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Of course I&039;d have to look I was the boss It was my job to deal with this kind of disaster

Disaster it was An al his body to block the view of anyone passing, Derner reached in and flicked the light switch

Alan Caine had his back tomy lack of reflection

"Gimme a minute," I said from the side of my mouth, then stepped in and shut the door on hi myself, then I wouldn&039;t have to be alone in a rooot what I expected: talcurease paint, and sweat mixed with the stink of urine and crap Death had been brutal to Caine, and once relaxed, his body had given ith everything No sweet peace here

Fists in my pockets, I kept my distance Had to bend low to check his face What I expected: bloated and purple, broken blood vessels in his bulging eyes, tongue sticking out as though to offer a final opinion to the world

So that looked like a blue necktie but wasn&039;t ound tight around his throat, the middle part almost lost in the folds of violated skin Whoever had done it hadn&039;t wanted noise and was strong enough to le anywhere else; the only evidence of the violence was the body itself

"Dauy had been abusive, obnoxious, and alive not too o I hadn&039;t liked him, but to take the life out of another this swiftly and easily was just wrong Having killed as well as been killed, I understood how little effort was needed to do that which should be unthinkable We unite to build towers to the sky, make music and art to feed our souls, can sacrifice selflessly to help others, yet cling with a lover&039;s greedy passion to the to the lowest and darkest of our emotions Most of us don&039;t act upon that hate-driven force We resist

But for so on Caine&039;s neck Jewel had worn a blue dress I didn&039;t want her to be involved A quick check of the closet turned up nothing of similar color

Ah Coatrack by the door There was a blue satin s Saarment Same material Good But Jeasn&039;t off the hook entirely

The killer , but looking for so fired ht not be heard, or the sound ht way and it ht not have known that or possessed so suys in this outfit never ith anything less that a 38

Why not a knife, then? Plenty of theh to boost one and walk out Or bring your own

They can take tih You have to knohat you&039;re doing Hu even a razor-sharp blade through a couple of inches of e of a throat takes effort The victi around; the killer can get splashed with telltale blood

But strangulation, it&039;s very intiression of things shutting down as the life goes out of the body There&039;s no doubt about death If you have the strength and speed and cut off the blood to the brain quick, a few moment&039;s effort will do it After that, then only forty pounds of pressure to crush what needs to be crushed, and it&039;s over and done,up one of my hands, I lifted one of Caine&039;s by the shirt cuff and checked his ernails Small dark crescents were under those nails, but not dirt-bloodsle and left marks someplace on his killer&039;s body The wrists

Looked the rest of the small room over No cover, no place to hide Just me and what Caine had left behind of hi room at one time And Adelle Taylor And lots of others I knew by nahosts see what had happened in their sanctuary I stood and was dizzy fro another fit to sneak up from within, but it didn&039;t happen It was the air here The presence of death I didn&039;t have to breathe to be overwhelot on the other side of the door, azes

"Yeah," said Derner, apparently agreeing hatever he saw on my face

"Any ideas?" I asked

" &039;Bout what?"

"Who did it"

He shrugged "Try a phone book"

"Not good enough Show me your hands, both of you Push your sleeves up"

They were mystified Good

"We don&039;t shoot dope, Boss," said Stro

Derner was clean Stroed up and raw, but that was froht with Hoyle

His ar and scratches I needed these two to be in the clear On the other hand, they h the why of it was a h, but at the cost of collapsing in agony at their feet Bosses weren&039;t supposed to do that in front of the hired help

Until I knew better, I&039;d just have to keep shut "Who knows about this? Who found hio," said Strome

"Did he see anyone else in or out?"

"Nope I asked him special He knocked on the door, it opened, and he saw, then locked up and went for et Caine out of here," Derner advised, casting a glance up and down the hall "The next show starts soon, there&039;s no backup act-"

"Where&039;s Jewel Caine?" I asked

"What? His ex? She&039;s here?"

"She e opened Came back here to talk with friends See if she&039;s in with the dancers"

He did so, banging once on their dressing roo in No one screaative replies to his question

"She left just a little bit ago," so us up? Hey-"

He returned "You think she did it?"

