Free Copp In Deep, A Joe Copp Thriller (Joe Copp Private Eye Series) by Don Pendleton

past midnight before the sergeant even came in and started writing it up. By then I was damned near a basket case. Every hurt I'd incurred over the previous twenty-four hours was making itself felt again, which did nothing to bolster a crumbling morale as the immensity of my problem began to settle on me.
    Which is to say that I was feeling mean and nasty when the homicide team finally took it over. Those guys would have laughed me into a padded cell if I'd told them the story. So I told them nothing. They played the usual games—good guy, bad guy—bait and switch—derision and sympathy—but I remained surly and uncooperative through it all, and now it's two o'clock and I am dying inside.
    That is where I was when the FBI took over.
    They have a big contingent here in L.A., hundreds of agents and I don't know how many different departments but I know it is a damned big operation. The two who came in to talk to me looked and acted like senior people. Of course you never know with these guys. Talking to an FBI guy is like talking to a lawyer, in fact
    it's usually the same thing, so they all act like senior people.
    These two wanted to talk about Walter Mathison , the one that tried to whack me at Gina's apartment. What did I know about him?—how long had I known him?—what was the connection with the Sarastova woman . . . ?
    They got me on that one. I unbuttoned my lip at that point long enough to ask, "Who's she?"
    She lived in the apartment in which Mathison was killed. What was my relationship with her? Was she a client? How long since I'd seen Thomas Chase? What was my present relationship with Chase? How long had I known Morris Putnam and George Delancey and what was my relationship with them? What did I know about a shooting on the freeway in which three men were killed?
    I just glared at them through all of that. The one was a Special Agent Browning—did most of the talking—the other Special Agent Vasquez. Smooth as silk, both of them, but tough as hell also under that surface, and these are the kind of guys you want to worry about. So I told them nothing. I saw them huddling with the homicide team before they left. Shortly thereafter I was accorded my right to one telephone call, and it took another hour for my lawyer to arrive.
    We have an arrangement, my lawyer and I. We work for each other as the need arises and all we pay each other is expenses. Works out to a pretty good balance for both of us, but I think he was a little afraid of this one.
    "Jesus, Joe," he growled at me, "I think you've outdone yourself this time. These people are ready to throw the book at you."
    I growled back, "Yeah, well, let them get in line. I've had everything else thrown at me today already."
    He said, "Don't be flippant about this. You're in deep trouble. You'll have to spend at least the rest of the night in jail. How much bail could you go?"
    "Try fifty cents."
    "Get serious about this and do it damn quick. How much could you raise?"
    So I got serious about it and we made a list of assets. Looked sort of pitiful, on paper like that. Equity in my house was by far the best thing I had going. Bondsmen demand at least ten percent in security up front. We figured I had ten percent of damned little, which can be demoralizing as hell when you realize that it is the net residue of your life's work.
    "I'll see what I can do," the lawyer said worriedly, and left me on that note.
    Now it is four o'clock and the "procedure" has run its course. I am strip-searched and taken to a holding cell. It is not all that bad, considering where I have been the past seven hours. This is not "justice" but we have not even reached that plateau yet. First comes a damn lot of abject humility.
    You can be denied bail under our system if you've been accused of a heinous crime and someone can convince a judge that your release pending trial would constitute a menace to society. But judges are part of the "innocent until proven guilty" procedure so it's