Fall Guy

thought they were done with it. I thought that they'd released it. I thought that's why ...“
    Even the cops were allowed to lie to people in order to get the information they were after. What's good enough for New York's finest was surely good enough for me. „Like I'm going to tell them,“ I said, as sincerely as I could, „sorry, boys, it's not convenient. You can't come back, check around again, see if you missed anything.“
    I could see him thinking, trying to work out a way around this new information. The check came. He took out his pack of cigarettes, tapped the bottom, offered me a smoke. I took out some money, but Parker held up his hand. He reached into his pocket and took out some bills and counted them, scowling. „I'm a little short,“ he said, putting the money back in his pocket. „I'll grab it next time.“
    I paid the check and walked around to the outside of the fence to untie Dashiell's leash.
    I turned to leave, then turned back.
    „Did you go into the bathroom?“ I asked. „Or did you just stand in the doorway?“
    Parker stared up at me, then looked around at the other people eating there—young women with halter tops and work boots, couples with baby strollers next to their tables, a couple of guys with tattoos having beers. He got up and came out the exit, as I had just done, coming over to where I stood with Dashiell.
    „Let's get away from here,“ he said. „I don't think anyone else wants to hear this.“
    The air had cooled off a bit. The humidity was down and there was a breeze. Parker indicated the way he wanted to walk with a nod. We headed uptown, neither of us saying anything. In a moment, I saw where he was going. We walked into Abingdon Square Park, where I had once met the most unusual clients I'd ever had. The park was empty except for a homeless man and his shopping cart at the far end. We sat on a bench and Parker finally lit his cigarette.
    „Start with opening the bathroom door,“ I said.
    „The shower was running, the room all steamed up, the shower curtain closed. I think, shit, he's here. He's going to go ballistic when he finds out I broke the lock on the window to get in. I'm about to close the door, leave the fucking toothbrush and the razor, and I would have, except for the water coming over the lip of the tub. It's on the floor, about a half inch high, not quite enough to get over the door saddle. And it's red.“ He took a puff on his cigarette, blowing the smoke off to the side.
    „So what'd you do?“
    „I grabbed the towels first and threw them down on the floor so that I could walk in. I still got the shit all over my shoes. I pulled the curtain back and saw him. He was sort of crumpled, on his back, underwater. The gun was near his right hand. The wall, you don't want to know. Looked like fireworks, you know, starting in the middle and exploding out. Only it was blood and bone and brains.“ Parker shook his head and inhaled deeply on the cigarette. „I shut off the shower. I was going to move his foot and the washcloth off the drain, but it was way too gross in there to stick my hand in. Then I remembered that there was a plunger under the kitchen sink, so I went out and got that.“
    I pictured the wet, bloody footprints going from the bathroom to the sink and back.
    „I used the plunger to move the foot and the washcloth so the hot soapy red water could drain. It took me a minute or so, all that water holding it down. Then I called 911.“
    „And you packed your things while you waited for them.“
    „Fat lot of good that did me.“
    I wondered why he hadn't just grabbed his stuff and left. Perhaps he'd noticed Netty in the garden and knew he'd been seen. Perhaps he knew it would go worse for him if he fled. Perhaps he was really stunned by what he saw, going on automatic when he packed, that's what he'd come for, after all, not thinking clearly. And who could blame him if that was the case?
    „When the paramedics came, what happened next?“
    „The cops got there first, two young ones. The white one, he went into the bathroom and a minute later I heard him puking. Must have been right out of the academy, his first dead body in a bathtub.“ Parker grinned. „Looked like shit when he came out of there, even whiter than when he went in. So the black one, another jerk-off, he's like, 'You can't leave that shit in there, not if you want a job tomorrow.' At first, he didn't want to go back, see the body again. But he did. He picked up