Read Online Immoral Certainty by Robert K. Tanenbaum - Free Book Online

his way carefully through the litter to the bathroom. He wondered how Lutz could stand to live this way. That junkie bitch he hung out with never lifted a finger around the house, at least she hadn’t in the four months Felix had been crashing here. He would have to get Anna to come over and clean the joint up, or better still, get her to let him move in with her. He would ask her tonight.
    The shower was tepid and weak, the tub ringed with black grime. Felix thought of his mother’s spotless house. He could move back there in a minute. His skin crawled. No, he could hit her up for meals and cash, and stay an occasional night, but no way was he going to move back with Mom. It meant no women for one thing, and for another … he could not quite put his finger on it but there was a big reason why not. No, it would have to be Anna, even if he had to marry her, because he sure as hell was not going to spend any more time in this garbage dump, and the only other alternative, even more unattractive, was moving back in with his wife.
    “Hey, little girl! Want some candy?”
    Marlene Ciampi looked up from the papers on her lap as Karp sidled into the seat next to hers.
    He dangled a Milky Way in front of her face. “What do I have to do, show you my undies?”
    “For starters.” He dropped the candy bar into her hand. She stripped off the wrapper and a full third of it vanished into her mouth. They were sitting in the back of a courtroom, Part Thirty, a calendar Part of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, watching the Honorable Albert A. Albinoli dispense justice.
    “Ummpph, God, don’t even joke about that stuff!” mumbled Marlene around the Milky Way. “I’m waiting on the Segura case here; we’re arraigning on the indictment.” She finished the candy bar and sighed contentedly as the chocolate was transformed into incandescent plasma by her remarkable metabolism. Marlene lost weight on six thousand calories a day. She radiated heat. Karp could feel it warming him on the next chair. He wanted more.
    “The little girl homicide,” said Karp. “Yeah, I remember.”
    “Look,” said Marlene, “Albert’s going to do a far-be-it-from-me.”
    Judge Albinoli was berating a young public defender who had had the temerity to argue a motion to suppress evidence, thus taking up time that could be spent in getting through the calendar. Albinoli resembled the late Thomas E. Dewey, but run to fat and with an excruciatingly silly toupee. The calendar was his god.
    He sprayed when he spoke. “Young man, far be it from me to make a commentary on the jurisprudence which you have averted to, far be it from me, but I too have passed the bar examination, and I have to tell you that I wouldn’t throw out this evidence if you paid me.” A mild titter drifted through the courtroom. Albinoli smiled, as if he had delivered a witticism. Although there were many in the purlieus of Centre Street to whom the term might apply, when people around the courts said “The Asshole” the reference was almost always to this particular one.
    Marlene rolled her eyes and looked over at Karp, but he seemed lost in thought. After a minute he said, “Speaking of that case, Marlene, do you recall that little spat we had, couple of months ago, about you and the other female person attorneys picking up more than your share of these juvenile rape and murder? You still feel you got a problem?”
    “As a matter of fact, now that you mention it, I do sense a slacking off in that department. I also see by the smug expression on your face that you think you had something to do with the fix.”
    “You could say that. I had a few words with the clerical staff in the complaint room.”
    “So it wasn’t a random thing at all. Somebody was putting it to the ladies.”
    “Somebody was, and they ain’t any more, so far as I can tell. Anyhow, the boys are pulling their load in the child abuse area, and not too happy about it either.”
    “My heart bleeds,