'I'd just as soon call it a bluff. I'm not sure I'd care to play poker with you, Mr. Scudder. Yes, she called me- I might as well admit it since it's fairly obvious. And I told her to insist that the charge was true, although I knew it wasn't. But I didn't put her up to making the charge in the first place.'
'Then who did?'
'Some policemen.I don't know their names, and I'm not inclined to think Miss Carr did. She said she didn't, and it's likely she'd have been open with me on that subject. You see, she hadn't wanted to press those charges. If there was a chance I could have gotten her off that hook, she'd have done what she could.' He smiled. 'You may think I had reason to cast a pall on Mr.Prejanian's investigation. While I'm not saddened by the spectacle of that man with egg on his face, I'd never have taken the trouble to put it there. Certain policemen, however, had a much stronger motive for sabotaging that inquiry.'
'What did they have on Carr?'
'I don't know. Prostitutes are always vulnerable, of course, but- '
'Yes?'
'Oh, this is just intuitive on my part. I had the impression that they were threatening her not with the law but with some extralegal punishment. I believe she was physically afraid of them.'
I nodded. That checked out with the vibrations I'd picked up at my own meeting with Portia Carr. She hadn't acted like someone afraid of deportation or arrest, but like someone worried about being beaten up or killed. Someone worried because it was October and she was waiting for winter.
Chapter 10
Elaine lived just three blocks from where Portia Carr had lived.
Her building was on Fifty-first between First and Second. The doorman checked me on the intercom and motioned me on through. By the time the elevator got me to the ninth floor, Elaine was waiting in her open doorway.
I decided she looked a lot better thanPrejanian's secretary. I suppose she's around thirty by now. She has always looked younger than her years and she has a face full of good bones that will age well. Her softness contrasted dramatically with the stark, modern feel of her apartment. She had the place carpeted in white shag, and the furniture was all angles and geometric planes and primary colors. I don't ordinarily like rooms done that way, but somehow her place worked for me. She'd told me once that she had done her own decorating.
We kissed each other like the old friends we were. Then she gripped my elbows and leaned backward.
'Secret AgentMardell reporting,' she said. 'I'm not to be taken lightly, man. This camera of mine just looks like a camera. It's actually a tie clip.'
'I think that's backward.'
'Well, I certainly hope so.' She turned, flounced away. 'Actually I haven't found out a hell of a lot.
You want to know what prominent people were in her book, is that right?'
'Especially if they're politically prominent.'
'That's what I meant. Everybody I asked kept coming up with the same three or four names.Actors, a couple of musicians. Honestly, some call girls are as bad as groupies.Boasting like any other celebrity-fuckers.'
'You're the second person today to tell me call girls don't keep everything confidential.'
'Ha! Your average hooker isn't exactly Stella Stable, Matt. Of course I'm the winner of the Miss Mental Health contest.'
'Absolutely.'
'If she didn't mention what politicians were in her book, it's probably because she wasn't that proud of them. If she'd been fucking the governor or aU.S. senator, people would have heard about it, but if it's somebody local, who cares? What's the matter?'
'Politicians would probably be sad to learn that they're not so important.'
'They'd positively shit, wouldn't they?' She lit a cigarette. 'What you ought to have is her john book.
Even if she had the brains to code it, you'd have the phone numbers and you can work backward from there.'
'Is yours in code?'
'The names and the numbers, sugar.' She smiled triumphantly.
'Anybody who steals my book steals trash, just like Othello's purse. But that's because I'm Brenda Brilliant. Could you get your hands on Portia's book?'
I shook my head. 'I'm sure the cops have tossed her place. And if she had a book, they found it- and tossed it.In the river. They don't want any loose ends that might giveBroadfield's lawyer an opening.
They want him drawn and quartered, and the only way they'd leave her book around is ifBroadfield's name was the only one in it.'
'Who do you figure killed her, Matt? Some cops?'
'People keep suggesting it.Mabye I've been off the force too long.
I have trouble believing that police officers would actually murder some innocent hooker just to frame someone else.'
She opened her mouth,then closed it.
