Catch a Falling Knife

finally sputtered, “That can’t be…I don’t…you’re making this up.”
    Now I wished we had a copy of the newspaper with us. We did have one in the car, but I didn’t want to lose Ted’s attention. I said, “I understand that you sometimes patrolled with Mr. Hoffman, taking license plate numbers of patrons at the places like Club Cavalier and putting them on the Internet.”
    He neither confirmed nor denied it.
    “When you were doing that, did you ever read the publicity information in front of Club Cavalier? One of the dancers was known as the Shooting Star.”
    Ted reacted. Or rather, he exploded. “The Shooting Star was Elise? My God, it couldn’t be. But if it was…oh my God.” He continued to look distraught.
    “Why don’t you sit down?” Mark said to Ted.
    Mark led Ted to the chair with the footstool and he plunked down in it, automatically. Mark and I both sat down, also. We knew a Pandora’s box had been opened, but we didn’t know what was inside.
    Ted looked as if he had gone into a trance so I said, “Ted, tell us what you know about the Shooting Star.”
    He collected himself and said, “That night…the night that Elise was killed, I went on patrol with Mr. Hoffman. When we got to Club Cavalier we recorded the license numbers, as usual, and then he said that in order for me to understand the reason for doing this I should see what went on inside. I was shocked; that didn’t sound like Mr. Hoffman. But he kept insisting. He said that after I saw how the men behaved it would make me more determined that ever to wipe out places like this. The devil’s playground, he called them.”
    “Had you ever been inside a strip club before?” Mark asked.
    “Of course not.” Ted looked indignant. “And I didn’t want to go then. Finally, I agreed to go in for a few minutes to get him off my back. Mr. Hoffman paid and we sat in the back. He bought us beers. I didn’t know he drank beer. We watched a couple of girls dance. They were disgusting, but the men watching them were even more disgusting. They yelled and whistled and put money on the stage.
    “I wanted to leave, but Mr. Hoffman said we would see just one more girl. And then the Shooting Star came on the stage. She was different than the others and she looked familiar, in a way…. If anything, she made the men wilder than before.”
    “What time was that?” I asked.
    “It must have been about ten.”
    “Had you ever seen Elise without her clothes on?”
    “Never.”
    “Do you know whether she had a tattoo?”
    “If she did, I wouldn’t have had anything to do with her.”
    “Let him tell the rest of the story,” Mark admonished me. “What happened after the Shooting Star danced?”
    “Mr. Hoffman turned to me and said, ‘Do you know who she is?’ I told him I didn’t know. He said we had to get out of there. He immediately drove me home and said he had to go somewhere. He appeared to be in a big hurry.”
     “And you didn’t talk to him again until he called you at 1 a.m.,” I said.
    Ted shook his head. “Do you think that Mr. Hoffman…?”
    “Killed Elise?” Mark finished. “It’s certainly something we’re going to look into.”
    “Did you tell this story to the police?” I asked Ted.
    “I told them about going on patrol with Mr. Hoffman, but not about going into Club Cavalier. I couldn’t bring myself to do that.”
    “Are you prepared to tell them the whole truth now?” The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
    Ted nodded.
    “I think we’d better get out of here,” I said to Mark.
    He stood up and said, “Let’s go.”

Chapter 26
     
    “Where do you think Eric Hoffman went this morning?” Mark asked me after we had gotten into the car.
    That was a key question. Should we go directly to the police or should we try to find Eric? I said, “If he’s skipped town the sooner the police are on it the better. But I’m wondering if that’s what he did. The way June talked he was more irate than scared. I have a hunch he may have gone to see Donna.”
    “Because she blabbed about Elise being the Shooting Star?”
    “Yes, because it undermines his piety. He is no longer holier than we are.”
    “It won’t hurt to check to see if he meant Donna any harm.”
    “If he did, it could be too late.”
     With that impetus, Mark gunned the engine of his stick-shift Corolla and we made it to Donna’s apartment in record time. Her car was parked in front of the building. Mark had