how they can steal, but it doesn’t happen too often. Keep your regard for the lady with the scales. But don’t get too appalled at yourself when you ask the police for an extralegal favor. Life is a continual process of compromise, Sammy. The idea is to come out the other end still clutching a few shreds of self-respect. End of lecture for today. I hope you solve your nasty little problem.”
When he was back in his own office, Sam sat behind his desk and thought of himself with contempt. The dreamer with the starry eyes. An amateur Abe Lincoln. Criminal lawyers made spirited defenses of known murderers. And were not thought unethical. So a man gave an option on land in good faith. Then he learns he can get more. So he comes in with his hat in his hand and says, “Show me how this can be broken.” So you find a technicality and you break the option. He’s a client. He pays for service.
But it was a contract made in good faith, and from the viewpoint of equity, the technicality is an absurdity.
Stop bleeding, Bowden. You’re all grown up. Stop marching around waving all your little flags. Cady shoots your kids while you cry onto your diploma and look through all the dusty books for a way to slap his wrist legally.
He phoned Apex and left his number for Sievers.
At quarter to six as he was leaving, Sievers phoned and they made arrangements to meet in ten minutes at a bar three blocks from Sam’s office. Sam phoned Carol and said he would be late. She said the children were all right, thatBucky had had another crying spell about Marilyn when he got home from school, but it didn’t last long. All of them had gone to the creek with Jamie and Mike to find a stone. She had taken her big straw purse with her. They’d found a nice stone and had had a horrible time carrying it all the way back.
Sievers was standing at the bar when Sam walked in. He nodded and waited until Sam had a drink and then walked to a rear booth far from the jukebox and across from the men’s room.
“I talked to Captain Dutton today. He won’t do anything.”
“I don’t see how he could. If you swung a hell of a lot more weight than you do, it might be managed. But he’d still be reluctant. By the way, he’s a top cop, that boy. Quiet and easy and hard as stones. Do you want to go ahead with what we talked about?”
“I … I think so.”
Sievers had a thin smile. “No more talk about the legal way?”
“I’ve had enough of that kind of talk today to last me quite a while.”
“You’re sharpening up.”
“Because of what has happened. Friday he drove out and poisoned my dog. The children’s dog. There’s no proof. Saturday he came to the boat yard, bold as brass.”
“He’ll soften up.”
“Can you do what you said?”
“It can be done right for three hundred bucks, Bowden. Iwon’t dig up the talent myself. I’ve got a friend. He’s got the right contacts. He’ll put three of them on him. I know the place, too. Out in back of 211 Jaekel Street. There’s a shed and a fence near where he parks the car. They can wait in the angle of the shed and the fence.”
“What … will they do?”
“What the hell do you think? They’ll beat hell out of him. With a couple of pieces of pipe and a bicycle chain, they’ll do a professional job. A hospital job.” His eyes changed, became remote. “I took a professional beating once. Oh, I was a hard boy. I believed that short of killing me they couldn’t hurt me. I was going to bounce right back like Mike Hammer. But it doesn’t work that way, Mr. Bowden. It marks you through and through. It’s the pain, I guess. And the way they won’t stop. The way you hear yourself begging and they still won’t stop. The guts and the pride run right out of you. I wasn’t worth a damn for two long years. I was perfectly healthy, but I had the jumps. I had them bad. I wasn’t ready to have anybody start hurting me like that again. Then I started to come back. It happened
When he was back in his own office, Sam sat behind his desk and thought of himself with contempt. The dreamer with the starry eyes. An amateur Abe Lincoln. Criminal lawyers made spirited defenses of known murderers. And were not thought unethical. So a man gave an option on land in good faith. Then he learns he can get more. So he comes in with his hat in his hand and says, “Show me how this can be broken.” So you find a technicality and you break the option. He’s a client. He pays for service.
But it was a contract made in good faith, and from the viewpoint of equity, the technicality is an absurdity.
Stop bleeding, Bowden. You’re all grown up. Stop marching around waving all your little flags. Cady shoots your kids while you cry onto your diploma and look through all the dusty books for a way to slap his wrist legally.
He phoned Apex and left his number for Sievers.
At quarter to six as he was leaving, Sievers phoned and they made arrangements to meet in ten minutes at a bar three blocks from Sam’s office. Sam phoned Carol and said he would be late. She said the children were all right, thatBucky had had another crying spell about Marilyn when he got home from school, but it didn’t last long. All of them had gone to the creek with Jamie and Mike to find a stone. She had taken her big straw purse with her. They’d found a nice stone and had had a horrible time carrying it all the way back.
Sievers was standing at the bar when Sam walked in. He nodded and waited until Sam had a drink and then walked to a rear booth far from the jukebox and across from the men’s room.
“I talked to Captain Dutton today. He won’t do anything.”
“I don’t see how he could. If you swung a hell of a lot more weight than you do, it might be managed. But he’d still be reluctant. By the way, he’s a top cop, that boy. Quiet and easy and hard as stones. Do you want to go ahead with what we talked about?”
“I … I think so.”
Sievers had a thin smile. “No more talk about the legal way?”
“I’ve had enough of that kind of talk today to last me quite a while.”
“You’re sharpening up.”
“Because of what has happened. Friday he drove out and poisoned my dog. The children’s dog. There’s no proof. Saturday he came to the boat yard, bold as brass.”
“He’ll soften up.”
“Can you do what you said?”
“It can be done right for three hundred bucks, Bowden. Iwon’t dig up the talent myself. I’ve got a friend. He’s got the right contacts. He’ll put three of them on him. I know the place, too. Out in back of 211 Jaekel Street. There’s a shed and a fence near where he parks the car. They can wait in the angle of the shed and the fence.”
“What … will they do?”
“What the hell do you think? They’ll beat hell out of him. With a couple of pieces of pipe and a bicycle chain, they’ll do a professional job. A hospital job.” His eyes changed, became remote. “I took a professional beating once. Oh, I was a hard boy. I believed that short of killing me they couldn’t hurt me. I was going to bounce right back like Mike Hammer. But it doesn’t work that way, Mr. Bowden. It marks you through and through. It’s the pain, I guess. And the way they won’t stop. The way you hear yourself begging and they still won’t stop. The guts and the pride run right out of you. I wasn’t worth a damn for two long years. I was perfectly healthy, but I had the jumps. I had them bad. I wasn’t ready to have anybody start hurting me like that again. Then I started to come back. It happened
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