“His house,” she said.
“Miss Belknap—”
“I was thinking it’s the same thing, really. Either you’re out or you’re home, and we were home. It’s like my home too, anyway.”
“Why is that?”
She saw what was happening, but she couldn’t stop being defensive. “I don’t know. He’s my boyfriend. We were in Hollywood. It was easier to go right up Vermont instead of driving all the way down here.”
“You sleep there often, don’t you?”
“Well, we’re practically engaged.”
“When’s the wedding?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Has he asked you?”
“Not yet.”
“So you’re not almost engaged. You just go to this man’s house to sleep with him.”
“He’s my boyfriend. It’s not as if—”
“Was he your boyfriend when we interviewed you the first time?”
“Well, no. I guess not.”
“That was less than a month ago.”
“What? Is there a timetable for these things?”
“That’s what I was wondering. Isn’t there?”
“Why are you being mean to me?”
Jerry studied her with detachment. “I’m sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, Miss Belknap. But there are questions that need to be answered. If you’d like, when we get to the station we can have other detectives interview you.”
“No,” she said. “No. That’s not necessary. I don’t need to go there. I wasn’t involved in a robbery and don’t know anything about one. A month ago you asked me if anybody new was throwing cash around, and I gave you the name of one guy like that, and then forgot about the whole thing.”
“You tipped us off to Joe Carver.”
“I wasn’t saying he was a robber. I don’t know him, really, and I haven’t laid eyes on him since. There might be ten thousand guys like him in L.A., and any one of them could be—”
“You named Joe Carver, and we’ve had it confirmed by other sources. Out of all those ten thousand guys, you picked the right one. Coincidence? Lucky guess?”
“Of course it is. Now please, take me back to the lot. My boss will be getting upset.” She was very sorry she had told them to get on the freeway. They were moving along at seventy-five, and she had the sensation that they were taking her farther and farther from safety.
“Let’s be honest and open with each other, Miss Belknap. We have a repeat armed robbery suspect who struck again last night, and left a victim shot. He’s stepped over the line. From now on anybody who comes into contact with him is in immediate danger. He’s got to be hunted down fast. You’re our best link to him. If you were us, what would you be saying? What would you ask Sandy Belknap to do?”
“Oh, no,” she said. “That’s not fair.”
“What isn’t fair?”
“You can’t expect me to be the bait for you to catch Joe Carver.”
“There’s an evil man out there who robs people. He’s going to kill his next victim. And here you are, our best witness. Aren’t you inclined to help?”
“I already did, and that’s what got me here.”
“When he kills somebody this week, how will you feel?”
“As though it’s none of my business.”
“It is your business, more than anybody else’s.”
“Didn’t I say I can’t do what you want? Wasn’t that me?”
Jerry Gaffney sighed wearily and looked at Jimmy in the rearview mirror. “You want to tell her?”
Jimmy said, “I guess I should.” He turned to Sandy. “The reason people decide to become a snitch or wear a wire is usually to get a lighter sentence themselves. Or sometimes if they give us somebody, they’re not charged at all.”
“A wire? Oh my God!”
“Don’t worry. We’re not asking you to do that.”
“But you’re implying that if I don’t help you, I’ll be charged with bank robbery.”
“Well, not only that. It was the woman who actually shot the victim. And unfortunately banks are insured by the FDIC. There’s no parole and no time off for good behavior with federal felonies. You’d be in prison until menopause is a dim memory.”
Sandy Belknap was trying to manage her face, to keep it calm and at least minimally smooth, but it kept betraying her. Her lower lip was beginning to quiver, her forehead wrinkling badly before she noticed it, and then her eyes began to overflow with tears. “What do I have to do?”
“We need a way of putting our hands on Joe Carver,” said Jimmy. “You need to devise a plan to do that. We’ll protect you and help you carry out your plan, and then we’ll take Carver away.”
“I don’t know how to do this.” She had her face in her hands this time, crying.
Jerry rolled his eyes at Jimmy in the mirror. “I’ll tell you where I’d start. First I’d tell everybody I know that I had a thing for Joe Carver—that I only met him a couple of times, but couldn’t stop thinking about him. I’d be especially sure to tell your girlfriends who go to clubs. Make it a real story—that it’s the craziest thing, but you’ve been dreaming about him and you really need to see him in real life, if only to get him out of your mind.”
“But what if he doesn’t remember me? Or if my wanting to see him isn’t good enough?”
“Think of something else.”
“But I don’t know anything about him.”
Jimmy looked sad. “I know you think my partner has been mean to you, and that he’s a heartless jerk. The truth is that he’s been the one to go to bat for you the most. He and I have a theory that you had nothing to do with this, but it’s just a theory. Our boss, the lieutenant, thinks you suckered us the first time we met you, and that you’re guilty. He sent us to arrest you. It was my partner who fought hardest to give you a chance.”
She half-turned and reached up to the seat back to put her hand on Jimmy’s forearm. “Thank you so much.”
“I’m not eager to put another innocent woman in prison.”
Her mind seemed to be dodging in different directions. “What about Paul?”
“Who’s Paul?”
“My boyfriend. Can I tell him what’s up, so when I say I have a crush on Joe Carver, he’ll know I don’t mean it?”
Jimmy said, “If anything goes wrong, if somebody blows the story and you don’t attract Carver, then there are people who will say you had your chance to cooperate, but didn’t. Then you’ve got to think about what happens if Carver—a killer in the making—shows up at your apartment and sees you’ve got a boyfriend with you. What does he do? Does he get jealous? Does he decide you must have been lying about being interested in him, so you must have set him up?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then maybe you ought to make sure your boyfriend’s out of the way until this is over and Carver is locked up.”
She nodded. “I’ll just explain it to him.”
“I’m afraid we’ll have to ask you not to let anybody in on this. It’s an undercover operation to get a shooter off the street. Telling anyone is a crime in itself. The lieutenant would put you away in a second and keep you locked up without bail until no officer could be put in jeopardy.”
Jimmy said, “My brother—my brother officer will be the one to stick close to you until this is all over and we’ve got Carver.”
“Oh, thank you,” she said. “I just couldn’t face this alone.”
“It’s the job. Let’s get this car back to the lot,” Jerry said. “I’d like to have you ask your boss for a few days
