The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

CHAPTER 37

By mid-afternoon, Johnny regretted having gone straight to work from the airport.

He’d left Japan on Friday morning. The flight took less than thirteen hours, which happened to be the time difference between Tokyo and New York. He arrived in Newark at about the same time he’d left Tokyo, 7:00 a.m. A blue sky, the sound of the English language, and the absence of boomerangs flying through the air boosted his spirits. He was still alive, he had his career, and his girl was in good hands, or at least super-wealthy hands. On top of that, the sun was peeking through a puff of cloud when he got in line for a taxi. What the heck did he have to be depressed about?

Johnny went directly to the office and resumed working on an immigration case. After lunch he went to Superior Court to meet a new client. He needed two cups of coffee with shots of espresso mixed in to keep his eyes open the rest of the afternoon.

Shortly after 4:00 p.m., he walked to the parking garage near the courtroom and climbed into his car. His phone rang. He held his breath as the number of the party calling him appeared on the screen, hoping it belonged to Nadia. It didn’t. It belonged to his boss.

“How are you holding up?” his boss said.

“On fumes,” Johnny said.

“I need you to do something first thing tomorrow morning.”

“On a Saturday?”

“Yeah. Client’s request. He’s on the job today, off tomorrow.”

“A cop?”

“Yeah. Local. He’s under investigation for an indictable. I don’t know the details. I’m hearing they may file charges against him any day.” The state of New Jersey referred to cases where the accused could be punished by more than one year in jail as indictable offenses, not felonies, the way most states did.

“You know my preference where cops are concerned.” Representing cops did nothing to improve one’s reputation with those who regularly needed criminal lawyers.

“Yeah, and I don’t like whitefish but my wife serves it twice a week. Besides, you haven’t heard the rub yet.”

“Which is?”

“The guy asked for you personally.”

“You’re kidding me. What’s his name?”

“Richard Clark.”

Johnny searched his memory. “Don’t know him.”

“Well, he knows you. Says he knows you real well. He’s going to meet you at the Tropicana at 9:00 a.m. for breakfast.”

The Tropicana was a diner in Elizabeth. “Now you’re talking. I’m having pancakes and you’re buying.”

Johnny hung up. Much as the prospect of a tall stack with bacon on the side made his mouth water, the cop’s request for Johnny to represent him left him uneasy. The cop knew something Johnny didn’t, and he knew it would bother him until he learned exactly what it was.

When Johnny got home, the only thing on his agenda other than eating and sleeping was pulling out his world atlas. Last year he’d kept track of Nadia’s location on the atlas when she called him during her trip to Ukraine. Maybe he’d be able to do the same this year. Maybe she would call him tonight, he thought.

But she didn’t.