IT WAS TRUE.
Renata was so happy about it she didn’t even gripe about my calling her at four o’clock in the morning. But she still had no kind words for the prosecutor.
“I’ve been telling that damn Heffernan he had no case from the start. He knew it, too, as well as I did, but he was afraid of a hostile reaction from the media.”
“Right, and the neighbors, and especially—”
“Whatever. Anyway, when the little girl disappeared, that gave him a perfect excuse to dump the case. He moved to have it S.O.L.’ed, stricken on leave to reinstate. Told the judge—and the press—he’ll consider reinstating charges when, and if, his witness is located.”
“And will he?”
“Not a chance. Even if the inconsistencies in the girl’s statements weren’t so obvious, everyone knows that whatever happened couldn’t have happened the way she described it, where she described it.”
I knew exactly what Renata meant. Trish had claimed her pants were pulled down and she was pushed backward onto the ground at the bottom of Lammy’s back steps. But the rough, cracking concrete that covered that entire area made the absence of abrasions on her buttocks, or the backs of her legs, simply unexplainable.
Renata obviously hadn’t heard about the fire, which happened too late for the ten o’clock news. “I don’t suppose,” I said, “you have any pictures of—”
“You bet I do. Photos of the back stairs and the whole area, taken the same day Lammy got out on bond. A dozen eight-by-ten color prints, which I showed Heffernan a week ago. Someone may have attacked that child, but not where and how she described it.”
“So Heffernan’s thrilled to have a reason to dump the case.”
“Plus,” Renata said, “although I never discussed this with the state, I’ve received the report on Lammy’s psych tests. No sign of a propensity for sexual attraction to, or behavior with, children. Of course, what they did find is nothing to write home about, the poor soul, and I hope he never has to read it.”
“Hell, I wouldn’t want to see my results, either, from tests like that.”
“Anyway,” she said, “Heffernan gets rid of the case and he doesn’t get eaten alive by the press, or the neighbors, or—”
“Or by Steve Connolly.”
“Yes. Connolly was in court and he obviously thought Lammy would be there. You know, I can understand the feelings of a father, but this man is unusual. He’s overflowing with hostility … hatred even. He’s supposedly mixed up with the mob, of course, and probably psychopathic. The girl’s uncle was there, too.”
“Dominic Fontana.”
“Right. He’s even scarier than Connolly. I’m really frightened for Lammy.”
I told her, then, about the fire. Not much, only that I’d heard it was arson, and that Casey was safe.
“Whoever it was must have thought Lammy was home,” she said. “You have to find him fast, before they do.”
“I already found him. He’s fine. Better you don’t know where. I’ve sent Casey to stay with him.”
“And what about you?” she asked.
“Me?”
“My advice is to turn yourself in. The longer you hide out, the more it looks like you’ve gone off the deep end. First with Tina Fontana. And now that priest, and getting rid of the grandmother and the little girl, so she couldn’t testify against Lammy.”
“You don’t think I—”
“The media are certainly playing it that way. The cops seem to think so, too.” She paused. “And I must say…”
“Jesus Christ, Renata, you can’t possibly believe that.”
“Of course not. I was only going to say … you do seem to have screwed things up, and—”
“Screwed things up? I can’t believe you said that.”
“Okay, I take that back. But you’d still be better off giving yourself up.”
“Bullshit. You think the cops are gonna protect me from a couple of maniacs like Connolly and Fontana, for chrissake?”
“Well…”
“And that hotshot investigator—Sanchez?—he’s gonna see my ass is well-protected, right? Hell, he’ll tear off my hide himself if he gets the chance.”
“Okay, okay,” Renata said. “Calm down. I’m still your lawyer, and I’m doing my legal duty. Cops ask me, I’ll say you called. Wouldn’t tell me where you were. I suggested you surrender. You’re considering it. Everything else is privileged. Now, when will you—”
I hung up on her. She’d taken it back, maybe, but Renata’s opinion was that I was screwing things up.
Ah well, it’s always nice to have the support of your friends. But when you don’t? You push on anyway, with no one to pat you on the back. Maybe I had screwed a few things up. But if so, at least the screw-up came from doing. The other option—not-doing—was the path I’d chosen when Lammy was in trouble the first time, a path that had led finally into this mess. So I had to push on.
Besides, I was beginning to get an idea or two.