Catch a Falling Knife

stuck my head in, not knowing how Lefty would react to having us show up unannounced. He was talking on the phone, but when he saw me he waved me inside. Mark and I squeezed into the small room and closed the door behind us.
    The old lady with the bleached-blond hair was here today, in her seat at the desk adjacent to Lefty’s, underdressed as before. She glanced at me and then took a longer look at Mark, running her eyes down his body in a way that might have embarrassed him, if he had noticed. Lefty waved for us to sit down, but we continued to stand. This would be a short meeting.
    He hung up the phone and said, “Well, Lillian. I didn’t think I’d have the pleasure again so soon.” He stood and swallowed my hand in both of his, then shook hands with Mark, saying, “Mark, right? You’re the guy who killed the Star, but you haven’t confessed yet. Just don’t leave town.”
    We let that remark pass. I said, “Lefty, I have just one question today. On the last night the Shooting Star worked here, how many times did she dance?”
    Lefty thought a moment and said, “That was a Wednesday, right? I’ll never forget it. During the week the Star did two numbers, about eight and then again at ten.”
    “Did she disappear between her numbers?”
    “That’s two questions, already, but seeing that it’s you…. Yeah, she did. She came to me first and got her pay, then she took off.”
    “And did she leave immediately after her last number?”
    “That’s three questions. And again, the answer is yes.”
    “What time was that?”
    “Four questions. It would have been about 10:15, 10:20, something like that.”
“Thanks, Lefty. No more questions.”
“Now you sound like a prosecuting attorney.”
    “I have a question,” Mark said.
    “You?” Lefty looked at Mark as if he really believed Mark had murdered Elise. “Yeah, what?”
    “You said you knew about Elise’s tattoo. Since it didn’t show when she was wearing a g-string, the only way you would have known about it was if she had told you about it or you had seen her without her g-string.”
    Mark was repeating what Cherub had told me. Maybe I shouldn’t have passed it on to him. It was too late for him to protect Elise’s virtue. Lefty stared at Mark and I became conscious of the fact that the blond was staring at Lefty. It occurred to me that she might be his mother.
    Lefty glanced at her and said, “We were talking together one time, about how most of the dancers had tattoos, and I said something like, ‘But a good girl like you wouldn’t have a tattoo,’ and she said she did and I said prove it so she pulled down her g-string a little and showed it to me. It was all kind of innocent, really.”
    “Then you didn’t take her into your back room,” Mark said, indicating the door that Cherub had told me led to a room with a bed in it.
    Mark was pushing the envelope and I thought Lefty would come around the desk and deck him, but the presence of the blond, whoever she was, apparently kept him in check. He finally said, “Maybe you don’t know this, but the Star really was a good girl. She wouldn’t have anything to do with me. That’s the reason I liked her.”

Chapter 25
     
    We went to the house where Ted, Elise’s boyfriend, lived in the basement, and parked a little beyond it, on the other side of the street, where we had a good view. Mark said he would save my feet by going and checking on whether Ted was there. He returned in a few minutes and told me he had not received an answer to his knock.
    “Do you mind waiting?” I asked. Fortunately, Lefty had fed us sandwiches before we left Club Cavalier, so at least he wasn’t hungry.
    “I should ask you that question. I have a bigger interest in solving this than you do.”
    “Don’t say that. While we’re waiting I’ll call Burt and see if he has found out what Detective Johnson learned by talking to Donna.”
    I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and called Burt’s number. A woman answered and said he was with a client. I asked her to have him call me and gave her my cell phone number. I don’t give it to many people. He called me back within ten minutes.
    “Aunt Lillian,” Burt said in his inimitable way. “What’s happening?”
    “Mark and I are staking out the house where Ted, Elise’s boyfriend lives. Other than that, we’re pretty sure that her father didn’t know she was the Shooting Star and that she didn’t have sex with Lefty at Club