"Stephen Goldin - Herds" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldin Stephen)

you around here so early in the morning?"

Willsey either missed the question or ignored it. "I don't like
the idea of all those reporters," he said. "I wish you hadn't talked
to them. It's so hard, nowadays, to know the right things to say.
One wrong word and the Supreme Court will reverse the entire
decision."

"I think you may be exaggerating a little."

"Don't be too sure. And in any case, the more you say, the
more you prejudice prospective jurors."

"Maybe. But even so, what else could I have done?"

"You could have refused to comment at all. Just said, 'We're
working on it and we'll let you fellows know when we're done.'
Kept quiet until everything was socked away."

The idea had never occurred to Maschen. He'd reacted
spontaneously to having a microphone shoved in front of his
mouth: he talked. The whole ordeal could have been easily
avoided with the words "no comment", only he didn't think of
them. He wondered how many people would have under similar
circumstances. That was one big thing that TV and the press had
going for them— people who otherwise wouldn't utter a word felt
it was their responsibility to others to help the spread of news.

He shrugged. "Well, it's too late to do anything about it now.
Let's hope I didn't wreck our cause too badly. Now, what did you
want to talk about?"

"I got a call a few minutes ago from Wesley Stone-ham." The
way he said those words, it sounded to Maschen as though the
call had come via a burning bush. The district attorney was a
man who knew his limitations in life and realized that, without
this public job, he was a failure. Consequently, retaining his job
was of uppermost consideration in his mind at all
times—especially when he received calls from a man whose
power in the county was rising so rapidly.

"What did he have to say for himself?" Maschen asked.

"He wanted to know if any arrests had been made in his wife's
murder yet."

"Good God. I just found out about it myself a couple of hours
ago, and nobody has been considerate enough to walk in here
and confess to it. What does he expect of us, anyhow?"