'Why, Miss Carr?'
'You called me Portia before. Or was that just for shock value?
The peelers always call you by your first name. That's to show their contempt foryou, it's supposed to give them some sort of psychological advantage, isn't it?' She pointed at me with her cigar.'You. You're not a policeman, are you?'
'No.'
'But there's something about you.'
'I used to be a cop.'
'Ah.' She nodded, satisfied. 'And you knew Jerry when you were a policeman?'
'I didn't know him then.'
'But you know him now.'
'That's right.'
'And you're a friend of his? No, that's not possible. Jerry doesn't have friends, does he?'
'Doesn't he?'
'Hardly.You'd know that if you knew him well.'
'I don't know him well.'
'I wonder if anyone does.'Another puff on the cigar, a careful flicking of ash into a sculptured glass ashtray. 'JerryBroadfield has acquaintances.Any number of acquaintances. But I doubt he has a friend in the world.'
'You're certainly not his friend.'
'I never said I was.'
'Why charge him with extortion?'
'Because the charge is true.'She managed a small smile. 'He insisted I give him money. A hundred dollars a week or he would make trouble for me. Prostitutes are vulnerable creatures, you know. And a hundred dollars a week isn't so terribly much when you consider the enormous sums men are willing to pay to go to bed with one.' She gestured with her hands, indicating her body. 'So I paid him,' she said.
'The money he asked for, and I made myself available to him sexually.'
'For how long?'
'About an hour at a time, generally.Why?'
'For how long had you been paying him?'
'Oh, I don't know. About a year, I suppose.'
'And you've been in this country how long?'
'Just over three years.'
'And you don't want to go back, do you?' I got to my feet, walked over to the couch. 'That's probably how they set the hook,' I said. 'Play the game their way or they'll get you deported as an undesirable alien. Is that how they pitched you?'
'What a phrase.An undesirable alien.'
'Is that what they- '
'Most people consider me a highly desirable alien.' The cold eyes challenged me. 'I don't suppose you have an opinion on the subject?'
She was getting to me, and it bothered the hell out of me. I didn't much like her, so why should she be getting to me? I remembered something ElaineMardell had said to the effect that a large portion of Portia Carr's client list consisted of masochists. I have never really understood what gets a masochist off, but a few minutes in her presence was enough to make me realize that a masochist would find this particular woman a perfect component for his fantasies. And, in a somewhat different way, she fit nicely into my own.
We went around and around for a while. She kept insisting thatBroadfield had really been extorting cash from her, and I kept trying to get past that to the person who had induced her to do the job on him.
We weren't getting anywhere- that is, I wasn't getting anywhere, and she didn't have anyplace to get to.
So I said, 'Look, when you come right down to it, it doesn't matter at all. It doesn't matter whether he was getting money from you, and it doesn't matter who got you to press charges against him.'
'Then why are you here, angel?Just for love?'
'What matters is what it'll take to get you to drop the charges.'
'What's the hurry?' She smiled. 'Jerry hasn't even been arrested yet, has he?'
'You're not going to take it all the way to the courtroom,' I went on. 'You'd need proof to get an indictment, and if you had any it would have come out by now. So this is just a smear, but it's an awkward smear for him and he'd like to wipe it up. What does it take to get the charges dropped?'
'Jerry must know that.'
'Oh?'
'All he has to do is stop doing what he's been doing.'