Stroht"

"I don&039;t know," I said "We&039;ll figure that later Where&039;s the stage ot him, explained that Alan Caine had cohtly taking this to be the blanket explanation he would pass to others After that, we did so An apologetic announceiven to the house One of the dancers also sang, so she&039;d have to change to a gown and do so The other dancers had a hoofing routine already worked up that would pad the bill The s

"What if the audience wants a refund?" Derner asked me

"Give &039;em their money, we can afford it" We sure as hell wouldn&039;t be paying the star I turned to Stroot too rough I want to see him before we call the cops"

They were shocked "The cops?"

"You heard"

"But we can&039;t," said Denier

I alhtcraas already a favorite target for easy headlines; a murder under its roof just couldn&039;t happen Too many of the people here had records, and I wasn&039;t about to draw official attention toin the laas Gordy If I didn&039;t clean up this et hauled off by the cops He was in no shape to deal with even routine questions

I debated over which course to go with, and not for the first ti, "What would Gordy do?"

"All right," I said "We take care of it ourselves"

"Take care of what?"

None of us were virgins when it caave a collective jump at that mildly put question froroup, and no one had heard his approach "Take care of what, Fle?" he repeated

Now I kne Derner and Stroot a problem"

"What problem?" Kroun&039;s tone indicated he would like a full and truthful answer

I didn&039;t want to say it out loud, so I opened the dressing-rooo in

"That&039;s a proble to do about it?"

Strome said to me, "Boss, I can disappear him like the others and no one&039;s the wiser"

"No," I snapped

"The others?" asked Kroun

"Like Bristow," I said, to explain "We&039;re not duuy in pieces for fish food He can&039;t just mysteriously disappear, or we&039;d never hear the end of it He&039;s too faree Put hi He can&039;t be found in the club

We just say he walked away and stick to that and not know anything else The cops will come by and ask questions, but it won&039;t be on the saht if they knew he&039;d died here Strouys who can keep their yaps shut, and I et they ever did it"

"Right, Boss"

"He was killed with so jacket,else hewith him Make sure his wallet, keys, and stuff like that is on him Take his hat and overcoat, and don&039;t touch the tie around his neck Don&039;t just du, ht it Everyone wears gloves"

"Right, Boss" He went inside the dressing roo things for departure He would have to work quick before the body stiffened up

"Derner, find out where Caine hung his hat and case it Figure the best ti that won&039;t stand out No speeding, no busted lights, or whoever screws up will take the fall Anyone too stupid or too nervous is on their own"

"Right, Boss"

"I want to knoas where froe-as Evie Montana in the dancers&039; dressing room?"

"I didn&039;t notice"

"Find out I saw her follow Caine when his act was over Where is she now?"

Derner cut away to bang on the chorus dancer&039;s door again and looked inside He traded words, then withdrew, shaking his head at irls have seen her since the end of the first show They said Jewel came by to shoot the breeze She stepped outside to have a se"

"See if she&039;s still outside, then"

He tapped on Caine&039;s door, and Strori disturbing to him Derner explained anted, but Stroone froestured back toward the rooone"

I digested this a few seconds "Maybe the killer took it"

"Ya think?" Kroun put in "You&039;re sure it&039;s gone?"

Stro a place, and it&039;s a hard-to-miss coat Tan-colored vicuna Real flashy, expensive

So it"

"It&039;d be too hot an item Why else would they take it?"

" &039;Cause it&039;s cold?"

Kroun look at ood a reason as any It&039;ll o check the alley for Jewel Caine and see if you spot anyone du casual, but not wasting tiotten about ht to keep froone, and the hly dead I didn&039;t think either or even both working together would be strong enough to strangle him like that, so quickly As for motive well, Jewel had none to speak of; Caine alive meant money to her Unless my loan of forty bucks had taken the pressure off, and she&039;d co had led to another If so, then why had Caine turned his back on her? He liked baiting people face-to-face to enjoy their reaction Of course, he could have watched the reflection in the bigand put up otten to, anyway? The way she dogged hiht as well have been on a leash Had she seen him killed and run? That wasshe shouldn&039;t, she was dead, too

Derner went off to arrange details, leaving me and Kroun in the hall

"You handled that," he said, "like you had it written out on a chalkboard"

I shrugged "Just trying to anticipate If I left anything out, I wanna know"

We looked at each other a minute I knew for sure that Kroun hadn&039;t personally done it since he&039;d been inthe break in the show But Mitchell could havetime

"Where&039;s your boy?" I asked

"You think Mitchell pulled this?" Kroun didn&039;t seeered by the implied accusation, only curious

"He and Caine had a history, as it?"

