"We don't know."

"Maybe you ought to find out, hm? Be nice to know. Who are you quoting?"

"Betty Young."

"It was our informer who led us to the gay guy, by the way."

"You think that's why he got killed?"

202.

"Not according to Betty Young."

"That's twice."

"Former girlfriend of one of the shooters."

"Which one? The black guy they beat up Sat.u.r.day night?"

"No, the other one," Kling said. "Home in his own beddie-bye."

"Betty Young, right, I saw her on television. Winner of this week's True-Blue Ex Award. What does she say happened?"

"She says Danny ran off with the boss's c.o.ke."

"Who's Danny?"

"Our informer."

"Bad move, stealing the boss's c.o.ke."

"Stealing the boss's anything."

"Now he knows," Meyer said.

"In any case, they're not related," Nellie said.

"Except for the rope, maybe."

"Very slender chance that in this great big city . . ."

"Well, we think of them as sort of related."

"You want me to bring 'sort of charges against Cynthia Keating?"

"Way you're sounding," Brown said, "we can't bring any kind of charges."

"You want an indictment or a pa.s.s, which?"

"We think there's enough to take to a grand jury."

"They won't agree."

"One," Carella said, "she knew there was a twenty-five-thousand-dollar policy on the old man's . . ."

"Chicken feed."

"Plus," Carella went on, undaunted, "the copyright to a play she knew was being turned into a musical."

"Oh?"

"Yes."

"And she knew this before the old man got killed," Meyer said.

203.

Ed McBain "When did she find out?"

"In September sometime."

"And she sold the rights two weeks after he died," Kling said.

"For how much?"

"Three thousand bucks plus . . ."

"Give me a break."

"Plus six percent of the show's gross, split four ways."

"What does that come to?"

"One and a half percent each," Brown said.

"How do you do that?"

"Smart," Brown said, and tapped his temple.

"How much is the weekly gross?"

"On a hit musical? Enough," Carella said.

"Papa wouldn't let the rights go," Byrnes said. "The producer went to see him three times, finally asked the daughter to step in."

"Still said no."

"Why?"

"Protecting the original playwright."

"Nice."

"Or dumb, depending how you look at it."

"I say nice."

"Anyway," Carella said, "she knew she was going to inherit something that might bring in a whole lot of . . ."

"How do you know she knew?"

"She admitted it."

"So she killed him. You're saying."

"Yes. Well, she hired someone to kill him."

"Same thing. How was the old man's health?"

"Two heart attacks in the past eight years."

"Couldn't wait for him to die of natural causes, huh?"

"The show was already in progress. They'd hired a songwriter, a bookwriter . . ."

"She saw the thing slipping away."

204.

"So she hired this Jamaican to kill him. You're saying."

"That's what we're saying."

"Went all the way to Houston to hire a hit man, is that it?"

"Well. . ."

"He's from Houston, isn't that what you said?"

"That's our information, yes."

"A Jamaican," Nellie said. "From Houston."

"Yes."

"Didn't know there were any Jamaicans in Houston."

"Apparently, there are."

"My point is ... this woman's a housewife, right?"

"Yes."

"How the h.e.l.l would she know how to hire a hit man? In Houston, no less."

"Well. . ."

"Yeah, tell me."

"Well. . ."

"I'm listening."

n.o.body said anything.

"Tell me about this second murder. You think the housewife arranged that one, too?"

"No."

"Just the first one."

"Yes."

"So tell me about the second one."

"The Jamaican went partying before he flew home," Brown said. "Got into some kind of scuffle with this little girl does occasional tricks at a go-go joint downtown."

"What kind of scuffle?"

"Don't know. But he stabbed her."

"Why?"

"Some kind of scuffle."

"The old man was hanged, right?"

"Right. But Rohypnol figures in both cases. And 205.

Ed McBam we've got a witness who saw the girl with this Jamaican. He's got a distinctive knife scar on his face, he's easy to spot."

"So," Nellie said, "what we seem to have here is an old man killed for money, in effect, and a snitch killed for the same thing, in effect, and a go-go girl killed for we don't know what, but if she was turning tricks, we can euphemistically say love, which are two pretty good motives for murder, wouldn't you say, love and money? I would say so."

The detectives said nothing.

"All we need now is a fourth murder," Nellie said.

"Bite your tongue," Meyer said.