She smoked the joint all the way down, chattering about her life between drags, finally stubbing the tiny roach and setting it aside for later. Her manner didn't change visibly for having smoked the thing.
Perhaps she'd been smoking throughout the day and had been stoned when I arrived. Perhaps she just didn't show the effects of the drug, as some drinkers don't show their drinks.
I asked if Chance smoked when he came to see her and she laughed at the idea. 'He never drinks, never smokes. Same as you. Hey, is that where you know him from? Do you both hang out in a nonbar together? Or maybe you both have the same undealer.'
I managed to get the conversation back to Kim. If Chance didn't care for Kim, did Fran think she might have been seeing someone else?'
'He didn't care for her,' she said. 'You know something? I'm the only one he loves.'
I could taste the grass in her speech now. Her voice was the same, but her mind made different connections, switching along paths of smoke.
'Do you think Kim had a boyfriend?'
'I have boyfriends. Kim had tricks. All of the others have tricks.'
'If Kim had someone special—'
'Sure, I can dig it. Somebody who wasn't a john, and that's why she wanted to split with Chance. That what you mean?'
'It's possible.'
'And then he killed her.'
'Chance?'
'Are you crazy? Chance never cared enough about her to kill her.
You know how long it'd take to replace her? Shit.'
'You mean the boyfriend killed her.'
'Sure.'
'Why?'
' 'Cause he's on the spot. She leaves Chance, there she is, all ready for happily ever after, and what does he want with that? I mean he's got a wife, he's got a job, he's got a family, he's got a house in Scarsdale—'
'How do you know all this?'
She sighed. 'I'm just speedballing, baby. I'm just throwing chalk at the blackboard. Can you dig it? He's a married guy, he digs Kim, it's kicky being in love with a hooker and having her in love with you, and that way you get it for free, but you don't want anybody turning your life around. She says, Hey, I'm free now, time to ditch your wife and we'll run into the sunset, and the sunset's something he watches from the terrace at the country club and he wants to keep it that way. Next thing you know, zip, she's dead and he's back in Larchmont.'
'It was Scarsdale a minute ago.'
'Whatever.'
'Who would he be, Fran?'
'The boyfriend? I don't know. Anybody.'
'A john?'
'You don't fall in love with a john.'
'Where would she meet a guy? And what kind of guy would she meet?'
She struggled with the notion, shrugged and gave up. The conversation never got any further than that. I used her phone, talked for a moment, then wrote my name and number on a pad next to the phone.
'In case you think of anything,' I said.
'I'll call you if I do. You going? You sure you don't want another soda?'
'No thanks.'
'Well,' she said. She came over to me, stifled a lazy yawn with the back of her hand, looked up at me through the long lashes. 'Hey, I'm really glad you could come over,' she said. 'Anytime you feel like company, you know, give me a call, okay? Just to hang out and talk.'
'Sure.'
'I'd like that,' she said softly, coming up onto her toes, planting an astonishing kiss on my cheek. 'I'd really like that, Matt,' she said.
Halfway down the stairs I started laughing. How automatically she'd slipped into her whore's manner, warm and earnest at parting, and how good she was at it. No wonder those stockbrokers didn't mind climbing all those stairs. No wonder they turned out to watch her try to be an actress. The hell, she was an actress, and not a bad one, either.
Two blocks away I could still feel the imprint of her kiss on my cheek.
Chapter 16
Donna Campion's apartment was on the tenth floor of the white brick building on East Seventeenth Street. The
