Jael stopped and looked up at him, her face sober. 'Its weird, you know, all the people at that party.'
'What?'
'Oh, just the way they all made the same excuses: there was no dope, they didn't see any, they didn't know about any. All so worried about their reputations, just like me. And really, in my world, a little dope is no big deal.'
'Maybe in the back of their minds, they're worried about something a little more stark, like jail,' Lucas said. 'Rich people don't like jail. They don't function well in that environment.'
'But they didn't tell you about Sandy. And I didn't tell you about Sandy We were all busy thinking about Alie'e, what a tragedy it was, and just keeping your mouth shut about a little dope'
'What about Sandy?' But now he knew.
'She was the dealer,' Jael said. 'Half the people at the party bought dope from heranything you wanted, she could get. She was discreet, she had to know you before she would sell to you, you had to have a recommendation but she could get it.'
'Did you ever buy from her?'
'A little heroin, once or twice. Just little touches of it,' she said.
'Jesus Christ, Jael, that stuff is poison.'
'But it feels so nice. It smooths you out.' Lucas shook his head angrily and stalked off down the sidewalk. She watched him go, then hurried after him. 'What?'
'That's so fuckin' stupid, what you just said. It makes my goddamned head hurt.' Then he stopped, and faced her. 'Will you come in and amend your statement, and say that Sandy Lansing was a dealer?'
'Would I go to jail?'
'No. There's nothing illegal about knowing that somebody deals-Bring your lawyer, so you get all the words right. But it's important that we get it on paper, so we can use the paper to pry information out of other people. I knew something was going on with Lansing, but it was so hard to look in her direction, when everybody was screaming about Alie'e. Did Alie'e get that shit from her?'
'Yeah. Actually, I wasn't there, but I think Sandy had a kit in her purse, and I think she's the one who popped Alie'e. You didn't find a syringe'
'No. Nothing like that. Nothing but the tracks.'
'You didn't find Sandys purse?'
'No.'
'Well, she had one. Pretty biga lot bigger than fashionable. She had some stuff in it.'
'Okay,' Lucas said.
'I'll come make another statement, but I won't turn in any of my friends. Or anybody else, for that matter.'
'Goddamnit.'
'I won't.'
'Then you just might be covering for a killer,' Lucas said impatiently.
'It's more important to me to protect my friends than to catch the killer. Catching the guy won't bring Alie'e or Sandy back. If I turn in my friends well, I won't do that.'
'Listen, how about if I put a name on you, and you tell me Look, here's what I want to know. We're ninety-nine percent sure that Sallance Hanson knew that there were drugs all over the place.'
'I won't'
'We're not on the record here. It's just you and me. But I don't want to go off on Hanson if she's really naive. But she can't be that naive, can she?'
Jael kept her mouth shut. Lucas said, 'So tell me, can she be that naive? You don't have to accuse her of anything, but tell me that: Is Sallance Hanson naive?'
'You're getting me twisted around.'
'Is she naive?'
Jael turned and started back toward her house, her arms wrapped around her body, as if the cold air had suddenly gotten to her. Over her shoulder, she threw one word: 'No.'
Lucas followed after her, said, 'Tell me one more thingsomething that won't hurt anyone anymore. Did your brother buy from Sandy Lansing? Did he know her?'
She slowed, and let him catch up. 'I don't know if he knew who she was, or what she did. Maybe. Somebody might have told him. But he didn't like dope. He'd get pissed when I used it.'
'He said he used it when he was young.'
'Yeah. He was precocious. He usedeverything when he was a kid,' Jael said. 'Then he went to New York and he met Mapplethorpe just before he died, and knowing Mapplethorpe did something to Plain's brain.'
'Mapplethorpe. You mean the photographer?'
'Yes, completely decadent. Plain used to go on rants, about how Mapplethorpe had this good talent that never came to anything, because he killed himself.'
'Suicide?'
'No, he died of AIDS, but he was notorious for putting anything and everything into his body, and into anybody's else's body. Anyway, Plain got to see the end of that whole thing, and he stopped using.' She snapped her fingers. 'Just like that. He was going to live forever.'
'So Lansing. He didn't know her,' Lucas said.
'Maybe knew her, didn't buy from her.'
'Okay.' That's what Plain had told them.
'Does any of this help?' Jael asked.
'Yeah. We couldn't get any traction. We couldn't figure out why anybody would kill either of these women, or your brother, for that matter. Dope was always a possibility, but if Sandy Lansing was dealing, then it becomes a serious possibility.'
As they got back to her house, Lucas asked casually, 'Are you still using?'
'Oh, you know, sometimes. Just a little pop.'
'It'll kill you, Jael.' He liked her name; it rolled smoothly off the tongue. 'You gotta stop.'
'I need to get smoothed out sometimes,' Jael said.
'Smoke a little grass. Stay away from the heroin.'
'Not the same,' she said. But she was amused again. 'I should have been recording this: a cop telling me to smoke a little grass.'
'Grass'll kill you, too,' Lucas said. 'But not until you're eighty.'
At the house, they sat on the stoop and talked, Lucas trying to tug the conversation back to the party, looking for another name, another hint. 'Look, I'm not going to tell you any more names,' she said. 'If I thought it would really help, I wouldbut it won't.'
A city car pulled to the curb, and Sherrill got out. 'Sherrill likes you a lot,' Jael said. He could feel her watching his face.
'I like her a lot,' Lucas said. He half turned. 'Sherrill and I have a little history. That's all over. We weren't good for each other.'
'She talks tough,' Jael said.
'Sheis tough.'
'Tough as you?'
Sherrill was coming up to them. Lucas said, 'Maybe.'
Sherrill said, 'How's it going?'
Her eyes slid from Lucas to Jael, and Jael stood up and said, 'Fine. I better go call my lawyer, though.'
'What, did he whack you around or something?'
'We're notthat friendly yet,' Jael said.
She went inside, and when she was out of earshot, Sherrill asked, 'What happened?'
'She says Sandy Lansing was the dealer. She says Lansing could get anything you wantnot like she was a housewife with a neighborhood connection.'
'You think somebody killed Lansing for dope?'
'Mmm I don't know about that. But III bet it's tied in somehow,' Lucas said. 'Somebody owed her too much,
