Page 73 of Fade Out
Chapter Sixteen
It was over.
Well, it was and it wasn’t. My lawyer and I spent the next few hours hanging around the laundry room on the twentieth floor. Since Porter’s apartment was now a crime scene, Detective White had commandeered the laundry room and turned it into a command post. He wanted statements from us. And, I assumed, wanted to make sure I’d told him everything that was going on. Not that I even knew, I just knew more than anyone else.
Elber was sent to find legal pads so we could write our statements out by hand. White would have them typed and we’d go into the station to sign them.
Possum got away. Not surprising. Hamish Gardner was better at cursing than chasing. But that didn’t stop him from wanting in on everything. Didn’t happen, though. I heard this exchange with White before he disappeared:
“The guy you just let get away is a suspect in a murder committed last night.
“Yeah, well… this scene is connected to a fucking murder investigation in my goddamn district.”
“The only reason you think that is because Nowak told you—a man you’ve accused of murder which makes him unreliable. Based on information coming solely from you there isnoconnection. So fuck off.”
The look on Gardner’s face was priceless. It was like no one had ever sworn back at him—no less a black guy.
Tony Stork hung around the laundry room with us for a little while. He kept his distance, mostly looking out the window, but occasionally sneaking a glare our way. Finally, Owen walked over to him and said, “I want all charges against my client dropped. Immediately.”
“No.”
“You can’t connect him to the murder scene.”
“He led us to the murder scene.”
“Nick, have you ever been in this building before?”
“Once. Couple days ago I was in the lobby.”
“Can you explain how you became aware of unit 3535?”
“There was a withdrawal from Winslow Porter’s account a few blocks from here. He’s in Europe, so it wasn’t him.”
He turned back to Tony, “You’re going to have to put my client in that unit at the time of the murder.”
“I can put your client at the scene of last night’s murder.”
“He was with ASA Sanchez when that happened.”
“That was convenient.”
“Hey,” I said. “She approached me.”
Tony ignored me, and said to Owen, “I’m sure once we get his accomplice in custody we’ll have everything we need to put your client away forever.”
Then I lost it. “Once I prove the girl in the box isn’t Rita Lindquist you’re toast. You’ll have no motive and I have the perfect defense. Rita and Possum did it. They did it to frame me. And all you’ve done right from the start is ignore a poor girl’s murder.”
Ignoring me, Tony spoke to my attorney. “It’s him. It has to be him.”
“It has to be me because your boss wants it to be me, right?”
“I’m not going to stand here while you accuse—” he abruptly stopped talking and left.
“Well, that was delightful,” Owen said.
“Sorry. I should have kept my mouth shut.”
“Just relax. We’re due in court tomorrow about your bond. I’ll argue for the charges being dropped. At this point, all they really have is the jailhouse confession and that won’t hold up.”
