Swan Dive

Mugged me beforehand, took my gun and used it. I want to find out who and why.”
    ”The cops still think it was you?”
    ”Reasonable people seem to differ on that.”
    She laughed, but the knife didn’t waver. ”Like I told you on the phone, I already talked to the cops. Both Homicide and a black guy from Narcotics. They didn’t seem to think I knew anything that mattered.”
    ”Mind answering a few questions for me anyway?” She brought the knife down to her lap. ”Go ahead,” without enthusiasm.
    ”I already talked with a man called Niño. His real name is—”
    ”I know who he is.”
    ”He’s arranging for me to talk with some of Teri’s...” I stopped.
    ”What’s the matter, you can’t say the words? I can. Some of her ‘hooker friends,’ you mean.”
    ”It’s not that. I just realized. All the police and Niño ever told me was her street name. I never heard them use her real name.”
    Goldberg bit her lower lip. She looked down at the knife and said, ”They never bothered to. Not even the cops when they were talking with me. Always just ‘the Angel,’ like she was some kind of car model you referred to like that.”
    I waited. She finally looked up and said quietly, ”It was Teri, actually. Or Theresa. Theresa Papangelis. That’s where she got the Angel part from.”
    ”Tomorrow I’ll be seeing some of the other women she knew through Niño. Can you tell me something about her they won’t?”
    ”I don’t know. We met at... this bar for women. Meeting is easier now than when I was younger. Back in high school my mother was always pointing me toward guys, especially the smart ones. But it’s kind of hard to care about the president of the biology club when you have your eye on the captain of the cheerleaders, you know?”
    ”How long ago did you meet her?”
    ”About a year. When Teri walked in that night, she was spectacular. Every head in the place turned to watch her. She came right over to me and sat down and said, ‘You have kind eyes.’ Just like that. We came home here, and I’d see her maybe every two weeks or so.”
    She stopped, so I said, ”Did she talk much about her life?”
    ”No. Not if you mean ‘the life.’ I didn’t even know... No, that’s not fair. She didn’t tell me for a month or so, but I guessed it from her clothes and the fact she would come to see me but I couldn’t come to see her. At first, I thought maybe she was married, but then she finally told me, and I wasn’t surprised.”
    ”Was she thinking about leaving it? Prostitution, I mean.”
    ”Not that she ever said. Just that...”
    ”Yes?”
    Goldberg flapped her hand. ”Just that she had this dream of becoming an actress. That she thought the life had taught her enough about how to act different than she felt, and that she thought that was better training for the movies than some drama school she’d gotten mail about.”
    ”She ever pursue the acting idea?”
    ”Not that I know of.”
    ”Niño told me that she was... wasn’t involved in anything he’d arranged for the night she was killed. Does that sound consistent to you?”
    ”Yeah. You were going to say she was ‘free-lancing,’ weren’t you?”
    ”Yes.”
    ”Thanks for trying to spare my feelings, but I did know she was a whore, you know?”
    ”I know.”
    ”I mean, whether she arranged it or Niño arranged it never changed what she was doing, did it?”
    ”I guess not.”
    Goldberg toned down a bit. ”She free-lanced a lot. I don’t think Niño really cared about that. He’s not exactly your stereotypical pimp.”
    ”Is that how she met Marsh?”
    ”I don’t know. I know she was really proud that she wasn’t just a party girl Niño set up with conventioneers. I think she... I think she had trouble with the law before she met Niño, and I think she liked the fact that her personal clients now were in banking and insurance and so on. Like it gave her status.”
    ”Ms. Goldb—”
    ”Reena, please. Don’t you think by this point you could call me Reena?”
    ”Sure. Reena, Marsh didn’t strike me as the kind of man who would pay for sex. More the kind who’d intimidate for it. I only met him a few days before he died, but I—”
    ”I know. The cops tried to get me to say I’d heard Teri mention your name, but she didn’t used to do that.”
    ”Do what?”
    ”Mention the name of her clients. To me, anyway. It was like a professional thing with her. Like confidentiality with a lawyer.”
    I