“What kind of accents?”
“The kind you hear on PBS, on that show Mystery.”
“You mean English accents?”
“Yeah, like that. Like English cops.”
Stone was stumped. “Now listen: I’m going to get you a lawyer and arrange bail. If your lawyer asks about your relationship with me, you tell him I’m a friend of your uncle Bob, who’s out of town, and when you thought you needed a lawyer, you called me. Got that?”
“Yeah.”
“And you say nothing about our meeting yesterday. If he wants to know what you were do
ing on that roof, tell him you’re a freelance photographer, and you were trying to take a picture you could sell to the tabloids. Nobody hired you. Got that?”
“Yeah.”
“When bail is set and you get out, go home and get some sleep. I’m going to be looking into this, and I’ll call you when I find out something.”
“Okay.”
“Herbie, have you ever been arrested?”
“No, not until tonight.”
“Never? Drunk driving? Burglary? Disturbing the peace? Anything? They’ll find out if you have been, and it will make a difference.”
“Never. I’m clean.”
“Do you have a job?”
“Yeah, I run a one-hour photo processing machine at a drugstore in Brooklyn.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-two.”
“Do you live with anybody?”
“I got a little place near the drugstore.”
“Tell all this to your lawyer.”
“What’s his name?”
“I haven’t picked him out yet. I’m going to go and do that now.”
“When will I get out of here?”
“When they call your case. It could be two or three hours, there’s no way to tell right now. Your lawyer may be able to find out.” Stone pressed the button to call the guard. “Now go back to your cell and keep your mouth shut. Don’t talk to anybody about why you’re here, and don’t form any friendships with your cellmates. Any one of them will sell you out for a pack of cigarettes.”
“Okay.”
The guard came and took Herbie away, and Stone went upstairs to the courtroom.
7
Stone walked into the courtroom and looked around. He saw Carpenter sitting in the second row, apparently rapt, and he kept looking until he found his man, waiting with a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit who was about to be arraigned.