Breach of Trust

62

Two days later, I called Charlie and told him we had to meet. We found a restaurant in between our offices and got an early lunch.

“I just got a call from the U.S. attorney’s office,” I said.

I couldn’t deny, on some level, a sense of satisfaction at watching Charlie’s face go bleach white. “And?” he asked.

“They want to talk to me about the Higgins Sanitation contract,” I said. “You remember that one? There were two lower bidders who I disqual-”

“I remember, I remember. And that’s it?” he asked. “That’s all they mentioned?”

“That’s all they mentioned.”

He fell back against the seat cushion. “Shit.”

“I can defend that,” I said. “I can.”

He was quiet for a long time. I’m sure all kinds of thoughts entered his head. I wasn’t sure if one of those thoughts included getting rid of me, a potential witness against him. A liability, like Tucker had said.

“You’re going to talk to them?” he asked.

“Sure. Why would I take Five? It would look wrong.”

“You need a lawyer.” Charlie opened his cell phone and worked it. “Norman Hudzik,” he said. “You know him?”

“Heard the name. Charlie, I can get my own-”

“You want Norm.”

It was what I expected. Charlie would want someone he could trust to handle my representation when the U.S. attorney interviewed me. He wanted eyes and ears in there.

“Don’t worry about his fee,” Charlie said. “Don’t worry about that.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Charlie Cimino for Norman,” he said into his cell phone. “Tell him to call as soon as possible. He has my number.” He closed his phone. “Don’t worry about this.”

“I’m not worried.”

“Maybe you should be,” he said.

“You’re not making any sense, Charlie.”

“Shit. Shit.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “We’ll get together and talk to Norm. We’ll put our heads together.”

“We’ll be fine,” I said.

“Norm’s good,” Charlie said. “Norm’s good.”

We skipped lunch. Charlie was in no mood to eat. I went back to my office.

But first, I stopped in at Suite 410.

“Norman Hudzik,” I said to Lee Tucker. “Now try not to fuck this up.”