"Talk? aBou' what? I don't even know you."

Flashing her badge, she told him, "Now you do. I'm Detective Silvester and this is Detective Franco. I hear you might know somethin' about who capped Dread Knowledge."

The mope became agitated, dancing, claiming, "I don't know nothin' about that n.i.g.g.e.r. Ain't nothin' I can tell you."

"That's too bad. Then I guess I have to take you in on PV."

"Yeah, right." He laughed. "Ain't goin' in."

"You can come in, talk with me and leave, or you can come in wearing cuffs and not leave. What do you want to do?"

"Neither one."

The mope turned away. Frank stepped in front of him. As he moved around her Annie grabbed his arm, twisting it into the small of his back. But the mope wrenched his arm loose, taking his eyes off Frank to swing at Annie. In that instant Frank's knee connected with his crotch. The big man gasped and went down. He must have hit Annie because she was recovering from a stumble. Yanking her 9 millimeter free she whacked his elbow with the grip. It made a solid crack and he cried out. Annie yanked his arm back to lock the tie on and Frank jerked his other arm around, getting a twist on it. Annie was ready with a third and zipped the ties together.

The perp was curled on the sidewalk, trying to breathe. Annie bent toward his face. She panted, "Dumb, Irvin. Very dumb. You just bought a trip to jail for resisting arrest and a.s.saulting an officer." She tapped his head. "Very dumb."

When she straightened, pushing the hair back from her face, Frank saw her chin was swelling. "You okay?"

Two men in uniform ran up to them. Annie dabbed her chin. "Ouch. Dumb, Irvin. Very dumb." The cops yanked the mope to his feet and Annie told them, "He's all yours, fellas. We tied him up all nice and neat for you, just like a box of cannoli."

"Yes, ma'am."

Both cops were young and white. They glanced at the older women as they hustled Irvin into their unit.

"Sorry," Annie said, heading for her car. "Your interview's gotta wait."

Frank got in and buckled up, asking again if Annie was all right.

The b.u.mp on her chin had doubled but Annie grinned. "I'm gonna be sore tomorrow, I can tell you that. My chin stopped him but I took it all in my neck."

Annie gave her attention to the road and Frank relaxed. "You sure know how to show a girl a good time."

"Fun, huh? c.r.a.p, this hurts like a mother. I better get some ice on it."

"Pull over," Frank insisted.

Annie double-parked again and Frank darted into a deli. She got back into the car, tossing Annie a bag of frozen corn.

"Thanks." Annie held the vegetables against her chin.

"Shoulda got one for your neck, too."

"Yeah, no kidding. Hey, that was nice work out there."

Frank shrugged. "I like the elbow trick."

"Yeah. An old-timer taught me that. I was trying to wrestle this mope off a chain-link fence one day and this old fart from the backup unit walks up, goes whap-whap with his nightstick and that's that. He looks at me, disgusted, tells me, aGo home, little girl, leave this to the men.'"

"Yeah, I had a couple like that."

Because she had nothing better to do, for the next five, almost six hours, Frank watched Silvester and Meyers interview their man.

Meyers started off shaking his head. "Look what you did, Irvin. Hitting a woman. You oughta be ashamed a yourself. Didn't your mama teach you better than that? Huh? And then to let two ladies take you down like that?" Meyers chuckled. "Oh, man. I wonder what your boys are saying about that?"

"They ain't no ladies," the perp declared.

Silvester let herself in. She carried a soda and slid it across the table for Irvin. "No hard feelin's, huh?"

Irvin looked at the soda like it was a bomb.

"All right, honey. This has gotten way out of hand. I just wanted to talk to you. Word is you know something about Dread Knowledge. I was gonna go easy on your PV, I just wanted to talk, but you pulled a dumb on me. Now I know you ain't dumb, and you know you ain't dumb, so the smart thing to do is just answer my question. If you can do that we'll go easy on the charges. I just want you to help me fill in a couple details about Dread. We've got a possible suspect and you might be able to help us pin him down. Is that so hard?"

"Who ya suspect?"

Annie said, "You know Alphonse Kincaid. Where was he the night Dread got popped?"

"Alphonse Kincaid?"

