Hard News (Rune 3)

Eighteen case. Indigent. So the state paid my fee to represent him."

"I really think he's innocent."

"Uh-huh."

"No, I really, really think so."

"You say so."

"You don't?"

"My opinion of my clients' innocence or guilt is completely, totally irrelevant."

She asked, "Could you tell me what happened? About Hopper's death, I mean."

Megler sat back in a thoughtful pose. He studied the grimy ceiling. The window was open a crack and exhaust-scented April air riffled stacks of paper.

"The district attorney's case was that Boggs was in Manhattan, just driving through from, I don't know, upstate someplace. Some witness said Boggs was standing on the sidewalk talking with Hopper and then they got into a fight over something. Hopper'd just gotten home from work and had just pulled into the courtyard of his building on the Upper West Side. The prosecutor speculated it was a traffic dispute."

Rune's eyes made a sardonic circuit of the room. "Traffic? But he was on the sidewalk, you said."

"Maybe he parked after Hopper cut him off and got out of the car. I don't know."

"But--"

"Hey, you asked what the assistant district attorney said. I'm telling you. I'm trying to be helpful. Am I being helpful?"

"Helpful," Rune said. "What was Randy's story?"

"Part of the problem was that he had a story."

"Huh?"

"I tell all my clients, if you're arrested don't take the stand. Under any circumstances. The jury can't--the judge tells them this--the jury can't draw any conclusions from the defendant's not taking the stand. But Randy-- against my advice, I wanta point out--did. If you do that the prosecutor can introduce evidence of prior convictions for the purpose of attacking your honesty. Only that--not to prove you have a criminal tendency. Just to show that you might lie. But what does the jury hear? Fuck credibility--all they hear is his string of arrests for petty crimes. Next thing you know, Boggs, who's really a pretty decent guy who's had some bad luck, is sounding like Hitler. He's got a petty larceny bust in Ohio, some juvie bullshit down in Florida, GTA in--"

"What's that?"

"Grand theft auto. So suddenly, the ADA's making him sound like he's head of the Gambino family. He--"

"Where was the gun?"

"Let me finish, willya? He said he was with this guy picked him up hitchhiking, a guy who was into some kind of credit card scam. This guy goes to buy some hot plastic and Boggs is waiting in the car. He hears a shot up the street. He gets out of the car. He sees Hopper lying there, dead. He turns and runs smack into a police car."

"He had the gun?"

"The gun was off a ways, in some bushes. No prints but they traced it to a theft in Miami about a year before the killing. Boggs had spent time in Miami."

"Who was this other guy?"

"Boggs didn't know. He was hitchhking along the Taconic and the man picked him up. They drove into the city together."

"Good," Rune said. "A witness. Excellent. Did you find him?"

Megler looked at her as if enthusiasm and the flu were pretty much the same thing. "Yeah, right. Even if he's real, which he isn't, a guy who's involved in a credit card boost's gonna come forward and testify? I don't think so, honey."

"Did Randy describe him?"

"Not very well. All he said was his name was Jimmy. Was a big guy. But it was late, it was dark, et cetera, et cetera."