gun. His right fist stopped moving in a circle.
I said, 'Sort of embarrassing, huh?'
He let his fist drop to his side. 'Now what?' he said.
'I don't feel like shooting you,' I said. 'I don't feel like taking your brass knuckles away and knocking you down and kicking out the rest of your teeth. All I want is to leave you in peace and good health and go see the people that Ginger Buckey left you for.'
'I'll get in trouble,' he said.
'They won't know,' I said.
'How do I know you won't tell them?'
'Because I said I wouldn't.'
'And if I don't tell you?'
'I blow the whistle on this place so loud that the people you're bribing won't be able to help, and the ownership will get in trouble and be mad as hell at you.'
'For crissake, man, she was already a pro when we got her.'
'She was fourteen,' I said. 'White slavery, babe. Film at eleven.'
'I passed her on to a guy from Boston,' he said.
'Who?'
'Guy named Art Floyd.'
'And what did he do with her?' I was still holding the gun in a sort of random way, not exactly pointing but not really hanging at my side either.
'How the fuck do I know, man. Probably put her in a house up there. You think we had a long talk about it?'
'Did Ginger want to go?'
The tall guy laughed. 'Something else we didn't have a long talk about.'
'Finder's fee,' I said.
'Sure,' he said. 'She's product, man. You know? You raise cattle, you give the cows away?'
'So you sold her to a guy from Boston named Art Floyd.'
'Yeah.'
'Okay,' I said. 'I'll see if I can locate Art. If I can't I'll come back.'
'Hey, man, he said he was from Boston. What can I tell you?'
I nodded. 'Give me your gun,' I said. I leveled my gun as he took his knuckles off and put them in his pocket again and took a Browning automatic out of his shoulder holster and handed it to me.
'Cost me $475,' he said.
'I'll give it to you outside,' I said. 'I just don't want you shooting me while I walk away.'
'I wouldn't backshoot you, man.'
'Course you wouldn't,' I said, and went out of the room and through the reception area. The tall guy followed me. The threat of him was gone. He wanted his gun back. I got in my car and opened the window. I took the clip out of the gun and checked the action once to make sure there was nothing in the chamber. I thumbed the bullets out of the clip. Put the clip back in the gun and handed it to him.
'You gonna keep the bullets?' he said.
'Oh, hell,' I said, and put my hand out. He cupped his hand and I let the bullets fall into it.
'You won't tell Floyd, will you?' he said.
'No,' I said, 'I won't.'
16
The only Arthur Floyd in the Boston phone book was a retired pediatrician. It didn't prove he wasn't a whorehouse recruiter, but it cut down on the probability enough for me to look elsewhere.
I called a vice squad cop named McNeeley. He had never heard of Arthur Floyd. It was possible that the cowboy in Portland had been jiving me, but I didn't think so. He had been so worried about getting his gun back that he'd have told on his mother.
Just because Arthur Floyd wasn't in the Boston phone book didn't mean he wasn't around. He might be in the Worcester phone book, or Lynn, or Fall River. Or Tucson or Detroit. I had a lot of options. If I went through every phone book for every city in the country, I'd be sure to find him. Unless he had an unpublished number. Or had moved to Toronto. I could open my office window and shout down at the people going by on Berkeley Street, and ask them if they knew anyone named Arthur Floyd. Maybe I should just ask for Floyd, since Art might be a nickname. On the other hand Floyd might be an alias. Maybe I should just yell down and ask if they knew anyone. Or maybe I should go work out.
I chose the last course and went down to the Harbor Health Club. When I had begun working out there, the Harbor Health Club had been appropriate to the waterfront. As the waterfront went upscale so did the Harbor Health Club. Only Henry Cimoli's influence kept the boxing room from being turned into a boutique. There was one
