'The other part-I'm no pervert.'
'You're acting for someone else who is-is that what you're telling me?'
'I'm telling you nothing.'
'That's even more despicable, supplying children to people like that.'
'You're talking horseshit.'
'Don't tempt me, Lundin.'
'What? Get away from my leg!'
'Where is the child? What did you do with her?'
'I don't have to talk to you. Who are you?' Lundin asked.
'A man with a weight problem,' said Diamond, folding his arms ostentatiously and inching closer to the wounded leg. 'Sometimes I need to prop myself up.'
'Bastard! Get away from me, will you?'
'Better not call me names, then. Where is she?'
'The kid?'
'Yes.'
'She's okay. It's nothing like you say.'
'Her mother isn't okay. Did you kill the child later?'
'No, I tell you. No!'
'She's alive?'
'Yes.'
'So where can I find her?'
Silence.
'Where can I find her, Lundin?'
'No, get off! I handed her over. The deal was that I would hand her over.'
'Who to?'
'I can't say-I don't know.'
'Do you care about the child?' Diamond asked.
'What do you mean?'
'Yes, I know it doesn't make sense to a hired killer to care about a child, but let me put it to you this way. You're going to stand trial for Mrs. Tanaka's death. If the child is also killed, you're an accessory to a second murder.'
'She's okay.'
'You keep saying that, but how do you know? This person she's now with may already have killed her.'
'I don't think so.'
'They hired you to kill the mother. Why should they draw the line at the child?'
He hesitated and asked yet again, 'Mister, who are you?'
'My name is Diamond.'
'You a cop?'
'I am not' Sometimes candor is rewarded with the truth. It was worth trying. 'I'm a private citizen. I came over from England because of the child. Naomi was taken illegally from a children's home, and I care very much what is happening to her.'
'You're not a cop?'
'That's what I said.'
'Are you taping this conversation?'
'No.'
After a pause, Lundin plucked up enough confidence to say, 'There was a contract on the woman, not the kid.'
'You were hired to kill the woman?'
This was a matter Diamond should have sidestepped, he realized the moment he'd spoken. It added nothing to his knowledge and it pulled Lundin up with a jolt 'Forget it-I don't need to talk to you.'
'Who hired you?'
Silence.
Diamond adroitly switched to another question. 'You said you handed over the child. When was this?'
Grudgingly, Lundin muttered, 'Last evening.'
'By arrangement?'
Lundin started to say, 'I don't have to answer these damn fool-' and then interrupted himself when he noticed Diamond unfolding his arms. 'They told me to bring the kid to the Trump Tower and leave her at the top of the escalator on the second floor at nine p.m.'
'Hand her over to someone?'
'No, just leave her.'
'And you did?'
'I figured somebody was going to be waiting for her.'
'Did you see anyone?'
'Mister, in this game, you don't
'How did you get the instructions, then?'
'The phone.'
'Man or woman?'
'Man, I guess.'
All of this was leading nowhere. Fredrik Lundin didn't know where Naomi was, or who was holding her. He would be charged with Mrs. Tanaka's murder, but the people who hired him had made damned sure he was incapable of putting the police onto them. The trail had gone cold.
'Let's go back to the first instructions you had. Who made the contact?'
'I don't know. I was phoned.'
And so it went on. Lundin had met nobody. A voice had told him what to do, where to pick up the money that was his down payment for the elimination of Mrs. Tanaka. He made it sound as commonplace as selling a house, with ninety percent payable on completion, except that 'completion' had a more sinister interpretation.
Diamond didn't need the six or seven minutes the journey took. In four minutes flat he'd learned all he was likely to learn from Fredrik Lundin. The police would take up the questioning at the hospital and no doubt they'd extract enough information to put him behind bars for a long term, but they would find out nothing Diamond wanted to know, nothing of immediate use in tracing Naomi.
They got to the hospital and Lundin was wheeled away to have his wounds seen to. Diamond shared his disappointment with Lieutenant Eastland.
Eastland was still sore from the earlier exchange. 'What did you expect?' he commented when he'd heard how little had emerged about Lundin's paymasters. 'The guy is a functionary. Why keep a dog and bark yourself?'
'I hope you're not giving up on the child.'
'Did I say that? Did you hear me say that?'
'No, but-'
'Okay. What are your plans, Diamond?'
'Mine? I, em, I haven't decided.'
'Are you still staying at that two-bit hotel, the Firbank?'
Diamond had to think for a moment 'I suppose I am.'
'You can ride back with me. I'm leaving soon. Stein will take over here.'
He saw, of course, that mis wasn't an olive branch. Eastland wanted him away from the hospital while the questioning took place, and for once it seemed sensible to comply.
'Okay, I got a little above myself,' Diamond admitted when they were together in the back of the police car. 'I need your help more man you need mine.' It was the nearest he would come to an apology.
'I thought you would strangle the guy.'
'Lundin, do you mean? No, I was wrong about him. I really believed this was part of a vice racket Now, I think the child was kidnapped for some other reason. Lundin happens to be a pimp, but mat's not what he was involved in
