Vespers

X

The Q and A took place in Lieutenant B office at the 87th Precinct, not half an hour Arthur Llewelyn Farnes was released from General. He had been treated there for a knife in the left shoulder and had been char immediately with Assault 1st Degree: "With to cause serious physical injury to another, " such injury to such person or to a third person means of a deadly weapon or a clan instrument," a Class-C Felony punishable by minimum of three and a max of fifteen.

To sweeten the pudding, he had also been with Attempted Murder, a Class-B punishable by a minimum of three and a max twenty-five. His wife, Sally Louise Farnes, had charged with the identical crimes, b.ut opini, around the old station house was that she easily beat both raps by pleading self-defense. gathered detectives and an assistant district named Nellie Brand were here this Wednesday morning at ten o'clock not so much to make certain their case against Farnes would stick - they knew they had real meat here but to find out what he knew about the murder of Father Michael Bimey.

Carella had called Nellie the moment he realized they had here a violent man whose wife had earlier gone to Father Michael to report previous abuses.

This same man had written the priest a letter that in itself seemed to imply a threat, however veiled. And, by his own admission, he had gone to the church sometime during the afternoon of Easter Sunday, where at least one witness Nathan Hooper had reported hearing the priest in violent argument with a man.

Nellie was thirty-two years old, with alert blue eyes and sand-colored hair cut in a flying wedge that seemed appropriate to her breezy style.

She was wearing this morning a dark blue skirt with a grey jacket, a pink man-tailored shirt with a narrow red-and-blue silk rep tie, and blue pumps with moderate heels. Carella liked her a lot; she reminded him somehow of his sister Angela, though she didn't resemble her in the slightest.

Sitting on the edge of the lieutenant's desk, she once again informed Farnes of his rights, and then asked him if he was certain he did not wish an attorney present. Like most amateurs who suddenly find themselves involved with the law, Farnes told he didn't need a lawyer because he hadn't done anything, it was his wife who'd committed goddamn crime here! Carella was thinking every little cheap thief on the street asked for attorney the moment he was clapped in cuffs.

Nellie dutifully informed Farnes that he nonetheless stop the questioning at any time chose to, or even request a lawyer whenever he he needed one, even though he'd declined one and asked him again if he understood all this, Farnes rather testily said, "Of course I do I look like an idiot? My wife tried to kill me!”

Miranda-Escobedo safely out of the way, switched on the tape recorder, nodded to stenographer who was taking standby notes, said for the tape that this was 10:07 on morning of May 30, identified the location everyone in it, and then began the questioning:

Q. May I have your full name, please?

A. Arthur Llewellyn Farnes.

Q. And your address?

A. 157 Grover Park South.

Q. In what apartment, please?

A. 12C.

Q. Do you live in that apartment, at that address with your wife, Sally Louise Farnes?

A. I do. Who tried to kill me last night.

Q. Mr. Farnes, were you treated at last night in the Emergency Room at General for a knife wound in the left…

A. Damn right I was.

Q. And were you held for overnight observation at Greer General, and...

A. I was...

Q. and released at nine-thirty-two this morning in custody of Detectives Hawes and Carella...

A. I was...

Q. who transported you here to the 87th Precinct for questioning, is that correct?

A. That's correct.

Q. You've been informed, have you not, that you've been charged with First Degree Assault, a Class-C felony...

A. I have.

Q. And with Attempted Murder as well, which is a Class-B felony.

A. It was my wife who tried to kill me!

Q. But were you informed of these charges against you?

A. I was.

Q. And, of course, you were read your rights in accordance with the Supreme Court decisions in Miranda and Escobedo, and you said you understood those rights, did you not?

A. You read them to me, and I said I understood them.

Q. And declined your right to an attorney, is that also correct?

A. Yes.

Q. Very well, Mr. Farnes... Leaning in closer to him now, conveying impression that now that all the bullshit was the way, she was ready to take off the gloves.. can you tell me how you happened t that knife wound in your shoulder?

A: She went crazy.

Q: Who do you mean, please?

A: Sally.

Q: Your wife, Sally Louise Farnes?

A: Yes.

Q: Went crazy, you say?

A: Yes.

Q: Can you tell me what you mean by that?

A: She went crazy, what do you think that me We were sitting in the kitchen, and all at she picked up the knife and stabbed me. N Totally nuts!

Q: Sitting where in the kitchen? At the Doing what?

A: Talking.

