He looked scared.
“So, if he doesn’t know,” Jesse said, “and we tell him, maybe he’ll be grateful and help us with our case.”
“Tell Gino?”
“Sure,” Jesse said.
Garner looked around the room. It was 2:20 in the afternoon. The counter man was talking through the serving window to the pizza chef. No one else was in the restaurant.
“No,” Garner said.
“No what?”
“You can’t tell Gino.”
“Why not?”
“He’ll kill me.”
“What a shame,” Kelly said.
Garner looked around the room again, as if he were looking for a way out. The two cops sat quietly. Jesse could hear Garner’s breathing.
“If I tell you what I know,” Garner said, “can you give me a break?”
“Of course,” Jesse said.
“And Gino doesn’t have to know.”
“Mum’s the word,” Jesse said.
“It started as nothing,” Garner said. “A girl tried to pick me up. She was a kid. And I knew a guy liked kids, so I started talking to her and one thing led to another and I figured maybe she could use a little management.”
Garner fiddled with his empty bottle.
“She a runaway?” Jesse said.
“Yes. Was staying at the shelter in JP with the nun. So I started setting her up with guys,” Garner said. “And we’d split.”
“How much did she get?” Kelly said.
“I did all the work,” Garner said. “Took all the risks. Paid the rent, bought the clothes and makeup. All she had to do was have sex for half an hour or so.”
“So what’d she get? Ten cents on the dollar?”
Garner shrugged.
“So that was working pretty good, and I thought, hey, why not expand?” Garner smiled. “The American way, you know?”
“And…” Jesse said.
“I specialized. Young girls seem to like me. I’m fairly attractive, you know. And I don’t seem threatening. So I started to, um, cull them from the shelters, and clean them up and… put them in touch with clients.”
“And Gino didn’t know.”
“It was before I met Gino.”
“When you were still living in Brighton.”
“Yes.”
“And when you moved in with Gino, you didn’t want to give up your career.”
“I think it’s important,” Garner said, “for a boy to have an independent income.”
“Billie Bishop work for you?” Jesse said.
Kelly had leaned back in the booth with his arms crossed, looking without expression at Garner. His gaze was steady.
“Yes. I met her at the shelter.”
“She know you were in another program?” Jesse said.
Garner smiled.
“I’m in both programs,” he said.
“Doubles the odds for a date,” Kelly said, his stare steady on Garner.
“So the girls, like Billie Bishop, thought maybe you were their boyfriend,” Jesse said.
Garner nodded.
“Tell me about Norman Shaw,” Jesse said.
Garner sat back in the booth as if he’d been shoved.
“Norman Shaw?”
Jesse had his forearms resting on the tabletop, leaning toward Garner as he talked.
