Jade in Aries Read Online Free PDF Page B

Heights—but that kind of approach can’t be one hundred percent effective. If Detective Manzoni actually did have a violent antipathy for homosexuals, he had been assigned to just the wrong part of the city; Brooklyn Heights has been a homosexual enclave for years.
    I said, “In other words, Manzoni is blocking any real investigation.”
    “Yes. And there’s nothing Ronald can do about it.”
    “He can go over Manzoni’s head.”
    “Manzoni is trying to get Ronald committed to a mental institution. Because he tried to commit suicide, of course, and also because he’s an admitted homosexual. Mitch, you know Manzoni won’t have trouble finding some old-line judge to go along with him. And how can a certified lunatic complain to anybody and be listened to?”
    “All right,” I said. “He can’t. But if you want me to go talk to Manzoni’s superiors, believe me, I could only do more harm than good. I’m not the right kind of advocate for Cornell, what he needs is a good lawyer.”
    “Of course he needs a lawyer,” she said. “But you know the kind of person he has for a lawyer. He’s using the same lawyer he’s always used in the past, for the store and whatever.”
    “You mean another homosexual.”
    “Yes. A man named Stewart Remington.”
    Stewart Remington? The name surprised me; it was one of the six I’d read to Eddie Schultz over the phone last week. So Cornell’s lawyer was one of his suspects.
    I said, “He should get another lawyer.”
    “I suppose he should. But he doesn’t know how to tell Remington he wants somebody else, and he doesn’t know any other lawyers.”
    “He’s helpless, in other words.”
    Kate frowned at me. “You say that as though you think he’s being a weakling or something. He really is helpless. He’s in the hospital with half a dozen broken bones, there’s a police guard on him, there’s a detective with a vendetta against him, and he doesn’t know what to do next. He is helpless.”
    “There’s nothing for me to do,” I said, because I knew that was the question behind all this: Will you do something, Mitch? “With my background,” I said, “if I went to Manzoni’s captain, it would just put the icing on the cake. Cornell would really be in the soup.”
    “He’s really in the soup now.”
    “Well, what do you want from me?” I was getting exasperated. She clearly wanted something, she had it in mind there was something I could do, but she wouldn’t come out and ask me. She just kept on describing Cornell’s predicament. It was true that he was in deep trouble, but it was also true there was no sensible way I could help him.
    So she said, “I want you to find the killer.”
    I couldn’t believe it. “Are you out of your mind? Do you know what someone like Manzoni would do to me if he found me poking around, trying to open a case that he wants shut?”
    “I hadn’t expected an answer like that from you, Mitch. I expected you to say no at first, but not for that reason.”
    “I have my moments of bravery,” I said, “like any other man. But I also have my moments of prudence. I don’t see where this affair is any of my business. I want to stay away from it.”
    “It’s a terrible miscarriage of justice,” she said.
    “Kate, there are terrible miscarriages of justice every day, in every city under the sun. There are three billion people on earth, and most of them will be treated shabbily and cruelly and even violently at least once in their lives. That isn’t a reason, Kate, for me to stick my neck out.”
    “He needs your help, Mitch. He asked for your help. He has nobody else to turn to.”
    I could feel it closing in on me. “Kate, what on earth could I do? Even if I tried, what could I do? I can make some phone calls and find him a good lawyer, that would be the best thing.”
    “A lawyer won’t beat Manzoni,” she said, “not if Manzoni is determined. You know that, Mitch.”
    “Eventually—”
    “Eventually? After a year,