Q: About what?

A: I don't remember.

Q: Try to remember.

A: How am I supposed to remember what talking about? She stabbed me, goddamn it!

Q D o you remember telling your wife that s had a bad habit of interrupting yod while were...?

A: No.

Q. The way you just interrupted me.

A. I'm sorry if I interrupted you. I thought you were finished with what you were saying.

Q. No, I wasn't.

A. Then I'm sorry.

Q. But isn't that what you told your wife? That she had a bad habit of interrupting?

A. I may have said that, I don't remember. It is a bad habit.

Q. You said so yourself.

A. I don't believe I said that.

Q. Well, you seemed to get upset when I interrupted you just now. Did you get upset when your wife interrupted you?

A. People shouldn't interrupt other people.

Q. Does that upset you? When your wife interrupts?

A. It would upset anyone. Getting interrupted. I suppose you realize, don't you, that she stabbed me, don't you? I mean, I really don't see the point of did she interrupt me, did I interrupt her, it was me who got stabbed, there are hospital records to prove I got stabbed, you said yourself there's a knife wound in my left shoulder, it didn't get there by magic, my wife stabbed me, goddamn it!

Q. Do you also remember telling your wife...?

A. Did you hear what I just said?

Q. Yes, Mr. Farnes, I heard you.

A. I mean, did you hear a word of what I just said?

Q. I heard all of it, yes.

A. Then do you understand that my wife stab. me?

Q. Yes, sir, I understand that. She has, in admitted stabbing you.

A. Well, good, at least she had the decency that!

Q. Do you remember telling her that she also a bad habit of washing your dirty linen public?

A. No, I don't remember that.

Q. Of taking your dirty linen to the church washing it for the priest?

A. No, why would I say anything like that?

Q. Washing it for Father Michael Birney.

A. No. No.

Q. Telling him about certain personal : you were having.

A. We weren't having any personal problems.

Q. Mr. Farnes, did you strike your wife with divider from an ice-cube tray?

A. No.

Q. Mr. Farnes, I show you this tray-divider was recovered from apartment 12C at 1 Grover Park South and tagged as evidence Detectives Carella and Hawes of the Precinct. Do you recognize it?.

A. I do not.

Q. Mr. Farnes, you are aware, are you not, your fingerprints were taken when you arrived here at the station house?

A. I am.

Q. And you are aware, of course, that the Police Department's Fingerprint Section can recover latent prints from inanimate objects and compare those prints with, for example, your fingerprints taken here at the station house?

A. I am aware of that.

Q. Do you still say you do not recognize this tray-divider?

A. I never saw it in my life.

Q. Mr. Farnes, I show you the broken neck of a bottle recovered from the sink in apartment 12C at 157 Grover Park South and tagged as evidence by Detectives Carella and Hawes of the 87th Precinct. Keeping in mind what I just told you about fingerprints, I ask you now did you strike your wife with the bottle this neck was once a part of?.

A. I did not.

Q. That is to say, a bottle containing what remained of a fifth of Tanqueray gin?

A. I did not.

Q. Mr. Farnes, where were you on Easter Sunday?

A. What?

Q. I asked you where you were on Easter Sunday.

A. Home, where do you think I was? Easter? Of course I was home.

Q. All day?

A. All day.

Q. Didn't you tell Detectives Hawes and C that you went to St. Catherine's sometime that afternoon?

A. Oh. Yes. I'd forgotten that.

Q. Did you go to the church that afternoon?

A. Yes.

Q. Why?

A. To talk to Father Michael.

Q. What about?

A. A letter I'd written to him. We'd ha, misunderstanding about the letter. I wanted clear it up with him.

Q. What time did you get to the church?

A. I don't remember.

Q. Would it have been between two-thirty three?

A. I really don't know. There was a police outside.

Oh, Jesus, Carella thought, there it goes, up the chimney! Both Nathan Hooper and O'Donnell claimed to have heard the priest m with either a man or a woman, depending whose story you believed'm sometime two-thirty and three. But if Edward's car was there when Farnes came to the church, th had to sometime after the argument had taken place. unless Farnes was lying...

Q. Can you describe that car for me?

Trying to make certain the car had actually been there when he arrived.

She'd been briefed before the questioning began, she knew that the half hour between two-thirty and three was critical. If Farnes had come to the church after that time, then he could not have been the person arguing with Father Michael.

