'Who?'
'Joan Raiford. You know, 'I took Elizabeth Taylor to Marine
World and when she saw Shamu the Whale she asked me if it
came with vegetables?' I repeat, Detective Cheyney: grow up. I
have no reason in the world to believe that switch is anything but a
dummy. My God, how innocent do you think I am?'
Joan Raiford? Is that what he really said?, Joan Raiford?
'What's the matter?' Paladin asked pleasantly. He crossed his legs
the other way. 'Did you perhaps think you saw a clear path? Me
breaking down, maybe saying I'd tell everything, everything, just
don't let 'em fry me, copper?'
With all the force of personality he could muster, Cheyney said: 'I
believe things are very wrong here, Mr Paladin. You've got them
wrong and I've got them wrong. When your lawyer gets here,
maybe we can sort them out and maybe we can't. Most likely we
can't. So listen to me, and for God's sake use your brain. I gave you
the Miranda Warning. You said you wanted your lawyer present. If
there was a tape turning, I've buggered my own case. Your lawyer
would have to say just one word - enticement - and you'd walk
free, whatever has happened to Carson. And I could go to work as
a security guard in one of those flea-bitten little towns down by the
border.'
'You say that,' Paladin said, 'but I'm no lawyer.
But ... Convince me, his eyes said. Yeah, let's talk about this, lees
see if we can't get together, because you're right, something is
weird. So ... convince me.
'Is your mother alive?' Cheyney asked abruptly.
'What - yes, but what does that have to-'
'You talk to me or I'm going to personally take two CHP
motorcycle cops and the three of us are going to rape your mother
tomorrow!' Cheyney screamed. 'I'm personally going to take her
up the ass! Then we're going to cut off her tits and leave them on
the front lawn! So you better talk!'
Paladin's face was as white as milk: a white so white it is nearly
blue.
'Now are you convinced?' Cheyney asked softly. 'I'm not crazy.
I'm not going to rape your mother. But with a statement like that
on a reel of tape, you could say you were the guy on the grassy
knoll in Dallas and the Burbank police wouldn't produce the tape. I
want to talk to you, man. What's going on here?'
Paladin shook his head dully and said, 'I don't know.'
In the room behind the one-way glass, Jacoby joined Lieutenant
McEachern, Ed McMahon (still looking stunned), and a cluster of
technical people at a bank of high-tech equipment. The LAPD
chief of police and the mayor were rumored to be racing each other
to Burbank.
'He's talking?' Jacoby asked.
'I think he's going to,' McEachern said. His eyes had moved
toward Jacoby once, quickly, when he came in. Now they were
