'You can come back if you want,' Garamalkis said. 'But you'll have some trouble talking to my people.'
'Why's that?'
Grinning, he said, 'A lot of them don't speak English.'
Tony grinned back at him and said, 'Yo leo, escribo y hablo espanol.'
'Ah,' Garamalkis said, impressed.
The secretary made a copy of the pay record for them, and Tony thanked Garamalkis for his cooperation.
In the car, as Frank pulled into traffic and headed toward La Brea Avenue, he said, 'I've got to hand it to you.'
Tony said, 'What's that?'
'You got more out of him quicker than I could have.'
Tony was surprised by the compliment. For the first time in their three-month association, Frank had admitted that his partner's techniques were effective.
'I wish I had a little bit of your style,' Frank said. 'Not all of it, you understand. I still think my way's best most of the time. But now and then we run across someone who'd never open up to me in a million years, but he'd pour out his guts to you in about a minute flat. Yeah, I wish I had a little of your smoothness.'
'You can do it.'
'Not me. No way.'
'Of course, you can.'
'You've got a way with people,' Frank said. 'I don't.'
'You can learn it.'
'Nah. It works out well enough the way it is. We've got the classic mean-cop-nice-cop routine, except we aren't playing at it. With us, it just sort of naturally works out that way.'
'You're not a mean cop.'
Frank didn't respond to that. As they stopped at a red light, he said, 'There's something else I've got to say, and you probably won't like it.'
'Try me,' Tony said.
'It's about that woman last night.'
'Hilary Thomas?'
'Yeah. You liked her, didn't you?'
'Well ... sure. She seemed nice enough.'
'That's not what I mean. I mean, you liked her. You had the hots for her.'
'Oh, no. She was good looking, but I didn't--'
'Don't play innocent with me. I saw the way you looked at her.'
The traffic light changed.
They rode in silence for a block.
Finally, Tony said, 'You're right. I don't get all hot and bothered by every pretty girl I see. You know that.'
'Sometimes I think you're a eunuch.'
'Hilary Thomas is ... different. And it's not just the way she looks. She's gorgeous, of course, but that's not all of it. I like the way she moves, the way she handles herself. I like to listen to her talk. Not just the sound of her voice. More than that. I like the way she expresses herself. I like the way she thinks.'
'I like the way she looks,' Frank said, 'but the way she thinks leaves me cold.'
'She wasn't lying,' Tony said.
'You heard what the sheriff--'
'She might have been mixed up about exactly what happened to her, but she didn't create the whole story out of thin air. She probably saw someone who looked like Frye, and she--'
Frank interrupted. 'Here's where I've got to say what you won't want to hear.'
'I'm listening.'
'No matter how hot she made you, that's no excuse for what you did to me last night.'
Tony looked at him, confused. 'What'd I do?'
'You're supposed to support your partner in a situation like that.'
'I don't understand.'
Frank's face was red. He didn't look at Tony. He kept his eyes on the street and said, 'Several times last night, when I was questioning her, you took her side against mine.'
'Frank, I didn't intend--'
'You tried to keep me from pursuing a line of questioning that I knew was important.'