A. It was a police car. What's there to describe about a police car?

Q. Do you remember the markings on it?

A. No. A blue-and-white car, like any other police car in this city.

Q. Mr. Farnes, where were you between seven and seven-thirty on the night of May twenty-fourth?

The night of the murder. She was going for the gold. Never mind beating around the bush. Farnes could either account for his time while the priest was being murdered - or he could not.

A. When was that? May twenty-fourth?

Q. Last Thursday. Do you remember where you were?

A. Last Thursday.

Q. Yes.

A. I'm trying to remember. I think I worked late last Thursday. I think I was at the store inventory.

Q. What do you mean by the store?

A. My store. I sell men's clothing.

Q. Where is this store, Mr. Farnes?

A. On The Stem. Between Carson and Coles. called C&C Men's Furnishings. Because of cross streets. Carson and Coles. Up p Twentieth. Across the street from the Mcdonald' s.

Q. And you say you were there taking “on the night of May twenty-fourth.

A. Yes. I'm pretty certain that's where I was.

Q. Were you there at seven P.M.?

A. If I was there, then yes, I was there at P.M.

Q. And if you were there, were you also seven-thirty P.M.?

A. Yes, if I was there, I would have been that time, too.

Q. And at eight P.M.?

A. Yes.

Q. And at nine?

A. Yes. All night.

Q. If you were there.

A. Yes. But I'm fairly certain I was there.

Q. But you're not positive.

A. No, I'm not positive.

Q. Was anyone with you?

A. No.

Q. You were alone.

A. Yes.

Q. Do you normally take inventory alone?

A. Yes.

Q. So if you were at the store that night, you were there alone.

A. Yes.

Q. Which means we have only your word for your whereabouts on the night of May twenty-fourth.

A. Well, if I was there, there'd be a record.

Q. Oh? What kind of record, Mr. Farnes?

A. My inventory sheets would have a date on them. An inventory is worthless, you see, unless it's dated. The whole purpose of an inventory is to keep you up to date on what you have'in stock. That's the whole purpose.

Q. Yes. And where would you have indicated this date?

A. In the inventory log. The date, and the quantity and size and color of any particular item. So I'll know when to reorder. That's the purpose of an inventory.

Q. Yes. Do you still have this inventory log?

A. I'm sure I do.

Q. Where is it?

A. At the store, most likely. I usually keep it at the store.

Q. And can you lay your hands on it at any time?

A. To check the date? So that you can positively say you were in the store taking “night long on May twenty-fourth?

Q. Unless it's missing for one reason or Missing? Why would it be missing?

A. Well, you know this city. Things get stolen the time.

Q. Are you saying that someone may have your inventory log?

A. It's possible.

Q. Why would anyone want to steal an log?

A. This city, who knows?

Q. So what you're saying, actually, Mr. Farnes that if the inventory log has been stolen, have no way of verifying when inventory-taking happened.

A. Or lost. The inventory log.

Q. Stolen or lost or misplaced, you would way of verifying where you were on the of May twenty-fourth.

A. What has this got to do with my wife me?

Q. It has to do with someone stabbing a priest, Farnes.

A. Is that supposed to be a surprise?

Q. I beg your pardon?

A. I mean, you're oh-so-very smart here, you, with your trick questions and your all around the mulberry bush,, do you you're dealing with a fool here? I have a successful business, I've been at the same location for fifteen years, I'm not a fool.

Q. No one said you were, Mr. Farnes.

A. Oh, no, you didn't come right out and say it, of course not. With the tape going? And this man taking notes? Of course not. But don't you think I realize what you're trying to do here? You're trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. You're trying to say that because I had an argument with Father Michael, that means...

Q. Did you have an argument with him?

A. I told you we had a misunderstanding.

Q. Yes, but you didn't say you'd had an argument.

A. A misunderstanding, I said, a misunderstanding. Over a letter I sent to the entire... Yes, but just now you said you'd had an argument.

Q. When did you have this argument, Mr. Farnes?

A. A misunderstanding. Listen, I want to make this clear.., is that tape still going? I want it made perfectly clear on the tape that I meant to say misunderstanding, not argument. Misunderstanding. Your detectives came to see me about that damn letter, I told them the misunderstanding had been cleared up, Father Michael and I settled the whole thing on Easter Sunday. There was no damn argument, is that clear?

Q: On Easter Sunday, do you mean?

A: On Easter Sunday or any other time. not argue. Period.

