"Was it disappointing to you, Mr. Erdai, that none of them supported you in saying this was self-defense?"

"Not when I had a chance to think about it."

"But initially?"

"I don't know what I expected."

"But it wouldn't have bothered you, would it, if they'd backed your version?"

"I guess not."

"Have you ever known officers to protect their own?"

"I think it's happened before."

"But it didn't happen with you, did it?"

The mean part of Erno showed through for the first time, a sulfurous ignition behind the eyes. He was adept enough, however, to calm himself before he said no.

"And so you had to plead guilty, correct?"

"That's what happened."

"Now, what about Detective Starczek?" Larry sat up on reflex at his name. "Was he another of your friends on the Force?"

"Larry? I've known him going on thirty years. We were cadets together."

"And these letters you wrote to Detective Starczek""

Unexpectedly, Muriel returned to Larry at the counsel table. She whispered with her lips barely moving: "Reach in my briefcase and take out the mail in the first compartment." A flutter of uncertainty zipped through him, but he'd caught up with her by the time he'd extracted the three letter-sized envelopes. According to the return addresses, they were her statement from the state retirement fund and two credit card bills. With the letters in hand, she faced the witness.

"You never wrote Detective Starczek telling him you killed anyone, did you?"

"Told him I needed to talk to him."

"Didn't you tell him straight out you wanted his help?"

"I might have. You know, as I remember, I called him once or twice, only he wasn't there, and they won't accept collect calls from the joint anyway, so I wrote him two, three letters and he didn't answer."

Arthur stood, waving at what Muriel held in her hand.

"Your Honor, I haven't seen those letters."

"Judge, I didn't receive any preview of Mr. Erdai's testimony. And besides, I haven't displayed them to the witness. Mr. Raven may inspect whatever I show the witness."

Arthur continued objecting and Harlow finally called them to the sidebar on the far side of the bench, away from Erno. Larry joined the procession.

"What's the story with the letters?" whispered Harlow.

"I don't have any," Muriel told him.

Larry figured the judge would go off, but instead Harlow smiled broadly.

"Bluffing?" asked Harlow.

"I'm ent.i.tled," she said.

"So you are," said the judge and motioned everyone away. Muriel had the court reporter read back the last two questions and answers.

Larry turned to watch Arthur, fearing he might try to cue Erno that Muriel was faking. You could never tell what kind of dog poo a guy would turn into as a defense lawyer, but Arthur remained poker-faced as he explained to his a.s.sociate what was happening from behind his hand.

"Now, at the time you wrote Detective Starczek, you wanted to get into a medium-security facility, didn't you?"

"Well, my lawyer tried to arrange that. And when he couldn't, I asked some guys could they help."

"And are you telling us, Mr. Erdai, that you thought you'd get to a medium-security facility by informing Detective Starczek that you'd committed a brutal triple murder?"

Notwithstanding Harlow's prior look, there were again a few giggles from the spectators' pews.

"When I wrote Larry, I'd basically given up on medium. Corrections says you're in maximum if you committed an offense with a firearm. Period."

"And can you give us the name of anyone on the Force who tried to get the Corrections Department to make an exception on your behalf?"

Erno took the toothpick from his mouth. He was cooked on this one, because he knew no one would come to court to back him up. In answer to Muriel, he said he didn't recall.

"And no matter why you wrote to Detective Starczek, we agree you never mentioned these killings, correct?"

"True. I told him I had to talk to him about something important."

"Detective Starczek didn't respond?"

"Right."

"He didn't want to deal with you now that you couldn't do him any good. Is that how you felt?"

"Naw, I wouldn't say that."

Muriel returned to Larry for a copy of the letter Erno had written to Gillian, then started toward the witness. Ten feet to Larry's left, Raven immediately clambered to his feet.

"Judge, I haven't seen that," Arthur said. With an innocent look, Muriel displayed Erno's letter first to Raven, then Harlow. Larry read over another copy Muriel had left on the table. The words were right there, even though Arthur's dashed look made it apparent that he'd missed their significance. As Muriel returned to the podium, Larry saw her pa.s.s Arthur a collegial smile, a pleasant 'gotcha' as if they were playing Scrabble or tennis. Then she turned back to Erno and used the letter like a knife to the liver.

"Did you write to Judge Sullivan that the detective on the case had no interest in you 'now that you can't do him any good'?"

Erno read it over several times. "That's what it says here."

"Would you say you were resentful?" asked Muriel.

"Call it what you want."

"I'll call it resentful," said Muriel. Harlow sustained the objection, but he smiled again. Larry by now had gotten a line on the judge. Kenton Harlow liked lawyers, admired what they did. He believed that the truth would emerge from the hard-fought courtroom contest, and he was clearly taken with Muriel's style.

"Well, let's put it this way," said Muriel. "You provided information to Detective Starczek on what you knew was a major case, right?"

