buried in her pockets and stood a foot away.
The cab dropped us off at Linda's condo. I got out with her. She said, 'I can go up all right alone. You better keep the cab.'
'No,' I said. 'I want to see that you get home safely.'
She shrugged and we went in. I stood beside her when she unlocked the door. She switched on the light. No one lurked within.
She put her hand on my chest and kissed me lightly on the mouth.
'Good night,' she said. 'I'm sorry, it's just . . . well, you should understand. I've never . . .'
'I know,' I said. 'I'll call you soon.'
'Yes,' she said. 'I hope . . . I don't know. This was awful.'
'I'm sorry,' I said. 'I'm sorry this part had to spill over. I'm sorry it had to splash on you.'
'It's not your fault,' Linda said. 'But I'm sorry, too, that I had to see it, and to know this part of you.'
'Part of the package,' I said. 'Part of the deal.'
She nodded, her eyes still very wide and the pupils enormous. 'You are a very fine man,' she said. And closed the door.
CHAPTER 34
I got five hours sleep.
The doorbell rang at 7:30 in the morning, a steady ring, like someone had placed his thumb against it and leaned. I put on a bathrobe aNd pressed the buzz-in button for downstairs and opened my door and went to the kitchen. I put the water on to boil and got out the coffee and the coffee maker. I had the coffee measured into the pot when Belson came in my open apartment door. There was another cop with him that I didn't know.
I put three coffee cups on the counter. 'You look really adorable in the fucking robe, Chickie,' Belson said.
'Either of you guys take cream or sugar?'
Belson shook his head. The other cop said, 'Just black.'
Belson said, 'This is Carmine Lizotti.'
I nodded at the cop. He said, 'How ya doing?'
Belson said, 'You wanna guess why we come by this morning?' He looked like he'd been up for some time. His thin face was clean shaven with the faint blue glow of a heavy beard under his tan. He had on a seersucker suit and a straw hat with a wide blue band, and his black loafers gleamed with polish. Lizotti was heavier and a little shorter with a wedge-shaped nose and a prominent chin. He had on a coarse weave summerweight blue blazer with his white shirt collar spread out over the lapels. He smoked a filter-tipped cigarette, holding the filter tip between his teeth when he talked.
'I'm guessing you found a 1980 Subaru hatchback with the left side torn off in the weed yard under Route 93 off City Square in Charlestown. And you checked the registration and found it was mine.'
'Car's totaled,' Lizotti said, his cigarette bobbing up and down in his teeth. 'You oughta be driving an American car anyway.'
'Serves me right,' I said.
I poured the hot water over the coffee and pressed the plunger down on the pot, squeezing the grounds to the bottom.
'French roast,' I said. 'That mean you won't drink it?'
'Subaru wasn't the only thing totaled in there,' Belson said.
I got some cream out of the refrigerator, and a box of sugar out of the cupboard. 'Hope you don't require formal service,' I said.
I put a couple of teaspoons on the counter near the cups.
'I got some whole wheat cinnamon and raisin bagels here,' I said. 'And some all natural cream cheese. No gum or other additives.'
'Sure,' Belson said. 'We'd be fools not to.'
Lizotti said, 'For crissake, Frank, who is this guy, Julia fucking Child?'
'He's elegant, Liz. Everything just so. An elegant guy.'
I put three bagels into the oven to heat, and took a block of cream cheese out of the refrigerator and unwrapped it and put it on a saucer. I got three butter knives out and put them beside the saucer.
'Got to let the coffee steep a little,' I said. 'And nobody likes a cold bagel.'
'We found four fucking stiffs in there,' Lizotti said.
'Three shot with a thirty-eight, one with a shotgun,' I said.
'Probably,' Belson said. 'M.E. hasn't got a report yet.'
I poured coffee into the three cups, and added some cream from the carton and sugar from the box. The box has one of those little metal fold-out pouring spouts. I stirred my coffee and sipped some.
'Water-decaffeinated,' I said. 'Mocha almond. You can get it at Bread and Circus in Cambridge.'
Belson added sugar, no cream. Lizotti ignored his.