Annie nodded and Irvin was off.

Kincaid was a rival for Irvin's turf and at the time of Dread Knowledge's untimely demise he was being booked on a larceny charge. Apparently Irvin didn't know this because he took the bait, firmly placing Alphonse at the scene. In painting the lie he admitted his presence at Dread's murder. Over the next couple hours Meyers and Silvester probed his inconsistencies, agreed with Irvin and questioned him so deftly that he believed he had the detectives fooled.

When Irvin admitted he'd been packing a Walther PPK at the murder scene, the lieutenant watching with Frank murmured, "Beautiful."

"That your weapon?" Frank asked.

He nodded, grinning at the gla.s.s. "That Annie. She's whipped cream with a cherry on top. But under all that sweetness?" He slapped his palms together. "A f.u.c.kin' bear trap. Christ, I could use a couple dozen a her."

Two hours after the Walther admission, the perp was signing a murder confession. Closing the interview door behind her, Annie danced into the squad room waving the signed paper. Frank clapped and Annie executed a low bow. She had st.u.r.dy, well-turned legs and the deep grace of her bow made Frank wonder if she was a dancer.

"You're good."

"You're d.a.m.n right I am, cookie."

Placing a small bottle of Advil on Annie's desk, Frank said, "Take a couple of these tonight. They'll help your neck."

Rubbing under her hairline, Annie replied, "Tonight, h.e.l.l. I'm taking one now." Dry swallowing a pill, she added, "Thanks."

"Just trying to make sure you don't call in sick on me. Want to try the cemetery again tomorrow?"

"You bet. I'll pick you up at nine."

"Okay."

Frank made to leave, but Annie called, "Hey. Thanks again for the collar."

"No sweat. It was fun."

"You California girls got weird ideas a fun."

CHAPTER 17.

Tuesday, 11 Jan 05-East Village Oh, yeah. We're having some fun now. Got to help Annie nail a perp today. f.u.c.ker took a swing at her when she tried to cuff him and I jammed him in the b.a.l.l.s. Dropped like a coconut and six hours later squealed like a pig. I watched her work him in the box. Very impressive. We were on our way out to the cemetery when she saw the mope, so will try again tomorrow.

So surreal to be at the Ninth. I keep thinking I'll see Uncle Al come around the corner, then we'll go next door to Cal's and he and dad will empty a pitcher.

I took a stab at the case folder. Way harder than I thought. This whole f.u.c.king thing's harder than I thought. You'd think after having this monkey on my back for thirty-six years Td be kind of resigned to it. Td pretty much accepted the idea that I was never going to find out who killed him. Especially after I became a cop and realized the odds of closing stranger-homicides. Eighty percent of the time there's a link between the vie and the perp that helps seal the deal, but when a stranger kills a vie a lot of time there's nowhere to go except around and around in circles. That's what I did for years after he died-mad-d.o.g.g.i.ng every lowlife on the street, wondering if he was the one, waiting every day for Uncle Al to knock on the door and say, " We got him!" And it just never happened.

Then I became a cop and had to deal with sh.e.l.l-shocked kids just like Td been. Had to break ugly news to wives just like my mother and after a while I tuned it all out. I learned to say and do the right things, but I didn't feel it anymore. I couldn't-it'd make me psycho to take on all that pain. So I pushed it away. And it got just as easy to push my own pain away. To drink it away and work it away. So now what? Now what do I do with it?

At first I was hooked in an abstract, professional way. "Gee, here's this thirty-six-year-old cold case and isn't this an interesting break?" Then I realized, holy f.u.c.k, this is my thirty-six-year-old case. This was me. My whole life. So Tm reading through the case fie this morning and bam! Tm ten years old again. What a pain in the a.s.s. And just like when I was ten, I want to find this guy. I want to look him in the eye and I want to hurt him. I want to smash him. Thing is, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d's probably dead. I mean he was a hope-to-die junkie, right? What are the odds he's still alive? So here lam, almost four decades later, still chasing ghosts. When's it gonna end?

Maybe when I find out who's been leaving that s.h.i.t for him.