Q: Ever?

A: Never.

Q: Mr. Farnes, I can ask for a search locate the inventory log you mentioned, feel certain you would want to help us fin wonder if you could accompany the detectives to your store...

A: No. I want a lawyer.

Nellie looked at Carella. Carella looked The stenographer looked up from his pad.

Byrnes shrugged. The only sound in the the whirring of the tape recorder. "Mr. Nellie said at last, "am I to understand...?”

"You've got it, sister.”

"Am I to understand that you will not locate that log?”

"Not unless a lawyer tells me you can do "What is it you think we're doing?”

"Taking me to the store against my will.”

"Very well, Mr. Farnes, we'll request a warrant. Am I to understand further that you wish questioning to stop at this time?”

“You've got it, sister," Farnes said again.

Nellie snapped off the tape recorder.

"We're off the air," she said. "You ever call sister again, I'll kick you in the balls, got it?" I'll mention that to my attorney," Farnes said.

"Please do," Nellie said, and walked out of the It was not until one o'clock that afternoon that ;lla and Hawes obtained both a search warrant a Superior Court judge and a key to C&C 's Furnishings from Sally Farnes. Sally said she led it turned out that her husband had, in fact, ;d Father Michael, and she hoped further that he be sent to prison for the rest of his natural life. "he also mentioned that he usually kept his inventory log in the lower right-hand drawer of the desk in his office at the back of the store.

They found the office, they found the desk, and they found the log in the lower right-hand drawer.

The log indicated that Farnes had indeed taken inventory of his stock on the twenty-fourth of May.

"Nellie'll be disappointed," Carella said. "She was hoping we'd catch him in a lie.”

"This could still be a lie," Hawes said. "Just 'cause he wrote the twenty-fourth doesn't mean he actually did it on that date. He could have done it a Week earlier, three days earlier, whenever.”

"Say he killed the priest," Carella said. "What do you see for his motive?”

“He's a nutcase," Hawes said. "He doesn't need a motive.”

"Even a nutcase has what he thinks is a mo "Okay, he was annoyed that his wife ratt "Then why not kill her? Why the priest." 9”

“Because he had a further grievance witi priest.”

"The whole business with the letter, huh?”

"Yeah, and being made to look foolish in of the congregation. Nutcases take thems seriously, Steve.”

“Yeah," Carella said..Both men were silent for several moments.

Then Carella said, Do you think he did it.

"No," Hawes said.

"Neither do I," Carella said.

The way Martha Hennessy later described it was just another teenage wolf pack. You read them all the time now, these gangs going to "/ crazy and doing unspeakable things. This was m a dozen strapping young men, all of them will Mrs. Hennessy could have understood it if the/ been black or Hispanic, but white? Came sto into the church around three o'clock it must've she was in the rectory, heard a lot of noise in I church itself, ran through the paneled corrwi/ leading to the sacristy where three of them already there, knocking over things, tearing the pli art. Inside the church itself, Father Oriella was in English and in Italian, and his secretary, old Italian woman whose English was atrocious, iwas screaming for them to stop. Mrs. Hennessy ran back into the rectory and dialed 911 from the office telephone. A police car arrived in about three minutes flat.

The responding car was Edward's car, because the church was in the precinct's Edward Sector, and the two officers driving the car were the same man and woman who'd responded to the fracas here on Easter Sunday.

The difference this afternoon, and the reason their response-time was so rapid, was that after the priest's murder, they'd been called downtown to Headquarters and asked a lot of questions about their behavior on Easter Sunday, which Inspector Brian Mcintyre from Internal Affairs had found somewhat less than exemplary in a community rife with white-black tensions. Mindful of the inspector's diatribe and reprimand, the moment Officers Joseph Esposito and Anna Maria Lopez caught the 10-39 - a Crime In Progress, specified by the dispatcher as a "rampage at St. Catherine's Church" - they hit the hammer and screeched over to the church, where if this wasn't a rampage it sure as hell looked like one.

