'And Miller rigged it for Ellis Alves to take the fall so the pressure would be off the kid,' Healy said.
'My guess,' I said. 'Either he came across Alves in the course of his employment or he looked him up in the case files under Rape.'
'We can look at Miller's finances,' Healy said. 'See if he was involved in a case that Alves was involved in. See if we've got Alves in the Rape files.'
'Then you show up and talk to the kid, Stapleton, and the kid gets scared,' Quirk said. 'And he calls Miller and Miller sends out some sluggers because he thinks you're like a regular person and a few big guys with guinea names can scare you right back to doing divorce tails.'
'Guy I know heard that someone was looking to, ah, coerce me, so I had Hawk with me.'
'Don't seem fair,' Quirk said.
'Seemed fair to me,' I said.
'Okay, I like it pretty good so far. Why'd Miller come after you himself when Parisi was picked up?' Quirk said.
'He was a cop,' I said. 'And a particular kind of cop. He was used to scaring people. He was a big tough guy. He was used to getting things done by slapping people around.'
'Maybe so,' Healy said.
'But I don't see why he comes on like Conan the Barbarian,' Healy said.
'He came in, wanted me to stand up, I declined, and he came for me. I think before he started trying to find out what I knew, he wanted to be sure I wasn't wearing a wire,' I said. 'And things got away from him.'
'Meaning you kicked his ass,' Quirk said.
'In a manner of speaking,' I said modestly.
'Which made scaring you to death sort of problematic,' Healy said.
'Yes.'
'So he didn't get to find out what you knew, and he didn't get you to walk away from the case.'
I shrugged.
'Tommy was a tough guy,' Healy said.
'So who popped him?' Quirk said.
'The Gray Guy?'
'Miller told me it was way above,' I said.
'Above what?'
'Above all of us,' I said.
'You figure the Gray Guy comes from above?' Quirk said.
'He's not somebody you hire out of a pool hall someplace,' I said.
'Kind of guy might use a.22?' Quirk said.
'Looked like a small hole in Miller,' Healy said.
'Yep.'
'Guy uses a.22 is a specialist,' Quirk said. 'Anybody can blow a hole the size of an ashtray in some guy's skull with a.44 Magnum.'
'Guy uses a.22, wants people to know he's a specialist,' Healy said. 'Know how good he is.'
'Use the right load and know where to shoot and you can put one in his head and have it ping-pong around inside the skull,' Quirk said. 'Do more damage than a Mag.'
'How much more damage do you need to do?' Healy said.
The people moving through the marketplace were changing character. The workers in suits and overcoats had given way to the tourists in parkas and warmup jackets. They didn't hurry. They meandered, stopping at food stalls, looking at the food.
Quirk said, 'You think this kid Stapleton did his girlfriend?'
'He's a better bet than Alves,' I said.
'He got the kind of reach that could orchestrate this kind of coverup?' Healy said.
'The Gray Man and all?'
'I doubt it,' I said. 'But his father might.'
'You think he hired the Gray Man?'
'He might have.'
'You think the Gray Man clipped Miller?'
'Yes.'
'You got any evidence for any of it?' Quirk said.
