“As long as it’s a copy, and her machine isn’t impounded.”
“This is like watching Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood,” I complained. “The standoff could go on all afternoon. I’ve got to get to my office, so I’m going to leave you two to sort it out; Mr. Contreras will be Eli Wallach. He’ll let me know which one of you gets the gold.”
Conrad gave a grunting little laugh. “Okay, Ms. W., okay. I’ll let your boyfriend monitor the files, but I get to choose what I copy. Or my detective does. Her name is Kathryn Lyndes; she’ll be at your home in ninety minutes.”
The mayor was riding hard on this case, if Conrad could guarantee a detective running all the way from South Chicago to Evanston at a moment’s notice.
“Marcena’s father must be something pretty important if the consul is making the mayor care about a South Chicago mugging. Do you think you could spare a resource for someone who isn’t connected? I told you I was looking for Josie Dorrado when I found Marcena and Bron. She still hasn’t turned up, and I’m out of ideas.”
“Tell the mother to go down to the precinct and file a missing persons report.”
“And someone will jump right on it and start scouring the abandoned buildings and vacant lots?” I was scornful.
“Don’t ride me, Ms. W. You know what resources I have, and how tight I’m stretched.”
“Last week, you told me to butt out of South Chicago. This week, you don’t have the resources to look after the neighborhood.”
“Whenever you and I start to get along, you decide to open a machine gun on me,” Conrad said. “If I put you down last week over that fire, can you blame me?”
I took a breath: a who-said-what fight was a losing battle for everyone. “Okay, Conrad, this isn’t an attempt to put a machine gun on you, but have you found out anything about the fire? Who set it, or even why they were after Frank Zamar?”
“Nope. We don’t even know if Zamar set it and couldn’t get out of the building on time, although I don’t believe it. If the place had burned down last summer, when his business was slumping, it’d be a different story—he’d done a ton of business with By-Smart when everyone had to have an American flag; he’d even added an owl shift, and taken on a debt load with some fancy new cutting machines. Then that contract stopped abruptly and he had to shut down the owl shift. But not long before the fire, he’d signed a new contract with By-Smart to do a line of flag sheets and towels.”
Sleep at night on Old Glory and in the morning dry your bottom with the flag. In its way, it seemed as outrageous as burning, but what did I know? Was that the second job Rose had taken? Running the towel factory for Zamar? Why was she so defensive and secretive about it—it seemed perfectly legitimate.
I shook my head, unable to figure it out, and said to Conrad, “Just so you know, the Carnifice guy looking for Billy the Kid, he does have a lot of resources. I think Josie Dorrado is with Billy. The Bysen family has cast her in the role of blackmailing wetback trying to squeeze money out of Billy. I’d hate for her to get hurt.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Ms. W., I’ll keep that in mind.” Conrad spoke heavily, but he did scrawl something in his pocket notebook. I’d have to be content with that.
Morrell limped out of Mr. Contreras’s apartment with me. “I’m going to catch a cab home right now so I can look at some things before Rawlings’s detective arrives. You going to be okay?”
I nodded. “Desk work is all I’m good for today. Are Marcena’s parents flying in?”
“The Foreign Office is trying to find them—they’re inveterate trekkers, and right now they’re in a remote part of India.” He smoothed the hair out of my eyes and kissed me. “We had a dinner date last night, darling, but you stood me up. Should I trust you with a second chance?”
Conrad came out at that moment, and, against my will, I felt my cheeks grow hot.
31
The Walking Wounded
My office had a forlorn, abandoned feeling to it, as if no one had been inside it for months. My footsteps echoed off the floor and seemed to bounce around the walls and ceilings. Although I’d stopped by two days ago, I wasn’t really working here these days—I was just dropping in between treks through swamps.