'So what happened to Rowley?' I said.
'Why you think something happened to Rowley?' Beetle Brow said.
'Just a crazy guess,' I said.
Freckles said, 'Tell us your story, Mr. Spenser.' I shook my head.
'Not yet,' I said.
'We could slap the cuffs on you right now,' Beetle Brow said. 'Talk to you at the station.'
'Am I under arrest?' I said.
'Not yet.'
'Then I decline to go.'
'You refusing a lawful order, pal?' I looked at Freckles.
'What is this,' I said. 'Good cop, stupid cop? I'm not going to tell anybody anything until I have some idea why I'm being asked.'
Freckles nodded.
'Freddie,' he said. 'Whyn't you check around the perimeter of the building, see if there's anything might be useful.'
'He call me stupid?' Freddie said.
'No, no,' Freckles said. 'He was talking about me.' Freddie nodded slowly and gave me a tough look so I wouldn't think I could get away with anything. Then he took a big Mag flashlight from the cruiser and went around the corner of the building.
'According to the call we got,' Freckles said, 'there's a dead guy on the seventh floor, suspicious circumstances, and you were at the front door asking about him.'
'Suspicious circumstances,' I said.
Freckles shrugged.
'Our dispatcher talks like that,' he said. 'You now know what I know. Why were you looking for him.'
'I was tailing him for a client,' I said. 'When he didn't come out, I called his office. When he didn't answer, I wondered and went to the door. Security guard went to check, and that's what I know.'
'Who's the client?' I shook my head. 'You got no privilege here,' Freckles said.
'I am an agent of the client's attorney,' I said. 'His privilege might extend to me.'
'I doubt it,' Freckles said. 'But I'm still in my first year of law school.'
'Might work,' I said.
'Maybe,' Freckles said.
A s we were talking another dark Crown Vic pulled into the parking lot. It had the blue plates that Massachusetts puts on official cars.
'Here they are,' Freckles said. 'State cops.' The car door opened and Healy got out.
I said, 'Evening, Captain.'
He looked at me for a moment. 'Oh shit,' he said.
'Oh shit?'
'Yeah. You're in this.'
'So?'
'So that means it'll be a fucking mess.'
'I thought you'd welcome my help,' I said.
'Like a case of clap,' Healy said.
'That's cold,' I said.
'It is,' Healy said and walked on past me toward the Kinergy Building.
'You know the captain,' Freckles said.
'I do,' I said. 'We're tight.'
'I could see that,' Freckles said.
11
I t was 5:30 in the morning. Healy and I were drinking coffee out of thick white mugs at the counter of a small diner on Route 20. I felt the way you feel when you've been up all night and drunk too much coffee. If I still smoked, I would have drunk too much coffee and smoked too many cigarettes and felt worse. It wasn't much in the way of consolation. But one makes do.
'Good aim?' I said.
