nearest the stairs.” He forced a laugh. “I suspect you’ll need it. Mark Hamlin kept a lot tougher company than me and I need you alive.”

“That’s something we can agree on,” Donnally said. “I need me alive, too.”