Final Justice Part 48

He recognized Lieutenant McGuire for the first time.

"You're the security guy, right?"

"I'm Lieutenant McGuire of Dignitary Protection, Mr. Colt."

Mr. Colt's somewhat contemptuous shrug indicated he considered that a distinction without a difference.

"And you're the Homicide detective, right?"

"I'm Sergeant Payne."

"But Homicide, right? You're the guy that was in the gun battle in Doylestown Monsignor Schneider told me about?"

Matt nodded.

"No offense, but you don't look the part."

"Perhaps that's because I'm not an actor," Matt said.

"You look-and for that matter sound like-you're a WASP from the Main Line."

"Do I really? Maybe that's because I am indeed a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant who was raised in Wallingford; that's not the Main Line, but I take your point."

Matt saw that Lieutenant McGuire was being made very uncomfortable by the exchange.

"Why am I getting the feeling, Sergeant," Colt asked, "that you would rather be somewhere else?"

"You're perceptive?"

Colt chuckled.

"You want to tell me what you'd rather be doing?"

"I was working a Homicide before the commissioner a.s.signed me to sit on you."

" 'Sit on' me? That sounds a little erotic. Kinky. You know?"

"It means that my orders are to see that you don't do anything while you're here that will embarra.s.s in any way anybody connected with this charitable gesture of yours."

"For example?"

"Payne!" Lieutenant McGuire said, warningly.

"Let me put it this way, Mr. Colt," Matt said. "As long as you're in Philadelphia, the virtue of chast.i.ty will have to be its own reward for you."

Terry Davis giggled.

"You telling me, I think, that I don't get to fool around?" Colt asked.

"That's right."

"Not even a little?"

"Not even a little."

"You understand who I am?"

"That's why you don't get to fool around, even a little."

Colt turned to Terry Davis.

"You think this is funny, don't you?"

"You're the one who said you wanted to hang out with a real, live Homicide cop."

"And I do. I do. And I really like this guy! This is better than I hoped for." He turned to Matt. "I am going to get to watch you work, right?"

"The commissioner said I was to show you as much about how Homicide works as I think I can."

"Which means what?"

"I will show you everything I can, so long as doing so doesn't interfere with an investigation."

"And you make that call?"

"Right."

"And what if I complain to him?" Colt asked, pointing to McGuire. "He's a lieutenant, right? And you're a sergeant?"

"The lieutenant's job is to protect you," Matt said. "Mine is to ensure your chast.i.ty."

Colt was now smiling.

"That may be harder than you think," he said. "You think you can stay awake twenty-four hours a day?"

"No. But there's two detectives in the corridor who've also been a.s.signed to the Chast.i.ty Detail."

Colt glanced at the stylishly dressed young man who had just hung up the telephone.

"Well?" he asked, curtly.

"You'll have a black limo in the morning, Stan, but not tonight. It's the best I could do."

"Not good enough, Alex," Colt snapped. "Call somebody else, for Christ's sake. I don't want to arrive at this place looking like Tinkerbell." Then he had another thought. "You going to the c.o.c.ktail party, Sergeant Payne?"

Matt looked at McGuire, who nodded, and then nodded himself.

"You must have a police car. Any reason I can't ride with you?"

"No."

"Will there be room for everybody?" Alex asked.

"Who's everybody?" Matt asked.

"Me, Jeanette, Terry, and Eddie."

Jeanette, Matt decided, must be the gray-haired woman.

"Eddie's the character with the pageboy?" he asked.

"My personal photographer," Colt furnished.

"No," Matt said.

"Eddie goes everywhere with me," Colt said. "They all do."

"They don't go everywhere with you when you're with me," Matt said. "Your call, Mr. Colt."

"You're a real harda.s.s, Payne," Colt said, admiringly. "I'm going with Payne. The rest of you can go in the wedding limo." He turned to Matt. "And after this party thing, you'll show me stuff, right?"

"If you like," Matt said.

[SEVEN].