"Damned if I know" The deadpan look e it rent

"How can you not know?"

"Mitchell&039;s job is to watch my back and run errands, I don&039;t need his life story for that"

"He was throwing looks at Caine"

"He does that for everyone You, too, I noticed"

"Yeah, but I&039;-rooled?"

"Yeah Quiet"

"Knives are quiet, too"

"No knife, or I&039;d have sot a half-assed reason against Mitchell, and I&039;ll admit it&039;s a possibility Who else is on your shit list?"

"A guy naht&039;s out"

"There must be others From what you&039;ve said there could be a hundred people all wanting Caine dead You said he owedout of his pay He was more valuable alive"

"Not to one person" Fro one, then shut the door

"That&039;s all it takes"

"Figure the cops are going to go in big on this," I said "Caine was popular Catch his killer fast, and they get approving headlines We gotta hand theirlfriend? There&039;s usually a das"

I told him why I didn&039;t think they were likely prospects

He was unimpressed "Maybe you haven&039;t seen hoorked up a woh I have, and it&039;s darown men and nearly win before the handcuffs were safely in place and we could call the cops on her Escott still had the scars Mine had healed "I don&039;t get that feeling here"

"Feeling Uh-huh" Kroun clearly didn&039;t think ht Just because I liked Jewel and thought Evie was cute was no reason to take theht as well add in the chorus girls and the band"

"The band was perforo find these two dames, have a talk, and settle it"

"Why are you so lathered to find the killer?" I asked

More of the deadpan stare "Why not?"

Couldn&039;t think of a reply to that one I&039;d rather have Kroun stay out of the way, but he was the big boss, and I still had to listen to hi able to influence hiotten too used to the luxury of being able to order people around

Derner caements were in hand, and he also had addresses for Jewel, Evie, and Hoyle "I&039; some of the boys for Hoyle You want him alive?"

"Yes Even if he didn&039;t kill Caine, he owes me for those damn tires What about Ruzzo?"

"Theythe &039;em in I need a car, too"

"Gordy&039;s is back, but Stroet another driver"

"I&039;ll drive e Make up whatever story you need for cover and uess what really happened"

Derner nodded, then reached in again fro up Apparently he didn&039;t like putting himself any closer to the dead man than the rest of us

Kroun and I left by the club&039;s back door The outside cold abruptly and painfully ed up on me like that, I didn&039;t stand a chance and nearly doubled over frout punch

"You okay? What&039;s the er side of the Caddy, looking over the roof atmy ass off," I muttered, and slammed in behind the wheel The keys were in their slot No need to worry about anyone thieving this car I tried to control the shaking to get it going

"Stop," Kroun said

I wasn&039;t used to being ordered, even when I kneas part of the job "What?"

He made no reply, just walked around and opened my door "Move over, I&039;ll drive"

"But-"

"Do it"

I did it

Kroun gave ot a fever or what? Only time I saw a man in your kind of shape he had the DTs You sick?"

"I donno Don&039;t feel sick" I hated that he was picking ured out the starter, put the car in gear, and we glided forward "Which way?"

"Left at the corner, then right"

He drove as directed, throwing a glanceGordy to the Bronze Belt Kroun fiddled with the heater and opened the vents wide Hot air breathed on s

"Better?"

"A little"

He looked unconvinced but kept it to hi"

"Fle, you don&039;t have DTs, St Vitus Dance, orYou knohat&039;s wrong"

"It&039;s probably the shot I had"

He threw a hostile glare remarkably similar to Mitchell&039;s "Shot There&039;s no etting to you, then your teeth would be chattering, too This has to do hat Bristow did to you"

I shook my head to mean I didn&039;t want to talk about it

"Yeah, and it&039;s got you bad I&039;ve seen guys just like you going right off the dock, but because they were in the War