anybody else who might know about the apartment and he didn't come up with anything. And as far as he knew, onlyFuhrmann and I knew that he was hiding out in the apartment.
"But anybody who knew about the apartment could have guessed, Matt. All they had to do was pick up the phone and take a shot at it. And anybody could just find out about the apartment talking to some broad in a bar that I might not even remember. ‘Oh, I'll bet that bastard's hiding out in that apartment of his'- and then somebody else knows about the place."
"DidPrejanian's office know about the apartment?"
"Why the hell should they know?"
"Did you speak to them after Carr brought charges against you?"
He shook his head."What for? The minute her story hit the papers I ceased to exist for the son of a bitch. No point looking to him for help.
All Mr. Clean wants is to be the first Armenian elected governor of the state ofNew York . He's had his eye onAlbany all along. He wouldn't be the first guy to make a trip up theHudson on the strength of a reputation as a crime fighter."
"I could probably think of one myself."
"I'm not surprised. No, if I got Portia to change her story, Prejanian would be glad enough to see me.
Now she'll never change her story and he'll never try to do me any good.MaybeI'da been better off with Hardesty."
"Hardesty?"
"Knox Hardesty. U.S. District Attorney. At least he's federal. He's an ambitious son of a bitch himself, but he might do me moregood thanPrejanian ."
"How does Hardesty come into the picture?"
"He doesn't." He walked over to the narrow bed, sat down on it. He lit another cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke. "They let me bring a carton of cigarettes," he said. "I guess if yougotta be in jail it could be worse."
"Why did you mention Hardesty?"
"I thought about going to him. As a matter of fact I sounded him out but he wasn't interested. He's into municipal corruption but only in a political way. Police corruption doesn't interest him."
"So he sent you toPrejanian ."
"Are you kidding?" He seemed amazed that I would suggest anything of the sort. "Prejanian'sa Republican," he said. "Hardesty's a Democrat. They'd both like to be governor and they might wind up running against each other in a couple of years. You think Hardesty would send anything toPrejanian ?
Hardesty more or less told me to go home and soak my head.
Going toAbner was my idea."
"And you went because you just couldn't stand the corruption another minute."
He looked at me. "That's as good a reason as any," he said levelly.
"If you say so."
"I say so." His nostrils flared. "What difference does it make why I went toPrejanian ? He's done with me now. Whoever framed me got just what he wanted.Unless you can find a way to turn it inside out."
He was on his feet now, gesturing with the cigarettes. "You have to find out who set me up and how it was done because nothing else really gets me off the hook. I could beat this thing in court, but there would always be a cloud over me. People would just figure I got lucky in court.
How many people can you think of who went up on charges for capital crimes that got a lot of heat? And when they got off, you and everybody else takes it for granted they were guilty? They say you don't get away with murder, Matt, but how many names do you know of people you'd swear got away with murder?"
I thought about it. "I could name a dozen names," I said. "And that's off the top of my head."
"Right.And if you included ones where you think they're probably guilty, you could name six dozen.
All those guys that Lee Bailey defends and gets off, everybody is always positive the bastards are guilty. More than once I heard cops say So-and-so must be guilty or why would he need Bailey to defend him?"
"I've heard the same line."
"Of course.My lawyer's supposed to be good, but I need more than a lawyer.Because I want more than acquittal. And I can't get anything out of the cops. The ones
Mark Russinovich, Howard Schmidt