Fall Guy

a challenge,” he said, „boys are going to try to meet it. My wife and I hope that this tragedy might make other boys think twice.”

    I took Maggie O'Fallon's note out of her brother's briefcase.
    „I know what happened at Breyer's Landing. I was there.“
    If she'd been there, why wouldn't he have known that? Why was she telling him that now, all these years later? And why hadn't the article mentioned her name along with those of her brothers and cousins?
    I read the article again to make sure. Then I checked inside each plastic sleeve to see if there was anything else, but there wasn't. I started at the beginning and paged through the album more slowly this time. The boys, three O'Fallons and two Connors, and one little girl, eternally young, nothing recorded after all those charming, goofy, normal kid smiles were wiped off their faces by a tragic accident.
    O'Fallon's father had been a New York City detective, too. Grief traveling the marrow of the bones, generation after generation.
    I pulled out O'Fallon's driver's license and looked at his face again and then I began to think about Michael Brody, about what cops saw, about how they never told.
    I went upstairs to the office and picked up the file from the post-traumatic-stress group where I'd met O'Fallon. I checked my watch. It was nearly ten. I picked up the phone and dialed the first number.

CHAPTER 7
    When I woke up, I called O'Fallon's attorney, Melanie Houseman. She said she'd get started on the paperwork, the letter of testamentary that would give me the power to function legally on O'Fallon's behalf, and the death certificate. She asked me to collect and messenger her the bank statements, the lease and any other legal documents I might find.
    „I'm sorry to hear this,“ she said. „He seemed like an awfully nice man.“
    „I didn't really know him,“ I told her.
    „Is that so?“
    „I thought it was odd, his choosing me this way, without even asking. I wonder, did he say anything to you about it, when he gave you my name? Did he happen to say why he'd chosen me to do this for him?“
    „He told me his mother had died. She had been live designated executor of the previous will. So naturally he had to make a change. I told him it didn't have to be done in such a hurry and he said that was true, he understood that, but if I didn't mind, he'd appreciate making the changes and signing the new will all in one visit. I figured he was busy and he wanted to get it done, get it off his mind. A lot of the officers are like that, they want something and they want it done immediately. Like lawyers. Now that everything's computerized, I was able to do that for him.“
    „You said a lot of the officers?“
    „My father was a lawyer. His brother was a cop. This started way back when. Before we were Houseman and Houseman, we were Houseman, Riley, Friedkin. For anything personal, not Department business, of course, a lot of the men would come to us. They still do, even more than years ago.“
    „I guess you give them what they want.“
    „Mostly, it's speed. That, and good advice. What Tim asked for, same day service, it's not all that unusual.“
    „Were there many changes in the new will?“
    „Well, the executor, from his mother, Kathleen, to you. And the beneficiary was changed from Kathleen to his sister Mary Margaret. That's all. Nothing fancy.“
    „And he didn't say anything about why he wasn't making Mary Margaret his executor?“
    „No. Well, yes, he did. He said that you would know ... let me think ... he said that you would know what he wanted.“
    „Damn. What does that mean?“
    „I guess whatever's spelled out in the will.“
    „Wouldn't his sister have known what he wanted in that case?“
    „I suppose. He must have had his reasons.“
    „So I've been told. That's what one of the detectives said.“
    „You know, Rachel, had he told me he hardly knew you, I would have strongly advised against this. But he didn't tell me. I didn't have a clue. In fact, that wording was his, the part that says, 'my dear friend.' I guess it's a cop thing. They're not very talkative, not to civilians, anyway. Not even to their own lawyers.“
    Guys, I thought, not just cops. Someone gets the message through to them before they're toilet-trained: stiff upper lip, don't complain, don't explain, the whole John Wayne thing.
    „You're not required to accept this burden, Rachel. It's an awful lot of work. Of course, if you do take it on, you'll be paid