'State cops know about this?' I said.
'Healy's on his way,' Quirk said. 'You want to wait for him, make one statement instead of two?'
'Yes.
'Anything I need to know right now?'
'Miller's involved in the case that you got Belson and Farrell assigned to in Cambridge… captain.' Quirk's face had no expression. He was as big as I was, and thick. He was hatless, his dense black hair cut short and brushed back.
'I'm really something now,' he said.
Across the floor the elevator doors opened and Healy got out. He had on a trenchcoat and a soft hat. He pulled the hat on harder and put his collar up as the wind swirled past him. He was alone. When he got to the crime scene he said, 'Hello, Martin.'
Quirk said hello. Healy nodded at me and looked down at Miller's body.
'Tommy Miller,' he said. 'Been in a fight.'
'With me,' I said.
Healy studied me for a minute.
'Looks like you won,' he said. He looked at Quirk. 'I got a couple of my crime scene people coming by. You got any problem with that?'
'None,' Quirk said. 'I'm about to gossip a little with Philo Vance, here. You want to join us?'
'Yeah,' Healy said. 'Let's get off this roof.'
'We'll go over to the Market,' Quirk said. 'Get some breakfast.'
Chapter 33
MOST OF THE traffic in the Quincy Market Building was ambulatory. People going to work, picking up coffee on the way. We got one of the little tables at the east end of the Market and a waitress gave us coffee while we studied the menu.
When we had ordered, Quirk said, 'Spenser thinks this is part of something he's working on.'
'You think this has something to do with the Alves case?' Healy said.
'Yeah.'
'You know the Alves case, Martin?' Healy said.
'No.'
'Why don't you tell Martin about the Alves case and then go ahead and tell both of us what you know,' Healy said.
So I did, sticking to what I knew and not theorizing, while eggs and ham and toast and coffee were brought and eaten and the table was cleared and more coffee was poured. No one asked us to move when we were finished. Neither Quirk nor Healy showed a badge, but there was something about them that people recognized. We were welcome all day if we wished.
While I talked, neither Quirk nor Healy spoke, or even moved except to drink coffee. I could feel the weight of their concentration. When I was through, they were both quiet, thinking about what I'd told them.
'And you didn't shoot him?' Healy said.
'You know he didn't shoot him,' Quirk said.
Healy nodded sadly.
'Yeah, I know,' he said. 'I knew it when I asked the question.'
'Okay, we got the same facts you do. You want to theorize with us?'
'Sure,' I said.
'You figure Miller put Parisi on you,' Quirk said.
'Yeah. He'd know guys like Parisi, and he'd have leverage to make Parisi do him a favor.'
'And he showed up right after Parisi got collared,' Healy said.
'Why'd he do it?' Quirk said.
'Miller? I figure he talked with the kid, at the time of the murder…'
'Stapleton,' Quirk said.
'Yeah, and the kid mentioned that his pro tennis career would be adversely affected if he got hauled in and questioned about his girlfriend's murder.'
'And?' Healy said.
'And he may have mentioned to Miller that his dad had around two hundred gazillion dollars.'
'So they made a deal?'
'Yeah.'
