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

explained how we'd spotted the police stakeout on my car so she'd offered to put me up for the night, told about the shooting at her apartment and my decision to take her to the mountain cabin.
    The FBI guys wanted minute detail concerning Mathison . They kept interrupting, probing, trying their best to trip me up and make me admit that I had surprised Mathison in Gina's apartment and shot him cold. So I finally had to make a big deal out of the fact that I had not tried to conceal the shooting but had actually reported it by telephone to LAPD. I also pointed out that only two shots had been fired, one by me and one by Mathison , and his had buried itself in the wall beside my head right at the front door—so who had surprised whom, and where the hell was his authorization to enter that apartment anyway?
    The chief prosecutor had to step in and break that up. I was invited to continue the story, which I did but without all the personal stuff between Gina and me. I just told them that we went to sleep and she was gone when I woke, also gone was my evidence and my pistol. I related the whole thing about being picked up on the mountain road by the people from the consulate, the CHP pullover and the quick switch between cars, the ensuing shoot-out on the freeway ramp. Again, here, I got into it with the FBI. I had to show them my cuts and bruises and they still couldn't believe that I had walked
    away from that if I had been inside the car with the victims.
    The LAPD guy wanted a physical description of the CHP motorcycle officer who'd pulled us over while I was in the Russians' car. Who the hell can give a description like that? Those guys all look exactly alike, describe one and you describe them all. I asked if they couldn't get verification from the CHP but nobody volunteered to answer that so I went on with the story. Told them about my second encounter with Gina at my place and the third one in Beverly Hills—though I covered Cherche , too, all I could—how I got my gun back and how I busted the tail I picked up there. The FBI was all ears again as I related the PowerTron security connection but this time they let me continue without interruption.
    The rest I told absolutely straight. They dismissed the stenographer when I finished it and then there was a long "off the record" discussion of my story between the principals and my lawyer. After that the FBI went into a huddle with the prosecutors just outside the door.
    Then the chief prosecutor came back in and said to my lawyer, "Without stipulating to the veracity of anything your client has told us, we do recognize his exemplary past record as a police officer and we appreciate his willingness to cooperate with the investigation. Accordingly, we will recommend to the court that his bail be set at one million dollars."
    Big deal.
    But my lawyer thanked him and when we were
    alone again he turned to me with a big smile. "All right," he crowed. "Now we're getting somewhere."
    We were getting nowhere that I could see.
    "I still can't make bail," I told him.
    "Sure you can." He dug into his briefcase and produced a bond commitment. "You already did. I was handed this right after I left you, a while ago."
    I still didn't understand.
    "Your friend put up her home this morning."
    I said, "What friend is that?"
    "Your friend in Beverly Hills," he said. "Mrs. Saras - tova . The one you referred to in your statement as Cherche LaFemme ."
    It knocked the hell out of me, pal.
    But it also knocked me back onto the streets. And I didn't know if that was a favor or not.
     

Chapter Eleven
     
    Maybe you have a better handle on things at this point than I did while I was experiencing it, so maybe I'm looking sort of dumb to you right now and you are wondering why I didn't just hang it up and let the proper authorities unravel the thing. But remember that a lot of stuff was coming down and that a guy can get a bit shellshocked when he's in the middle of something like this. Give some