"Mmm.”
"So the sooner we can turn it around, the I'll be.”
“Oh, sure," he said.
"But first you gotta m buy, don't you?”
"Yes. But that's tomorrow night.”
"Provided," Shad said.
"What do you mean provided? You tomorrow night, didn't you?”
"Yeah, to meet him.”
"Yes.”
"Test the stuff, taste it...”
"Yes.”
"Which you don't know how to do, right?”
"Well,.. that shouldn't be a problem. You you'd...”
“Yeah, I said I'd teach you.”
"Yes.”
"To taste it," he said, and smiled.
She looked at him.
A fresh wind swept torrents of rain against the vindow.
"You really want me to put you in touch with this guy, don't you?" he said.
Smiling.
She kept looking at him.
"Well, don't you?" he said.
"You know I do.”
"Because this deal is very important to you, right?”
“Yes," she said.
"Very important," he said.
"Yes.”
"Sure.”
Smiling.
"Well, don't worry about it," he said.
"Everything'll be all right.”
"I hope so," she said.
"Oh, sure," he said. "Provided.”
His eyes met hers.
The rain and the wind rattled the window.
"Come here, baby," he said, and began unzipping his fly.
She went immediately to the door.
It was locked.
A dead bolt.
The key gone.
In prison that first time, the door had been locked from the outside.
The warden El Alcaide, a squat little man wearing jodhpurs and high, brown-leather boots, a riding crop in his hand had askel raise her gown for him. She'd run to the was locked. She'd twisted the unre,, doorknob again and again, shouting English and then "Socorro.t'' in Spanish, the coming up behind her, the riding crop raised.
Never again, she thought.
She took the .38 from her handbag. "Unlock the door," she said.
He looked at the gun in her fist.
"Now," she said.
"You're a hooker," he said. "What's blowjob more or...9”
She almost shot him dead on the spot minute. Her finger almost tightened millimeter on the trigger, she almost s brains on the wall. Instead, she turned to the leveled the gun at it, and fired repeatedly wood, splintering the area around the lock. bolt upright on the sofa, his words cut off explosions, his eyes saucer wide, his fly Marilyn twisted the knob, and pulled open the tearing the latch assembly from the tattered bolt still engaged in the doorframe's striker "Now there'll be cops," he said, petulantly.
"Good," she said. "You explain it to them.”
Doors were opening all up and down the Curious tenants who knew that a hooker lived and who were expecting trouble sooner or later, it was on a rainy spring night. She walked past them, and went down the steps and out into the street. People who had heard the shots were gathering near the front stoop. She could hear a police siren in the distance. She walked away swiftly, through the rain.
She was thinking that now she'd have to kill the two men from Argentina.
XII
The two detectives stood before Lieutenant desk like a pair of apprehensive schoolboys be birched by the headmaster. The fact that it still raining that Thursday did little to help pervasive feeling of impending doom. This was last day of May. It was now two in the just five hours, the priest would have been dead full week.
Silvery rainsnakes slithered down each of lieutenant's corner windows, the grey beyond duller than the grey of his hair, which was short-cropped but growing increasingly whiter the years. Frowning, he sat behind his desk, folded in front of him. The knuckles were c a legacy from his youthful days as a street fi His shaggy white brows were lowered over blue eyes. The rain oozed on either side of him.
"Let me hear it," he said.
"I went to see Bobby Corrente late last night," Carella said. "He's already out on bail...”
"Naturally.”
"... I found him at home with his parents. I figured since we've already got him for tearing a church apart and assaulting a priest...”
“Yes, yes." Byrnes said impatiently.
"But he's got an alibi for the night of the murder.”
"A reliable witness?”
"His father.”
“Worthless," Byrnes said.
"Hooper's got an alibi, too," Hawes said. "I talked to him this morning.”
"Who's his witness?”
"His sister.”
"Also worthless," Byrnes said.
"But they both knew there was crack hidden inside...”
"Where was it, by the way?”
"In the holy water urn.”
"Jesus," Byrnes said, and shook his head. "How about the weapon? Have you found that yet?”
"Not anywhere in the church. And we've searched it a hundred times already. The point is, if either Hooper or Corrente went back for that dope “
"Except you're just telling me they've both got alibis.”
"Which you"'re telling me are worthless," Carella said.
"Which they are," Byrnes said. "What about Farnes character, is that his name?”
"Farnes, yes.”
"What's his alibi?”
"His inventory log," Carella said.
"Which he himself dated," Hawes said.
"So far you''re giving me nothing but alibis aren't alibis at all,” Byrnes said. "What else have got?”
"Only more alibis that aren't alibis," Carella "This gay guy who painted the star...”
"His name again?”
"Hobbs. Andrew Hobbs. He claims he was in with a man named Jeremy Sachs on the night of murder.”
"Terrific .”
"We haven't been able to locate his mother...”
"Her name?”
"Abigail. I guess. He calls her Abby, I Abigail.”
"Okay, Abigail Hobbs, what about her?”
"She went to Father Michael for help. We want ask her just how angry this made him.”
"The son?”
“Yeah. Meyer says he was still pissed about The priest was stabbed seventeen times, Pete. anger.”
"Agreed. So find her.”
"We're trying.”
"What about the secretary?" Byrnes asked.
"What about her?" Hawes said.
Defensively, it seemed to Carella.
"Could she have been the one the priest was diddling?”
“I don't think so," Hawes said.
"On what do you base that?”
"Well... she just doesn't seem like the sort of person who'd get involved in something like that.”
Byrnes looked at him.
"She just doesn't," Hawes said, and shrugged.
"The Class Valedictorian, right?" Byrnes said.
"What?" Hawes said.
"Brightest kid in the class, handsome as can be, witty, ambitious, kills his mother, his father, both his sisters and his pet goldfish. But he didn't seem like that sort of person. Right?”
"Well...”
“Don't give me seems," Byrnes said. "And don't tell me there aren't any secretaries who fool around with their bosses. Find out where she was and what she was doing on the night of the murder.”
“Yes, sir,” Hawes said.
"And locate this gay guy's mother, Hobbs, find out what the hell that's all about.”
“Yes, sir," Carella said.
"So do it," Byrnes said.
A good time to visit a church devoted to worshipping the Devil was on a rainy day,, guessed. As he came up the street, he saw the falling rain the old soot-stained stones had first and very long ago been a Catholic and then a storehouse for grain during the and briefly a Baptist church, and then a w for sewing machines, and then a convenient for antiques shows and crafts shows neighborhood began crumbling everywhere it. Now it was The Church of the Bornless though nothing advised the casual observer fact.
He saw only wet, sootened stones a gunmetal sky, the outline of a building that to squat on its haunches ready to pounce, the earth by flying buttresses. He climbed flat steps to the entrance and tried the knobs doors. Both were locked. He went around the what he guessed was the rectory door. A bell was set into the stone. A tarnished brass over it read Ring for Service. He rang for And waited in the rain.