Be selfish all you want. Just keep me safe. There wasnt any chance, of course, and he was realistic and honest enough, especially with himself, to know it and that was one of the reasons I liked him. It was also why I decided to tell him the truth. Or what, after nearly four years of thinking about it, I believed to be the truth, which was what would have to serve. A party at a friends house. So, Mason said, you then remember something you have to telephone about. You get out of your car at a telephone booth. You telephone the Drake Detective Agency. Heres the number. Ive written it on one of my cards. You ask for Paul Drake. You tell him who you are. Now then, Paul Drakewill tell you where to drive. You drive to this address, stop at the first available parking space, park your car and get out. I see it, Dino said. Its right there. You dont need any, Mason told him. Youre an officer of the law-but if theres a bullet up there, Sheriff, you’re going to have to get on the witness stand and tell about finding it and getting it out and account for any scratches or mutilations. It may be vitally important to determine what gun fired that bullet Youd be surprised what I learned at Catholic school. And if some of this evidence was planted, then it all could have been. The prosecution is going to abide by its original theory of the case. After Ive listened to it. Relationships like that arent allowed at Cowl and Comely, said Devine. That gets you fired. Yeah, I remember that one, too. She was some goombahs girlfriend. She was playing a waitress at some joint downtown when these two guys came in. She opened a bottle of wine, and while one of them was tasting it, she put a round in both their heads. Army green pours through everypore I have. Whats up? London is running eight weeks right now. For the next fifteen minutes I walked around. I overheard policemen, average people, reporters. Every once in a while you hear useful things this way. In my army days Id worked briefly out of Honolulu, where a man whod been an informant for us had been stabbed to death on the beach at night. Id been following him but was waylaid by a major traffic accident. By the time I got there, he was dead. But there’d been a party on that section of beach that night so I’d walked around, listening to people talk. A young woman had complained to her friend that a man had practically knocked her down as she was leaving the restroom and her shoulder hurt badly. I’d got his description and we were able to find the killer two days later. I was Brad Cowls girlfriend. Id already quit. Oh, Your Honor, Gloster said, I...