'Most of what he did is where it doesn't show. I let myself get suckered into an alley on the Lower East Side late last night.' I gave him a condensed version, and his dark eyes narrowed as he took it in.
He said, 'So what do you want to charge him with?'
'I don't know. Assault, I suppose. Assault, coercion, menacing. I suppose assault's the most effective charge to bring.'
'Any witnesses to the alleged assault?'
'Alleged?'
'You have any witnesses, Matt?'
'Of course not,' I said. 'We didn't meet in Macy's window, we were in an empty lot on Ridge Street.'
'I thought you said it was an alley.'
'What's the difference? It was a space between two buildings with a fence across it and a gap in the fence. If it was a passage to anything, I suppose you could call it an alley. I didn't get far enough into it to find out where it went.'
'Uh-huh.' He picked up a pencil, looked at it. 'I thought you said Attorney Street before.'
'That's right.'
'Then a minute ago you said Ridge Street.'
'Did I? I met the hooker on Ridge, in a toilet of a place called the Garden Grill. I don't know why they call it that. There's no garden, and I don't think there's a grill, either.' I shook my head at the memory.
'Then she took me around the block to Attorney.'
'She? I thought you said a transsexual.'
'I've learned to use female pronouns for them.'
'Uh-huh.'
'I suppose she's a witness,' I said, 'but it might be a trick to find her, let alone get her to testify.'
'I can see where it might. You get a name?'
'Candy. That would be a street name, of course, and it might have been made up for the occasion. Most of them have a lot of names.'
'Tell me about it.'
'What's the problem, Joe? He assaulted me and I have a bona fide complaint to file.'
'You'd never make it stick.'
'That's not the point. It's enough to get a warrant issued and pull the son of a bitch off the street.'
'Uh-huh.'
'Before he kills somebody else.'
'Uh-huh. What time was it when you got in the alley with him?'
'I met her at midnight, so—'
'Candy, you mean. The transsexual.'
'Right. So it was probably half an hour after that by the time the assault took place.'
'Say twelve-thirty.'
'Roughly.'
'And then you went to a hospital?'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'I didn't think it was necessary. He caused a lot of pain but I knew I didn't have any broken bones and I wasn't bleeding. I figured I'd be better off going straight home.'
'So there's no hospital record.'
'Of course not,' I said. 'I didn't go to a hospital, so how the hell could there be a hospital record?'
'I guess there couldn't.'
'My cabdriver wanted to take me to a hospital,' I said. 'I must have looked as though I belonged there.'
'It's a shame you didn't listen to him. You see what I'm getting at, don't you, Matt? If there was an emergency-room record, it would tend to confirm your story.'
I didn't know what to say to that.
'How about the cabdriver?' he went on. 'I don't suppose you got his hack license number?'
'No.'
'Or his name? Or the number of his cab?'
'It never occurred to me.'
