Long Line of Dead Men by Block Lawrence

Author:Block, Lawrence. [Block, Lawrence.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2011-10-27T02:44:44+00:00

146

Lawrence Block

There wasn’t a lot to get. He’d gone over it repeatedly with detectives from Queens Homicide and the One-one-two, and he’d had close to five months to forget anything he might have left out. No, he hadn’t seen anybody suspicious in the neighborhood. No, he hadn’t spotted Alan Watson earlier on, heading home from the bus stop. No, he couldn’t think of anything, not a damn thing.

‘‘How come you’re checking now?’’ he wondered. ‘‘Do you have a lead?’’

‘‘No.’’

‘‘Are you from a different precinct or what?’’

He’d assumed I was a cop, an assumption I’d been perfectly willing for him to make. But now I told him I was private.

‘‘Oh,’’ he said. ‘‘But you’re not with Q-C, are you?’’

‘‘Queensboro-Corona? No, I’m independent.’’

‘‘And you’re investigating a mugging in Forest Hills? Who hired you, the victim’s widow?’’

‘‘No.’’

‘‘Somebody else?’’

‘‘A friend of his.’’

‘‘Of Watson’s?’’

‘‘That’s right.’’

He caught the waitress’s eye and ordered another beer. I didn’t much want another Coke but I ordered one anyway.

Shorter said, ‘‘I guess people with money see things differently.

I was just thinking how if a friend of mine got stabbed on the street, would I hire detectives to find out who did it?’’ He shrugged, smiled. ‘‘I guess not,’’ he said.

‘‘I can’t really talk about my client.’’

‘‘No, I can understand that,’’ he said. The waitress brought the drinks and he said, ‘‘I guess it’s your own policy, then. Not drinking on duty.’’

‘‘How’s that?’’

‘‘Well, like if you were a cop, you wouldn’t be drinking on duty. Or private, either, if you worked for somebody like Q-C.

But working independent, you can judge for yourself whether you should be having a drink or not having a drink, right? So you’re ordering Coke, I figure it has to be your own policy.’’

‘‘Is that what you figure?’’

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