world? Be the king of everything? Sure, if the opportunity presents itself.'
'Are you legally sane?' Pearl asked.
At first she thought he was going to get mad, but he simply laughed again. 'We both know I can't answer that one, so why did you ask it?'
'You, uh, remind me of someone.' She picked up her notebook again and glanced at what she'd jotted down. 'Did you meet either or these women night before last?'
'Sure did.' He gave Pearl the woman's name, which she underlined. 'We spent three hours learning about each other in the Weekly Grind coffee shop, and then we had a late supper and strolled around the city for a while. Till well past midnight, actually.'
'Sounds romantic. You must have hit it off at least somewhat.'
'I thought so. Three lattes' worth, anyway. She even gave me her phone number, but when I called yesterday she said she'd thought about it and didn't want to carry the relationship any further. It was because I'd kicked at a stray cat while we were walking. The thing might have had rabies, for all we knew. She confessed she was a member of PETA. I told her I liked animals and would join PETA myself, but it didn't impress her.'
'Maybe for some reason she thought you were being insincere.'
'But I do like animals. Enough, anyway.'
'Maybe it was the caffeine talking. Do you still have her phone number?'
'I think so, sure.' He walked to where a phone sat on a table near the foyer and flipped the top page of a stack of yellow Post-its. He read a phone number to Pearl. 'You can call and check. She'll verify what I assume is my alibi.'
'I will,' Pearl said, writing down the number
'That's when Lilly Branston was killed, wasn't it? When I was with my C and C friend?'
'That's the time frame,' Pearl said. 'By the way, did you lie about not recognizing Lilly Branston when I showed you her photo?'
'No, no! The photo really didn't ring a bell. Then I did mistake her for some woman whose photo is in the subway stops. But when I heard you say her name, it all came into focus.'
She asked him about his whereabouts at the times of the other Carver murders. He couldn't remember where he was during most of them, but he was out of town at a shareholders' meeting at the time of Joyce House's murder. Witnesses and charge account statements would back him up.
Pearl figured that was probably true or he wouldn't have been so bold about it, but she dutifully wrote down the information to be verified later.
She slipped her notebook back in her small leather purse and stood up. Slung the purse with its strap sideways across the front of her blazer. She thanked Levin for his time and went to the door.
'Maybe you would have gotten along with Lilly Branston,' she said.
Levin gave her a bright smile. 'A woman real estate wolf? You betcha.'
Pearl wondered why she couldn't help having a shred of sympathy for this thoroughly reprehensible human being.
But she knew why, and it had to do with the diamond engagement ring on her finger.
She remembered that Yancy-she and Yancy-lived not far from here.
Levin escorted her to the elevator when she left. A real gentleman. She thought about telling him what a shallow and obvious cad he was but realized that would be unprofessional.
And useless.
He'd been her second interview of C and C clients. Neither interview had been productive.
Late as it was, Pearl decided to call it a day's work and walk the half dozen blocks to Yancy's apartment. She could call the woman who was Levin's alibi from there. Or maybe tomorrow morning she should go interview her in person. Be thorough.
As she descended to lobby level in the elevator, she found herself humming a song from long ago in her life. At first she couldn't place it, and then she did:
'Love Is Strange.'
Pearl had dropped by the office to work up her report on her interviews when Fedderman came in exhausted and gleaming with sweat.
'You look like you've been sprayed with WD-40,' Pearl said.
'It's damned hot out there.'
'Have any luck?'
'Naw! I drew a lover boy named Gerald Lone. Only I followed every avenue and there is no Gerald Lone. Well, I take that back. There's one in Queens who's ninety-three years old. Not our man. It's a dead-end search for a guy using a made-up name and address so he can make out.'
'You shoulda been able to get to him some way.'
'I tried every way. He used an Internet cafe or library computer to register his alias on C and C. Then they did the rest for him, secure as the CIA. He's covered his tech tracks like a terrorist hacker. He might as well not exist.'
'To the law, maybe.'
'More likely to his wife, when he's out being whoever he's pretending to be to get in somebody's knickers.'
'Knickers?'
'Yeah. They're catching on again, I hear.'
'Only with you, Feds. And whatever it is you're dating.' Pearl finished her word processing and shut down her computer. She could print tomorrow. 'Speaking of long shots, what do you think of this computerized dragnet?'
'I think it doesn't work, because the computer nerds at C and C are smarter than the ones at the NYPD.'
Pearl nodded. 'Love will find a way.'
Quinn took his yellow legal pad to study after eating an early and light dinner at the Lotus Diner. He ordered a second cup of coffee. He wanted to smoke a cigar but didn't. The other diners might turn on him.
He was reading where he'd left off on the pad: Shadow woman appears again at crime scene.
As he was about to put pencil to pad, Thel arrived to top off his coffee. She squinted down at the pad as she poured.
'What's that? You writing a book?'
'Sort of,' Quinn said.
'Either you are or you ain't,' Thel said.
'Who said that? Plato?'
'Plato's our Greek salad, right at the top of the menu.'
The coffee ran over, and Quinn had to move the pad fast to keep it dry.
'Sorry,' Thel said. 'I was philosophizing.'
Quinn hadn't had any dessert. 'Are there any doughnuts left from this morning?'
'Sort of,' Thel said, and retreated with the glass coffeepot.
Quinn returned his attention to his legal pad, figuring either he'd get a doughnut or he wouldn't.
He wrote: Pearl engaged to Yancy B.
Then he crossed that out. It had nothing to do with the investigation.
He took a sip of coffee and resumed writing with his stubby yellow pencil: Lilly Branston's body found. Carver's M.O. Witness-Stephen Elsinger. Telescope. Shadow Woman caught. Lisa Bolt. Coma. One Chrissie accounted for. Geraldine Knott, Addie Price, same person. C amp; C site found on Branston's flash drive. Comp. nerd's software program, seven names.
Thel reappeared and placed a plate containing a damaged cake doughnut in front of Quinn.
'Last one,' she said.
'It looks as if mice have been at it.'
'They know what's good,' Thel said. 'You want a warm-up on your coffee?'
