Worst Fears Realized

and Weld. The firm couldn’t be seen to employ—even on an occasional basis—the chief suspect in a gaudy murder.”
    Dino put down his glass. “You’d be the new O.J.”
    Stone sat and thought about this, ignoring his steak. “Martin Brougham doesn’t strike me as that malicious,” he said. “So who is?”
    Dino’s eyebrow’s went up. “I smell Tom Deacon.”
    “Who’s Tom Deacon?” Bill asked.
    “He runs the DA’s investigative division, under Marty, and he doesn’t like Stone and me.”
    “Oh.”
    “Something else,” Dino said. “Marty wants to be the next DA. He might like a flashy case to help imprint himself on the voters’ frontal lobes.”
    “That all makes sense,” Bill said. “You think this Deacon guy is just trying to make himself look good?”
    “I think that fits right in with his character,” Dino replied. “He knows a few reporters; he could make himself look good and Stone look bad. It would be easy.”
    Stone spoke up. “I’ve already told him that if he did something like that, I’d sue him for libel.”
    “It could come to that,” Bill said. “How much faith do you think Brougham has in Tom Deacon?”

    “A lot,” Dino said. “If he’s willing to put Stone through this on Deacon’s say-so.”
    “We need other witnesses besides you, Dino, witnesses from the NYPD. Are you the actual investigating officer on the Susan Bean Murder?”
    “No,” Stone answered for him. “That would be Andy Anderson and Michael Kelly.”
    Dino shook his head slowly “No, not Kelly; not anymore.”
    “What, did you kick him out of the precinct?” Stone asked.
    “No, he left voluntarily.”
    “Congratulations,” Stone said. “I don’t expect you’ll miss the little prick.”
    “He went to work for the investigative division of the DA’s office,” Dino said. “Starting tomorrow morning.”
    “So,” Bill said, “we could have one of the investigative officers on the case testifying against Stone?”
    “What could he possibly say?” Stone asked. “Anyway, Dino and Andy Anderson could refute any lies.”
    “I don’t like any of this,” Eggers said, “so what I’m going to try to do is to nip it in the bud.”
    “How?” Stone asked.
    “I’m going to go see Marty Brougham tonight, at home, if he’s in, and try to straighten this out. Can either of you think of anything else that might help me do that?”
    Stone sipped his beer thoughtfully. “There was something that Susan Bean said to me. I didn’t give it much thought at the time.”
    “What did she say?” Eggers asked.

    “We were walking up Madison Avenue, just chatting, and I congratulated her on her team’s getting a conviction in the Dante case.”
    “Is that the Mafia guy?”
    “Right. She didn’t seem all that thrilled to have won it, which surprised me; I would have thought she’d have been walking on air.”
    “What, exactly, did she say about it?”
    “She said she was happy to have won, but she didn’t like the way they’d won it.”
    “That’s it?”
    “That’s it.”
    Eggers mulled this over. “So there might have been some sort of prosecutorial misconduct during the trial?”
    “That could be what she meant.”
    “You have any idea what kind of misconduct?”
    “No, but the very mention of it to Brougham might have some sort of effect.”
    “Maybe so,” Eggers said. “It might give him pause about a subpoena if he thought you might testify about something like that. It’s not much, but it might help as a bargaining chip.”
    “I wish I had more to tell you,” Stone said. He turned to Dino. “There are cops on the DA’s investigative staff, aren’t there?”
    “Sure; Deacon is a cop.”
    “You know anybody in Internal Affairs that you might interest in an investigation of the evidence in the Dante case?”
    “I know some guys, but they would be reluctant to open that can of worms, especially after a successfulconviction of a guy the department has been after for years.”
    “Do you know somebody in IA who hates Tom Deacon?”
    “Nowthat might be a possibility; lots of people do. I’ll give it a shot.”
    Eggers looked at his watch. “I’m going over to Marty Brougham’s house now; you guys can fight over the check.” He tossed his napkin on the table and stood up. “Stone, you might lay low for a day or two, until I’ve had a shot at sorting this out.”
    “Sure. I’ll be at…”
    Eggers cut him off. “I don’t want to know where you are, if