Read Tony Dunbar - Tubby Dubonnet 06 - Lucky Man for Free Online

signed the attachment was Alvin Hughes. The young lady was subject to being arrested at any time and taken to jail.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” Tubby said hotly, thinking just the opposite. “The judge probably signs a hundred orders a day. You’re talking about an old case that’s probably been disposed of long ago. There’s no illegality here. That’s hardly even an impropriety.”
    Dementhe’s voice displayed no doubt when he said, “I’m afraid we have reached a different conclusion, Mr. Dubonnet. You see, we think that our informant may have hoped to influence the judge to erase the attachment and that he took advantage of her vulnerability to obtain sexual favors.”
    “Has he confirmed any such thing?” Tubby inquired indignantly.
    “No, he has not,” the DA conceded, and here for the first time Tubby thought there might be a ray of hope. “But the facts speak very plainly. To deny those facts would be to risk committing perjury or worse, obstruction of justice.”
    The lawyer started to protest again, but thought better of it.
    “Well, sir,” he began more contritely, “you have been good enough to share this much of your case with me. Now tell me what your plans are.”
    Dementhe leaned back and made a steeple with his fingertips.
    “It is becoming clear,” he said, “that some of the civil and criminal judges of the parish are in fact criminals themselves. The sale and barter of reduced sentences, or no sentences at all, for the parasites of our society has reached a nadir of contemptuousness. Bribery has become a way of doing business. Judge Hughes is but one sad example. His sordid practices we cannot ignore, but we can discount them. As for the others, they are joined in a conspiracy to thwart the justice system, and they must pay in full. To the extent that Judge Hughes can help us identify and expose these acts of public corruption, we will consider that cooperation when deciding how severely to prosecute him.”
    “What sort of cooperation are you talking about?”
    “Who’s to say? First he should be forthcoming with us about his own misdeeds, then about those of his colleagues. Then we’ll see.”
    Ms. Canary piped up, “He could be asked to record conversations with certain other judges, or put over a sting.”
    “What if he doesn’t know anything?” Tubby asked.
    “Then society will be better off with him in jail,” Dementhe said evenly.
    “And if he does cooperate, what is his reward?”
    “Other than virtue?” Dementhe chuckled. “He would not go to jail unless, naturally, there are other indiscretions we do not yet know about. He would, in any event, be required to resign from the bench.”
    “Resign his judgeship?”
    “Of course,” Dementhe and Canary said together.
    “Over a family matter?”
    “That’s an interesting concept,” Dementhe said reflectively. “A man who would betray his family, and the very institution of the family, cloaking his behavior in the mantle of family privacy. Tut-tut, Mr. Dubonnet, that just won’t do.”
    “We all know that families aren’t perfect,” Tubby argued. “That’s why they need privacy.”
    “Including yours, isn’t that right, counselor? Even including yours.”
    “What in the world are you speaking of?” Tubby was incredulous.
    “Why, your own daughter and her extramarital affairs.”
    The lawyer’s face colored like a muscadine. “Are you crazy? Have you got me mixed up with somebody else?”
    “And didn’t she check herself into some sort of halfway house,” Dementhe pressed. “—a so-called church mission, in Mississippi. And didn’t she there require counseling on this very subject?”
    Tubby was speechless for once in his life. This man was threatening him, and he did not even know what the threat was about.
    Numb, he stood up and turned toward the door, shaking his head to try to clear it. Mr. Dementhe and Ms. Canary watched his departure in sober silence.
    Tubby was still in a daze when he