Fighting Chance(92)

“Well,” Bennis said.

“Let’s just hope this one isn’t the judge when the accessory thing comes up,” Gregor said.

There was a lot of shuffling around, and Bennis went up to the defense table. “I’m glad you’re not asserting your right to remain silent anymore,” she said. “It had us all worried.”

Tibor sighed. “There is no point in asserting my right to remain silent,” he said. “Krekor is here, and he will not shut up.”

2

After that, everything was done with what people kept saying was “extreme dispatch,” but what felt to Gregor Demarkian like “forever.” Tibor and George Edelson disappeared for a while, and when they were gone, Ray Berle and Tony Monteverdi showed up, looking harassed.

“You know the only reason you’re doing this is because you’ve got the reputation of getting everything right,” Tony Monteverdi said. “You’d better get everything right.”

“I don’t understand why I have to be here,” Petrak Maldovanian said. “This is some kind of parlor trick. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“For God’s sake,” Russ Donahue said. “Just for once, help yourself out. Just for once.”

“We’ve still got a dead guy we need to ask you some questions about,” Ray Berle said. “We could go do that instead of this.”

“Ah,” Tony Monteverdi said. “We checked. You were right. Mark Granby left his office for lunch and never came back. We’ve got a watch on the airport.”

“I told you,” Gregor said. “You’ve got to get the feds to cooperate and put a watch on all the airports. If I were in his place, I’d go by car somewhere well away from Philadelphia and catch a plane there. And I’d go by myself. He’s got family, but I don’t think he’ll try to take them with him at this point. The trick is to actually get out.”

“They don’t usually get out,” Ray Berle said.

Tibor and George Edelson came back into the courtroom, and Gregor felt as if something could finally get done. Gregor was also gratified to see that Tibor was wearing neither handcuffs nor leg irons. He did look perfectly miserable.

“We got nailed by a guy from the prosecutor’s office,” George Edelson said. “He did not look pleased. My guess is that the blowback from all this is not going to be fun.”

“We’ll worry about the blowback when we get there,” Gregor said. “Let’s just make sure. We’re all ready? We should be there within half an hour, just to keep the security people from losing it. They’re probably losing it already. Everybody set? Russ? You’ve got your car?”

“I’ve got my car.”

“Good. Then we don’t have to wait around for you to get a taxi. Let’s go.”

“Can we go?” Bennis asked.

“I take it you’re going to need a taxi,” Gregor said. “Get there if you can get there. As far as I can tell, anyone can come in who wants to come in, so why not.”

“Excellent,” Bennis said.

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Hannah Krekorian said.

“I’ll explain it on the way over,” Bennis promised her.

Mrs. Vespasian let out with a stream of Armenian, and the other Very Old Ladies started chattering too. Gregor was glad they were going to be following Bennis and not him.

Gregor watched Tibor watch them all go.

Then the priest turned to Gregor and said, “You’re wrong, Krekor. You are very wrong. About all of this.”

“No,” Gregor said. “I’m not. And I’m going to prove it to you.”

3

They could have gone into the juvenile court in a lot of different ways, but Gregor wanted to go in through the front door, and that was what George Edelson did. They were stopped at the security checkpoint and wanded and sent through the metal detector. Gregor opened his briefcase and let the guard look through it for contraband or weapons. Then they all waited while Ray Berle and Tony Monteverdi came in from the back.

The courthouse was not busy. It was close to the end of the day. Hearings were winding down. Judges were going home. Even so, there were more than a few people milling around, and if a hearing was going on in Martha Handling’s old courtroom, there would soon be more.

“All right,” Gregor said, moving to the head of the corridor that led to the restrooms and, from there, to the rest of the building. “This corridor leads to the restrooms, as you can see. Then it continues to the corridors we’re interested in. There are two things you need to remember. The first one is the security checkpoint we just came through. Nobody is getting into the building through that door without being checked over. Which means that nobody is getting in through that door without a weapon.”