"You've still got blood all over your hands, you little bitch! Who the hell are you trying to snow?"
"That's from d'hanncuffs," Angelica said.
"Oh, Jesus, this one is the absolute end," Willis said. The trouble, Meyer Meyer thought, is that it's hard to get the right words. It mustn't sound too melodramatic or it'll be dismissed as either a joke or the work of a crank. It has to sound sincere, and yet it has to sound desperate. If it doesn't sound desperate nobody'll believe it, and we're right back where we started. But if it sounds too desperate, nobody'll believe it anyway. So I've got to be careful.
He looked across the room to where Virginia Dodge was watching the interrogation of the Puerto Rican girl.
I've also got to hurry, he thought. She may just take it in her mind to amble over here and see what I'm doing.
"You know whose throat you slit?" Willis asked.
"I don' know nothin'."
"Then J'm gonna let you in on a little secret. You ever hear of a street gang called the Arabian Knights?"
"No."
"It's one of the biggest gangs in the precinct," Willis said.
"Teen-age kids mostly. Except the guy who's leader of the gang is twenty-five years old. In fact, he's married and has got a baby daughter. They call him Kassim. You ever hear of anybody called Kassim?"
"In fiction, he's AH Baba's brother. In real life, He's leader of this gang called the Arabian Knights. His real name is Jose Dorena. Does that ring a bell?"
"No."
"He's a very big man in the streets, Kassim is. He's really a punk-but not in the streets. There's a gang called the Latin Paraders and the shit has been on between them and the Knights for years. And do you know what price the Paraders have set for a truce?"
"No. What?"
"An Arabian Knights jacket as a trophy and Kassim dead."
'~So who cares?"
"You ought to care, baby. The guy whose throat you slit is Kassim. Jose6 Dorena."
Angelica blinked.
"Yeah," Willis said.
"Is this legit?" Byrnes asked.
"You said it, Pete. So you see, Angelica, if Kassim dies, the Latin Paraders'll erect a statue of you in the park. But the Arabian Knights won't like you one damn bit.
They're a bunch of mean bastards, sweetie, and they re not even gonna like the fact that you cut him-. whether it leads to his untimely demise or not."
"What?" Angelica said.
"Whether he croaks or not, you're on their list, baby."
"I din know who he wass," AngeliCa said.
"Then you did do the cutting?"
"Si. But I din know who he wass."
"Then why'd you cut him?"
"He wass bodderin' ~ "How?"
"He wass try to feel me up," Angelica said.
"Oh , come on!" Willis moaned.
"He wass!"
"Dig the virgin, Pete," Willis said.
"Why'd you cut him, baby? And let's not have the hearts and flowers this trip."
"He wass grab my bosom," Angelica said.
"On the steps. In from' the stoop. So I cut him."
Willie sighed.
Virginia Dodge seemed to be tiring of the inquisition. Nervously, she sat at the desk commanding a view of both squad room and corridor beyond, the .38 in her hand, the clear bottle of nitroglycerin resting on the desk before her.
I have to hurry, Meyer thought. Get it all down once and for all with no mistakes, and then start moving. Because if she comes over here and sees this, she is just liable to pull the trigger and blow off the back of my head, and Sarah will be sitting shivah for a week. They'll have to cover every mirror in the house and turn all the pictures to the wall. God, it'll be ghastly.
So get it done. October ain't a time for dying.
"He grabbed your bosom, huh?" Willis said.
"Which one? The right one or the left one?"
"Iss not funny," Angelica said.
"For a man he feels you up in public, iss not funny."
"So you slashed him?"
""Cause he grabbed for your tit, right?"
"What do you think, Pete?
"Dignity doesn't choose its professions," Byrnes said.
"I believe her."
"I think she's lying in her teeth," Willis said.
"We check around, we'll probably find out she's been making it with
Kassun for the past year. She probably saw him looking at another girl, and so she put the blade to him. That's more like it, isn't it, baby?"
"No. I don' know thees Kassim. He jus' come over an' get fresh. My body iss my body. An' I give it where I want. An' not to peegs with dirty hans."
"Hooray," Willis said.
"They're really gonna put a statue of you in the park." He turned to Byrnes.
"What do we make it, Pete? Felonious assault?"
"What condition is this Kassim in?"
"They carted him off to the hospital. Who knows? He was bleeding all over the goddamn sidewalk. You know what killed me, Pete? A bunch of young kids were standing around in a circle. You could see they didn't know whether to cry or laugh or just scream. They were kind of hopping up and down, do you know what I mean? Jesus, imagine growing up with this every day of your life? Can you imagine it?"
"Keep in touch with the hospital, Hal," Byrnes said.
"Let's hold the booking until later. We can't do much with ..." He gestured with his head to where Virginia Dodge sat.
"Yeah. All right, Angelica. Keep your legs crossed. Maybe Kassim won't die. Maybe he's got a charmed life."
"I hope the son a bitch rots in his gray," Angelica said.
"Nice girl," Willis said, and he patted her shoulder. Meyer pulled the report from the typewriter. He separated the carbon from the three blue sheets, and then he read the top sheet.
He read it carefully because he was a patient man, and he wanted it to be right the first time.
There might not be another chance after this one.
The window near the desk was open. The meshed grill outside the window-which protected the glass from the hurled brickbats of the 87this inhabitants-would present only a small problem. Quickly, with one eye on Virginia Dodge, Meyer rolled the first report sheet into a long cylinder. Hastily, he thrust the cylinder through one of the diamond-shaped openings on the mesh and then shoved it out onto the air. He looked across the room.
Virginia Dodge was not watching him.
DETECTIVE DIVISION REPORT
PlACE OF OCCURRENCE THE DETECTIVES OF THE 87th
SQUAD APE
Ri PORTING
BEING HELD PRISONER BY
A GUN AND A BOTTLE OF
NITROGLYCERIN.