I told him what I'd learned from Mr. del Rio. Quirk listened, silently nodding occasionally.
'Excellent,' he said. 'You're gonna clean things up in L.A. Just what I was hoping for.'
'It'll lead back to Jumbo,' I said.
Quirk leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. He slowly clasped his hands and raised them to his chin and held the position for a bit. Then he took in a big breath.
'You're making a list,' he said.
'Everybody I've encountered in the, ah, investigation,' I said.
Quirk nodded, and put his hand out.
'I see it?' he said.
I handed him the list, and he looked at it for a while.
'Didn't Jumbo have an agent?' Quirk said.
'Yeah,' I said. 'Alice Something-or-other.'
I reached into my middle drawer and found the card she'd given me.
'DeLauria,' I said. 'Alice DeLauria Inc., offices in Century City. She's not on my list?'
'Nope.'
'You talked to her before?'
'Nope.'
'But you remember her?' I said.
'I do,' Quirk said.
'How come you did and I didn't?' I said.
'Police captain,' Quirk said.
'Of course,' I said.
31
Z AND I WERE on the Boston side of the river, early, running intervals on the floor of Harvard Stadium. A woman in tight black sweats and in-your-face red running shoes was running the stairs of the stadium.
Z was watching her.
'Good ass,' Z said.
'Absolutely is,' I said. 'But before you get in too deep. It belongs to the girl of my dreams.'
'Her?'
'Main squeeze,' I said.
'That's Susan?'
'Uh-huh.'
'Holy Christ!' Z said.
'My sentiments exactly,' I said.
'Sorry,' Z said.
'I often have the same reaction,' I said.
We reached the end zone and turned and sprinted the hundred.
'That's really your girlfriend,' Z said as we turned and started to walk back.
'Amazing, isn't it?'
'Did I hear she's a shrink?'
'Yep.'
'From Harvard?'
'She has a Ph.D. from Harvard,' I said.
'And she's with you?'
'Every chance she gets,' I said.
'Why?' Z said.
'Love makes strange bedfellows,' I said.
When she was through with the stadium stairs, Susan came down and joined us as we ran our last interval. She had no trouble keeping up. When we finished, we went to sit in the sun on the bottom row of stadium seats, and I introduced her to Z.
