Read Online Nothing Lost by John Gregory Dunne - Free Book Online

Allie?”
    â€œJust swell,” Allie said.
    â€œGood.” A big smile. “Harvey, you awake?”
    Harvey Niland removed a file from the Toledo evidence trunk. “Tadeusz Lynch.”
    â€œHe arrived from Durango Avenue yet?”
    â€œHe’s in the holding tank.”
    â€œYou got him dressed? I don’t want him showing up in his orange jumpsuit.”
    â€œHe’s shaky, J.J.”
    â€œOf course he’s shaky. He’s going to rat out Toledo.”
    â€œPatsy thinks we should ask for a continuance.” Typical Harvey. His idea, but he laid it off on Patsy in case it got shot down.
    J.J. turned to Patsy. She seemed to have regained some of her composure. “Why?”
    â€œI think he needs a little prepping.”
    â€œHis resolve needs stiffening, you mean? He wants to be clear on what he gets for turning rat? How big a chunk of cheese he’s looking at?”
    Patsy nodded.
    â€œLet me tell you a story,” J.J. said after a moment. “Three years ago. Ellen Tracy’s court downstairs. I’m examining my witness. One Wendell Z. I have successfully established that Z stands for just that. Z. He is Mr. Z. So I ask Mr. Z—Wendell—what exactly the accused, one Luscious Odelle, said to him immediately prior to committing the three counts of homicide that had brought us to Judge Tracy’s court. Wendell answers, and I quote, within reasonable parameters of accuracy, and believing that my memory still has most of its pixels: Wendell says, ‘Luscious say Nadine messing around with Antoyne. Luscious say he mean to take care of Nadine. Then he mean to take care of Antoyne.’ So I ask Wendell if Luscious mentioned how he meant to take care of Nadine. ‘With his blade,’ Wendell said. I asked Wendell what Luscious meant to do with the blade in question, which had already been entered as a prosecution exhibit, and Wendell says, ‘Luscious say he going to hit Nadine upside the head, and then he going to take that blade . . .’ ” J.J. paused to see if he had everyone’s attention. “ ‘. . . he going to take that blade and cut out her pussy.’ That did it. Four bells. Defcon 2. Ellen Tracy leans so far over the bench her size-six triple-A’s clear the floor . . .”
    â€œJ.J.,” Patsy Feiffer said, “is this relevant to the Toledo trial?”
    J.J. ignored her. “ ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa,’ Tracy says. “ ‘In this courtroom, we refer to the sexual organs by their clinical terms. In this case, the vagina. Understood?’ ”
    â€œJ.J.,” Patsy insisted.
    â€œIn due time, Patsy. ‘Wendell,’ I say, ‘you heard Her Honor’s admonition.’ And he just stares at me, ‘admonition’ not being a word common to the purviews where the Z family operates. So I spell out what Tracy had said, and I say, ‘You understand, right?’ Wendell nods, and I resume my line of questioning. ‘Wendell,’ I say, ‘under the strictures laid down by the court, please continue your account of what happened the afternoon in question. ‘Well, Luscious be mad,’ Wendell said, ‘because Nadine messing around with Antoyne . . .’ ”
    â€œJ.J., we have a motion to frame,” Patsy Feiffer said.
    â€œFor the last time, Patsy,” J.J. said, “shut up and let me finish. Understood?”
    Patsy nodded unhappily.
    â€œ ‘Luscious go looking for Nadine,’ Wendell says. ‘And when Luscious found Nadine?’ I say. ‘He hit her upside the head,’ Wendell says. I now have his full attention. Wendell is on the program. ‘What happened then?’ I say. And Wendell says, ‘Luscious grabs Nadine . . .’ Then he breaks off. He’s looking for help. ‘Judge,’ he says finally, ‘what’s that word you say I got to use instead of “pussy”?’ ”
    Allie laughed.
    â€œI