Murder One Read Online Free PDF Page B

his opinion. “Don’t encourage him.”
    “I just wanted to know.”
    “And I’m saying, don’t ask.”
    “What’s the matter with you, Barry?” Matthews asked. “Don’t we still have freedom of speech in this country? Let the boy talk.”
    “No good can come of this discussion.” Dodds was a short man with the beer belly that almost seemed like a mandatory stage in almost every police officer’s career. “You boys would be better off if you just forgot about it.”
    “Is that right?” Matthews obviously didn’t agree. He addressed himself to the fourth member of the group. “What do you think, Frank?”
    Frank didn’t respond immediately. He was an extremely large man; down at headquarters, they called him The Hulk. Given his enormous size, his colleagues imagined that it took longer for thoughts to make the trip from his brain to his mouth, sort of like the larger dinosaurs. “Can’t say, really.”
    “That’s what I like about you, Frank. You always know exactly where you stand.” Matthews obviously wasn’t satisfied. “I tell you what I think. I think this was a travesty of justice and I think we ought to do something about it.”
    “Hasn’t this mess caused you enough trouble already?” Dodds was the youngest of the four and the most senior in rank, a fact which he knew caused some trouble, even if it was never directly mentioned. “The courts have spoken. You can’t take the law into your own hands. That’s not how the system works.”
    Matthews was not pleased. “Don’t lecture me on the system, college boy.”
    Dodds grimaced. In truth, many of the police officers, and all of the younger ones, had college degrees. But because he had a graduate degree in criminology, because he had been promoted rapidly and he spoke the Queen’s English, to Matthews he was always the “college boy.”
    “I think we should just let it alone.”
    “You’d feel different if it had been you up there on the witness stand.” Matthews threw down his cards—which was no great loss since he was holding a pair of twos. “You’d feel different if that attorney had made you look like a lyin’ jackass.”
    Dodds, the last player still holding his cards, scooped in the pot. “He was just doing his job.”
    Matthews jumped up on his feet. “Just doing his job? Just doing his job?”
    “I didn’t say I liked it, okay?” Dodds had been trying to calm Matthews down all night, and frankly, he was getting sick of it. “I just said there’s no point in acting like it was some big surprise. You know what’s gonna happen when you take the stand. The defense attorney’s going to try to make you look like one of the Three Stooges. There’s nothing new about it.”
    “This is different.”
    “It isn’t.”
    “Like hell. This time it was one of our own. It was Joe. My partner. And if you had any loyalty to Joe—”
    “Don’t you dare lecture me about Joe.” Dodds had had it, all he could take. “Joe and I went to school together, all right? I’ve known him longer than any of you. I would’ve died for him, understand? Died for him!” He stood up to Matthews and jabbed him in the chest. “So don’t you lecture me about loyalty. Don’t you dare!”
    The room fell quiet. Matthews and Dodds glared at one another, like two jungle beasts waiting to see who would make the first move. No one did.
    Eventually, Frank cleared his throat. “So are we gonna play cards here?”
    Matthews kept his eyes trained on Dodds. “I’m sick of cards.”
    “But it was my turn to deal.”
    “There ain’t gonna be any more cards, got it?” Matthews pounded the table. “It’s sick. Our buddy is dead, the lyin’ whore that killed him is running free, and we’re sitting here like a bunch of pansy-assed queers playing cards!”
    Callery’s voice was quiet, and his eyes were trained on the table. “You know, Arlen, you weren’t the only one who was up on the witness stand. I testified, too. I went first. You