“Then Marty will ask you about your relationship with Stone, and he’ll discredit your testimony, because you’re former partners and close friends. Anyway, he’s not going to call you, because you wouldn’t help his case.”

“This just doesn’t add up,” Stone said. “Marty must know that he can’t get an indictment of me.”

“A good prosecutor can get anything he wants from a grand jury,” Bill said.

“But he couldn’t get a conviction, so why get an indictment?”

“There are two things here,” Bill said. “One, he could have a witness to cast doubt on your story, or even to claim you murdered the girl.”

“Then that would either be a perjurer or a frame-up,” Dino said. “Or both.”

“Right,” Bill said. “The other thing is, suppose he thinks this case isn’t going to be solved, so he wants to feed somebody to the press as the murderer. The day after your testimony, I can see a headline in the News that you’re the chief suspect, but that they don’t have enough evidence to indict you, yet.”

“Oh, shit,” Dino said.

“Well, Dino,” Bill said, “at least you’re getting the picture.”

“But that won’t wash,” Stone said.

“It’ll wash with enough people to ruin you in this town,” Dino said.

“And,” Eggers chipped in, “it would end your usefulness to Woodman 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.”