Swan Dive

air, leaving him near enough for me to grab his tie. I yanked the shorter end down with my right hand, my left forcing the knot high and hard into his throat. His face bulged, both his hands scrabbling to the front of his collar. I let go of the knot, clamping both my hands on the insides of his wrists and pulling his hands apart to benediction width. I had a feeling my grip would outlast his air.
    Arnold probably couldn’t tell what I’d done, but as Paul and I danced around, she could see that he wasn’t getting the best of it. She let it go on for a while, Paul’s face and motions growing more grotesque by the moment. He started to buckle at the knees, and she said sharply. ”Enough, Cuddy, enough!”
    I let him go, and he wobbled down, enough consciousness left to allow him to loosen his own tie. He wrenched in fitful breaths, an asthmatic at a flower show.
    She said, ”That wasn’t pretty.”
    ”Neither is what Braxley’ll do to Hanna and Vickie if he doesn’t get his drugs back. I don’t want them hurt anymore from all this, but I can’t guard their house twenty-four hours a day. That leaves me with Braxley’s drugs as the lesser of two evils, Ms. Arnold, and if you can help out with that, you’d best do it soon.”
    Troller wheezed out some words. ”Chris... tides... is her lawyer... Go talk to the... bastard.”
    ”I wouldn’t be bad-mouthing your alibi, Paulie-boy.”
    Arnold said, ”What do you mean?”
    ”Christides told me he saw the Great White Hope there at some lawyer dinner up here while I was being slugged down in Boston.”
    Troller pulled himself into a chair. ”He’s lying.”
    I turned to look at him. ”What?”
    Troller worked his head around on his neck and swallowed like a kid taking castor oil. ”The dinner... got wrecked. Fire alarm... Barely had drinks before... everybody had to get out... Christides didn’t come back in for dinner.”
    ”What time was this?”
    ”What?”
    ”When the fire alarm went off.”
    ”Don’t know... The president... started some long-winded welcome... maybe six-fifteen, six-thirty.”
    Arnold said, ”What difference does that make, Cuddy? You told me you were hit a little after five.” I looked from one to the other. ”I don’t know.”

By the time I walked to my car, the adrenaline from dealing with Troller was fading, hunger rapidly replacing it. I settled for a touristy place on the harbor and had a mediocre burger with great french fries and two frosty drafts.
    I pulled up at the curb in front of Chris’s house at 1:45. His old Pontiac was parked at an angle in the double driveway, almost a warning to potential clients not to bother knocking on the office door. I pushed into the reception area.
    Cousin Fotis nearly drew down on me, reluctantly bringing an empty hand out from under his jacket and newspaper. He said, ”Office closed today.”
    ”Chris is expecting me.”
    He was trying to decide what to make of that when Nikos appeared in the connecting doorway to the house proper. The new arrival muttered something in Greek.
    Fotis said to me, ”Eleni say to wait here. He come.” I sat down, and Nikos disappeared into the house. I watched my friend read his paper for about five minutes before Chris nervously bustled through the doorway and headed straight for his inner office.
    ”Jeez, I’m sorry about not getting back to you, John, but I been swamped here.”
    I swung my head slowly, taking in the empty office. ”I can see it.”
    Chris didn’t react to the sarcasm. ”So, what’s up?”
    ”You heard from Hanna recently?”
    ”Hanna?”
    ”Yeah, Hanna Marsh. Remember, the widow of the guy I’m supposed to have killed?”
    ”C’mon, John, don’t start foaming at the mouth, huh? I told you, I been up to my—”
    ”Look, Chris, cut the shit, okay? I’ve been kind of up to my ears in this, too. We’ve got a major problem.”
    He moved his lips around a little, then said, ”This guy Braxley?”
    ”This guy Braxley.”
    ”Christ, John, he caught up with me yesterday.”
    ”He did?”
    ”Yeah, coming out of court. I park in the lot around the corner, two bucks cheaper, you know? Anyway, this guy Braxley and some other one smells like a rendering plant grab me, nobody else around, nobody’s ever around when you need them. They say Marsh had these drugs on him and now they’re gone and what did I think was going to happen to the guy who’s got them. They scared the shit out of me.”
    ”Chris, they beat