Officer Lopez got on her walkie-talkie and called in an Assist Police Officer, and within another three minutes, cars from the adjoining David and Frank sectors, and half a dozen foot-patrol officers assigned to CPEP were responding to the lo swarming all over the church and the church and the rectory, rounding up what eventually out to be six teenagers, all of them white, all with Italian names, least of whom was Robert Corrente. :: Bobby and his pals all seemed to be rather an unidentified substance of a controlled seemed not to care that he was now in a police squadroom, being charged will assortment of crimes, among which was an upon Father Frank Oriella with a brass Bobby had seized from the main altar friends were knocking over the altar, and altar cloths from it, and otherwise ransackin church. Bobby was screaming that he w lawyer. His assorted friends, some i! desk legs in various parts of the squadroom, I! already in the detention cage in the corner room, parroted every word he said. Bobby lawyer, they wanted a lawyer. He yelled father, they yelled for their fathers. It was an here in the squadroom, with everyone in fine Carella wished he had ear plugs.

When Vincent Corrente arrived at the sq at four P.M. that afternoon, he looked much as he the day Carella talked to him, except thai he was wearing a tank top undershirt. Or, if he was, it not visible under the Hawaiian print, sports shirt he wore hanging outside his tan .wise, he was still jowly and paunchy and and he was still smoking an E1 Ropo cigar lent a distinctive olfactory dimension to the squadroom medley of yelling teenagers, typewriters, ringing telephones, and cops everyone to shut the fuck up. Corrente was It was difficult to tell, however, whether he angrier with his son or with the people who'd him.

"You dumb bastard," he told Bobby, "wha'd you to the church, hah?" and belted him upside the :head. To Carella, he shouted, "You! Take these cuffs offa my son or you're in deep shit!”

Carella looked at him calmly.

"You hear me? I know people!" Corrente shouted.

"Mr. Corrente," Carella said, "your son has been charged with...”

"I don't care what he's been charged with, he's a juvenilel”

"He's been charged as an adult.”

"He's only seventeen!”

"That's an adult, Mr. Corrente. And he's been charged with...”

"I want a lawyer!" Bobby shouted.

"Shut up, you dumb bastard!" Corrente said. To Carella, he said, "He don't say anything till my lawyer gets here.”

"Fine," Carella said calmly.

He was wondering when Bobby down off his high.

The lawyer Corrente called was a man I'll Dominick Abruzzi.

This was getting to be a regular reuni WOPS, the World Order for the Prew Subterfuge, a watchdog society dedicated proposition that any American born with an name must keep that name forever, neither it completely, nor even Anglicizing it, lest mercilessly and eternally hounded to his grave reminders that he is merely an ignorant hoity-toity pretensions. Abruzzi looked as Richard Nixon. Carella guessed his teeth capped.

Thirty-five, thirty-six years old, tailored suit, a button-down shirt, and a somber he breezed into the squadroom as if he'd been (or one similar to it) a thousand times before. hello to Corrente, waved to Bobby who seemed sinking lower and lower into a depressive mire, then asked, pleasantly enough, "What seems to the trouble here?" Carella told him what the trouble seemed to The trouble seemed to be First-Degree Second-Degree Burglary, First-Degree Mischief, and Reckless Endangerment o f, Propert "That's what the trouble seems to be, he said "Well, that's, your contention, Detective," .zzi said.

Carella was aware of the sense in which Abruzzi using the word "Detective." His intonation it sound like "Pig.”

"No, that's not my contention, Counselor," he "that's what Robert Corrente's been charged “

He did not like attorneys who defended criminals. especially did not like Italianamerican ys who defended criminals, especially when looked like Richard Nixon and smelled of snake and especially when the criminal was himself an Italianamerican.

Abruzzi was aware of the sense in which Carella was using the word "Counselor." His intonation it sound like "Shyster." Abruzzi hated high mighty Italian-American Law Enforcement Officers who thought their calling was as pure and exalted as a priest's. In a democracy, everyone was entitled to counsel and everyone was innocent until he was proved guilty, and Abruzzi was here to make certain that no American citizen would ever be deprived of his fights, God bless America.

"If you don't mind, Detective," he said, "I'd like to talk to my client and his father privately.”

“Sure," Carella said. "Go right ahead.

Counselor.”

A uniformed cop escorted Abruzzi and the Correntes down the hall to the Interrogation Room.

Carella went to the cage, threw back the opened the door, and said, "One at a time, son. Want to step outside, please?" The eighteen and looked fifteen. Dark hair, wide eyes, a pretty mouth. Like Bobby, he had co from the high induced by whatever the hell ingested and now looked as if he''d been run a railroad locomotive. Carella took him over desk. Hawes was coming from the Clerical with a cup of tea; he liked his afternoon tea.

"What's your name, son?" Carella asked "Rudy Perucci," the kid said.

