No Witnesses

“Are you with someone?”

“In a roundabout way. No one in the room with me, if that’s what you mean.”

“Did I wake you?” She sounded that way to him-dazed.

“Not a chance.”

“Can you stand some company?”

“If you can possibly forgive me for what I did to you.”

“Make yourself decent. I’m coming over there.”

Room 614 was a suite with a water view. It had to cost three hundred dollars a night. It smelled of Earl Grey tea. She did not allow him to turn on the light, though he tried twice. “No!” she insisted angrily, holding his arm the second time. He caught sight of her in the dimly lighted room, and her eyes looked cried out.

Holding his arm, she led him over to a sitting couch that fronted the huge plate-glass window. A moment later she delivered a tea to him and kept one for herself. She sat down beside him. Two people in a dark room, looking out a window.

“Nice view, huh?”

Boldt looked out across the bay, its surface in a constant shifting motion catching the moonlight, broken only by container ships awaiting a morning dock. “She arrived about an hour and a half ago. They talked awhile-actually he talked at her. He was angry, I think. Then he took her from behind. Right there. She leaned against that table. See that table? I don’t think she liked it much,” she said. “But she put up with it, which tells you something about the way he negotiates a deal. I wonder how much she goes for.”

It was Fowler’s apartment. She was watching Fowler’s apartment, not the water. Not the boats or the moon. A set of gauze drapes was pulled, but Boldt could make out the shapes of two people, clearly a man-Fowler-and a woman. No telling her age or what she looked like.

“This is what he does in his free time when he’s not watching other people.” Her angry tone of voice worried him. “Buy a little piece of ass for a midnight snack. A Hostess Twinkie.” In a Betty Boop voice, she said, “What? Can’t sleep tonight? Dial: One-eight hundred-I-DO-FUCK.”

“I’m right here,” he offered.

Staring out the window, she asked, “Have you ever watched other people screw? Not movies-I mean for real. It was disgusting. It was my first time. It’s really a disgusting dirty little act in many ways-especially like that, at the table like that. All the bumping and grabbing. A couple minutes is all, like alley cats. They never even kissed. Can you imagine? He just took her like a piece of meat. Like he had ordered a pizza or something. I don’t think she liked it,” she repeated.

“Let’s get out of here,” Boldt suggested.

“I’ll bet you anything he watched me and Owen.” She snapped her head toward him then, but looked away immediately. She said, “He didn’t learn anything, judging by his own performance.”

“We could get some eggs,” Boldt suggested, wanting her out of here.

“She’s leaving now. She’s smart.” Boldt saw that the woman was in fact leaving. “Two hours on the nose. Well, not exactly the nose. No matter what he paid her, it wasn’t enough. Not with a man like that. I wonder what two hours cost. Is it by the hour, or what?”

“What does this accomplish, Daffy?”

“If I’m watching him, then I know he’s not watching me. You want to fault that logic?” She added, “I want to bring charges, Lou.”

“Daffy, do whatever you have to do.”

“If you’re going to say something, just say it.”

“We were cutting him out, Daffy. He knew it. He even said as much. You were nosing around some old skeletons, and he wanted to know what you had.”

“No pun intended,” she sniped sarcastically. “I’m quite certain that by now he knows what I have.”

“You want to blame someone, try Taplin. You think Fowler dreamed this up? He takes orders, Daffy. He’s Taplin’s go-and-fetch-it.”

“They probably had pizza parties and watched me take showers.”

“They’re in business. They’re not running peep shows. If you really want to hurt them, then forget filing charges. We wait and we use this against them somehow.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

“You think I can go back there and pretend I don’t know?”

He waited her out.

“You’re saying they’ve already seen all there is to see, so why not?” she questioned.

“I’m not really suggesting that. No. We make an excuse. A friend needs you. Adler asks you to move in with him.”

“We had to stop that because of my badge.”

“We’ll think of something. I’d just rather not blow the whistle yet.”

Fowler’s light went off. It was over.

“You’re staying here tonight?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Are you going to be all right?”

Another nod. “I’m a big girl.” She smirked. “Just ask him.”

“I can stay.”

“Go home to your family.” She glanced over at him. “I’m sorry for the way I behaved. I lost it, that’s all.”

“Yeah. You lost it,” Boldt said. And she grinned for the first time.

He kissed her. She flinched. And he left.

THIRTY-THREE

“Where were you until four in the morning?”

“You’re not supposed to ask that at six-thirty.”

“The question stands.”

“If I told you I was in an ocean-view suite in a fancy hotel with a beautiful woman, what would you think?”

“That you’re full of you-know-what.”

“Good. The answer stands.”

“You’re hopeless.” She walked around the room, and in and out of the bathroom, naked, getting herself ready. Boldt thought back to someone watching Daphne, and how she had reacted, and he thought he understood her better now that he saw his own wife being so casual with herself. And he, too, was angry, and perhaps more determined to do something about this anger.

“Wake up.”

He had drifted back to sleep. “You said I shouldn’t let you sleep.” Adding, “It’s not fair to ask of me such things.” She was dressed now, but not for work.

“What day is it?”

“Suzie and I are going over to Elaine’s. Michael is still locked up in that room with rubber walls.”

Boldt realized that losing the prosecuting attorney would set back the investigation, but he pushed this thought aside. “You should be sainted.”

“Taken to dinner would do.”

“I haven’t forgotten.”

“Yes you had,” she told him.

“I had,” he admitted. “But now I remember. I owe you a champagne dinner.”

“And you owe your son about two weeks off.”

“So noted.”