“Hey!” Herbie said.
“Shut up, Herbie, or I’ll have your mouth duct-taped.”
Herbie muttered something about free speech.
“Do you have any duct tape?” Stone asked Dierdre.
“I’ll send out for some,” she replied. “Stone, as I mentioned on the phone, we’re in a bit of a quandary here. We’d like your views on how to handle this.”
Stone looked back and forth between the two prosecutors. He had time to reflect that no D.A. had ever asked his advice about prosecuting a client of his. Then he got the picture. “Oh,” he said. “Right. My client, Mr. Fisher, has been hounded and abused by Carmine Dattila and his employees for weeks. They have beaten him, kidnapped him and his murder has been ordered by Mr. Dattila, a tape of which statement is in your possession. Additionally, after the only other witness against Mr. Dattila was murdered in jail, Dattila sent a hired assassin to the hotel where Mr. Fisher was being held in protective custody, where he murdered the two police officers guarding him and would have murdered Mr. Fisher, had he not had the presence of mind to escape the hotel suite before the assassin found him.
“These events convinced Mr. Fisher that the District Attorney and the police could not ever protect him, so, while the balance of his mind…may have been disturbed by these events, he found himself in the presence of Mr. Dattila and did the only thing he could do to protect himself in the circumstances and entirely in self-defense.” Stone stopped and took a breath. “That’s what I’d say to a jury, and I’d get an acquittal.”
Dierdre nodded. She looked at her boss questioningly, and he nodded. “All right,” she said. “You understand we can’t have people walking around the city armed and shooting people. How about he pleads to one count of illegal possession of a weapon and gets a year, suspended?”
“Done,” Stone said.
“A year?” Herbie asked, sounding horrified.
“Suspended, Herbie. Shut up.”
“There’s a judge waiting for us in his chambers,” Dierdre said, getting to her feet.
Half an hour later, Stone and Herbie stood on the steps of the courthouse in the sunshine. Herbie was examining the contents of an envelope that had been handed to him on the way out of the judge’s chambers.
“Do you have any money, Herbie?” Stone asked.
“Yeah, all my stuff is in here, except the cop’s gun. I guess they kept that.”
“Well, yes, they would have,” Stone said. “Do I have to explain to you that there are friends and employees of Carmine Dattila out there who would still like to squash you like a bug, even though the contract on your head may have expired with Dattila? And that you should go back to your aunt’s in East Hampton or any other place you like and lie very low for as long as possible, and that you should never again go near a bookie or a loan shark or Little Italy? Did I explain that to you?”
“I think you just did,” Herbie said.
“Then get your ass into a cab,” Stone said, clapping Herbie on the back. “And don’t ever, ever call me again.”
“Wait a minute,” Herbie said. “What about my civil action against Dattila? We could go for his estate.”
“Estate? You think Dattila had an estate? Like on paper? If he did, the IRS would get there first, believe me, and you’d find yourself in small claims court.”
“Oh,” Herbie replied.
“Get lost, Herbie.” Stone ran down the steps, waving at a taxi, and he did not look back.
58
Stone got out of the cab and ran up the stairs into the house, avoiding the office door. Eliza was upstairs, still in bed, waiting.
Before he could get into the elevator, he heard Joan’s voice calling to him over the phone’s intercom.
“Stone,” she said, “there’s a client here to see you. I think you’re going to want to take this meeting.”
“I’ll be back as soon as humanly possible,” he said to Eliza.
“Sooner than that,” she said.
Stone sighed and started down the stairs. If Herbie had beat him here, well, there was a gun in his office safe. He walked into his office and found Bernice Finger sitting on his leather sofa.
“Why, Mrs. Finger,” he said, extending his hand. “How nice to see you.” It really was very nice to see her; she had obviously come to her senses. He sat down next to her. “How can I help you?”