Scam

kind of hard to miss.”
    “Even so. It’s all a matter of knowing where to look.”
    “Yeah. But that’s not exactly the sort of thing one should be admitting now, is it?”
    “Gee, MacAullif,” I said. “I’m surprised to find you got the time to fool around.”
    “Oh, loads of time,” MacAullif said. “I’m stuck here another half hour waiting for a ballistics report, and I’m caught up on my paperwork. One of the perks of bein’ a sergeant is I can more or less do what I please.”
    “I’m happy for you.”
    “Yeah. You want to elaborate on your big tit comment, or was that merely a joke?”
    “That’s the straight goods. The talent agent’s skipped out, and no one can find the topless dancer. The bartender and I spent the afternoon going through her files.”
    “See anything you liked?”
    “I didn’t see the girl. Which doesn’t mean she wasn’t there. I’m not great on faces. She puts a wig on, dyes her hair, or maybe even combs it different, I could have looked right at her and never had a clue.”
    “Kind of tough for a private detective,” MacAullif said. “It’s lucky you have so many qualities to compensate.”
    “I was wondering how long it would take to get around to a discussion of my qualifications.”
    “You’re the one brought the matter up.”
    “Guilty as charged. Anyway, I had no luck at all. And neither did the bartender.”
    “What about the place where she works?”
    “They hired her through the agent. Paid her through there.”
    “The agent must have a bank account—what about that?”
    “It’s a business account with a business address.”
    “Tough luck.”
    “Yeah,” I said. “You fuck his wife?”
    “Huh?”
    “The cop. Belcher. You two don’t look like best of friends.”
    “You might say.”
    “Care to fill me in?”
    MacAullif leaned back in his chair, exhaled. “You know, I can’t win with you. I’m not involved with this case. I’ve done no work on this case. Aside from what you told me, I don’t know a thing about it. If I wasn’t your damn alibi witness, I’d be out of it altogether.”
    “At least you seem to have gotten over being angry about that.”
    “Well, you say you didn’t do it. Didn’t know he was dead when you came to me. While I wouldn’t put it past you, I wouldn’t expect you to flat out lie about it. So you tell me it didn’t happen, I gotta believe.”
    “Uh-huh. Well,” I said, “we’ve talked about everything else. You wanna talk about the cop?”
    “Patty Devlin.”
    “Huh?”
    “It happened over Patty Devlin.”
    “You fought over a woman?”
    MacAullif made a face. “Don’t be dumb. Patty Devlin was a hooker sold crack.”
    “What?”
    “Hell of a combination, huh? Anyway, Patty Devlin was a white broad hookin’ without a pimp. Not a particularly secure position for a young woman to find herself in. She got beat up a lot. She got busted a lot. Not that she wouldn’t have if she’d had a pimp. Still, there would have been a sense of stability in her life. She’d have known who was beating her up.”
    “You’re a cynical son of a bitch, aren’t you?”
    “Wait’ll you hear the story. Anyway, she’s a hooker getting busted on a regular basis. Turns out she’s getting knocked down for drugs as often as she is for sex. Anyway, she gets busted with two johns for a sex and drugs party. They’re smokin’ crack, and bangin’ her six ways from Sunday. Free for all, both at once, get high, pick a hole, and hop on.
    “Well, the cops bust it up and drag everyone downtown. And who should one of the johns be but Eddie Martinez.”
    “Who’s Eddie Martinez?”
    “Eddie Martinez is the son of Alberto Martinez, and Alberto Martinez is a cop.”
    “Aha,” I said.
    “Yeah. Aha.”
    “Would there be any connection between Alberto Martinez and Sergeant Belcher?”
    “Good guess. At the time, Sergeant Belcher happened to be partnered with Alberto Martinez.”
    “So what happened to the kid?”
    “The charges were dropped. No big deal. Charges were often dropped. They were dropped against the other john, and the hooker too. The whole thing was thrown out.”
    “How do you know this?”
    “It got around. Story like that gets around. Cop’s son busted. Case disappears. Juicy bit of gossip.”
    “I take it there’s more?”
    “Oh, yeah. Kid gets busted again. Eddie Martinez. This time it’s a little worse. Catch him with a kilo of coke.”
    “A kilo?”
    “Sure. Just your average