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r opened the door, and Matt got in.
“Let him sit sideward with his leg on the seat,” Coughlin ordered. “McFadden, you ride in your car.”
“There’s plenty of room back here,” Matt protested. “Get in, Charley.”
Charley looked at Coughlin for a decision.
“Okay, get in,” Coughlin said.
By the time Coughlin had gotten into the front seat, his driver had gotten behind the wheel and started the engine.
Coughlin turned in his seat and put his arm on the back of it.
“You haven’t met Sergeant Holloran, have you, Matt?”
“What do you say, Payne?” the driver said.
“Thanks for the ride,” Matt said.
“You’re McFadden, right?” Holloran asked, turning his head to look at McFadden. “The guy who ran down the guy who shot Dutch Moffitt?”
“Yeah. How are you, Sergeant?”
“While we’re doing this, Matty,” Coughlin said, “and before I forget it, Tom Lenihan called and asked if it would be all right if he went to the hospital, and I told him you had enough visitors, but he said to tell you hello.”
“Thank you.”
“There’s been another development, one I just heard about, which is the reason I came to the hospital myself,” Coughlin said.
Bullshit, Uncle Denny. You wanted to be here.
“What?”
“Stillwell is going to run you past the Grand Jury.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Once they take a case before the Grand Jury, and the Grand Jury declines to issue a true bill, that’s it.”
“I don’t know what that means, either.”
“It means the facts of the case will be presented to a Grand Jury, who will decide that there is no grounds to take you to trial.”
“That doesn’t always happen?”
“Normally, in a case like this, the district attorney will just make the decision, and that would be the end of it. But with Armando C. Giacomo the defense counsel—”
“Who’s—what was that name?”
“Armando C. Giacomo. Very good criminal lawyer. Half a dozen one way, six the other if he or Colonel Mawson is the best there is in Philadelphia.”
“You never heard of him?” Charley McFadden asked, genuinely surprised, which earned him a no from Matt and a dirty, keep-out-of-this look from Coughlin.
“The assistant DA, Stillwell, or maybe Tom Callis, the DA himself, is probably worried that Giacomo will start hollering ‘police whitewash’ or ‘cover-up.’ Giacomo couldn’t do that if you had been before the Grand Jury and they hadn’t returned a true bill. You understand all this?”
“I think so.”
“It gets a little more complicated,” Coughlin said. “I called your father as soon as I heard about this, and he said Colonel Mawson would be in the Roundhouse for your interview.”
