The Brass Verdict

he?”
    “I don’t think so. He just wanted the case. He gave me the big wink, you know?”
    “No, what do you mean? What’s the ‘big wink’?”
    “I asked him why he was taking on a Southside homeboy who went up there in white-people country and shot the place up. Pro bono, no less. I thought he had some sort of racial angle on it or something. Something that would get him a little publicity. But he just sort of gave me the wink, like there was something else.”
    “Did you ask him what?”
    Romero took an involuntary step back as I pressed his personal space.
    “Yeah, man, I asked. But he wouldn’t tell me. He just said that Wyms had fired the magic bullet. I didn’t know what the hell he meant and I didn’t have any more time to play games with him. I gave him the file and I went on to the next one.”
    There it was again. The magic bullet. I was getting close to something here and I could feel the blood in my veins start to move with high velocity.
    “Is that it, Mick? I gotta get back inside.”
    My eyes focused on Romero and I realized he was looking at me strangely.
    “Yeah, Angel, thanks. That’s all. Go back in there and give ’em hell.”
    “Yeah, man, that’s what I do.”
    Romero went back toward the door to Department 124 and I headed off quickly to the elevators. I knew what I would be doing for the rest of the day and into the night. Tracing a magic bullet.

Twenty-eight
    I entered the office and blew right by Lorna and Cisco, who were at the reception desk, looking at the computer. I spoke without stopping on my way to the inner sanctum.
    “If you two have any updates for me or anything else I should know, then come in now. I’m about to go into lockdown.”
    “And hello to you, too,” Lorna called after me.
    But Lorna knew well what was about to happen. Lockdown was when I closed all the doors and windows, drew the curtains and killed the phones and went to work on a file and a case with total concentration and absorption. Lockdown for me was the ultimate DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging on the door. Lorna knew that once I was in lockdown mode, there was no getting me out until I had found what I was looking for.
    I moved around Jerry Vincent’s desk and dropped into the seat. I opened my bag on the floor and started pulling out the files. I viewed what I needed to do here as me against them. Somewhere in the files, I would find the key to Jerry Vincent’s last secret. I would find the magic bullet.
    Lorna and Cisco came into the office soon after I was settled.
    “I didn’t see Wren out there,” I said before either could speak.
    “And you never will again,” Lorna said. “She quit.”
    “That was kind of abrupt.”
    “She went out to lunch and never came back.”
    “Did she call?”
    “Yeah, she finally called. She said she got a better offer. She’s going to be Bruce Carlin’s secretary now.”
    I nodded. That seemed to make a certain amount of sense.
    “Now, before you go into lockdown, we need to go over some things,” Lorna said.
    “That’s what I said when I came in. What’ve you got?”
    Lorna sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Cisco stayed standing, more like pacing, behind her.
    “All right,” Lorna said. “Couple things while you were in court. First, you must’ve touched a nerve with that motion you filed on the evidence in Patrick’s case.”
    “What happened?” I asked.
    “The prosecutor’s called three times today, wanting to talk about a dispo.”
    I smiled. The motion to examine the evidence had been a long shot but it looked like it might come through and I would be able to help Patrick.
    “What’s going on with that?” Lorna asked. “You didn’t tell me you filed motions.”
    “From the car yesterday. And what’s going on is that I think Dr. Vogler gave his wife phony diamonds for her birthday. Now, to make sure she never knows it, they’re going to float a deal to Patrick if I withdraw my request to examine the evidence.”
    “Good. I think I like Patrick.”
    “I hope he gets the break. What’s next?”
    Lorna looked at the notes on her steno pad. I knew she didn’t like to be rushed but I was rushing her.
    “You’re still getting a lot of calls from the local media. About Jerry Vincent or Walter Elliot or both. You want to go over them?”
    “No. I don’t have the time for any media calls.”
    “Well, that’s what I’ve been telling them but it’s not making them happy. Especially that guy from