'The hell it is. You got no right to hold out.'
'I'm not.'
'Well, what do you call it, then?'
I took a breath. I said, 'I think I've said as much as I have to. I have no special knowledge of either homicide, Gotteskind or Alvarez. I read the one's file and you told me about the other and that's the extent of my knowledge.'
'What made you read the file in the first place?'
'A newspaper story a year ago, and I called you on the basis of another newspaper story. That's it.'
'You got some client you're covering for.'
'If I've got a client, he's certainly not for perpetrator, and I can't see how he's anything but my own business. Wouldn't you rather compare the two cases yourself and see if that gives you a wedge into them?'
'Yeah, of course I'm gonna do that, but I wish I knew your angle.'
'It's not important.'
'I could tell you to come in. Or have you picked up, if you'd rather play it that way.'
'You could,' I agreed. 'But you wouldn't get a damn thing more than I already told you. You could cost me some time, but you'd be wasting time of your own.'
'You got your fucking nerve, I'll say that for you.'
'Hey, come on,' I said. 'You've got something now that you didn't before I called. If you want to cop a resentment I suppose you can hang on to one, but what's the point?'
'What am I supposed to say, thank you?' It wouldn't hurt, I thought, but kept the thought to myself.
'The hell with it,' he said. 'But I think you'd better let me have your address and phone, just in case I need to get in touch with you.'
The mistake had been in letting him have my name. I could find out if he was enough of a detective to look me up in the Manhattan book, but why? I gave him my address and phone and told him I was sorry I wasn't able to answer all his questions, but I had certain responsibilities to a client of mine. 'That would have pissed me off when I was on the job,' I said, 'so I can understand why it would have the same effect on you. But I have to do what I have to do.'
'Yeah, that's a line I've heard before. Well, maybe it's the same people in both cases, and maybe something'll break if we put 'em side by side. That'd be nice.'
That was as close to 'thank you' as we were going to get, and I was happy to settle for it. I said it would be very nice, and wished him luck. I asked to be remembered to his father.
Chapter 10
That night I went to a meeting and Elaine attended her class, and afterward we both took cabs and met at Mother Goose and listened to the music. Danny Boy turned up around eleven-thirty and joined us. He had a girl with him, very tall, very thin, very black and very strange. He introduced her as Kali. She acknowledged the introductions with a nod but didn't say a word or appear to hear anything anyone else said for a good half hour, at which point she leaned forward, stared hard at Elaine, and said, 'Your aura is teal blue and very pure, very beautiful.'
'Thank you,' Elaine said.
'You have a very old soul,' Kali said, and that was the last thing she said, and the last sign she gave that she was aware of our presence.
Danny Boy didn't have anything much to report, and we mostly just enjoyed the music, chatting about nothing important between sets. It was fairly late when we left. In the cab to her place I said, 'You have a very old soul and a teal-blue aura and a cute little ass.'
'She's very perceptive,' Elaine said. 'Most people don't notice my teal-blue aura until the second or third meeting.'
'Not to mention your old soul.'
'Actually, it would be a good idea not to mention my old soul. You can say what you want about my cute little ass. Where does he find them?'
'I don't know.'
'If they were all stock bimbettes from Central Casting it would be one thing, but his girls don't run to type. This one, Kali— what do you figure she was on?'
'No idea.'
'Because she certainly seemed to be traveling in another realm. Do people still use psychedelics? She was probably on magic mushrooms, or some hallucinogenic fungus that grows only on decaying leather.
I'll tell you one thing, she could make good money as a dominatrix.'
'Not if her leather's decaying. And not unless she could keep her mind on her work.'
'You know what I mean. She's got the looks for it, and the presence. Can't you see yourself groveling at her feet and loving every minute of it?'
'No.'
'Well, you,' she said. 'The Marquis de Suave himself. Remember the time I tied you up?'
