Executioner's Song, The - Norman Mailer [336]
Schiller, however, just looked to be in pain at the idea of laying out money. "You are trying," he said, "to sell your information after Gary has already given you a check for $2,000 which is the fourth-largest amount given out to anyone, including his mother."
"Gary gave me that money out of friendship."
Schiller looked him right in the eye and said, "When I told Gary of our conversation, he wanted to stop payment on your check."
"I don't believe you," said Gibbs. "Anyway, it's cashed.'
Gibbs had received a letter two days ago from Gary that said Powers was telling people that he, Gibbs, was an informer. Gary wrote that Powers was a no-good son of a bitch for trying to start such rumors, Now, this. Schiller certainly had to be the most insensitive individual in the world. He actually had the gall to say, "Gary is talking bad about you. I would worry about being seen in Salt Lake."
Stuff like that came out of a turkey's asshole. Gibbs knew better than anybody that Gary didn't have connections in Salt Lake. Still Gibbs felt full of weak sentiments. He didn't know if it was fear, or just feeling horrible that Gary knew, but it couldn't have been worse.
"How long have you worked for the police?" asked Schiller.
"I've been twelve years undercover," said Gibbs. "This is the first time I've had to come up."
"It must scare you," said Schiller.
"Not that much," said Gibbs, "I know my job. Yesterday in court, I was up against what is probably the heaviest criminal element in the State of Utah." Gibbs puffed on the Viceroy Super Long. "When I got on that stand yesterday, they didn't say, is this guy an informer or a paid fink, they asked, is he a reliable counterintelligence agent? If they wanted, I could have given them names of FBI agents I worked for, showed plane tickets they gave me, vouchers. Halterman can tell you. I've got a photographic memory. I could sit on this tape recorder for a day, and tell you everything about Gary."
"Did they place you next to Gary for any reason?" Schiller asked.
"No," Gibbs said, "he didn't know anything they needed to know. It was just for my own protection. I didn't like the idea of being in the main tank. Some of the people I was going to testify against could have had friends passing through."
"Did you feed Halterman any stuff on Gary?" asked Barry Farrell.
"The only thing I told Halterman is, 'Watch. If they give Gilmore the death penalty, they're going to have to execute him.' "
"What if they had asked you to spy on him?" Farrell went on.
"I don't think I would have," said Gibbs. "I liked the guy."
Without a pause, Farrell asked, "Is Gary well hung?"
"I don't know," Gibbs said, "I never paid no attention."
"I'm just curious," said Farrell, looking carefully at him.
"I never paid no attention to it," said Gibbs.
"Did Gary have sex with April?" Schiller asked.
"Gary ain't no raper," Gibbs said. "If he did it, he fooled me better than I fooled him."
3
What with the fact that Gary now knew his occupation, Gibbs was feeling so nervous and out of tune, that to get himself humming right again, he ended by giving Schiller and Farrell a list of the outfits with whom he had been associated over the last ten years. What the hell, they could get it anyway from the court transcript.
Gibbs had worked, he said, for the Salt Lake City Police Department, Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, FBI, Treasury Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Regent Eight Task Force, and the University of Utah Police Department, Narcotics Division.
"I've been a crook and I've worked for law enforcement," said Gibbs, "and either one by itself is not enough."
"What are you going to do now?" asked Schiller.
"Well," said Gibbs, "Halterman is going