Nothing Lost by John Gregory Dunne Page B

get to the dock. Falling forward, the braces on his polio-withered legs locked so that he could not move. Crawling. Pulling himself forward, his fingers digging into the grass and into the soft turf. It’s not your fault, Jamie, he had said. It’s not your fault. He knew. J.J. knew that he knew. Think of something else. God, Charley Buckles was fat. And there was Percy Darrow with duct tape over his mouth to stop his screaming, handcuffed, carried feet first from the holding cell into the chamber with his legs in plastic restraints. The restraint team was wearing hard hats, tinted face shields, and body armor. “A cell extraction,” the tie-down manual called it. Extraction. What dentists did to a diseased tooth. Percy Darrow was a diseased tooth. Q.E.D.
    Poppy was shaking him. Poppy was dressed. Poppy in severe designer black.
    â€œJ.J.”
    He snapped awake.
    â€œI’ve got Willie on that.”
    J.J. did not think he had ever seen a Dolores Del Rio movie. “You want to fuck?”
    â€œI have a coffee.” She picked up her bag. “Then a women’s forum. But tomorrow. After the 5-K Run. I’ll make some private time.”
    â€œPrivate time lacks a certain spontaneity.”
    Poppy checked her appearance in the mirror until her eyes caught his. “Is that what you have with Allie? Spontaneity?”
    Of course she would have known about Allie Vasquez. Willie would have heard. Willie would have dropped hints.
    â€œSpontaneity, yes.” He wondered why she brought it up now. All right. Her way. “And enthusiasm.”
    Accused Parlance Killers: “Not Guilty”
    WEB POSTED 13:29
    Regent, SM (ABCNEWS.COM)—In a brief arraignment at the Loomis County Courthouse today, court-appointed lawyers for Bryant Gover and Duane Lajoie, accused of the brutal slaying of Edgar Parlance last month, pleaded their clients not guilty before Judge Ellen Tracy, who will preside over the trial.
    The state was represented by Maurice Dodd, a senior prosecutor in the Attorney General’s office. Dodd said that he would press vigorously for the death penalty for both defendants.
    Gover is represented by Francis Howar of Regent and Lajoie by Earle Lincoln from nearby Questa. Refusing to answer questions after the arraignment, Howar told reporters that he would argue his client’s case in court and not in the press. Lincoln, who only passed the bar in June, also declined comment.
    Because of the sensitivity of the case, which is expected to draw full media coverage, Judge Tracy, a veteran jurist, was selected by lottery from a pool of senior judges.
    Present at the arraignment was Los Angeles Clippers superstar Jamaal Jefferson, who flew in to Regent by chartered helicopter after his private jet brought him to Capital City from Indianapolis, where the Pacers beat the Clippers last night 107–92.
    Jefferson had paid for the Parlance funeral last week.
    On behalf of the NBA and Cyrus Ichabod, CEO of I-Bod, the sneaker and sportswear conglomerate, Jefferson presented a $10,000 check to Clyde Ray, 59, who identified Lajoie’s pickup as it sped from the location where Parlance was killed on the night of the murder. This identification led to the arrest of the two former ex-felons.
    Ray was able to remember the 1989 Ford pickup by an obscene sticker on its rear bumper.

PART TWO

    CHAPTER ONE
    This is a story Teresa Kean told me.
    If I were a writer, not a lawyer, or as good a writer as I am a lawyer, I would have introduced her earlier. Since you could say this narrative is about her. Because without Teresa, there is no narrative. If you were giving billing, she is above the title.
    Prima inter pares.
    J.J.’s above the title, too. And I suppose Carlyle.
    Although you haven’t met her yet either.
    In due course.
    Anyway.
    My elaboration on Teresa’s story.
    During Poppy’s first two terms in Congress, J.J. would occasionally visit her when the House was sitting.