“How do you decide who deserves it?”
“Wha’da you mean, ‘how do I decide’?!” Russell raised his voice.
Webb shrugged his shoulders, but still didn’t look up. He barely spoke loud enough for Russell to hear him. “What I mean is, what gives us the right to-”
Russell erupted. “What gives me the right?! What gives me the right?! Did you ask me ‘what gives me the right’? This badge gives me the right!” Russell tapped the silver badge on his chest. “That son of a bitch’s past gives me the right! That ain’t no fuckin’ choirboy we’re sending up. That is one evil motherfucker. Every day he stays free is another dead hooker or another kid on crack. That’s what gives me the right.” Russell took three quick puffs from his cigarette.
“We can’t make that decision.”
“Yes we can! Yes we can!” Russell growled, jabbing his cigarette at Webb for emphasis.
“Why can’t we let the system work?” Webb’s voice grew louder, but he still lacked confidence and he still wouldn’t look into Russell’s face.
Russell threw his hands up in the air. “Let the system work?! It don’t work for guys like this!”
“Look I agree too many guys are getting away with murder, but if we start doing this, then we’re not cops anymore. Let the system take care of him.”
“Oh, fuck that! This guy is beyond the system, he makes a mockery of the system. If guys like this keep gettin’ away with their crimes, then there ain’t no system. It’s up to me and you to make the system work. We protect the system. If that means we gotta bend the rules now and then to get shit like this off the streets, then so fuckin’ be it!”
“If he’s such a bad guy, take him down for the other stuff he’s done.”
“Oh, listen to the rookie. Don’t you think we tried?! We had him in here for rape five years ago. The victim vanished. We had him for murder. The witness died. Drugs. The fucking drugs walked out of the station house. Do you understand me?! They walked out of the Goddamn station house!” Russell waved his cigarette around the room as he spat out each word.
Webb started to speak, but stopped himself.
“That piece of shit killed five people in cold blood! He sells crack to Goddamn school kids! And you’re worried about a little planted evidence?! Well, fuck you, Officer Rookie! You’re a cop, and being a cop means making hard choices. Sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty if you want to keep the streets safe. Sometimes, you gotta improvise to get trash like him off the street. If that takes pinning an ID theft on the guy, then so fuckin’ be it. I’ll sleep fine tonight, knowing I saved somebody’s life and kept somebody’s kid off crack.”
“What about the real ID thief? He walks?”
Russell laughed. “Some Arab working in a mailbox store. He starts stealing credit cards and checks from mailboxes, uses them to buy electronic gear from local stores, writes bad checks, that sort of thing. One of the stores he hits calls the fraud boys. They look into it, figure it out. We go to arrest this towelhead. Only, he skips the country a couple days before we get there. Un-fuckin’-touchable.”
Webb remained silent.
Russell leaned against a vending machine. “You know, I’ll bet you’se if the public knew about this, they’d support us ten to one.”
“Then why do it in secret?” Webb looked at Russell’s eyes for the first time. “Why not just haul him downtown to the mayor’s office and announce to the world that he’s a bad man and it’s time we locked him up?”
“Don’t be a smart ass, Rook. You ain’t earned that right.”
Webb tried to sip from his empty cup.
Russell pulled some change from his pocket. “Here, get yourself a coffee.”
“Thanks.”
“Look kid, just get with the program. It’s for the better. This guy is evil. He needs to be taken off the street. This is the only way. He’s that special case where the system needs to be tweaked. You wanna protect people and keep the system working for everybody else, you gotta do this. Nobody who don’t deserve it is gonna get hurt by this.”
Webb tossed his hand out as if to object, but voiced no objection.
“Just sign the report I left on your desk and put it in the file. That’s all you gotta do.” Russell put his hand on the door to leave. “Me and you solid, Rook?” Russell asked over his shoulder, without turning to face Webb.
“Yeah, we’re solid,” Webb replied quietly.
Chapter 24
Corbin parked his car next to the same stand of trees on the same rural road where he gave Beckett the duffel bags several months prior. Beckett pulled up alongside Corbin, leaving six feet between the vehicles. They exited their cars and met in the middle.
“Tell me why I’m here?” Corbin demanded without hiding his annoyance. Despite the urgency of his message to Corbin, Beckett refused to tell Corbin over the phone why they needed to meet. This infuriated Corbin, who simmered now for three days as he waited to meet Beckett.
“This,” Beckett replied, handing Corbin a folded newspaper. He had circled an article about the arrest of accused identity thief Washington Beaumont. Corbin scanned the article before handing the paper back to Beckett. It was obvious from the article that Beaumont was accused, at least in part, of the crimes they committed.
“Too bad for him,” Corbin replied indifferently. “What does this have to do with us?”
“We need to do something.”
“Why?” Corbin shot back immediately, but still in the same indifferent tone.
Beckett stared at Corbin in disbelief. “This doesn’t bother you?”
“Not in the least,” Corbin replied without hesitation. He stood motionless with his arms folded.
“I’m stunned. Alex, he’s innocent,” Beckett said in a near-pleading tone.
“Sounds like a guilty bastard to me.”
“He didn’t do what they’re saying he did, we did!”
“I don’t care.”
“They’re going to try him for what we did!”
“I don’t care.”
“What are we supposed to do if they convict him?”
“Then you live with it, Evan!” Corbin suddenly shouted. “You live with it!”
“No, I won’t! I can’t let an innocent man go down for my crime.”
“What do you want from me, Evan?!” Corbin pulled off his sunglasses and glared at Beckett.
“I need your help. We need to do something,” Beckett pleaded.
A chill ran down Corbin’s spine. His eyes narrowed and his lips drew back, revealing his teeth. “What are you suggesting, Evan?”
“I’ve entered my appearance as his attorney, I’m going to represent him.”
“You what?!” Corbin exclaimed. His whole body shook, as if he’d absorbed a punch.
“I’m going to defend him.”
“Have you lost your fucking mind?!” Corbin’s muscles visibly tensed and his hands formed into claws as if he intended to choke Beckett, but he didn’t approach him.
Corbin’s outburst shocked Beckett, but he didn’t back down. “No Alex, I’m seeing things more clearly now!”
“That’s what crazy people say, Evan, that everything keeps getting clearer!”
“I’m not arguing about this, Alex,” Beckett insisted. He paused. “I need your help.”
“Wh. . what?!” Corbin laughed in disbelief.
“I need your help,” Beckett repeated slowly. “If I’m going to get him off, I need your help.”
“My help?!”
“Alex, I need that big, beautiful brain of yours.”
Corbin’s left eye twitched. His scowl grew colder, more angry.
“If you don’t help me, I don’t know that I can get this guy off, but together. . we can do this,” Beckett urged.
“And what are you going to do if you can’t, Evan?!” Corbin demanded sharply. His voice became gruff and his nostrils flared.
Beckett looked down at the dirt and shrugged his shoulders.