Final judgment

SIXTY-NINE

Mason went home, knowing that he wouldn’t sleep while waiting for Lila to call. Clutching his cell phone, he paced the first floor of his house. The Kansas City Star hit the driveway at five-thirty. The air was icy and still when he went outside to pick it up, the plastic wrapper crackling as if it might crumble. He brought the paper in, glanced at the headlines, and tossed it onto the kitchen table, his face stinging from the cold.

At six, he changed into athletic shorts and rowed eight thousand meters, his cell phone lying on the floor alongside the flywheel. His time was slow, his technique sloppy, but he didn’t die and the phone didn’t ring. Afterwards, resting on the hard seat, he listened as his ragged breathing slowly steadied. Hunched over the slide, he worried about the reasons Lila might not have called, none of which made him feel any better, his anxiety competing with his concerns for what else the day would bring. There may be fifty ways to leave your lover, but there was only one way to come clean.

He remembered a conversation he had had with Fish about Fish’s life of crime. Atonement, Fish had said, required that you apologize to those you’ve wronged and ask for their forgiveness. It wasn’t enough just to ask for God’s forgiveness, though Fish did so each year on Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday of atonement. He preferred confessing to God rather than to people because, he said, God was more understanding-wouldn’t send you to jail and would never hire a lawyer to get even.

Mason had little experience with prayer but enough with people to accept Fish’s comparison, especially regarding Vanessa Carter. She was desperate to keep the remnants of her reputation intact. Mason had to tell her what he was going to do in advance so that they could get their stories straight since part of what he would admit would be a story. That was the only way he could protect her from the blackmailer.

He and Fish would be at police headquarters at eleven to meet with Detectives Griswold and Cates. Samantha Greer would probably be there as well. When they were done with Fish, he would lay it out for them. It would be out of his hands after that.

Working it out in his mind revealed another problem. What he considered a confession of a past crime, the police would hear as an admission to obstructing their investigation into the murders of Charles Rockley, Johnny Keegan, and Mark Hill. They wouldn’t be wrong.

Mason had tried without success to prove that the blackmail and the murders were tied together. The cops had the resources to prove he was right. If he had told them about the blackmail sooner, they may have run with that angle instead of zeroing in on Fish.

He was back to the conflict of interest that should have caused him to resign as Fish’s lawyer, another reason he would be disbarred. Once he laid the story out for the cops, he’d have no choice but to quit. Not even Fish could talk him out of that, though Mason wouldn’t give him the chance. The good news for Fish might be that if the government took down Al Webb, he wouldn’t need a lawyer any longer.

He wiped the sweat from his face, draping a towel around his neck and following Tuffy into the kitchen. She pawed the back of his leg while he made her breakfast; Tuffy’s impatience was a comforting part of their daily routine. He scratched the back of her neck as she dipped her head to the bowl when his landline rang.

“Good morning,” Vanessa Carter said when he answered. The magisterial timbre she usually brought to their conversations had been replaced by a brittle bravado.

“I was about to call you,” he said. “How’s your eye?”

“It’s black, yellow, and ugly. He called again this morning. He wants to see a draft of my opinion by the end of the day.”

“How are you supposed to get it to him?”

“He gave me the address for a website and a password that is only good for one use. Once I post the opinion, I can’t get back on the website.”

Mason twisted the ends of his towel around his throat. “How would you rule if it wasn’t for all of this?

“The evidence cuts both ways, but I can justify a ruling for Galaxy.”

“But that’s not the ruling you think you should make, is it?”

“No, it isn’t. I believe Carol Hill is telling the truth.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to do what’s right. No one would think twice if I rule in Galaxy’s favor. But if I do, Galaxy will own me forever and they’ll steer every case to me knowing that I have to rule for them again. I can’t live that way and I’m afraid of what they’ll do if I rule against them. You’re my only hope.”

Mason let out a long sigh. “Write the opinion the way you think you should. Write another version finding in favor of Galaxy and post it on the website. That will buy us a little time.”

“Have you found the blackmailer?”

“No.”

“Then I can’t do that. Even if I rule for the plaintiff, he’ll be able to use the draft opinion against me. He’ll ruin me or kill me. At the moment, I don’t know which would be worse.”

“He won’t do either. I’m going to tell the police that I’m the one being blackmailed.”

“You? How does that solve anything?”

“I’ll tell them what I asked Fiori to do three years ago; that Fiori taped our conversation and the blackmailer found the tape. I’ll tell them that the blackmailer contacted me and threatened to go public if I didn’t pressure you into ruling for Galaxy.”

“I don’t see how that helps me,” she said. “What about the tape of my conversation with Fiori?”

“A friend of mine, Rachel Firestone, is a reporter for the Star. She’ll run the story. Once it’s public, you withdraw from Carol’s case and say that you’ll decline any more cases in which Galaxy is a party. The blackmailer will lose his leverage. He’s got nothing to gain by exposing your tape.”

“What if he comes after me again? He was in my garage the last time.”

“The police will provide protection for you and so will Blues. And I’ll take the heat. Consider it my apology.”

“You know what this will mean for you?”

“I’ll get a good lawyer.”

“I thought you would find the blackmailer and stop him. I never thought you would have to do something like this.”

“Neither did I,” Mason said.