“What time did all this happen?”
“It was almost four o’clock when Kevin knocked the vice cop on his ear and ran.”
“Too late for the murder,” Durango observed.
“Yeah. And he was with these kids up until then. Funny thought, Kevin was telling me he started out to see Dr. Golden after the mixup."
“What for?”
“Either to get help or to maybe belt her. He admits himself he isn’t sure. He was pretty mad. But when he got to her apartment house, it was crawling with cops, so he just turned around and went home.”
“Hell!” Durango said. “That means that if Cora Williams’ alibi holds up, Reginald Ivers is the only suspect we’ve got left out of the group.”
“Looks like it. Where is he?”
“Some place safe and warm and cozy,” Durango told him. “Some place, I hope, where he’s talking his guts out. I’m going to have me a cup of coffee, and then, after a while, I’m going to go see if my fondest hopes re Reggie-the-Romeo have come true.”
But Durango’s hopes had been doomed from the start. From the first, Reggie had been indifferent to the cozy arrangement and the sexy company Durango had provided for him. From the way he acted, Debbie might just as well have not been in the cell. Still, she kept at it, and finally she did learn something—but it wasn’t anything that anybody who knew Reggie would have expected in a million years.
“How long are you going to go on ignoring me, sugar?” Debbie bent over him so he could get a good look at the ripe breast-flesh bubbling over the top of her low-cut blouse.
“Just leave me alone. Please.”
“What’s the matter? Don’t you like girls? That isn’t what I’ve heard about you. I’ve heard you’re a real swinger. Or is it just me you don’t like?” She pouted her lips sultrily, very close to his.
“You’re okay.” He turned away from her. “Don’t get your feelings hurt. You’re a good-looking girl. It’s just that this sort of thing is the last thing I’m interested in at the moment. I don’t understand why that damn cop put me in here anyway. What am I, under arrest or something?”
“You’re not under arrest,” Debbie soothed him. “He just thought you might be read for a little relaxation and some congenial company.” Her fingers trailed over the nape of his neck.
Reggie jerked away. “You mean he thought you might get me so hot and bothered that I’d talk,” he said.
“Could be,” Debbie admitted. “But so what? What have you got to hide?”
“Nothing!” Reggie said in a tight, strained voice. “Not one damn thing that’s anybody’s business but mine.”
“Fine,” Debbie crooned. “Then why don’t we just forget all about Durango and enjoy ourselves? You know, this is the swingingest jail I’ve ever been in.” She blew lightly in his ear. “Come on, honey, get with it,” she cooed.
“Will you just leave me alone!” Reggie got up violently and walked to the other side of the cell.
“Okay.” Debbie shrugged. “So you’re not in the mood for romance. So all that talk they tell me you give out with about being such a great lover and oversexed and all is just so much hot air. So why don’t you just tell Durango where you were last night and stop playing coy? Unless, that is, it was you knocked off Doc Golden.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I had nothing to do with it. And I’m not just full of hot air. I was quite a hot-shot with the ladies. And the reason I don’t tell Durango where I was is because it’s nobody’s business but mine.”
“Were quite a hot-shot?” Debbie echoed. “What happened to change you? Or could that maybe be where you were last night? Were you with a lady and now you’re playing the gentleman and protecting her good name? Sounds out of character for you. Or maybe she’s married and you’re afraid of her husband. Is that it? Was she the one tired you out so bad you don’t even want to play a little with me?”
“I wasn’t with a woman,” Reggie said. “At least, not when the murder was being committed according to Durango.”
“But you were with one before that, hey?”
“Yes, I Was,” Reggie admitted grudgingly.
“Who was she?”
“Just a hooker. I don’t know her name.”
“We don’t have names,” Debbie said to herself.
“What?”
“Nothing. Go on. You were with a hooker. Where’d you pick her up?”
“At a street corner on Broadway. She was trying to hail a cab. I stopped for the light. She gave me a big come-on smile. I offered her a lift and she got right in. She didn’t mince any words. She wanted seven bucks and I agreed.”
“Damn price-slashers are mining the business,” Debbie muttered.
“She was no great shakes. She wasn’t worth any more than seven bucks. She didn’t really appeal to me at all.”
“Then why’d you go with her?”
“I was hot. Like a firecracker. I’d called a couple of girls and they were busy. I’d half decided to go see Golden and make a pitch for her. But this chick was handy and willing, so I changed my mind.”
“What time did you pick her up?”
“I’m not sure exactly. About one-thirty, I think. Anyway, it wasn’t two yet when we got to her place about twenty blocks downtown from where I picked her up. And I’d stopped off for a bottle of hooch on the way."
“With a seven-dollar number, you didn’t have to provide any hooch.”
“I know that. It was for me. So I could stomach making love to her without gagging.”
“Feeling that way, I don’t know why you bothered.”
“I was sort of — well, obsessed you could say,” Reggie explained.
“I dig, honey. I know your type. So what time did you leave her?”
“About a quarter to three.”
“A regular Paul Revere Minuteman, aren’t you, sweetie? Anyway, that was in plenty of time to bump off the Doc, wasn’t it? Were you drunk?”
“Yes. But I remember everything that happened. God, how I remember!” Reggie shuddered.
“Tell me about it.”
“No.” He said it flatly.
“Come on, sugar. You’ve gone this far.” Debbie sat down next to him on the bench in the jail cell and pressed her thigh warmly against his.
“I said no.”
“Come on now. You can trust me.” Debbie took his hand pressed it tightly against her breast.
Reggie yanked his hand away though it had been plunged into a raging fire. “Don’t do that! I can’t stand that—now! ”
“Now?”
“Yes. All right, you’re so determined, I’ll tell you. Just stay away from me while I’m talking. just don’t touch me!”
“Okay. I won’t.”
“Here it is, then.” Reggie’s voice was heavy with bitterness. “I couldn’t make it with the whore. I tried, but I just couldn’t make it. The more I drank, the drunker I got, but I just couldn’t make it. And then she—she—”
“Yes?” Debbie asked gently. “What did she do?”
“She laughed at me! That filthy slut laughed at me! I couldn’t take that! It was too much!”
“What did you do?”
“I ran out of the place. I ran down to my car and got in it. I sat there and I was drunk and my brain was exploding and I kept telling myself I was through with sex.”
“Then what did you do? Did you to see Dr. Golden then?” Debbie’s voice was very soft, and she thought she was being very shrewd and detective-like, slipping the question in that way.
“No!” Reggie shouted. “I didn’t go to Dr. Golden’s. You want to know what I did? You really want to know? Well, let me show you!” His hands tore at his trousers and his underwear and then clawed wildly to rip aside some bandages. “This is what I did! This! See!”