"We're here," Sergeant Payne said to Mr. Colt after they had rolled up to the Broad Street entrance of the Bellvue-Stratford Hotel, third in line behind Lieutenant McGuire's unmarked and the white Lincoln limo. Behind them were three unmarked cars, one belonging to Dignitary Protection and the other two to Detectives Martinez and McFadden.

Matt had taken a leaf from the uniforms who had kept Colt's fans from leaving the North Philadelphia Airport and had ordered McFadden and Martinez to keep Eddie the photographer, and anybody else, from following Matt's car when it left the hotel.

"Don't get your b.a.l.l.s in an uproar. I'm waiting for Eddie to get out of the limo."

Eddie the photographer got quickly out of the limo, sort of knelt, and prepared to photograph Mr. Colt's arrival at the Bellvue-Stratford.

"Come on, Payne," Colt said.

"I'll catch up with you inside," Matt said. "I've got to park the car."

"No, first you let Eddie take our picture, and then you park the car."

"I don't think so," Matt said.

"If you don't let him take our picture now, I'll tell him I changed my mind, and he gets to go with us when we leave here."

"That'll be hard to do after McFadden handcuffs him to that bra.s.s rail."

"Hey . . . It's Matt, right?"

"Right."

"I'm meeting you halfway, Matt. He's shot two hundred pictures since we got here, and the only one that'll do me any good is this one."

"Excuse me?"

"The real press doesn't give a s.h.i.+t about one more picture of me shaking hands with a mayor, or even a cardinal. But Stan Colt with a real real Homicide sergeant, that's news. Come on. Get out and smile." Homicide sergeant, that's news. Come on. Get out and smile."

"I don't want my picture in the G.o.dd.a.m.n newspapers."

"Tough s.h.i.+t. Either now, or he follows us around all night."

He paused, then did a very creditable mimicry of Matt: "Your call, Sergeant Payne."

Matt got out of the car.

"Look serious, but think of p.u.s.s.y," Mr. Colt whispered to Sergeant Payne as, following Eddie the photographer's hand signals, he moved Matt where Eddie wanted them.

Inside the Grand Ballroom of the Bellvue-Stratford, Sergeant Payne hurried to answer Commissioner Mariani's summons, a crooked finger.

"Yes, sir?"

"Colt just told the mayor how grateful he is for the opportunity to, quote, hang out, unquote, with you."

"Yes, sir?"

"What are you going to do with him?"

"I thought I'd show him Liberties Bar and, if n.o.body from Homicide is there, take him to Homicide."

"And if somebody from Homicide is in Liberties?"

"Hope I can get them talking about closed cases."

Commissioner Mariani nodded.

When they saw that Sergeant Payne and Mr. Colt had gotten into the Crown Victoria, two white-capped Traffic Unit uniforms stopped traffic moving in both directions on South Broad Street, and then one of them gestured to Sergeant Payne, who then made a U-turn that saw him headed toward City Hall.

The traffic uniforms then blew their whistles and gestured, restoring traffic to its normal flow, and incidentally effectively preventing anyone from following Matt's unmarked car.

"Thanks, guys!" Detective McFadden called to the uniforms, and gave a thumbs-up gesture.

Detectives McFadden and Martinez then got into their unmarked cars and drove off. The members of the press who were cleverly prepared to follow them, did so. They followed Martinez to the Ritz-Carlton front door, where he parked his car and went inside to await the return of Sergeant Payne and Mr. Colt, or the arrival at midnight of Detective McFadden, whichever came first.

The members of the press who followed Detective McFadden drove deep into South Philadelphia, where he pulled the unmarked half onto the curb in front of a row house on Fitzgerald Street, then went inside to catch a couple of hours' sleep before relieving Hay-zus at the Ritz-Carlton.

"Aren't I going to stand out like a sore thumb in this?" Mr. Colt inquired of Sergeant Payne, indicating his dinner jacket. "Maybe we could stop by the hotel and let me change?"

"Not at all," Matt said. "We're going to Liberties Bar, and the last time I was there, my boss was there, dressed just like that."

"You're bulls.h.i.+tting me, right?"