'And if I swear I wasn't present, you both back me.'
'We do,' I said.
Clark looked at Samuelson.
'Of course, Dennis,' Samuelson said. 'Absolutely.'
Clark nodded and drank his coffee. Samuelson sprinkled some Equal on his cereal and ate a spoonful.
'Why'd you decide to talk with him again?' Samuelson said to me. 'You learned bubkes last time.'
'I got the tacit admission that he knew Emily Gordon,' I said.
'The broad that got killed.'
'Yes.'
'You knew that anyway.'
'Well, yes.'
'You learn anything else?'
'No.'
'So why do you think you'll do better this time?'
'Ever hopeful,' I said.
'Ever a pain in the ass,' Samuelson said.
'I value consistency,' I said.
'Okay,' Samuelson said. 'We'll drive up and see him.' An L.A. police captain and an FBI agent got more respect at Leon's house than Hawk and I had gotten. We were ushered in without even a patdown by the same greeting team that Hawk and I had met. We went into the same ridiculous room, where Leon was waiting for us in the same chair. Today he was wearing a black-and-gold dashiki. He gave us the same preprogrammed stare.
Samuelson introduced himself and said, 'I believe you've met Spenser.'
Leon made one small nod to indicate that he had. It also indicated somehow that he hadn't been impressed.
'And this other gentleman,' Samuelson said, 'is Special Agent Dennis Clark of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.' Samuelson gave 'Federal Bureau of Investigation' a nice dramatic overtone.
'Spenser and I are working in cooperation with the Bureau,' Samuelson said solemnly. 'Yeah?'
'Old case,' Samuelson said. '1974.'
'Yeah.'
'And, well, let's not beat around the bush,' Samuelson said. 'We know you're involved.'
'Involved in what?' Leon said.
'The FBI has informed us that you were involved in a Back Story-bank holdup in Boston in 1974 in which a young woman you were with was killed.'
'Boston?'
'Uh-huh. The woman was Emily Gold, and we know she was your girlfriend. We're not sure you killed her,' Samuelson said, 'but the Bureau thinks you did, and they've asked us to talk with you.'
'The Bureau thinks I killed some broad in Boston?' Leon said.
He was staring at Clark.
'Yep.'
'Show me something, says you're FBI,' Leon said.
Clark showed him a badge. Leon studied it. 'You the one thinks I killed somebody in Boston?' he said to Clark.
Clark shook his head.
'So,' Leon said to Samuelson, 'who the fuck you talking to thinks I killed some broad.'
'From the Boston office,' Samuelson said. 'Special Agent Malone.'
'Malone?'
'Yeah. Evan Malone.'
'You're lying.'
'Cops don't lie, Leon,' Samuelson said. 'You know that.'
'He knows I didn't kill her.'
'We can prove you knew her,' I said.
'Malone knows I didn't do it, the lying motherfucker.'
'How's he know that?' Samuelson said.
