Robert Parker: Death in Paradise

"How did you know Billie Bishop was a girl?" Kelly said.

Garner opened his mouth and closed it. He looked at his bottle of diet Sprite. He looked across at the counter man. Both cops were silent. Garner drank some diet Sprite. He looked at his watch.

"I… I don't have anything to say."

"Where do you live?" Kelly said.

"Cohassett."

"Where in Cohassett?"

"Jerusalem Road."

"Where Gino Fish lives," Kelly said.

"I live with Gino."

"You his new tootsie?" Kelly said.

"We have a relationship," Garner said.

"I'm glad for you," Kelly said.

"And you work for him?" Jesse said.

"Yes."

The cops didn't say anything.

"Why?" Garner said.

"Why what?" Jesse said.

"Why are you asking about Gino?"

Jesse took a small notebook from his pocket and thumbed through the pages for a moment.

"You used to live in Brighton?" Jesse said.

"Yes."

"Market Street?"

"Yes. But I moved last year."

"In with Gino," Jesse said.

"Yes. There something wrong with that?"

"You remember your phone number in Brighton?"

"Five six… something."

Jesse read it to him.

"Could be it," Garner said. "You know how many numbers you have these days."

Jesse read another number. "How about that one?" he said.

"You must have checked that. It's my number at work."

"In Gino's office," Jesse said.

"Yes."

Again they were silent. The diet Sprite bottle was empty. Garner looked at the door.

The poor bastard , Jesse thought. He came in here, feeling good, going to have a nice piece of pizza, and now he's fucked and he knows it .

The silence got longer.

Finally Garner said, "What do you want?"

"We want to know what happened to Billie Bishop," Jesse said.

"I don't know anything about that."

Jesse looked at Kelly. Kelly sighed.

"Here's what we got," Kelly said. "We got you for procuring. We got you for living off the earnings of a prostitute. We got you for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Probably several minors."

Garner shook his head slowly as Kelly spoke.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said.

"We got a statement from Dawn Davis. We got a statement from T. P. Pollinger. We have your ass," Kelly said.

"I want a lawyer," Garner said.

"Sure," Kelly said. "As soon as we arrest you."

"Maybe we can work something out," Jesse said.

"Work out my ass," Kelly said.

"Maybe he can help us," Jesse said.

"Fuck him," Kelly said.

"I want to know who killed Billie Bishop," Jesse said.

"I don't know," Garner said. "I honest to God don't know."

"Maybe you killed her," Kelly said.

"No."

"Maybe we could hang it on you anyway," Kelly said.

"No."

"Maybe," Jesse said, "what we need to do is to discuss this with Gino."

"Gino?" Garner said.

"Sure. Since you were using his phone number, I figure you were doing it for him."

"Gino's got nothing to do with this."

"Really? You mean he doesn't know you're running an escort service for pedophiles out of his office?" Jesse said.

"Gino has nothing to do with this," Garner said.

He looked scared.

"So, if he doesn't know," Jesse said, "and we tell him, maybe he'll be grateful and help us with our case."

"Tell Gino?"

"Sure," Jesse said.

Garner looked around the room. It was 2:20 in the afternoon. The counter man was talking through the serving window to the pizza chef. No one else was in the restaurant.

"No," Garner said.

"No what?"

"You can't tell Gino."

"Why not?"

"He'll kill me."

"What a shame," Kelly said.

Garner looked around the room again, as if he were looking for a way out. The two cops sat quietly. Jesse could hear Garner's breathing.

"If I tell you what I know," Garner said, "can you give me a break?"

"Of course," Jesse said.

"And Gino doesn't have to know."

"Mum's the word," Jesse said.

"It started as nothing," Garner said. "A girl tried to pick me up. She was a kid. And I knew a guy liked kids, so I started talking to her and one thing led to another and I figured maybe she could use a little management."

Garner fiddled with his empty bottle.

"She a runaway?" Jesse said.

"Yes. Was staying at the shelter in JP with the nun. So I started setting her up with guys," Garner said. "And we'd split."

"How much did she get?" Kelly said.

"I did all the work," Garner said. "Took all the risks. Paid the rent, bought the clothes and makeup. All she had to do was have sex for half an hour or so."

"So what'd she get? Ten cents on the dollar?"

Garner shrugged.

"So that was working pretty good, and I thought, hey, why not expand?" Garner smiled. "The American way, you know?"

"And…" Jesse said.

"I specialized. Young girls seem to like me. I'm fairly attractive, you know. And I don't seem threatening. So I started to, um, cull them from the shelters, and clean them up and… put them in touch with clients."

"And Gino didn't know."

"It was before I met Gino."

"When you were still living in Brighton."

"Yes."

"And when you moved in with Gino, you didn't want to give up your career."

"I think it's important," Garner said, "for a boy to have an independent income."

"Billie Bishop work for you?" Jesse said.

Kelly had leaned back in the booth with his arms crossed, looking without expression at Garner. His gaze was steady.

"Yes. I met her at the shelter."

"She know you were in another program?" Jesse said.

Garner smiled.

"I'm in both programs," he said.

"Doubles the odds for a date," Kelly said, his stare steady on Garner.

"So the girls, like Billie Bishop, thought maybe you were their boyfriend," Jesse said.

Garner nodded.

"Tell me about Norman Shaw," Jesse said.

Garner sat back in the booth as if he'd been shoved.

"Norman Shaw?"

Jesse had his forearms resting on the tabletop, leaning toward Garner as he talked.

"Who's Norman Shaw?"

Neither Kelly nor Jesse spoke. Both sat as they had been sitting and waited.

After a long silence, Garner said, "You mean the writer?"

Jesse made a brief smile. Garner looked as if he might be ill.

"I guess he's a friend of Gino's," Garner said.

"Un-huh."

Jesse raised his forearms from the table and put his clasped hands against his chin. Kelly was stone still.

"Can you keep me out of this?" Garner said.

"Absolutely," Jesse said.

"I don't have to testify? Nothing?"

" 'Course not," Jesse said.

Garner looked at Kelly. Kelly winked at him.

"I fixed Billie up with Mr. Shaw," Garner said.

"Gino know?"

"Yes. Favor to Mr. Shaw. I told him Billie was just a kid I knew."

"So Gino didn't know she was a hooker."

"I don't know what Gino knew."

"He know you were her pimp?"

"No. Absolutely not. I didn't take a dime from Mr. Shaw."

"When did you give her to Shaw?" Jesse said.

"First time? Beginning of the summer."

"You have any idea how she came to get killed?" Jesse said.

"Ohmigod, no," Garner said.

"You think Gino would know?"

"No. I don't know. Gino doesn't know. You can't ask him. You promised."

Neither cop spoke. The sound of Garner's breathing was loud and ragged.

Then Kelly spoke.

"You'll have to come over to the station," Kelly said. "Make a statement."

"You promised."

Kelly smiled and nodded at Jesse.

"Just a formality," Kelly said. "We need to cover ourselves."

"I wouldn't want Gino to know," Garner said.

Kelly didn't say anything.

"Nobody's going to know, right?" Garner said.

"Certainly not," Jesse said.

Garner looked uncertain. The two cops were quiet.