That made him explode. “You pay two hundred dollars an hour for my advice, which you proceed to flout, but I’m going to give it to you anyway. Get out of here. If you stay in here on some cockamamie scheme to rout out corruption in Coolis, you will be hurt worse than you have ever been before in your life. And if you then call on me to glue whatever’s left of you back together, I will not be a happy man.”
“Freeman, I won’t claim my brain is in top gear right now. Being locked up is distorting, I agree. But for the last three weeks I’ve been ducking missiles that Carnifice and Global Entertainment have been launching at me. I was sure you’d understand if you watched the video I asked Morrell to send you, the one showing Baladine’s tame cop looking for coke he’d planted in my office. For once in my life I did not go out of my way seeking to make an enemy: they came and found me.”
We were sitting in a special meeting room for attorney visits. It was utterly bare except for two plastic chairs separated by a table that was bolted to the floor. We had to stay in our respective chairs, or the guard watching us through a glass panel would remove me. Supposedly the room was soundproofed, but for all I knew they were taping everything we said.
When I talked to Freeman Monday afternoon, during my fifteen–minute slot for phone calls, I insisted he bring a camera with him to photograph the fading remains of Lemour’s attack on me. He’d harrumphed a bit on the phone but came with a Polaroid. When he saw the marks on my face and arms, his eyes widened with anger and he took a dozen shots. He was already planning the complaint against Lemour, but it made him even less able to understand why I wanted to stay at Coolis.
I pushed my palms together, trying to marshal my words. “It all started when I stopped to help Baladine’s ex–nanny three weeks ago. Until I find out why that matters so much to him and to Teddy Trant, I don’t think there’s going to be much left of me even if I do leave Coolis. The answer is here, at least the answer to what happened to the nanny, to young Nicola Aguinaldo. If I had money in a trust account and some bills for feeding the guards, I should be able to learn what I need to know about her in a couple of weeks. Maybe less.”
He thought I was quixotic as well as insane, and he argued persuasively: I may have thought I wasn’t going out of my way to needle Baladine, but why didn’t I leave well enough alone as he’d asked me when he was dealing with the State’s Attorney about my car last month? And prison was a destructive environment. It wore on you physically as well as mentally, warped your judgment and your ethics.
“You know that as well as I, Vic: you did your share of criminal pleadings in your days with the public defender.”
“I know it from being here four days. I got entangled with the leader of the West Side Iscariots on Sunday and I’ve been watching my back ever since. I hate it here. I’m lonely. Even if the food wasn’t horrible, the dining hall is so covered with roaches you have to keep brushing them off your legs while you’re at the table; every time the locks shut on our rooms at night, my stomach twists up so hard I can’t sleep; there’s no privacy, even on the toilet.” To my dismay I could hear my voice cracking on the edge of tears. “But if I let you bail me out, the only thing that will save me is to close up my business and hide out someplace. Even if my self–respect would permit that my finances won’t.”
“You can’t convince me those are your only two choices, but I can’t stay to argue. I have to get back to Chicago for a court appearance.” He looked at his watch. “Anyway, you’ve already made up your mind to be pigheaded, so there’s no point in my arguing with you. Tell me what you want, both in bucks and in permitted goods, and I’ll send Callie over to your home to collect things. I’ve got an intern who can ferry things out here for you and do the basic paperwork on the money.”
Besides the clothes I was permitted (two bras, two pairs of jeans, three underpants, five shirts, a pair of shorts, and a modest set of earrings) I told him what I most wanted was to see Morrell. “I want to see any friend who will make the drive—I listed Lotty and Mr. Contreras and Sal on my visitor’s sheet—but will you ask Morrell to come out here as soon as possible? As far as the money goes, I’d like three hundred dollars put into a prison trust account.”
I picked my words carefully for the rest of my request. “I know it’s a felony to bring cash in for someone in prison, so I’m not going to ask you to do it. If I could get four hundred dollars in bills, though, it might come in handy. Will you mention the idea—and the risk—to Lotty?”