The Staked Goat - Jeremiah Healy Read Free Page A

it?"
    She rummaged through a tile and handed me a police
report. "Seems the Coopers gave their name to the fire
department when they called in the flames, and the fire captain
mentioned it to the cop who arrived on the scene."
    I read Jesse and Emily's name, address, and telephone
number from the last paragraph of the report.
    "Damn,” I said. "I assume the D'Amico
lawyer has a copy of this?"
    "Got one the first night at the arresting
station, as soon as he identified himself as Joey's attorney. Per
office procedure."
    "Maybe I should have a talk with Marco," I
said.
    She cleared her throat. "Let me be official, Mr.
Cuddy. You go shaking down Marco, and it will weaken you as a witness
for the prosecution. I don't want Joey's case riding on old Weeks' 'I
hired him' testimony."
    "And unofficially?" I asked.
    She smiled, using her teeth this time. Nice, even
teeth. "Unofficially, mightn't you be giving Marco ideas he
hasn't stumbled on himself yet, since he seems to view you as enemy
number one-and-only right now?"
    I considered it. "I'm not sure you're right, Ms.
Meagher. But yours is the better percentage right now." I stood
up. "Thanks for lunch."
    She stayed seated. "You're from Southie
originally, right?"
    South Boston is an old Irish/Italian neighborhood of
brick and wood three-deckers just past the South Station train
terminus. Beth and I both grew up there.
    "That's right," I said.
    "Me, too," she replied. "In fact, I
still live there. On Fourth Street, number 746." She smiled.
"Third floor."
    I cleared my throat. "I still don't deal with
this gracefully," I said, "but I was married a long time
and then widowed. I'm still not . . . well . . . ready .... "
    Nancy blinked a few times and stood up. "I think
that's the most graceful 'Thanks anyway' I've ever heard." She
gave my right arm a quick squeeze. "But keep me in mind, O.K.?"
    "O.K." I squeezed back and left.
 
 
    THREE
-•-
    AS I SAT OUTSIDE TRIAL COURTROOM 924, MY MIND KEPT
skipping from the night of the fire to how much I was looking forward
to seeing Nancy Meagher again. We had not met since the bail hearing,
although she called me once a few weeks ago to review my version of
what happened. Over the telephone, her voice sounded softer than I
remembered, and she had advanced to the DA's Superior Court office.
She was assisting the head of the homicide division in prosecuting
Joey D'Amico, who so far had refused to cop a plea.
    I had not seen Joey either, not since the night at
the warehouse. I did see Marco two days after the bail hearing,
through the lens of my Pentax K1000 as I sat in a rental car outside
the D'Amico house on Hanover Street. I brought the photos to the
Coopers with the insurance company's final check for their help. I
told Jesse and Emily over tea and cookies that they were to call me
if they ever saw Marco anywhere around them or their house. They
promised they would, but I called them several times in the
intervening months just to be sure. No Marco.
    A long fingered freckled hand gave my arm a squeeze
as Nancy settled in beside me on the bench.
    "What are you in for?" she asked with, I
swear, a twinkle in her eye.
    "The vice squad caught me doing funny things
with turtles."
    She laughed, a deep throaty laugh. "Lucky
turtles."
    I shook my head and turned to business. "How
does it look?"
    She glanced around to be sure no one she knew was
within earshot. "Frankly, it couldn't look better for us. We've
got your contact at the insurance company to lead off with the
surrounding circumstances, Weeks to describe the 'contract', you to
put Joey in the warehouse with his statements and Craigie alive
shortly before, and a lab man who took specimens off the butt of
Joey's gun that match Craigie's blood type and color hair."
    I considered her summary. "Why no plea?"
    Her turn to shake the head. "Makes no sense to
me.
    Speaking professional to professional, Joey's lawyer
is a hack. Very little pretrial stuff, at which Joey could have
testified to try