City Primeval

10

“SEE, A BLACKJACK’S THE BEST,” Hunter said. “Put it in your pants pocket, you know, right against your thigh. You don’t have a blackjack then you move your gun around, stick it in front by your belt buckle. You start dancing close with the broad, watch the look on her face.”

Raymond said, “You horny tonight?”

Hunter said, “What do you mean, tonight? I’ve always wanted to try one of these broads out here. Husband’s a vice-president with General Motors, bores the shit out of her… Look-it that one, fucking outfit on her.”

They were in Archibald’s on the ground floor of the 555 Building-shoulder to shoulder with the after-work cocktail crowd, the young lawyers and salesmen from around the north end and the girls that came from everywhere-Hunter with visions of restless suburban ladies looking for action, waiting to be dazzled by the homicide dick with the nickel-plated 9-mm Colt strapped to his belt.

Raymond said, “You know how old the bored wife of a GM vice-president would be?” He finished his bourbon and placed the glass on the bar. “I’m going up. Clement parked across the street. Tan Chevy Impala, TFB seven-eighty-one.”

“Probably stole it,” Hunter said.

“The phone’s over there by the men’s room.”

“I saw it when I came in.”

“Clement leaves before I do, I’ll call you.”

Raymond walked out of the bar, edging past the secretaries and young executives and took an elevator up to seven, to Wilder, Sultan and Fine, celebrity names around Detroit Recorder’s Court, criminal lawyers venturing into the corporate world now, out seventeen miles from downtown, into contracts and tax shelters and a brown leather lobby with copies of Fortune and Forbes on glass tables.

He went in past the row of clean secretary desks and covered typewriters to an office softly lighted where Carolyn Wilder and Clement Mansell were waiting-Clement watching him, beginning to grin, Carolyn Wilder saying, “Why don’t you sit down.”

He concentrated on observing, noticing Clement’s shiny blue and red tattoo on his right forearm, Clement in a sport shirt sitting at one end of the couch with his elbows drawn back, limp hands in his lap, a faded denim jacket on the couch, next to him. Raymond saw a file folder on the coffee table, a pair of glasses with thin dark frames. He noticed the line of Carolyn Wilder’s thigh beneath a deep red material, one leg crossed over the other, the criminal lawyer and her client sitting away from the desk at the other end of the room, the lawyer relaxed but poised in a leather director’s chair, open white blouse with the dark maroon suit, tailored, soft brown hair with light streaks almost to her shoulders… brown eyes, saying nothing now… somewhere in her mid-thirties, better looking, much better looking, than he remembered her.

She said, “You don’t seem especially interested, Lieutenant. Are you bored?”

It was in his mind: Pick Clement up and throw him against the wall, hard enough to put him out, then cuff him and say to her, No, I’m not bored.

Get it done.

Raymond didn’t say anything. He looked from Carolyn Wilder to Clement, who was staring, squinting his eyes at him.

Clement said, “I don’t recall your face.”

“I remember yours,” Raymond said and stared back at him, looking at a point between Clement’s half-closed eyes.

“I should know you, huh?”

Raymond didn’t say anything. He heard Carolyn Wilder sigh and murmur a sound and then say, “This is in connection with the Guy murder?”

Raymond nodded, turning his head to her. “That’s right.”

“What have you got?”

“Witnesses.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“A car.”

Clement said, “Shit, he ain’t got any witnesses. He’s blowing smoke at us.”

“The racetrack and the scene,” Raymond said.

Carolyn Wilder turned to Clement. “Don’t say anything unless I ask you a question, all right?” And to Raymond, “Are you going to read his rights?”

“I hadn’t planned on it,” Raymond said.

Carolyn Wilder looked at him a moment and then shrugged. “He’s not going to say anything anyway.”

“Can I ask him a question?”

“What is it?”

“Was he driving around in a Buick Riviera last night, license number PYX-5-4-6?”

“No, he’s not going to answer that.”

Clement looked from his attorney to Raymond, enjoying himself.

“Can I ask if he’s seen Sandy Stanton lately?”

“Is it her car?” Carolyn Wilder asked.

“A friend of hers.”

“I don’t think you can put together even circumstantial evidence,” Carolyn Wilder said. “And he’s not going to say anything, so why bother?”

Raymond looked directly at Clement now. “How you doing otherwise?”

“Can’t complain,” Clement said. “I’m still trying to place you. You have a mustache that time-what was it, three years ago?”

“I just grew it,” Raymond said and was aware of Carolyn Wilder staring at him.

“You were heavier then.” Clement began to nod. “I remember you, the quiet fella, didn’t say much.”

“It wasn’t my case. I don’t think I ever spoke to you directly.”

“Yeah, I remember you now,” Clement said. “What was that reddish-haired fella’s name? Not reddish, kinda sandy.”

