Dirt

know how
I
felt about it.”
    “Coming from you, I consider it a great compliment.” She held the towel between her legs, rubbing thoughtfully for a moment, staring into the middle distance.
    Stone breathed more deeply, to keep from breathing faster; he shifted some covers to hide his rising interest. “Would you like a hair dryer?” He wanted to keep her naked for as long as possible.
    “No thanks; it’ll dry soon.”
    “Will it look the way it looked the first time I saw you?”
    “Pretty much; it behaves well. I get it cut every couple of months; that’s about it.”
    “Amazing,” he said.
    She laughed. “You’re exhibiting an awful lot of control for a man who’s in the same room as a naked woman he finds beautiful, Or is it disinterest?”
    “It’s an awful lot of control,” he said, honesty.
    She laughed again. “I’m impressed.”
    “So am I.”
    There was just a moment’s hesitation; then, before he could decide what to do, she picked up her jeans and slipped them on, not bothering with underwear. “I’m sorry if I was maudlin last night,” she said.
    “Don’t worry about it,” Stone replied.
    She followed the jeans with her black turtleneck sweater, then she picked up her underwear and stuffed it into a large handbag.
    “How about some breakfast?” he managed to say, sorry to see her breasts disappear and anxious to hold onto her a little longer.
    “Thanks, but I’m expecting a call from an editor this morning, and I don’t want to miss it. How about dinner instead?”
    “Gee, I’ll have to check my calendar.”
    She laughed aloud. “Seven, at my place; Ten-Eleven Fifth Avenue, dress sloppy.”
    “Seven it is.”
    “Dare I kiss you good-bye?”
    “Not unless you want to spend the day here.”
    “I’m gone,” she said, running for the door.
    The phone rang.
    “Hello?”
    “It’s Dino; the funeral’s at two o’clock, in Brooklyn; you want to ride with me?”
    “Two o’clock? That’s quick.”
    “Jews have to be buried within twenty-four hours, or something terrible happens, I forget what.”
    “Oh, right. Yeah, pick me up.”
    “One-thirty,” Dino said, and hung up.
     
     
    By noon a steady drizzle had enveloped the city, and by the time they left the synagogue a hard rain was falling. Stone sat in the back of the big Ford police car with Dino, while two young detectives took the front. The drive to Brooklyn was painfully slow.
    “Traffic always goes to hell in this city when it rains,” Dino said.
    “Yeah.”
    “You sure this business can’t be connected somehow with what you’re working on?” Dino asked.
    “I’ve thought about it again and again,” Stone replied, “and I don’t see how it could be. Arnie had finished the job with me.”
    “Arnie’s wife said he went to the movies yesterday afternoon, and he was planning to eat out; it was her bridge night.”
    “Does that sound like he was working for me?”
    “I guess not. I’m sorry to harp on this, Stone, it’s just that I don’t have anywhere else to go with it.”
    “Maybe it really was some stupid junkie.”
    “Maybe it was, but it just doesn’t sit right.”
    “I know; it doesn’t sit right with me, either.”
    “You know if Arnie was working for somebody else? Some other PI?”
    Stone shook his head. “He didn’t say anything about it if he was.”
    They drove on in the rain. As they crossed the bridge, the sky suddenly began to clear. They buried Arnie Millman in bright sunshine, under a cloudless sky.
    Stone stood at the graveside with fifty other cops and looked up to see Amanda Dart standing on the other side, at the rear of the crowd. When the service was over, Stone said to Dino, “I won’t need a ride home.” He hurried after Amanda, who was walking quickly toward her waiting car.
    “Hi,” he said, catching up to her. “Can I catch a lift back to Manhattan?”
    “Hello, Stone. Sorry, I’m not going back to Manhattan for a while; I have some business on this side of the river.”
    “I’m surprised to see you here,” he said. “Did you know Arnie Millman?”
    She nodded. “He was an occasional source for me.”
    “
Arnie
?”
    “Yes, and I liked him. Why are you so surprised?”
    “Somehow, he didn’t seem the type to be hobnobbing with newspaper columnists.”
    “Stone, Arnie didn’t hobnob with me; he called me on the phone when we had to talk. I really only met the man face-to-face on one occasion. Anyway, you would be amazed to know who some