Robert B. Parker - A Catskill Eagle

THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT
GOD SAVE THE CHILD
MORTAL STAKES
PROMISED LAND
THE JUDAS GOAT
WILDERNESS
LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE
EARLY AUTUMN
A SAVAGE PLACE
CEREMONY
THE WIDENING GYRE
LOVE AND GLORY
VALEDICTION
A CATSKILL EAGLE
TAMING A SEA-HORSE
PALE KINGS AND PRINCES
CRIMSON JOY
ALL OUR YESTERDAYS

For Joan

And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he forever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than the other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.

HERMAN MELVILLE , Moby-Dick

I T WAS NEARLY MIDNIGHT AND I WAS JUST GETTING home from detecting. I had followed an embezzler around on a warm day in early summer trying to observe him spending his ill-gotten gain. The best Id been able to do was catch him eating a veal cutlet sandwich in a sub shop in Danvers Square across from Security National Bank. It wasnt much, but it was as close as you could get to sin in Danvers.

I got a Steinlager from the refrigerator and opened it and sat at the counter to read my mail. There was a check from a client, a consumer protection letter from the phone company, the threat of a field collection from the electric company, and a letter from Susan.

The letter said:

I have no time. Hawk is in jail in Mill River, California. You must get him out. I need help too. Hawk will explain. Things are awful, but I love you.

Susan

And no matter how many times I read it, thats all it said. It was postmarked San Jose.

I drank some beer. A drop of condensation made a shimmery track down the side of the green bottle. Steinlager, New Zealand, the label said. Probably some corruption between the Dutch Zeeland and the English Sealand. Language worked funny. I got off the stool very carefully and went slowly and got my atlas and looked up Mill River, California. It was south of San Francisco. Population 10,753. I drank another swallow of beer. Then I went to the phone and dialed. Vince Haller answered on the fifth ring. I said it was me.

He said, Jesus Christ, its twenty minutes of one.

I said, Hawks in jail in a small town called Mill River south of San Francisco. I want you to get a lawyer in there now.

At twenty minutes of fucking one? Haller said.

Susans in trouble too. Im going out in the morning. I want to hear from the lawyer before I go.

What kind of trouble? Haller said.

I dont know. Hawk knows. Get the lawyer down there right now.

Okay, Ill call a firm we know in San Francisco. They can roust one of their junior partners out and send him down, its only about quarter of ten out there.

I want to hear from him as soon as hes seen Hawk.

Haller said, You okay?

I said, Get going, Vince, and hung up.

I got another beer and read Susans letter again. It said the same thing. I sat at the counter beside the phone and looked at my apartment.

Bookcases on either side of the front window. A working fireplace. Living room, bedroom, kitchen and bath. A shotgun, a rifle, and three handguns.

Ive been here too long, I said. I didnt like the way I sounded in the empty room. I got up and walked to the front window and looked down at Marlborough Street. Nothing was happening down there. I went back to the counter and drank some more beer. Good to keep busy.

The phone rang at four twelve in the morning. My second bottle of beer had gone flat on the counter, half finished, and I was lying on my back on the couch with my hands behind my head looking at my ceiling. I answered the phone before the third ring.

At the other end, a womans voice said, Mr. Spenser?

I said yes.

She said, This is Paula Goldman, Im an attorney with Stein, Faye and Corbett in San Francisco and I was asked to call you.

Have you seen Hawk? I said.

Yes. Hes in jail, in Mill River, California, on a charge of murder and assault. Theres no bail, and no realistic hope of any.

Whod he kill?

He is accused of killing a man named Emmett Colder, who works as a security consultant for a man named Russell Costigan. There are also several accounts of assault on other security personnel and several police officers. He is apparently difficult to subdue.

Yes, I said.

He admits he killed Colder, and assaulted the various others, but says he was set up, says it was self-defense.

Can you make a case?

On the facts, maybe. But the problem is that Russell Costigans father is Jerry Costigan.

Jesus Christ, I said.

You know Jerry Costigan.

I know who he is. He owns many things.

Yes. Paula Goldmans voice was firm and unhesitant. And one of the things he owns is Mill River, California.

So he doesnt have much chance, I said, if he gets to trial.

If he gets to trial, hes a gone goose.

I was quiet for a minute, listening to the little transcontinental noises on the open line.

Did he say anything about Susan Silverman? I said.

He said hed come out at her request, and that theyd been waiting for him. The interview was conducted under close scrutiny and was given very grudgingly. Stein, Faye and Corbett is a major law firm in the Bay area. We have a lot of clout. If wed had less, there might have been no interview at all.

Thats all you know?

Thats all I know.

What are his chances of beating this thing?

None.

Because its an iron-solid case?

Yes, its iron solid, but he also broke three of Russell Costigans front teeth. Thats like beating up Huey Longs kid in his home parish in Louisiana in 1935.

Un huh.

And, for crissake, hes black.

The Costigans are not egalitarian?

They are not, she said.

Tell me about the jail?

Four cells off the police station, which is in a wing of the town hall. Hawk is the only prisoner at the moment. The civilian dispatcher, female, and two cops, male, were on duty when I was there. As an officer of the court it is my obligation to remind you that abetting a jailbreak is a felony under the California penal code.

Its never loosened up out there since Reagan was governor, I said.

When the sun comes up, she said, Ill scramble around and work on the bail. But thats shoveling shit against the tide. If you need me call the office. She gave me the number.