‘Ain’t my gig, this time. I come along for the ride. He’s a young fella. Needs all the help he can get.’
‘Good. In that case I’ll just buy a ticket and jump aboard, too. Now get outa my way while I make some coffee.’
Sharky carried Domino’s suitcase into the guest bedroom and put it on a chair near the door. The room, modest but comfortable, was quite a contrast to Domino’s apartment.
‘Is the place okay?’ Sharky said.
‘It’s fine,’ Domino said. ‘What a nice lady she is but... why is she doing this for me?’
‘She’s doing it for Arch, although if she didn’t like you she probably would have thrown us out. She’s a detective. Her husband was one of the first black cops in the city. He died a couple of years ago.’
‘How sad. She seems so young to be a widow.’
‘Yeah, well, that happens.’
‘Is that the way you think? “Oh, well, it happens”?’
‘I can’t imagine what it’s like to be married to a cop,’ Sharky said. ‘I suppose there are realities you either accept and live with or you end it.’
‘Or it gets ended for you,’ she said.
‘That, too.’
Domino sat down on the bed. ‘I’m tired,’ she said. ‘There are a couple of more questions. ..‘
‘I thought it was going to be my turn next,’ she said. She stared at him, boring in with those green eyes, and Sharky felt the back of his neck warming up. He was moved by her vulnerability and her spirit. He would like to have said something to her but he was afraid it would come out wrong. Instead he said, ‘You want to know about the elevator, hunh?’
She nodded.
‘I could lie about it, you know. I’m very good at that. It’s something you learn on the street.’
‘Oh, I know how good you are at it. You sucked me in beautifully. But I thought we could make a fresh start — and both tell the truth this time.’
‘Okay. We were bugging your apartment. I was monitoring the tapes.’
There it was, quick, to the point, and probably deadly. But her reaction surprised him. She wasn’t mad or indignant or even embarrassed. She simply looked at him rather whimsically and said, Why?’
‘Did you know Neil Dantzler and Tiffany were involved in blackmail?’
‘I don’t believe that.’
‘Oh, you can believe it. That part we’re sure of. They shook down a Texas oilman for fifty grand.’
‘Tiffany?’
Sharky nodded.
‘Then it was Neil. He made her do it. She wasn’t like that.’
‘It doesn’t make any difference.. They did it.’
‘And you think I was part of it?’
Sharky shook his head. ‘Nope, don’t think that at all. But we had to find out for sure.’
‘And, uh, how many of these bugs did you have in my place?’
‘Enough. I could bear everything in that apartment but the plants growing.’
‘How long were you, uh, up there?
‘Long enough. Since that night Confucius came to dinner.’
‘Ohhh.’ She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and looked at him and then shrugged. ‘What can I say?
‘You can tell me who he was. That’s one of the questions. We’ve got to start someplace. Somebody wants you dead.’ Victor? she thought. It couldn’t be him. And revealing his name might eventually involve Donald, possibly destroy his career for nothing.
‘It wasn’t him. He’s from out of the country. Germany. He went back to Europe the next day.’
There, that was easy, she thought, as long as he doesn’t lean on it. She changed the subject.
‘Would It help my image any if I told you I’m going to retire?’
‘It Won’t change anything,’ Sharky said softly. ‘Hell, I’m not here to judge you. What you do is your business.’
She cocked her head to one side and smiled. ‘Do you mean that?’
‘Sure. We’re being honest, remember?’
‘Thank you.’
‘I felt like a goddamn eavesdropper anyhow.’ He hesitated, then changed the subject. ‘You’re sure you never heard of Angelo Scardi or Howard Burns?’
