Due Justice

Chapter 10

We agreed on what he would say and how he would say it. I told him it was important to keep the call to less than three minutes so that it couldn’t be traced. After we got everything worked out, he went downstairs to drive himself to the phone.

I waited for what seemed like forever. By the time George got back, I’d already finished three more drinks and smoked two more cigars. One a day is my usual self imposed limit. I saw his car pull up in the driveway and I poured us both another drink. George is not a man meant for intrigue and I knew that he would be at least as shaken as I was.

“Well, what happened?” I pounced on him as soon as he walked in the door.

“It went as well as can be expected. I called the downtown branch instead of 911. I know all 911 calls are taped. I disguised my voice and I said ‘I think the body you found yesterday morning in Tampa Bay is Dr. Michael Morgan’.”

“Did they act like they believed you?”

“They asked me to repeat the information. After I repeated it twice, making a total of three statements in the very same words, I hung up. I think the whole call took about two minutes. Then I got back in my car and drove directly here.”

“Were you followed?”

“Christ, listen to you!  I don’t know whether I was followed. I’ve never been followed in my life except in a funeral procession. I’d have no idea how to find out. Did you see anyone else come up the driveway behind me?”

I told him I hadn’t and we both tried to calm down. At the moment, it appeared this was the most we could do. I had called Carly twice after George left. No answer. For all I knew, she could have moved or changed her number. In any event, we’d given the authorities the information we had and, with luck, we wouldn’t have to deal with it further. I made a mental note to look up whether obstruction of justice was an impeachable offense first thing tomorrow morning. I was sure I knew the answer, but pretending I didn’t gave me some hope.

We had the dinner George had suggested earlier sent up to our dining room and, although neither of us said anything, I knew we were both waiting for the evening news. At 11:00, we turned on the local broadcast. Frank Bennett carried the major stories, including the unidentified body. He recapped the prior reports, the reasons the police had for the conclusion that the victim had been killed before he was dumped in the Bay. The only new information came at the very end of the segment.

“This spot,” Bennett said, “just in the middle of the Skyway Bridge, is where the body was found. But there’s no evidence to suggest the victim was dumped from the bridge. In fact, it’s almost certain that anyone stopping along the bridge, even in the early morning hours, would have been observed by passing motorists.

“Police Chief Ben Hathaway told NewsChannel 8 he believes the body was dumped way back here at the Port of Tampa, and unusual currents related to last week’s storm washed the body toward the bridge. This is Frank Bennett, reporting live from the Sunshine Skyway.”

Neither Frank, nor any of the other channels carried any information regarding the identity of the man. In fact, by eerie coincidence, none of the journalists even speculated on whom the man might be.

George and I went to bed and had a very uneasy night. Every time I woke up, he was already awake. When the clock finally read 5:00 a.m., there was no way I could continue pretending to sleep, so I got up. George was, finally, snoring. I got Harry and Bess, our two Labradors, and went down to the beach for our morning run. For once, I was in the office well before the CJ or anyone else.

I was just thinking it might be nice to take a nap, when I realized it was past time to take the bench. Although judges kept me waiting often enough when I was in practice, I try not to keep a room full of lawyers, at a gazillion dollars an hour, waiting in my courtroom. It’s just my little way of reducing the cost of litigation.