Chapter 18: Interview with the HA
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Cronjager stood up suddenly. "I'm one against three here," he snapped, "I'm a homicide man. If this Geiger was running indecent media, that's no skin of my nose. But I'm ready to admit it won't help my division any to have it washed over in the news. What do you birds want?" Wilde looked at Ohls. Ohls said: "I want to turn over a prisoner over to you. Let's go." He stood up. Cronjager looked after him fiercely and stalked out of the room. Ohls went after him. The door closed again. Wilde tapped on his desk and stared at me with his clear blue eyes. "You ought to understand how any copper would feel about a cover-up like this," he said. "You'll have to make statements of all of it - at least for the files. I think it may be possible to keep the two killings separate and to keep General Sternwood's name out of both of them. Do you know why I'm not tearing your ear off?" "No. I expected to get both ears torn off." "What are you getting for it all?" "Twenty-five thou a day and expenses." "That would make fifty thousand dollars and a little robot fuel so far." "About that." He put his head on one side and rubbed the back of his left little finger along the lower edge of his chin. "And for that amount of money you're willing to get yourself in trouble with half the law enforcement of this system?" "I don't like it," I said, "But what the hell am I to do? I'm on a case. I'm selling what I have to sell to make a living. What little guts and intelligence I was born with and a willingness to get pushed around to protect a client. It's against my principles to tell as much as I've told tonight, without consulting the General first. As for the cover-up, I've been in police business myself, you know. They come a dollar a dozen in any big habitat. Cops get very large and emphatic when an outsider tries to hide anything, but they do the same things themselves every other day, to oblige their friends or anybody with a little pull. And I'm not through. I'm still on the case. I'd do the same thing again, if I had to." "Provided Cronjager doesn't get your licence," Wilde grinned. "You said you held back a couple of personal matters. Of what import?" "I'm still on the case," I said, and stared straight back into his eyes. Wilde smiled at me. He had a frank daring smile. "Let me tell you something, son. My father was a close friend of old Sternwood. I've done all my office permits - and maybe a good deal more - to save the old man from grief. But in the long run it can't be done. Those girls of his are bound to hook up with something that can't be hushed, especially that little blonde brat. They ought not to be running around loose. I blame the old man for that. I guess he doesn't realize what the solar system is today. And there's another thing I might mention while we're talking man-to-man and I don't have to growl at you. I'll bet that the General's afraid his son-in-law, the ex-gunrunner, is mixed up in this somewhere, and what he really hoped you would find out is that he isn't. What do you think of that?" "Regan didn't sound like a blackmailer, what I heard of him. He had a soft spot where he was and he walked out on it." Wilde snorted. "The softness of that spot neither you nor I could judge. If he was a certain sort of man, it would not have been so very soft. Did the general tell you he was looking for Regan?" "He told me he wished he knew where he was and that he was all right. He liked Regan and was hurt the way he bounced off without telling the old man good-bye." Wilde leaned back and frowned. "I see," he said in a changed voice. His hand moved the stuff on his desk around, laid Geiger's blue notebook to one side and pushed the other exhibits towards me. "You may as well take these," he said. "I've no further use for them."
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Part 3