Maybe not even then. I don't know. Feel like I've opened Pandora's box. Should have just left well enough alone and now it's too late to slam the lid shut. Christ. Oh, well. One day at a time, right? Done all I can do tonight. Wonder how Gail is. Td love to call her. h.e.l.l, Td love a lot of things-to catch a killer; solve a mystery for Annie; have a gla.s.s of wine with dinner; have my lover back. What I got is a warm bed and a pretty good book. Need to break down and buy some reading gla.s.ses. d.a.m.n print's swimming all over. Gotta hold the book halfway to my knees to get it into focus. Life's a b.i.t.c.h and then you die. Had a vie once had that tattooed across his back. Thought it was funny at the time. Now Tm wondering how much that tattoo cost.

Tm tired. Going to bed. How can I be tired? Didn't do anything all day. Maybe making up for all those lost nights. Anyway, manana, with luck.

CHAPTER 18.

Buckling her seatbelt the next morning Annie informed Frank, "I gotta stop and talk to a witness first. Make sure she's gonna be in court next week. I'll only be ten minutes."

"Whatever."

"Whatevuh. Listen to you. Miss Patience. Couple days ago ya had ants in ya pants. What happened?"

Frank lifted helpless hands. "What am I gonna do? It's your case, right? We work it on your schedule, not mine. I know you got dozens more important cases to be working, so I'm glad for whatever you give me. I appreciate it."

Annie shot Frank a dubious look. At the light she pondered, "Thirty-six years and you're still lookin' for the mope that whacked your pops. He musta been a good guy, huh?"

Frank nodded.

"If it was my old man," Silvester agreed, "I'd be lookin' too. To give the mope a friggin' medal. Then to kick his a.s.s for not shootin' the son of a b.i.t.c.h before he had me. My pops, he shoulda been thrown in the East River the day he was born."

"Not so nice, huh?"

"He was an oiler, my old man. Couldn't hold down a job if you gave him a hammer and a box a nails. Drank away every paycheck he ever had. Never mind he had five kids to feed. My mother"- Annie crossed herself-"she's a saint. Raised us basically by herself. Throw in my old man and she was taking care of six kids. Sent three of us through college, workin' fourteen, sixteen hours a day. She'd come home some nights cryin', her feet hurt so bad. I'd rub aem for her. Put liniment on aem. I hated seein' her like that. Then she'd get a couple hours' sleep and be up before we were, making our breakfast, lunches already in little sacks she saved from work. A saint. A friggin' saint."

Annie checked the rearview mirror, the side mirrors. She scanned through the windshield and started the visual circuit all over again.

"She still alive?"

"Yeah. She lives with my brother Anthony over to Queens. His wife's a doll, G.o.d bless her. Took my mother in like she was her own. Yours?"

"Nah. Dead a long time."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Like your dad was to you, my mother was to me."

"How old were you when your dad died?"

"Ten."

"Well, that I'm sorry for."

Frank nodded. "Here we are anyway. Despite the odds. Two old broads carrying guns and badges."

Annie smiled. "We done all right, huh?"

"Pretty good. I wonder if we'd be here without them. Our pops, I mean."

Annie dropped another look on Frank. She shrugged, resuming her scan. "Maybe better, huh?"

"Who knows?" Frank used her hands to weigh her words.

"Good guy, bad guy? For a while, it coulda gone either way for me.

"You serious?"

"Yeah. The bad guy was quick, immediate gratification. But I saw who always got to go home at the end of the day and kept my sights on that. There were times, though, I wavered."

Pa.s.sing Tomkins Square Park, Annie pointed out the corner of 11th Street. "Back in the Seventies-I think it was aseventy-two- BLA ambushed two cops there. Foster and Laurie. Both of aem not even twenty-five yet. Foster was black, Laurie was white, but both of aem was blue."

"I know. Word spread around the projects faster than fire in a meth lab. I kited a bus up after school the next day. Kinda morbid, I know, but I wanted to see where it happened. I remember how quiet it was. Too quiet. Only people on the street were junkies lookin' to score. Everyone else was inside lookin' out."

Annie was incredulous. "You're from around here?"

Frank found her answer out the window. "Spent some time here."

"Whereabouts?"