Detective

expected her to tell me to go to hell, or go see for myself, but she didn’t. “She just left,” she said, jerking her head in the direction of the girl I had seen coming out of the building. The girl had just-reached the end of the block and was starting to cross Avenue B.
    I could have yelled her name and run after her. That certainly would have made more sense to the old lady than what I actually did do, which was turn around and walk as briskly as I could back to my car. But I didn’t really care what the old lady thought, and somehow the idea of shouting at and running after a young lady who’d never seen me before in her life, at one in the morning, didn’t strike me as the height of investigative technique. I pulled out from the curb and sped down Avenue B. I was about to make a right turn on 6th Street to follow the girl when I suddenly realized it was a one-way street in the opposite direction. There were no cars around at that time in the morning, and I probably could have made it down the block without incident, but somehow driving the wrong way down a one-way street didn’t seem the best way of being inconspicuous. Even if the girl were a stoned-out junkie, she couldn’t help but notice me. I looked down the street, saw that the girl was walking right along, and figured it was a safe bet she was headed for Avenue A. At any rate, I’d have to chance it. I sped on down to 5th Street, ran the light which had just turned red, hung a right on 5th, and gunned it over to Avenue A, where I turned right again, running another light, sped up Avenue A to the corner of 6th Street, pulled into the curb, and killed the lights and motor. I was close enough to the corner so that I could see about a quarter of the way down the block. The girl wasn’t in sight yet, but before I had time to start worrying about it, she came into view, stepping right along. She reached the corner and looked up and down Avenue A, obviously searching for a cab. There were none. She dug in her purse, fished out a pack of cigarettes, and lit one. I might have driven up and offered her a ride, except for two things. One was I probably would have scared her to death. The other was the way she was dressed. She was right under a street light, and I could see her pretty well. She was wearing a very short skirt, fishnet stockings, and high heels. A bright red blouse, loose and clinging, showed off a pair of absolutely fantastic breasts, which were obviously unhampered by any undergarment. And her face was made up much more heavily and garishly than she could ever have possibly needed. Now I’m not the smartest, or most experienced, or astutest detective in the world, but I had a pretty good idea of where she was going and what she was doing, and I wanted to see if I was right.
    A cab came along and she flagged it down and got in. I followed the cab uptown to 48th Street and Broadway, where she got out and paid it off. She went to the corner and stuck out her leg. Within five minutes a man stopped to talk with her.
    I followed them up the block to one of those cheap hotels where they rented the same room ten times a night. She and the guy went in. He was out twenty minutes later, and she was out in twenty-five. She headed back to Broadway.
    I had the whole setup now, and it was just what I had figured. Without Gutierrez to keep her in drugs, she had to make it on her own, so she was tricking to get enough money to score.
    I wondered if she knew anything that could help me. I realized it would have been the easiest thing in the world to make the contact. I had 150 bucks in my pocket I’d saved from the casino. All I had to do was walk up to her and say, “Hi.” I mean, I’m human, for God’s sake, and she sure did have glorious boobs. But, on the other hand, I’d probably catch something. In fact, with my luck, I’d probably catch everything. How would I explain it to my wife? Herpes, syphilis, and crabs, all caught in the line of duty. I’d probably get AIDS too, as a sort of bonus.
    I sat in my car and watched Rosa work the street. She was good at it. She had no trouble hooking them, and no trouble getting rid of them either. In the next hour and fifteen minutes she turned three more tricks. That must have been enough, because the last time she came out of the hotel, instead of taking up her position on the corner, she went straight to the pay phone and made a call. I wasn’t anywhere near close enough to hear what she was saying,