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dead.”
    Alice shook her head. “Stanley.”
    “Alice, if my client’s not dead—”
    “You would have paid a hundred bucks to find out he was the one who hired her. Which was what he was trying to keep you from finding out.”
    “Right.”
    “Think he would have reimbursed you for doing that?”
    “No, I don’t. But I think it would have been worth a hundred bucks to find out I was being set up.”
    “Why? What could you have done?”
    “I don’t know. The problem is, it makes no sense. Even before he’s dead. I paid a hundred bucks to find an answer. Turns out he’s the answer. But it’s the wrong answer. And it doesn’t make sense.
    “Okay, that was a little unlucky. Now I go and ask him to explain it for me and he’s dead. This is very unlucky. And makes even less sense. Yes, I’m a hundred bucks down at this point, but that would seem to be the least of my worries.”
    “Have you seen our bank balance lately?”
    “Alice.”
    She put up her hand. “Okay, I’ll drop it. But answer me this. Say the guy wasn’t dead when you went up there to talk to him. To tell him what you found out, that he was the guy.”
    “Yeah?”
    Alice shrugged. “What could he possibly have said?”
    Exactly.

24.
    R ICHARD WASN’T ANY MORE SYMPATHETIC than Alice. Of course, he also had an ax to grind.
    I’d stopped by the office to explain I was involved in a murder investigation, which might make it necessary for me to pass on some of his cases.
    Naturally, this did not thrill Richard. His position was I was working for him, and the police could go fuck themselves. This was not, by the way, my impression of his opinion—those happen to be his exact words.
    “Richard,” I said. “This is a little more complicated than you might think.”
    “Complicated? How is it complicated? You had a client, the client’s dead, now you have no obligation at all.”
    “I’m a witness.”
    “Big deal. So you get on the stand and you tell what you know. And you don’t have to hold anything back because you’re not protecting anyone.”
    “I’m protecting myself.”
    “From what? You didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “Well …”
    “Did you?”
    “No.”
    “There you are.”
    I took a breath. “There are complications, Richard.”
    “What sort of complications?”
    “For one thing, MacAullif.”
    “What about him?”
    “I went to see him before I found the body.”
    “So you said. Would you mind telling me why you did that?”
    “Actually, because you’d gone home.”
    “What?”
    “I wanted to talk to you about it. MacAullif was a second choice.”
    Richard cocked his head. “Should I take that as a put-down, or am I supposed to be thrilled to be first?”
    “You can take it any way you like. I’m just telling you how it was.”
    “So what’s the big deal with MacAullif?”
    “He has a problem with the officer in charge.”
    “A problem?”
    “They don’t seem to like each other.”
    “Why not?”
    “I have no idea. I didn’t have a chance to talk to him. They ran into each other at the crime scene, it was like MacAullif was banging his wife.”
    “Oh, come on.”
    “I tell you, the two guys don’t like each other. What it does to me, I can’t begin to sort out. Same thing with MacAullif. Who might wind up as my alibi witness, if it turns out the guy was killed while I was talking to him.”
    “That could be sticky.”
    “Sure could. And imagine if I’d been able to get a hold of you.”
    Richard thought that over. “Well, thank goodness for small favors. So, what were you going to ask me if you’d managed to reach me yesterday and made me your alibi witness?”
    “I was gonna ask you for advice.”
    “Advice?”
    “Yes.”
    Richard put up his hand. “Pardon me, but weren’t you just in here asking me for advice?”
    “That was different.”
    “Different? It’s exactly the same. You thought your client was bamboozling you with a phony extortion letter.”
    “Which he was.”
    “Right. And I advised you to call him on it.”
    “Which I did.”
    “And the guy caved in and admitted it was his letter.”
    “Right.”
    “And here’s round two. Second verse, same as the first.”
    “Not exactly.”
    “You want to point out a difference?”
    “Sure. When I called him on the extortion letter, he had an explanation. It wasn’t a great one, but it was an explanation. He was trying to motivate me to find this girl. Pretty stupid, but say it’s true. At least he’s got a