Fall Guy

nodded, happy not to have to invent a cover story myself.
    „Or was it something else?“
    „What do you mean?“
    „Whatever you slipped into the back of your jeans, doll. My address book, is it?“
    „Shit.“
    „And the reason you took it is?“
    „I need the last names of“—tilting my head toward the poker table—“your buddies.“
    „You ever thinking of asking, doll?“
    „No, actually, I didn't.“ I pushed the cup away, teached my hand behind me, pulled out the address book and put it down on the table. „That's not true. I did think of asking.“
    „And?“
    „I was afraid you'd mention it to the wrong person.“
    „And which person would that be, doll?“ He pulled a cigarette out of the pack in his shirt pocket, began patting his pant pockets looking for matches.
    I took the Hotel Riverview matches out of my pocket and lit one, holding it near the tip of his cigarette.
    „I don't know which person that would be, Irwin. That's the problem.“
    He hopped down from the chair, walked over to where I was sitting, put his hands on the edge of the table. „But you're thinking that whoever it is..
    „I am.“
    He pointed toward the phone book. „Be my guest, doll.“
    He walked out of the kitchen. I opened his address book to the beginning and began paging
    through it. None of the names I wanted were there, not even the first names. I got up, carried the book into the living room and put it on the poker table.
    „I'm disappointed in you,“ he said. „That you'd think so little of me. I'm short, doll, not stupid.“
    „How did you know?“
    He walked back toward the kitchen, pointed up to a mirror in the comer of the room, near the ceiling, the kind you see in stores so that the clerk at the register can see who's in the aisles, and what they're doing.
    „Do you think I'd let those deadbeats into my home if I couldn't keep an eye on them?“
    „I feel so foolish,“ I said. „I should have been honest with you.“
    „Always the best policy,“ he said. „But you can make it up to me.“
    I didn't ask how. I wasn't that foolish. He decided to tell me anyway.
    „You could go to bed with me, doll. That would square things.“ Smiling now.
    „I could,“ I told him. „But the minute you were finished you'd be telling me you're out of clean socks. Next you'd tell me I could stand to lose ten pounds. You'd start telling me what I could and couldn't do, what I should think, who I should vote for, as if any of that was any of your fucking business. Makes me think it's not the best idea in the world.“
    „Too much caffeine today, doll?“ He tossed his cigarette into the sink, where it made a hissing sound. „So now what?“
    I shrugged.
    „You're giving up?“
    „Yeah, I am. I'll leave it where it belongs.“
    „With the cops?“ He snorted, shook his head from side to side. „Bull.“
    „No, really. I'll finish up with Tim's apartment in the next couple of days, sign whatever paperwork the lawyer sends me and look for some respectable work.“
    His hand came up, the palm toward me. „Don't try to kid a kidder, doll. It never works.“
    „You got mirrors somewhere else, too?“ I asked. „You think you can see into my mind now?“
    „More than that, doll, more than that.“
    For a moment we just stood there, glaring at each other. When I walked to the door, he walked back to the kitchen. I didn't say good-bye. Neither did he.
    I was tired and hungry and needed to get the sour taste of failure out of my mouth. As I passed the building on the corner, I noticed that the Dumpster was gone, hauled away, I guessed, by the police to check every piece of debris in it.
    It was one of those steamy afternoons when the air is thick and still, not enough breeze to get the sweat to evaporate off your skin. I headed for Hudson Street, trying to keep in the shade as much as possible. When I was a block from home, my cell phone rang.
    „You called?“ he said.
    „Yeah, I was wondering if there's any news about Parker.“
    „Not yet. These things take time.“
    I had always been under the impression that most of the successful work after a homicide happened within the first forty-eight hours. Time was the enemy in a case like this, but once again, I didn't say what I was thinking.
    „I was just sort of going over things in my mind,“ I said.
    „And?“
    „Well, I was thinking about that guy Parker said he was supposed to meet the morning Tim died.''
    „Fred?“
    I inhaled so loud he asked