"Rudy, you're in trouble," Carella said, him his rights. Rudy listened gravely. Carella asked him if he'd understood everything he'd said he had.

Carella asked him if he w attorney.

"Do I need one?" Rudy asked.

"I'm not permitted to advise you on that," said. "You can have one or not, it's entirely you. Either way, it won't reflect upon your innocence.”

“It wasn't me who hit the priest," Rudy said.

"Rudy, before you say anything else, I know whether you want an attorney. If you want you can have one. Either your own, or we're by law to get one for you if you don't h.ave one. please tell me now if you want an attorney.”

"What else do they say I done?" Rudy Carella read off the list of charges.

"That's serious, huh?" Rudy said.

Carella started to tell him exactly how serious it The assault charge was punishable by a max of The burglary charge... "We didn't steal anything," Rudy said.

"Rudy, please don't say anything else, okay?" Carella said. "Let me tell you what these charges i and then you can decide about a lawyer. You he get to fifteen for the assault, fifteen for up years burglary, twenty-five for the reckless ndangerment, and seven for the criminal mischief.”

"I only, went along," Rudy said. "I didn't do |anything.”

"Do you want a lawyer, Rudy?”

"If I didn't do anything, why do I need a lawyer?”

"Yes or no, Rudy?”

"No, I don't need a lawyer.”

"Are you willing to answer questions without a lawyer present?”

"Yes. I don't need a lawyer, I didn't do anything.”

"Can you tell me what happened?”

“I only went along," Rudy said.

"How did it start?”

"We were trying some stuff Bobby got hold of.”

"What stuff?. What'd you take, Rudy?”

"I don't even know the name of it. We just said yes.”

He grinned. He had just made a joke about Nancy Reagan's famous and foolish slogan. Anybody who'd ever smoked only so much as a joint knew exactly how stupid the Just Say No campal been. Rudy was testing Carella now. To knew how dumb it had been. Carella smiled Two old buddies familiar with the ways abuse. But only one of them had gone berserk a church.

"It was real good, man," Rudy said, still Carella was willing to bet it had been real "So what happened?" he asked pleasantly.

"Bobby wanted to go get his stuff back.”

"What stuff?.”

"The stuff the nigger ripped off.”

"Ripped off?.”

"Yeah, you know.”

"No, I don't know. Tell me.”

This is the fifth episode of Rashomon.

there will be no more installments. This is the chapter. At least Carella hopes it is the final They are back to Easter Sunday again, the windy, shitty day, everyone seems to agree weather. And it is still two-thirty, three o'clock afternoon, everyone agrees on the time as well. the star player, or at least one of the star this tedious and interminable little me once again coming up Eleventh Street, doing Rudy calls his Nigger Shuffle, and grinning into wind like he owns the world.

Alexis has not anything about this part of the saga because she not witness to it, but so far Hooper's, Bobby's, Seronia's versions are all in agreement. But they to the dope part again, which dope Hooper first there to sell, and next there to buy, and next off with after Bobby accused him of using funny the last time they traded. And, sure enough, are going into the hallway again, and another dope transaction is about to go down, these two Bobby and Hooper- are in the habit of exchanging money for dope, you see, and vice versa, Mrs. Reagan, which is why little girls in red hoods should not go wandering off into the woods where evil and corruption lurk, hmmm?

So there in the hallway, out comes the crack. A hundred vials, identical to the tiny glass tubes perfume samples come in, except that these vials don't contain Eau du Printemps. These vials contain little crystals that look like exaggerated grains of salt but which are actually cocaine base, which is made by heating a mixture of baking soda, cocaine hydrochloride and water, and then letting it cool.

These little vials are deadly.

Out comes the crack... "And out comes the piece," Rudy said. "The what?”

"The piece.”

"A gun?”

"A gun.”

"Bobby pulled a gun?”

"No, no. The nigger pulled the gun... because what he has in mind, you see, is taking these hundred vials worth four hundred bucks and not giving Bobby a red cent for them. That the piece is for. Which upon closer looks like a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson Re Police Model 33, capable of putting very lar in anyone's head who is stupid enough grabbing that plastic bag of crack away Hooper.

Unless the someone is standing a little side of and slightly behind the nigger, and there's a baseball bat (and also a softball and a but it is only the bat that is of importance) corner of the hallway, where one of the kids when his mother called him upstairs to The bat is propped against the wall, and the the softball are on the floor, the ball in the the mitt (although this is an insignificant detail)!: the kid standing slightly behind and to the le Hooper is not Bobby Corrente but his kid bro Frankie Corrente, who is rapidly learning the of the street, and especially how to seize opportunity.

