Past Due

Chapter 69

“WHAT THE HELL are you doing here, Your Honor?” I said.

Justice Straczynski stood awkwardly before me, uneasy in my company, as if unsure of our positions one to the other. He was used to lawyers groveling for his favor, he was used to sitting on high. But now the roles were reversed, it was he who had come to me, and I knew far too much of what was far too personal for him to be comfortable in my presence. He stepped toward me, swiveled his head as if making sure he wasn’t being overheard, and then said in a low voice, “Mr. Carl, I need to speak to you.”

“How did you find me?”

“When I couldn’t reach you at home or at your office I called Mr. Slocum. I said it was an emergency. He told me your father was in this hospital. How is he doing?”

“Not so well,” I said. “You told Slocum it was an emergency?”

“That’s right.”

I shook my head. This was bad, a serious problem. Slocum wouldn’t just put it to the side, he wasn’t that kind of guy. As quick as the justice hung up he would be on the line to McDeiss. This was turning into a mess.

“I have to go,” I said. I turned away from him and started toward the elevator. He followed, speeding up so that he could walk beside me.

“I’m sorry about your father,” he said.

“Mr. Justice,” I said as I reached the elevators and pressed the down button. “I don’t have time right now to chat.”

“You mentioned something today about Tommy Greeley.”

“Did I?”

“You said Tommy wasn’t murdered that night twenty years ago. What did you mean by that?”

The elevator came. I stepped into it, turned around, pressed G and door close, door close, door close.

“Mr. Carl?”

“He wasn’t killed,” I said as the doors slowly shut in front of me.

The justice’s long thin arm shot through just as the gap between the doors was about to disappear. The doors fell back and he stepped into the car with me.

“Mr. Carl,” he said as the doors now closed behind the two of us. “I don’t understand.”

“Your brother only meant to rough him up. But the guys he used let it get out of control. They thought they had killed him, but they were mistaken.”

“So what happened to him?”

“Can’t we talk about this some other time.”

“No, Mr. Carl. We can’t.”

“Well, we will have to, won’t we?”

The doors opened into the lobby. I stepped through and started rushing toward the exit. The justice, studiously ignoring my hints, followed.

“My wife is missing, Mr. Carl.”

“And that is a problem how?” I said as I stepped outside and headed toward the parking garage, the justice all the while close behind.

“Don’t be unkind.”

“Have you checked her studio?”

“Yes.”

“Are her journals there?”

“Yes, but in boxes.”

“She’s not going anywhere without her journals.” I turned around, he stopped in his tracks. “Look, Mr. Justice. Tomorrow night, one way or the other, it will all be over and we can talk about it then, but right now I don’t have the time to discuss this.”

“He’s come back, hasn’t he?”

“You’ll have to excuse me. I have to go.”

The garage was right behind me. I turned around, jogged into the entrance, took the stairs two at a time to my parking level and then found my car. I checked my watch. Two minutes to ten. Time to go, time to get out of here.

“You said he wasn’t killed so he is most likely still alive,” called out the justice as he ran out of the stairwell, his voice coming in spurts between his gulps for breath. “And with everything that has been happening it only makes sense that he has come back.”

“I have to go,” I said, putting the keys in the car, opening the door.

“He’s come back for her.”

He was standing now right behind my car. I couldn’t pull out with him standing there.

“You have to let me go,” I said.

“You’re going to him now?”

“Yes.”

“And she’ll be there?”

“Yes.”

“Then take me with you.”

“Mr. Justice, he didn’t come back for your wife. If anything, she’s an afterthought. He came back for money he mistakenly thought he could recover here. And he came back for revenge.”

“Take me with you, Mr. Carl.”

“You don’t want to find him, Mr. Justice, trust me.” I checked my watch again. “I have to go.”

“Not unless I come too.”

He was standing behind my car. I couldn’t pull out with him standing there unless I ran him over, not that it wasn’t an attractive option. Still, I didn’t think Slocum would be so thrilled, the flattened party being a sitting Supreme Court justice and all. I thought about what to do, glanced at my watch. Skink was waiting.

“Get in,” I said.