“It’s ventilated,” a cop said, his eyes on fire.

“Turn on the air conditioner, then,” Cheswick said.

The cop half turned toward the door, and then stopped, shook his head at his own stupidity. When he turned back, Cheswick was smiling at him.

“So the air conditioner in this room was turned off by choice. In a cinder block room on an eighty-six-degree day. Keep it up, gentlemen, because I already have a lawsuit in the mid six figures. And climbing.” He took the handkerchief from my face, handed me a glass of water. “Any other complaints, Patrick?”

I inhaled the entire glass of water in about three seconds. “They spoke to me in a rude fashion.”

He gave me a tight smile and clapped my shoulder just hard enough to make it scream. “Let me do the talking,” he said.

Jefferson stepped up beside Cheswick. “Your client shot a guy three times. His partner blew out the throat of another guy. A third guy was rammed off a bridge in his car and died upon impact with Tampa Bay.”

“I know,” Cheswick said. “I’ve seen the tape.”

“The tape?” Jefferson said.

“The tape?” The sweaty captain said.

“The tape?” I said.

Cheswick reached into his briefcase and tossed a videotape onto the table. “That’s a copy,” he said. “The original is with the offices of Meegan, Feibel, and Ellenburg in Clearwater. The tape was sent to them at nine this morning by private courier.”

Jefferson picked up the tape and a thin drop of sweat slid from his hairline.

“Help yourselves,” Cheswick said. “The tape was recorded by someone heading south on the Skyway at the time of the incident.”

“Who?” Jefferson said.

“A woman named Elizabeth Waterman. I believe you arrested her boyfriend, Peter Moore, on the bridge last night for DUI and a bunch of other things. I believe he gave a statement to your officers corroborating the events on the tape, which you chose to discount because he’d failed a Breathalyzer.”

“This is bullshit,” Jefferson said and looked for support from the rest of his colleagues. When he didn’t get it, he gripped the tape so hard in his hand, I was sure it would shatter.

“The tape is a little blurry because of the rain and the videotaper’s excitement,” Cheswick said, “but most of the incident is on there.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said and laughed.

“Am I the coolest, or what?” Cheswick said.

28

At nine that night, we were released.