“Hunter,” Raymond said. “Sergeant Hunter.”

Clement was grinning again. “He tried every which way get me to say I pulled the trigger. Was in that little room with all the old files?”

Raymond nodded, feeling a strange rapport with the man that excluded the woman lawyer, made her an outsider.

“He had me in there, I thought he was gonna punch me through the wall. He never laid a hand on me, but he come close, I know he did. You ask him.”

Raymond said, “You been anywhere since Milan?”

“I think we should all go home,” Carolyn Wilder said, stirring in the director’s chair, about to get up.

“Milan wasn’t too bad,” Clement said. “You know, there was some famous people there one time. Frank Costello-some others, I can’t think of the names right off.”

Raymond said, “You been staying out of trouble?”

“Long as I got this lady here,” Clement said. He squirmed, getting comfortable. “I’d like to hear how you think you’re gonna lay the judge on me.”

Carolyn Wilder said, “That’s all.”

Clement looked at her. “He can’t use anything I say. He hasn’t read me my rights.” Smirky, having a good time.

“You can say anything you want,” Raymond said, “I won’t hold it against you.” And gave Clement a friendly grin.

Carolyn Wilder stood up, brushing a hand down to smooth her skirt.

“He’s dying,” Clement said. “Got this idea of what happened to the judge and can’t get nobody to-what’s the word, corab… corobate it?”

“Corroborate,” Raymond said. “You hang around courtrooms and county jails you learn some words, don’t you?”

“Become a jailhouse lawyer,” Clement said. “I met a few of them here’n there.”

Carolyn Wilder said, “Lieutenant… good night.”

Raymond got up. “Can I use your phone?”

She nodded toward her desk, a massive dark-wood dining room table set against Levelor blinds and chrome-framed graphics.

Raymond walked across the room, picked up the phone and dialed a number. He waited and then said, “Jerry? You gonna meet me downtown?… I’ll see you.” And hung up, wondering as he turned from the desk if they heard Hunter’s voice, Hunter saying, “Fuck you, I’m not leaving here, man, this is the place.”

Clement was saying something to Carolyn Wilder, both standing now, Clement with his hand on her arm, and Carolyn frowning as she stared at him, as though trying to understand what he was telling her-twenty feet from Raymond Cruz-and now she pulled her arm away abruptly, amazed or shocked, and said, “What!” and Clement was shrugging, saying a few parting words as he turned and walked out of the office.

There was a silence. Raymond moved toward her. He said, “What’s the matter?”

But she was still in her mind and didn’t answer. She was not the woman lawyer he had watched in court, but a woman caught off balance, a girl now, vulnerable, a girl who had just been grossly insulted or told a terrible secret. Raymond wanted to touch her and the words came out easily.

“Can I help you, Carolyn?”

It surprised him, using her first name, and yet it sounded natural and seemed to touch an awareness in her. She looked at him in a different way now, not with suspicion as much as caution, wanting to be sure of his tone, his intention.

“Did you happen to hear what he said?”

Raymond shook his head. “No.”

“Any part of it?”

“No, I didn’t.”

He watched her pick up the file from the coffeetable and come past him to her desk, saying, “He’s a beauty.” Sounding tired.

“He kills people,” Raymond said.

She looked at him now. “Tell me about it. You’ve been a downtown cop long enough-I know I’ve seen you around-so you know what my job is and I know what yours is.”

“But can I help you?” Raymond said.

She hesitated, staring at him again and seemed about to tell him something. But she hesitated too long. He saw her gaze move and come back and move again and now she was sitting down at her desk, looking up at him with a bland expression.

“I think you mean well…”

“But it’s none of my business,” Raymond said. He picked a Squad Seven card out of his coat pocket and laid it on her desk. “Unless he scares you again, huh? And you admit it.”

“Good night, lieutenant.”

He said, “Good night, Carolyn,” and left, feeling pretty good that he hadn’t said too much, but then wondering if he shouldn’t have insisted on helping and maybe said a lot more.

Hunter used the phone next to the men’s room, staring at the slim girl in the fur vest and wide leather belt as he called MCMU directly, the Major Crime Mobile Unit. He told them a tan ’79 Chevy Impala, Tango Fox Baker 781, was heading south on Woodward and would cross the overpass at Eight Mile in about twelve minutes. He told them to check the sheet on the car, apprehend the driver and take him down to 1300, Room 527. MCMU asked Hunter on what charge and Hunter said, “Driving without an operator’s license.”

He returned to the bar, worked his way in next to the stylish girl in the fur vest and said to her up-raised profile, “If we can’t fall in love in the next twelve minutes, you want to give me your number and we’ll try later?”

The girl looked over her shoulder to stare at him with a mildly wistful expression. She said, “I’m not against falling in love, sport; but I’m sure as hell not gonna hustle a cop. I mean even if I thought you’d pay.”