“Wait a minute! just a minute!” Lisa responded in confusion. “That’s not fair!”
“Why not? It was quite a dream. Very vivid. Very much a portent of what really did happen.”
“How do you know?” Lisa’s confusion grew, and she responded to it with still more aggression. “You weren’t there!”
“I played the tape of the session,” Durango explained softly. “Yessir, that was quite a dream you had.”
“But she didn’t have it!” Vance Thurmond interrupted loudly, as though he’d been trying to hold back and his voice had gotten away from him.
“Wait, Vance! Don’t get involved. Let me tell him.”
“Yes, let her tell me,” Durango agreed. “What does he mean you didn’t have the dream, Miss Bourbon?”
“Just that. You see, I made it up.”
“Made it up!” Dave Evers was on his feet, his face red with excitement, his eyes staring furiously at Lisa. “What did you do a thing like that for?”
“I just felt like it. I thought the group sessions were getting dull. So I decided to liven them up a little.”
“You — You—” Dave Evers was struggling to find his voice. “You deliberately sat there and got me all hot and bothered and upset with that lousy dream and it wasn’t even true! You lousy—!” He lunged across the table toward Lisa, his hands outstretched for her throat.
Durango grabbed him first and shoved him back in his chair. He stood over him so he wouldn’t try it again. “Take it easy,” he said soothingly. “So she made it up. Why should that get you so upset? Why should it bother you?”
“She almost drove me nuts with that dream,” Dave said through clenched teeth. “She and my lousy hot witch of a mother. All the sex-and none of it for me!” He buried his face in his hands. “None of it for me!” he said through muffled sobs.
Durango took a deep breath and pulled Dave’s head up by the hair. “Where did you go after you left home last night?” He shot the question at Dave fast and hard.
“Downtown.”
“How?”
“By subway.”
“What stop did you get off at?” Durango spat the questions at Dave fast, not giving him a chance to think up lies for answers.
“Ninety-sixth Street.”
“You were going to see Dr. Golden!”
“Yes. No. I was, but I didn’t.”
“Why were you going there?”
“I don’t know.” Dave was both frightened and hysterical.
“You were going to kill her!”
“Yes. But I didn’t! I didn’t!”
“But you were going to! Why?”
“Lisa’s dream. My mother. Dr. Golden. All women. None for me. I don’t know. It was all mixed up.”
“All mixed up,” Durango repeated. “And so you killed her. Just like you wanted to kill Lisa just now. Just like you would have killed her if you hadn’t been stopped. That’s how you killed Dr. Golden. Only you didn’t use your hands. You used a gun.”
“No! I told you! I was going to kill her, but I didn’t!"
“No?” Durango’s voice was suspiciously calm now, almost purring. “What changed your mind?"
“I met a girl.” The fear subsided and a note of pride replaced it as Dave answered.
“You met a girl?” Durango looked at him closely. Somehow he found himself believing the answer. “Where? What girl?”
“I picked her up on Broadway. She was standing in a doorway. A hooker. I went up to her place with her.”
“Don’t believe him, Lieutenant,” Reginald Ivers interrupted. “He’s got to be lying. His whole problem is he’s never made it with a woman in his life!”
“But last night I finally did.” Dave drew himself up with a new dignity and looked Reggie straight in the eyes. “And what’s more, I can prove it. She said she really liked me and wanted me to come back again. So she gave me her name and address. You can check her, Lieutenant. She’ll tell you I was with her all night. From about one-thirty right through until this morning.” He handed Durango the slip of paper he’d taken out of his pocket.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Reggie said.
“Congratulations, laddie,” Kevin Connery told Dave sincerely.
“Pretty soon you’ll be ready for me,” Lisa Bourbon grinned.
“You stay away from her,” Gloria Andrews advised.
“And don’t get hung up on hookers,” Cora Williams added. “You deserve better, Dave.”
“I’m really happy for you,” Brenda Haley told him, her mannish voice making an effort to sound as if she really meant it.
“Yeah, kid, you’Il be all right from here on in,” Vance Thurmond reassured him. “Once you got your feet wet, the rest is easy.”
Durango studied the slip of paper Dave had given him. “All right, Dave, come with me. The rest of you wait here,” he instructed as he led Dave from the room. Outside he beckoned to Connors to join them. “Dave says he was with this dame last night,” he told Connors. “You check it out. If he was, let him go. And let me know what happens.”
“Okay. Say, Tomas, We just got word that they picked up that Negro dame’s husband last night.”
“You mean Gloria Andrews’ husband? On what charge?”
“D and D.” Connors used the abbreviation of drunk and disorderly.
“What time?”
“About two o’clock.”
“Then he couldn’t have done it. The lab guts the time of death at about three. Certainly no earlier than two-forty.”
“I know,” Connors agreed. “You might as well let his wife go, too. The husband was the only reason I brought her in. The neighbors told me they had a fight last night and he went roaring out. But they could hear her pacing back and forth the whole night, so she’s as clean as the husband is.”
“I guess ou’re right,” Durango agreed. “What about the other five names I gave you?”
“I have two of the boys out checking them. ”
“Okay. Check out the kid here and then report back, Durango told Connors. Then he went back into the interrogation room. “You’re free to go now, he told Gloria Andrews.
“What about us?” Reginald Ivers demanded indignantly as Gloria left.
“In due time, Mr. Ivers. In due time,” Durango singsonged. “Now, Miss Bourbon, getting back to you. So you made up a dream and it triggered a murder. Or should I say a murderer? Or did it just trigger you, yourself?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean maybe you enjoyed making up the dream so much that you decided to really kill Dr. Golden.
“Why don’t you just leave her alone!” Vance Thurmond’s voice cracked out angrily. “She had nothing to do with it!”
“Why are you so sure, Thurmond? Because maybe you killed her yourself?” Durango’s voice was very soft.
“Why should I have killed her?”
“I don’t know. Maybe for the same reason you raped and beat up a woman three years ago!” Durango snarled the words at him, trying to put Thurmond off balance.
“Okay! So I got a record! I don’t deny it! Does that mean I’m the patsy for every time a woman gets herself hurt?’
“This woman wasn’t just hurt, Thurmond, she was killed! And in my book your record pegs you as a prime suspect.”
“Let him be! He didn’t do it!” Lisa Bourdon spoke.
“What are you two lovebirds up to?” Durango demanded. “Are you trying to alibi each other?”
“Lovebirds!” Cora Williams exclaimed. “But they always acted as if they hated each other!”
“That they did, me lass,” Kevin Connery agreed.
“Is that so?” Durango said, interested. “Well, what changed your feelings, you two? A joint murder effort, maybe?”