"Ledo, you asshole," she began.
"Hold it." The man who walked in looked like one of the ladder-climbing execs that raced along the streets overhead and several blocks north. He was slim and stylish and clean.
The thin layer of scum that coated everything else didn't seem to touch him.
With one hand restraining Ledo, Eve turned, yanked out her badge. "At the moment," she said evenly, "I've got no problem with you. Do you want that to change?"
"Not at all…" He flicked his silvery blue eyes at her badge, over her face, let them pass over Peabody, who stood at alert. "Lieutenant," he finished. "I'm afraid we rarely have any of New York's finest visit the establishment. My customers were taken by surprise."
He dropped his gaze to the man who still moaned on the floor. "In a number of ways," he added. "I'm Carmine, and this is my place. What can I do for you?"
"Not a thing, Carmine. I just want to chat with one of your… customers."
"I'm sure you'd like to have somewhere quiet to chat. Why don't I show you to one of our privacy rooms?"
"That'll be just dandy, Carmine. Peabody?" Eve wrenched the cue out of Ledo's grip and passed it over. "My aide's going to be walking right behind you, Ledo. If you don't keep up, she's likely to stumble and that precious stick of yours might get rammed right up your butt."
"I didn't do nothing," Ledo claimed in something close to a wail, but he kept pace with Eve as she followed Carmine through a curtained area to a line of doors.
Carmine opened one, gestured. "Anything else I can do for you, Lieutenant?"
"Just keep your customers chilled, Carmine. Neither one of us wants NYPSD to order a sweep on this place."
He acknowledged the warning with a nod, then left them alone as Eve tossed the whining Ledo into the room. "You stand, Peabody. You're cleared to use your weapon if anyone blinks at you."
"Yes, sir." Peabody shifted her grip on the cue, set her free hand on her stunner, and put her back to the wall.
Satisfied, Eve stepped inside, closed the door. As amenities went, it was a zero, with its narrow cot, smudged view screen, and sticky floor. But it was private.
"Well, Ledo." Eve fingered the raw bruise on her cheekbone – not because it stung, though it did. She used the gesture to make Ledo tremble in fear of retribution. "Been awhile."
"I've been clean," he said quickly, and she laughed, keeping the sound low and sharp.
"Don't insult my intelligence. You wouldn't be clean after six days in a decontamination chamber. You know what this does?" She tapped a finger on her facial bruise. "This assaulting an officer deal gives me the right to search you right now, to haul your skinny butt into Central, and to get a warrant to go through your flop."
"Hey, Dallas, hey." He held up both hands, palms up. "It was an accident."
"Maybe I'll let it go at that, Ledo. Maybe I will – if you convince me you're in a cooperative mood."
"Damn straight, Dallas. What d'ya want? Some Jazz, Go Smoke, Ecstasy?" He started to dig in his pockets. "No charge, none whatsoever for you. I don't got it now, I'll get it."
Her eyes turned to bright gold slits. "You take anything out of your pockets but your ugly fingers, Ledo, you're even more stupid than I figured. And I figured you for a brain the size of a walnut."
His hands froze, his thin face went blank. Then he tried a manly chuckle, lifting his empty hands clear. "Like you said, Dallas, been a while. I guess maybe I forgot how you stand on shit. No harm, right?"
She said nothing, simply stared him down until the sweat popped out on his upper lip. She'd see he was back in a cage, she mused, at the first opportunity. But for now, she had bigger fish on the line.
"You – you want info? I ain't your weasel. Never was any cop's weasel, but I'm willing to trade info."
"Trade?" she said, coldly.
"Give." Even his tiny brain began to click in. "You ask, I know, I tell. How's that?"
"That's not bad. Snooks."
"The old man with the flowers?" Ledo shrugged what there was of his shoulders. "Somebody sliced him open, I hear. Took pieces of him. I don't touch that stuff."
"You deal to him."
Ledo did his best to look cagey. "Maybe we had some business, off and on."
"How'd he pay?"
"He'd beg off some credits, or sell some of his flowers and shit. He had the means when he needed a hit of something – which was mostly."
"He ever stiff you or any other dealers?"
"No. You don't give sleepers nothing unless they pay up first. Can't trust 'em. But Snooks, he was okay. No harm. He just minded his own. Nobody was doing for him that I ever heard. Good customer, no hassle."
"You work the area where he camped regularly?"
"Gotta make a living, Dallas." When she pinned him with her stare again, he realized his mistake. "Yeah, I deal there. It's mostly my turf. Couple others slide in and out, but we don't get in each other's way. Free enterprise."
"Did you see anybody who didn't look like they belonged down there lately, anybody asking about Snooks or those like him?"
"Like the suit?"
Eve felt her blood jump, but only leaned back casually against the wall. "What suit?"
"Guy came down one night, duded top to bottom. Frigid threads, man. Looked me up." More comfortable now, Ledo sat on the narrow bed, crossed one stick leg over the other. "Figured at first he didn't want to buy his stuff in his own neighborhood, you know. So he comes slumming. But he wasn't looking for hits."
Eve waited while Ledo entertained himself by picking at his cuticles. "What was he looking for?"
"Snooks, I figure. Dude said what he looked like, but I can't say that meant dick to me. Mostly the sleepers look alike. But he said how this one drew stuff and made flowers, so I copped to Snooks on that."
"And you told him where Snooks kept his crib."
"Sure, why not?" He started to smile, then his tiny little brain began the arduous process of deduction."Man, shit, the suit cut Snooks open? Why'd he do that for? Look, look, Dallas, I'm clean here. Dude asks where the sleeper flops, I tell him. I mean, why not, right? I don't know how he's got in mind to go killing anybody."
Sweat was popping again as he jumped to his feet. "You can't bounce it back on me. I just talked to the bastard is all."
"What did he look like?"
"I don't know. Good." In plea or frustration, Ledo threw out his arms. "A dude. A suit. Clean and shiny."
"Age, race, height, weight," Eve said flatly.
"Man, man." Grabbing hanks of his hair, Ledo began to pace the tiny room. "I don't pay attention. It was a couple, three nights ago. A white dude?" He posed it as a question, tossing Eve a hopeful look. She only watched him. "I think he was, maybe white. I was looking at his coat, you know. Long, black coat. Looked real warm and soft."
Moron, was all Eve could think. "When you talked to him, did you have to look up, or down, or straight on?"
"Ah… up!" He beamed like a child acing a spelling quiz. "Yeah, he was a tall dude. I don't get his face, Dallas. Man, it was dark and we weren't standing in no light or nothing. He had his hat on, his coat all buttoned. It was cold as a dead whore out there."
"You never saw him before? He hasn't come around since?"
"No, just that one time. A couple – no three nights back. Just the once." Ledo swiped the back of his hand over his mouth. "I didn't do nothing."
"You ought to get that tattooed on your forehead, Ledo, then you wouldn't have to say it every five minutes. I'm done for now, but I want to be able to find you, real easy, if I need to talk to you again. If I have to hunt you up, it's going to piss me off."
"I'll be around." His relief was so great, his eyes went shiny with tears. "Everybody knows where to find me."
He started to dash out, then froze like an icicle when Eve clamped a hand on his arm. "If you see the suit again, Ledo, or one like him, you get in touch. You don't say anything to put the suit off, then you get your ass on your 'link and call me." She bared her teeth in a smile that made his bowels loosen. "Everybody knows where to find me, too."