Bad Faith

19

“Bruce, there’s someone here to see you.”

Knight glanced at the intercom and then looked at his watch. It was almost five, and he was exhausted. Meeting with a Russian assassin in the morning and then calling the district attorney and asking for a meeting will do that to you, he thought. “I’m sorry, but I’m busy,” he said. “Would you please ask whoever it is to make an appointment and come back tomorrow?”

“He says to tell you that David wants to see you,” Danielle replied.

A chill went up Knight’s spine. The images of one man choking to death, another twitching with arrows protruding from his body, and a third spurting blood from his slashed neck had not left his mind for very long, waking or asleep. Now Grale had sent Warren, or one of his other followers, to summon him to his lair. He sighed and got up from his desk.

To his surprise when he opened the door to his reception area he didn’t find Warren but Grale himself. He was dressed like any other casual New Yorker in blue jeans, a green T-shirt, a light jacket, and running shoes. His long brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, his beard and mustache were neatly trimmed, and in spite of his too-pale skin and sunken eyes, he was still a good-looking man. He was happily chatting up Knight’s secretary, who giggled at something he said.

Grale looked up and smiled. “Hey, Bruce,” he said, “I know you’re busy, but would you have a minute?”

“Sure,” Knight replied. “Danielle, you can go. I’ll lock up.”

Danielle looked disappointed for a moment and she glanced at Grale, which caused Knight to experience a twinge of jealousy. “Well, if you’re sure,” she said. “I do have to take my mom grocery shopping and she lives in Brooklyn.”

“You have to like a girl who’s good to her mother,” Grale said. “But be careful, Brooklyn can be a dangerous place for a young woman.”

So says the serial killer, Knight thought.

Danielle beamed. “I was raised in Brooklyn, and I’m pretty tough.”

“I’m sure you are.” Grale smiled.

“Uh, good night, Danielle,” Knight said. “David, please come in.”

“Nice girl,” Grale said when Knight closed the door behind them.

“Yes, she is,” Knight replied as he took a seat behind his desk. Then, without knowing why he said it, he added, “And I want to keep her out of all of this. These are dangerous people we’re dealing with-”

“And by that, you are including me,” Grale finished, sitting down across from his friend.

“No, I meant, well, I uh …”

Grale laughed, a lighter version than the last time Knight had seen him, with Kazanov’s blood dripping from his knife. “It’s okay, Bruce,” he said. “I am a dangerous person, some times more than others, especially when the darkness is on me. But today the sun is shining, on me and in my soul.”

“That’s good,” Knight replied. Not knowing what else to say, he sat silently.

Grale looked at him for a moment before sighing and nodding his head. “I’m sorry I put you through that the other night. It was unfair, and frightening, I’m sure. All I can say is that Kazanov and his henchmen were evil men whom the law has been unable, or unwilling, to deal with. And while it would hardly seem possible given Kazanov’s atrocities, Nadya Malovo is even worse, or at least her deeds are done on a grander scale.”

“It was still murder,” Knight replied. “And now I’m an accessory to murder. But even more than that, I believe in the justice system. I believe that every man, or woman, no matter how heinous we believe them to be, deserves a fair trial and to be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt before a sentence is passed, and that the sentence should be handed down by a judge, not an executioner.”

Grale’s eyes narrowed. “What about the victims of these killers? The law had plenty of opportunities to do something about Kazanov. The same thing with Malovo. But what’s your vaunted justice system going to do to her? … Give her a whole new life, that’s what.”

“I’m not arguing that the law never fails,” Knight said. “And it fails miserably in cases like Kazanov and Malovo. But where does it stop? Who decides? You?”

“Yes,” Grale said. “Sometimes I decide. And someday I may have to pay for that when your beloved system, which allows people like those two to commit their crimes and get away with it, catches me and puts me on death row.”

As he spoke, Grale’s voice hardened and his dark eyebrows knitted. But then his face softened and he leaned forward to look Knight in the eyes. “Look, old friend, I do understand where you’re coming from, and I don’t expect you to countenance what I do. But I’m asking you, pleading with you, to help me keep track of what Malovo’s saying and doing. I don’t think, and I can’t believe that anyone who is aware of her past thinks, that she has turned over a new leaf, even just to get out of prison. She’s planning something, and that means innocent people are going to die. I won’t involve you again in any of my exploits, and I will never ask you to compromise your ethics again when this is through. But I need your help now.”

Knight thought about it and at last nodded his head. “I’m already in, David, and I do owe you my life.” He then told Grale what Malovo had said about Kazanov. “Apparently there was something planned for the Halloween festivities in the Village. She says she was trying to stop it.”

“If she was, it wasn’t out of concern for anyone but herself,” Grale said. “But go on.”

“Well, I don’t know what to make of it,” Knight said. “But she also seems to think that the district attorney, Butch Karp, is tied up with some nefarious group called the Sons of Man.”

“Ridiculous,” Grale interjected.

“That’s essentially what I said,” Knight agreed. “But she brought up what on the surface sounded like good points … that he and his family appear to have been targeted, or at least involved in any number of events that would seem on their face to have little to do with his being the district attorney of New York. And at the same time, nothing happens to them.”

“God does favor that family,” Grale agreed. “Which is part of the reason I’ve taken a particular interest in watching out for them.”

“Well, I found it far-fetched, but that’s what she was saying.”

Grale nodded and then appeared lost in thought as he pursed his lips and stroked his beard with one hand. “Was there anything else?”

“Yes, she asked me to set up a meeting tomorrow morning with Karp,” Knight said. “She says she’s going to confess to the charges against her, including multiple counts of murder.”

“What?!”

“That was my response,” Knight said. “I mean, if she cooperates with the feds she’s not going to have to worry about the local charges. But still, why hand Karp her head on a silver platter?”

Grale frowned. “This is what I mean,” he said. “She’s up to something. Something to do with this Halloween parade and Karp.”

“What about her comment that Karp is in bed with this other group?”

“I don’t-” Grale started to deny the accusation but then stopped and suddenly looked worried. “I have a hard time believing it, but on the other hand …” He stopped talking for a moment and then added, “I need to think about some of this.”

A few minutes later, when Grale and Knight exited the office, they found Danielle still sitting in her seat. “I thought you were going home,” Knight said.

“I had a little more filing to do,” she replied, glancing at Grale.

“Good help is hard to find,” Grale commented, making the young woman blush.

“Apparently, I’m very lucky,” Knight said with a laugh, which caused her to blush further.

“Well, I need to run,” Grale said. “Don’t be a stranger.”

“I won’t,” Knight answered.

“Nice guy,” Danielle said when they were alone. “He married?”

Knight fought the urge to respond jealously. “You have no idea how nice,” he said with a sigh. “But he’s one of those guys who’s sort of married to his job.”