Korvutz’s face got hard.
Elena applauded. “Yay!”
“Elena, stop this. Let the gentleman-”
I got up and brought my water glass to their table.
“Yay!”
Korvutz said, “Sir, this is not necessary.”
“I don’t mind for a few minutes-”
“Yay!”
The intense couple glanced over. The woman whispered something to her companion. He shrugged.
“It’s really not necessary,” said Korvutz.
“It is nessery, Daddy!”
The hot-eyed couple smirked.
“Elena-”
“Nessery!”
“Shh, shh-”
“Nesse – ”
“Elena! Shh! What do we say about La Bella?”
The child pouted.
Korvutz said, “In La Bella, we need to be… say it, darling.”
A tear dripped from Elena’s right eye.
Roland Korvutz dried it and kissed her cheek. “Darling, in La Bella we need to be quiet.”
“Darling darling,” said Elena. “That’s Mommy.”
“You’re my darling, too.”
“No!”
Korvutz colored. “Sir, sorry to bother you, you can go back-”
“He’s alonely. Ms. Price say be nice to alonely people.”
“That’s at school, Elena.”
“Ms. Price say always be nice.”
I said, “I can sit until my food comes.”
“Elena, let this man be.”
Korvutz’s voice had risen. Elena’s face crumpled. He muttered something in what sounded like Russian and reached for her. She jumped off her chair sobbing. The young woman at the next table rolled her eyes.
“Elena-”
The child ran to the rear door. “I go, again!”
Korvutz said, “Sir, I apologize. She is very friendly.”
“I think she’s adorable.” Trying not to sound patronizing.
Korvutz’s stare said I hadn’t pulled it off.
I said, “I work with kids.”
“Doing what?”
“Child psychologist.”
“Okay,” he said, with utter disinterest. “Have a nice dinner.” Eyeing my table.
I fished out the brand-new LAPD consultant badge the chief had expressed to my house last night and placed it on the table in front of him. “When you have time, Mr. Korvutz.”
His mouth dropped open. Gray eyes behind thick lenses bulged. Despite the sparse light, his pupils had constricted to pinpoints. “What the-”
I pocketed the badge. “We need to talk. Not about you. About Dale Bright.”
He started to rise from his chair, thought better of it. Both hands clenched but remained on the table. “Get the hell out of-”
“I’ve come three thousand miles to talk to you. Dale Bright may have killed other people. Extremely messy murders.”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
I stood, shielding him from scrutiny by the neighboring couple or Gio. Kept a smile on my face to feign friendly conversation.
“Dale Bright. Former chairman of the tenant board on West Thirty-fifth.”
Korvutz’s shoulders crowded his neck. His fingers grazed a butter knife.
“You’re not under suspicion. Bright is. What I need is details, anything that can help locate him.”
Spittle collected at the corner of Korvutz’s mouth. “I know nothing.”
“Just a brief talk at your convenience-”
“Again they torment me.”
“If you cooperate and help us find Bright, it’ll end any-”
“I know nothing.” Extruding the words through clenched lips.
“Even impressions. What he was like, his habits.”
“Dry eye!” announced a voice behind us.
Elena danced to my side, wadded tissue in hand.
Roland Korvutz said, “This man needs to leave.”
“No, Da-”
“Yes!”
“Daddy make me sad!”
Korvutz shot up and took her by the arm. “Life is sad. Even you can learn that.”
He pulled the child, wailing, from the restaurant.
Puzzled, Gio watched the door slam.
The tenor on the soundtrack moaned.
The young woman said, “Bringing a kid to a place like this.”
The young man smoothed a hand-stitched lapel. “Especially that kind of kid. Let’s book.”
CHAPTER 23
Elegant people walked refined dogs on Park Avenue.
Roland Korvutz’s building, on the west side of the street, was ten stories of somber gray stone, each level one apartment wide.
Gleaming brass rods supported a spotless maroon awning. A carpet of some weather-resistant material that looked good enough for my house led to dead-bolted, brass-framed glass doors. The All Visitors Must Be Announced sign was the same gleaming metal. So was the call button.
Inside the lobby, a maroon-clad doorman relaxed in a carved chair and watched me watch him. Hispanic, mustachioed, too young to be the retired cop Polito had spoken to.
As I approached, he stayed put. Light from a crystal chandelier ambered the black-and-white marble checkerboard lobby floor. Dark wood panels glowed like melting chocolate.
The doorman didn’t budge until I pushed the button. Even then, his movements were languid.
He opened the door a couple of inches. “Help you?”
“I’m here for Mr. Korvutz.”
“He expecting you?”
“I sure hope so.”
“Name?”
“Dr. Delaware.”
He closed the door, got on a phone. I cooled my heels under the awning, braced for refusal, maybe a warning to cease and desist. Felt guilty about cutting Elena’s dinner short, then thought about the Safrans and suppressed my regret.
The doorman hung up, cracked the door again. “He’s comin’ down.”
Roland Korvutz emerged moments later in brown shirtsleeves, baggy gray pants, and white sneakers, cradling a tiny white Pomeranian.
I prepared for rage. His face was blank.
The doorman fulfilled his primary job description and Korvutz walked through. He pointed south, kept moving, still holding the dog.
Small man but he pumped his legs fast.
I caught up. The Pomeranian yapped happily. Licked my hand.
Korvutz said, “Everyone thinks you’re a great guy.” Small man with a big baritone. In the comparative quiet his accent was more pronounced.
“Kids and dogs,” I said. “Sometimes they’re good judges of character.”
“Bullshit,” said Korvutz. “I had rottweiler, love everyone, the worst scumbags.”
“Maybe this dog’s smarter.”
“Gigi,” said Korvutz. “That’s her name.” He fastened a pink leash to the dog’s rhinestone collar, put her down.
“Like in the movie?”
“My wife like the movie.” Shaking his head.
Gigi raced. We covered a block. Korvutz waited as Gigi explored a lamppost.
I said, “Thanks for seeing me.”
No answer.
“Sorry for ruining your dinner.”
“It not you, it woulda been something else. My daughter. She love the place, but she not ready for it.”
“Too much pressure to be quiet.”
“Sometime Elena get what they call overstimulated.”
“I meant what I said. Cute kid by any standards.”
Korvutz stared at me. “You really a shrink?”
“Want to see my license?”
He laughed. “She my only one. Got married late.”
The dog pulled on the pink leash. Korvutz said, “Okay, okay,” and allowed her to lead.
Ten steps later: “That guy Bright really kill someone?”
“Maybe a bunch of people.”
“Crazy.”
“You never suspected him for the Safrans?”
He held up a palm. “Eh-eh, them I don’t talk about, no way. Brought me nothing but bullshit.”
“All I’m concerned with is Bright-”
“Bright I meet twice? Okay? Only thing I remember is he’s a big ass-kisser. Mr. K. this, Mr. K. that. Back then my buildings got four hundred fifty tenants, four seventy-five. I’m supposed to give a shit ‘Mr. K.’?”
“What’d he ass-kiss about?”
“Trying to be my best friend, like I don’t know when I’m being rimmed.” Korvutz slowed, watched as the dog sniffed another post. Rearranged his eyeglasses. Gigi changed her mind. We resumed walking. “She take her time doing the business. C’mon, dog. I got homework to do.”