"Okay," said Erno.

"And your friend Detective Starczek made the case? He got credit for it."

"Him and you," said Erno.

"He and I. And the Police Force got credit for it, correct?"

"Right."

"That Force where no one would help you get to medium security."

"Okay."

"That same Force where n.o.body backed your story that the shooting four years ago at Ike's was self-defense."

"Yeah, I suppose."

"And by saying what you're saying now, you're essentially taking back what you gave Detective Starczek and the Police Force before. Yes?"

"I'm saying the truth."

"True or not, you're trying to correct or withdraw the effect of the information you provided previously. Aren't you?"

"Cause that was a lie."

Muriel moved to strike and Harlow forced Erno to answer. He had no choice but to say yes. It was all too obvious by now, but a little ruffle pa.s.sed through the rows of press when he spoke the word. They had the lead for their stories.

Muriel then began to question Erno about his relationship with the Gangster Outlaws, one of the street gangs that dominated the prison at Rudyard. This was information that Larry had worked most of the night developing, and Muriel laid it out nicely. Erno had gotten on with a G.O. cellmate and had eventually fallen under the protection of the gang, for whom Erno was thought to occasionally obtain information from old pals in law enforcement. Erno would not acknowledge the last part.

"Well, do you know, Mr. Erdai, that there have been several cases where members of the Gangster Outlaws who were incarcerated have provided false confessions to crimes other G.O.'s were accused of?"

"Objection," said Arthur. "There's no evidence that Mr. Gandolph is a member of any gang."

"The question," said Muriel, "is whether Mr. Erdai knows that."

"It's irrelevant," said Arthur.

"I'll hear it," said the judge.

"I've heard that," said Erno.

"And have you also heard, Mr. Erdai, that the G.O.'s control death row at Rudyard?"

"I know there's a lot of them there."

"Including Mr. Gandolph?"

"I wouldn't know about that. You have to understand, those death rows, the Yellow Men, are off by themselves. They don't see anybody else. I haven't had a word with Gandolph in all the time I've been in the facility."

"Well, Mr. Erdai, are you telling us that given your experience in the inst.i.tution, if somebody from the G.O.'s, who've protected you, wanted you to tell a story, especially a story that wouldn't hurt you but that would hurt Detective Starczek and the Police Force who'd let you down, a story that would even help you spend time with your wife before you died"are you really telling us you have too much integrity to do that?"

Arthur had come to his feet long before Muriel finished. He quietly said, "Objection," and Harlow quickly responded, "Sustained." But Muriel had essentially given her closing argument for the press. With her job more than done, she moved back toward counsel table, then stopped abruptly.

"Oh," she said, as if what was coming was merely an afterthought. "After you hauled these bodies down to the freezer, Mr. Erdai, what is it you say you did to the corpse of Luisa Remardi?"

"I pulled her skirt and her underwear down to her ankles."

"And then?"

"Then, nothing."

"So you'just disrobed her for, what, curiosity?"

"I disrobed her, because I knew she'd been having s.e.x an hour before and I figured it would show in the autopsy. I wanted it to look like she'd been a.s.saulted. It was the same idea as taking everybody's stuff to make it look like a robbery. I was just trying to cover up."

"And you didn't, in fact, perform a.n.a.l intercourse with the corpse."

"Nope."

"You know, don't you, that the police pathologist, Dr. k.u.magai, testified at trial that the corpse had been sodomized."

"I know that Painless k.u.magai has made a lot of mistakes over the years."

"But you don't know why a common condom lubricant was detected in her a.n.u.s?"

"I think you ought to ask the gentleman she was pa.s.sing time with in the parking lot."

"And do you think that accounts for why her a.n.a.l sphincter was distended after the time of death?"

"I'm not a pathologist."

"But you'll agree, Mr. Erdai, that your testimony doesn't explain that piece of evidence, does it?"

"I haven't explained that, no."

"Thank you," said Muriel.

She settled beside Larry. Below the table, quite unexpectedly, he felt her fist knock against his.

Muriel's cross had gone almost entirely as Arthur had acted it out in his conferences with Erno at the jail. The only exception was the line in Erno's letter about Larry having no use for him now; Arthur hadn't recognized the implications. But that aside, Erno had been well prepared. The difference was Muriel. She won any compet.i.tion on style points.

By the time she had finished, Judge Harlow was sitting up straight in his chair on the other side of the bench, literally keeping his distance from Erdai. As Arthur rose for redirect examination, he was aware he had work to do. He b.u.t.toned his coat, and double-checked on Pamela's notes, before he started what was called, in the parlance, rehabilitating the witness.

"Mr. Erdai, Ms. Wynn questioned why you would take such risks to yourself for your nephew's sake. Can you explain that to His Honor, Judge Harlow?"