The Referral Game

finally. “A photo like that must be over thirty years old. It must have been someone who looks like me.”
    “No mistake Bill, I checked the school records.”
    Bill sighed. “And what conclusion do you draw from this counselor?”
    “There’s only one possible conclusion, you lied to me.”
    Bill crossed his legs and stared at me. He reached over to the table next to him, grabbed a pack of cigarettes and lit one. “So Silas and I knew each other, so what?”
    “Well, it puts the whole case in a different light doesn’t it? You knew the Pomeroy family much better than you admitted. You couldn’t have been fooled by Silas posing as Edgar. That means you were in on it from the beginning.”
    “Wait a minute Frank, you’re going way to fast. I admit that I knew Silas pretty well once upon a time, but that was a long time ago. And you can guess why I didn’t come clean afterwards. It would have made me look foolish for not seeing the whole thing coming, but for God’s sake that doesn’t make me a murderer or an accessory to anything. The day Silas called I really thought it was Edgar. You remember how crazy it was that day with the Hanson girl missing. Don’t crucify me for one mistake Frank, I stood by you when things weren’t going right for you.”
    “There’s more Bill. I don’t think that you can shrug it all off.”
    “You’re dead wrong on this,” he said.
    “Listen to it all and tell what you think. I always was uneasy about this whole affair. It just didn’t feel right to me, there were pieces missing, but with all the Pomeroy’s dead it didn’t look like I would ever fill in those pieces. However, put you in the mix and a lot of it falls together neatly.
    “There were things Silas said that night that have always bothered me. Silas said that he was going to drop Edgar’s car at the beach. That’s a two-man job, unless he was planning to take a cab home. Not a very smart move to have a cabby place him at the car’s location. And when I told him that the police would dig into these killings even if they believed his set-up he said something about having that end covered.”
    “Frank this is all just supposition, built up in your mind. I think you need a rest.”
    “I’m not done Bill. Hear me out,” I said. “After I saw you in the picture with Silas I was sure that you had lied to me, but it still could have been like you said, an honest mistake on your part. Then I realized that Silas had lied about how close you were to the Pomeroy family too. You were both covering up the same truth. That made you partners.” I held up a hand to stop Bill from interrupting me. “I know what you’re going to say. That Silas was playing the part of Edgar and he might have had his own reasons for playing down your connections to the family. Then something else happened. That very same night I got a call from an acquaintance of mine. Do you remember me telling you about the two guys who roughed me up the night I met Silas, before I had found Paula at the club?”
    He grunted a reply.
    “Well apparently they were watching my office later that night, hoping to get another shot at me, but I had Paula with me so they passed. Before they left they saw Silas go in.”
    “So?”
    “He went in with you Bill. They saw you pull up, wait for Pomeroy and then you went in together. When all hell broke loose and the squad cars and ambulances showed up they saw you directing the action, giving orders. They asked a few people until they found out who you were. They can identify you.”
    “You’re going to take the word of a couple of hoods over mine? Frank we were partners. Besides they could have fingered me from my picture in the papers and made up this whole story.”
    “No, you were to smart for that. I went back and checked the coverage in the papers. Your picture wasn’t in there. You were interviewed of course, but you didn’t allow your picture to be taken. It was probably the old ‘boys I work a lot of undercover, so no photos please’ or something along those lines. No, those boys saw you just like they described it.
    “It’s over Bill, don’t insult my intelligence by denying it any longer. Your fingerprints are all over it, the missing money, the overseas accounts, and hidden savings. It sure sounds like someone with a background in law. You graduated from law school didn’t you Bill?”
    “Along with thousands of other people in this state alone.”
    “Stop the clowning Bill.