She wouldn't let me take the check, and then rejected my suggestion that we split it. 'I invited you,' she said. 'Besides, I owe you money.'
'How do you figure that?'
'Ray Galindez. I owe you a hundred bucks.'
'The hell you do.'
'The hell I don't. Some maniac's trying to kill me and you're protecting me. I ought to be paying your regular rate, you know that?'
'I don't have a regular rate.'
'Well, I ought to be paying you what a client pays. I certainly ought to be covering the expenses.
Speaking of which, you flew toCleveland and back, you stayed over at a hotel—'
'I can afford it.'
'I'm sure you can, but so what?'
'And I'm not just acting on your behalf,' I went on. 'I'm his target at least as much as you are.'
'You think so? He's probably a lot less likely to fuck you in the ass.'
'You never know what he learned in prison. I'm serious, Elaine.
I'm operating in my own interest here.'
'You're also acting in mine. And it's depriving you of income, you already said how you're not working at the detective agency in order to make time for this. If you're contributing your time, the least I can do is cover all the expenses.'
'Why don't we split them?'
'Because that's not fair. You're the one running around, you're the one putting your regular work on the
shelf for the duration. Besides, I can afford it better than you can.
Don't pout, for Christ's sake, it's no reflection on your manhood, it's just a simple statement of fact. I've got a lot of money.'
'Well, you earned it.'
'Me and Smith Barney, making our money the old-fashioned way.
I earned it and I kept it and I invested it, and I'm not rich, honey, but I'll never be poor. I own a lot of property. I own my apartment, I bought right away when the building went co-op, and I own houses and multiple dwellings inQueens
.JacksonHeights , mostly, and some in Woodside. I get checks every month from the management company, and every now and then my accountant tells me I've got too big a balance in my money-market account and I have to go out and buy another piece of property.'
'A woman of independent means.'
'You bet your ass.'
She paid the check. On the way out we stopped at the bar and I introduced her toGary . He wanted to know if I was working on a case.
'He let me play Watson once,' he told Elaine. 'Now I live in hope of another opportunity.'
'One of these days.'
He draped his long body over the bar, dropped his voice low. 'He brings suspects here for grilling,' he confided. 'We grill them over mesquite.'
She rolled her eyes and he apologized. We got out of there, and she said, 'God, it's glorious out, isn't it?
I wonder how long this weather can last.'
'As long as it wants, as far as I'm concerned.'
'It's hard to believe it's something like six weeks until Christmas. I don't feel like going home. Is there
someplace else we can go? That we can walk to?'
I thought for a moment. 'There's a bar I like.'
'You go to bars?'
'Not usually. The place I'm thinking of is kind of lowlife. The owner— I was going to say he was a friend of mine, but that may not be the right word.'
'Now you've got me intrigued,' she said.
We walked over to Grogan's. We took a table, and I went over to the bar to get our drinks. They don't have waiters there. You fetch what you want yourself.
The fellow behind the stick was called Burke. If he had a first name, I'd never heard it. Without moving his lips he said, 'If you're looking for the big fella, he was just here. I couldn't say if he'll be back or not.'
I brought two glasses of club soda back to the table. While we nursed them I told her a couple of stories about Mick Ballou. The most colorful one involved a man named Paddy Farrelly, who'd done something to arouse Ballou's ire. Then one night Ballou went in and out of every Irish saloon on theWest Side . He was carrying a bowling bag, so they said, and he kept opening it to show off Paddy Farrelly's disembodied head.
