Dark Maze

names of the happy trio there.”
    “Well, there’s Picasso, of course,” he said, fingering the image of Charlie Furman. “I guess he must of been born with that goofy beret. This other guy here and the broad in the Esther Williams tank suit—well, you sure got me in the dark on them two.”
    Halo looked up. He wore an expression intended to be as innocent as a bare-bottomed child, which fit badly on a guy with Halo’s creases and yellow-brown teeth. He tried giving back the snapshot but I was not up to taking.
    Ruby was not buying his face, either. She turned to me and tossed a cue: “Detective Hockaday, if you please?”
    I dragged out my card, squinted, and took it from the top: “You have the right to remain silent. .
    Halo cut me off with a nice forthright lie for a refreshing change. “Aw, c’mon! Let’s wait just one freaking minute while I take another look at your old goddamn antique pitcher, okay? Can’t a guy change his freaking mind?”
    “We haven’t got a whole minute to spare,” Ruby said. “The best we can offer is five seconds, starting now.”
    Halo looked at the snapshot again, but it was half-hearted and really quite unnecessary. He said, in well under his allotted time, “Okay, so I notice the broad is Celia Furman, who I knew from gambling one hell of a long time ago, and which I don’t want to say nothing more on the subject on the grounds of it might tend to incriminate me.”
    Ruby said, “That’s a boy, Johnny. Two more seconds to go! So, who’s the guy in the pretty picture? Tell us quick and we won’t put you up in a cell tonight with a big guy who wants to get married.”
    Halo blanched. “C’mon, Hockaday, get her the hell off my neck, will you?”
    “Time’s up,” I announced grimly.
    Halo became so loud and agitated that he woke up the dozer at the far end of the bar, who was none too pleased about being disturbed. The survivors, on the other hand, were a perfect pair of lumps who did not want to get involved in anything that was not their business. They sipped their thinned beers and remained unfazed by all the noise their host was making.
    “Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” Halo shouted. “I don’t know the other guy, the one who ain’t Picasso, okay? That’s the straight truth, so help me Christ!”
    “For the love of God, how come a guy can’t have peace and quiet around this dump?” the dozer hollered.
    “Shut up, old man!”
    “Go blow it out your hole!” the dozer snarled in return. After which, he lay his head back down on his rag pillow and resumed snoring.
    I started writing in my notebook.
    Halo said to me, “What’s that? What’re you writing down in there?”
    “You’re way too curious, you know that, Johnny?” I said.
    “Look, I don’t want no trouble, like I said. I’m telling you straight, I know Celia and I know Picasso. And I even know they was married once-upon-a-time and that she jugged him in the ha-ha house. See, that’s stuff that wasn’t in the newspaper.” Halo picked up a terrycloth bar towel and patted his wet forehead. “But Hockaday, honest to Christ, I don’t know who the other guy in that pitcher is.”
    “Johnny, my partner and I have come in here like nice people and we have asked you to do the right thing and we have witnessed your various conniptions just because well-behaved cops want to ask you some things that connect to murder.”
    I took a breath, made another note and said, “Now Johnny, I can’t pretend I understand your hesitancy. That’s why I am writing down my impressions of today, and also a note to remind me to kind of check out your references, you know?”
    Halo slowly reached his hands down toward his pants Pockets.
    I dropped my Bic and opened up my windbreaker and heat him to the draw, so to speak.
    “In here, I’ve got two things,” I said, wrapping my fingers around the trigger of my .38. “My service revolver and a pair of NYPD bracelets. I figure you’ve got one of two things in those pockets you’re trying to get into, Johnny.”
    “Look, I...”
    “It’s either money, or a gun,” I said. “I’ll make you two promises: if you pull a gun on me, you’re going to get real hurt; if you offer me money I’m putting the bracelets on you and we go visit the rubber room at the Coney Island station house, and you get real hurt.”
    Ruby said, “What’ll it be, Johnny?”
    Halo raised up his hands.
    “That’s right,” Ruby said. “Nice and slow.”
    “Christ, I