'All right. I'll haul them over to my place…'
Lily was sitting in a living room chair, her high heels in the middle of the carpet, her bare feet up on a hassock. The hassock was covered with a brocaded throw that seemed to Lucas to be vaguely Russian, or Old World. She was sipping a Diet Coke, tired smudges under her eyes.
'Sit down. You sounded tense,' she said. 'What happened?' Her head was back, her dark hair a perfect frame around her pale oval face.
'Nothing happened, not today, anyway. I just need to talk to you,' he said. He perched on the edge of her other overstuffed chair. 'I need to know about you and Walter Petty-your relationship.'
She leaned farther back in the chair, wiggled once to settle in, laid her head back, and closed her eyes. 'Can I ask why you need to know?'
'Not yet.'
She opened her eyes and looked at him carefully and said, 'Robin Hood?'
'I'm not sure. What about Petty?'
'Walt and I went back as far as you can go,' Lily said, her eyes unfocusing. 'We were born on the same block in Brooklyn, sort of middle-class brownstones. I was exactly one month older, to the day. June first and July first. His mother and mine were friends, so I suppose I first laid eyes on him when I was five or six weeks old. We grew up together. Went to kindergarten together. We were both in the smart group. Someplace along the way, sixth or seventh grade, he got interested in math and science and ham radio in that geeky way boys do, and I got interested in social things. After that we didn't talk so much.'
'Still friends, though…'
She nodded. 'Sure. I'd talk to him when I saw him around the block, but not at school. He was in love with me for most of his life. And I guess I loved him, you know, but not sexually. Like a handicapped brother, or something.'
'Handicapped?'
She carefully set the glass on the table and said, 'Yeah, he was socially handicapped. Walked around with a slide rule on his belt, his table manners went from bad to worse, he got weird around girls. You know the type. Sort of ineffectual, nonphysical. Really nice, though. Eager… too eager.'
'Yeah. A dork. A nerd. The kind of kid that gets shredded by girls.'
'Yes. Exactly. The kind that gets shredded,' she said. 'But we were friends… And whenever I needed something done-you know, get an apartment painted, or help fixing something-I could call him up and he'd drop everything and be there. I took him for granted. He was always there, and I assumed he always would be.'
'Why'd he become a cop?'
' 'Cause he could. It was a job you could get with a test and with family connections. He was brilliant on tests and had the connections.'
'Was he a good cop?'
'He was terrible in uniform,' she said. 'He didn't have that… that… cold spot. Or hot spot. Or whatever it is. He couldn't get on top of people-you ought to know about that.'
'Yeah.' Lucas grinned. 'I don't know if it's hot or cold, though. Anyway, Petty…'
'So he was terrible on the street and they moved him inside. He was working guard details and so on. Then they tried him on dope. And Jesus, he was something else. I mean nobody, nobody would believe he was a cop. He'd make a buy and the backup would drop on the dealer, and they still wouldn't believe it. This dork couldn't be an undercover cop. Sometimes even the judges didn't believe it. Anyway, that's about the first job he ever did really well at; he was a bit of an actor. Then he got interested in investigation, in crime-scene processing. He was good at that, too. The best. He'd go into a crime scene and he'd see everything. And he could put it together, too. Then computers came along, and he was great with computers.' She laughed, remembering. 'Suddenly, the guy who fucked up everything, the nerd as big as the moon, was a hot item. And he was still good old Walt. When you needed your apartment painted, there he was. He had this great open smile, completely… geeky, but honest. When he looked happy to see you, he was happy to see you; he'd just light up. And if he got angry, he'd go off and start yelling, and then he'd maybe start crying or something; or you thought he would…'
Lily's lip was trembling, and she dropped her feet off the hassock and dropped her head.
'How'd he get the job looking for Robin Hood?'
'He knew computers and he'd worked with O'Dell, and we swung it for him. He could help us, and it was a chance for him to break out. And maybe I had something to do with it-he'd be working with me. Like I said…'
'Yeah. I know exactly what you mean.'
'Sounds like arrogance, or vanity.'
Lucas shook his head. 'Not really. Just life… You think he got close to Robin Hood?'
'He must have. Jesus, when he was killed, I couldn't stop crying for a week. I really… I don't know. There was no sexual impulse at all, but when I thought of him over all those years, that puppy-dog quality, that he loved me… It was like… I don't know. I loved him. That's what it came to.'
'Huh.' He was watching her, his elbow on the arm of the chair, one finger at his chin.
'So what's this all about?' she asked. The weariness had slipped from her voice, and she looked up, intent.
'You and O'Dell are running me as some kind of lure,' Lucas said. 'You're dragging me out in front of whoever your targets are. I need to know who you think they are.'
After a long moment of silence, she said, 'Fell. As far as I know, that's it.'
'Bullshit.'
'It's not bullshit,' she said. 'She's all we've got.'
'That can't be right.'
'It is.'
'You know everything that O'Dell is doing?'
'Well, yes, I mean I schedule for him… I suppose he could run something on the side…'
There was another moment of silence, then Lucas said, 'I'm afraid you're betraying me.'
She was offended, angry. 'God damn it.'
'I know you are-or somebody is. O'Dell for sure, and you're with O'Dell…'
'Tell me about it,' she said, sitting back again.
Lucas looked her over and said, 'First of all, Fell's not involved.'
'Why not?'
'I just know, and I'm not wrong,' Lucas said.
'Lucas, instincts or no instincts, the goddamn records aren't lying about this,' Lily said. 'She's all over the place.'
'I know. She's an alarm.'
'What?'
'She's a trip wire,' Lucas said. 'Working the jobs she has, in Burglary, and as a decoy, she knows half the assholes in Midtown. So Robin Hood used her as a reference and picked on assholes that she knew. Then they watched her. If anybody got close, they'd get close to her first…'
'I don't know.' Lily was shaking her head. She didn't believe it.
'It'd have to be a tough sonofabitch to set that up,' Lucas continued. 'As soon as you pulled her off her regular job and put me next to her, the alarm went off. Petty's been killed, the official investigation seems to be dead in the water-and here comes Lily Rothenburg and the department's Svengali, towing me along behind. And you stick me next to Fell. They never bought the Bekker thing: they've been reading us like a book.'
'Who?'
Lucas hesitated. 'I'm tempted to say Kennett.'
'Bullshit.' Lily shook her head. 'I'd know. In fact, I asked him. He doesn't even think there is such a group.'
'But we know there is. And I'm still tempted to say Kennett. O'Dell put me right up against Fell and he put me right up against Kennett. It's possible that O'Dell knows it's Kennett, but doesn't have the proof.'
Lily thought it over, staring at him. 'That's…'
'Bizarre. I agree. And of course, there're other possibilities, too.'
'That it's me?' She smiled a small and frosty smile.