Not to mention the handle of a ball bat.

Which he does, in fact, seize.

And swings the bat with practiced ease target that is Nathan Hooper's head. From the of his eye, Hooper sees the bat coming, and he of raises his left shoulder, sort of hunkering into it, turning at the same time, trying to deflect blow, which he partially succeeds in doing in that bat hits his shoulder first and only then bounces to graze his head. This is not enough to .,rious wound, but it is enough to prevent ;sion and possible coma. It is also enough to his grip on the gun to loosen before he can fire shot. And as the gun clatters to the floor and young pulls back the bat for yet another swing at fences, Hooper recognizes it is time to get the out of here, but not without the dope for which he has now paid with a broken head. So off he goes with the bag of dope in his left hand and the pack in full cry behind him, and the rest of the story ends in church not once, but twice.

"The second time is today," Rudy said. "When we went back to look for the stuff.”

Because, yes, Virginia, it is true that Hooper stashed the dope someplace inside the church.

Bobby and his pals know this is so. Not because when he came out with the priest on the way to the hospital, they couldn't see the bag of crack nowhere in sight; he could've had it in his pocket, right? But because pretty soon after the incident on Easter, Hooper began bragging around Fifth Street that as soon as it was safe to go back to St. Kate's he was gonna be one rich nigger. And also, this must've been three, four days before the priest got killed, they were fooling around with a pussy kid named Fat Harold, kidding around with him, you know, giving him knucks and the burn, this was near the school, .and he told them he was with Hooper when he called the church and warned the priest he wanted his dope back.

So the dope is there inside the church, ri Someplace inside the church.

Four hundred dollars worth of crack.

And there hasn't been a single snooping around looking for it because there aren't any blacks go to St. Catherine' second of all, they know what happened to on Easter, and they don't want a taste of medicine.

This doesn't mean Bobby and the guys been in there tiptoeing around half a dozen looking for it, but they can't find the fucking the nigger hid it too good. So it's beginning to like four hundred bucks is going straight dow toilet.

Until today.

Today, Bobby gets sore.

And he tells them they''re going to that churc they're gonna turn it upside down till they findi fuckin' dope.

Whichis what they done.

"But not me," Rudy said. "I just went alonl didn't hit the priest, I didn't knock over any of things, the candlesticks, the altars, the thing with incense, I didn't do any of those things. And, a how is it burglary if nobody stole nothing?" Carella explained that it was burglary if some knowingly entered or remained unlawfully building with intent to commit a crime.

"But we didn't go there to commit a crime," Ru "We went there looking for dope rightfully to Bobby." Carella explained that criminal mischief was a And so was assault. And so was reckless "rment.

Rudy shook his head over the inequity of the law.

"Good thing I didn't do none of those things," he "Who did?" Carella asked.

The entire reason for this little exercise. Get one them talking, get him to nail one of the others.

get another one talking to save his own skin, have him nail yet another one. The Domino ry of law enforcement and criminal investigation.

"I just went along," Rudy said.

"Too bad you've been charged," Carella said sympathetically. "But you get a thing like this, a bunch of guys acting in concert..." He shook his own head over the inequity of the law.

"I don't see why I should take the rap for something I didn't do," Rudy said, beginning to sound a bit indignant.

"Yeah, it's too bad," Carella said. "But if you didn't see who knocked over the altar, for example, or who hit the priest...”

"Bobby hit the priest.”

"Bobby Corrente?”

"Yeah. I saw him grab the candlestick and hit him with it. And Jimmy Fava knocked over the big one. And...”

And that was the beginning.

When Dominick Abruzzi came back squadroom after having talked to his client, he "May I have a word with you, Detective No more sneering of the word "Detective.”

“Sure," Carella said. "My client went into the church because having an allergy attack,” Abruzzi said. Carella looked at him.

"Lots of pollen in the air this time of church is relatively pollen free. It was a him.”

“I'm sure," Carella said. "Dust free, probably”

Abruzzi looked at him.

"The wagon gets here at six," Carella said. that, you can talk to your client downtown. night, Mr. Abruzzi," he said, and went to lieutenant's door and knocked on it.

"Come!" Byrnes shouted.