“Police! Police! Get out of the way!” someone was yelling over the commotion, and Gino burst through the crowd like an avenging angel.
“Step back, all of you,” Frank commanded, and the shocked crowd obeyed, giving Frank and Gino room to pull Keith to his feet.
“Let’s get him out of here,” Frank said, and Gino helped him half drag, half carry Keith through the crowd, outside, and down the stairs to the street.
“Why did you hit me?” Keith asked, glaring blearily at Frank.
“I didn’t hit you . . . yet,” Frank said, standing him up on his feet and glaring at him, while Gino stood by to catch him if he fell. “Tell me, Mr. Keith, what is a happily married family man doing in a dance house with one of the girls who works for him?”
Keith’s eyes widened as he realized his predicament.
“I . . . I like to dance,” he claimed. “I just happened to see Brigit there and . . . and . . .”
“And you thought you’d buy her a drink and diddle her a little, is that it?”
“No! I never . . . I don’t . . .”
“Yeah, I know, the girls don’t get any bastards from you,”
Frank said in disgust. “Doesn’t stop you from getting plenty from them, though, does it?”
“I . . . They don’t mind, though,” Keith insisted.
“I’ll bet they have a different opinion,” Frank said.
“They don’t, really! I never make them actually do it,” he claimed virtuously.
“How did Nainsi get pregnant then?” Frank demanded.
That sobered him instantly. “I didn’t . . .” he tried, but the words caught in his throat. “I couldn’t help it! It wasn’t my baby, though,” he added hastily. “I don’t care what she said. It couldn’t have been!”
“And why is that?” Frank asked with genuine interest.
“Because she . . . It didn’t happen until July. That was too late. Brigit told me.” Frank noticed he was sweating even though the evening was pleasantly cool.
“What did Brigit tell you?”
“When the baby was born, she told me it was full-grown.
I’ve got kids of my own. I know if a baby is born early, it’s sickly. If it was mine, it would’ve been sickly.”
Frank considered him for a long moment. “Mr. Keith,”
he said with mock respect. “How is it that a man so careful as yourself got caught up in this?”
“I . . .” he looked around wildly for a moment, as if searching for someone to help him. “It was her—Nainsi.
She was a witch! She tricked me and . . .” He ran a hand over his face, and his shoulders slumped with despair.
“And what?” Frank prodded.
“I already told you, I’m a careful man. I don’t . . . penetrate the girls,” he explained in a whisper, glancing around to make sure no one else was listening. “They just . . . They hold their legs together. It’s a trick I learned from a whore years ago,” he added defensively.
Gino frowned in distaste, and Frank felt his skin prickling with fury. “So you think it’s all right to use the girls like that so long as you don’t penetrate them.”
“I told you, they don’t mind,” he insisted. “They don’t have to worry about losing their jobs or getting a baby, and I get what I want, too.”
Frank had to close his hands into fists to keep from striking Keith. He still needed a few more answers. “You said Nainsi tricked you,” he reminded him. “How did she do that?”
“Well, she . . . See, it was like always except at the end she puts it in! Wasn’t nothing I could do, either. It just happened. Then she laughs, like she did something funny,” he added in amazement.
“Did she tell you the baby was yours?” Frank asked, trying to figure out what Nainsi had been trying to accomplish by taking such a risk.
“She . . . hinted,” he admitted reluctantly. “When she comes in to tell me she’s leaving to get married, she sort of winks and tells me she’s in a family way. Says she won’t know until it comes who the father is, either.”
“So you told Brigit to let you know as soon as the baby was born,” Frank guessed.
“I needed to be sure,” he defended himself. “I can’t have some little whore bringing a baby to my front door and telling my wife it’s mine, now can I?”
“Is that what you thought Nainsi would do when the Ruoccos threw her out?”
Keith wiped his sleeve across his beaded forehead. “No, why would she?” he asked shakily. “She’d know it wasn’t mine.”
“Because she’d need money, and you’re the richest man she knows.”
“She’d never get a cent from me. It wasn’t my kid!”
“But your wife would know it might’ve been, wouldn’t she?” Frank said. “Is that why you killed Nainsi, Keith?
So she wouldn’t tell your wife what you’ve been up to with all the girls?”
“I didn’t kill her!” he cried.
Frank remembered when he’d first questioned Brigit.
He’d been sure there was something she hadn’t wanted to tell him in front of Keith. “But you did know the Ruoccos thought her husband wasn’t the father. Brigit told you that, too, didn’t she? You knew they were going to throw her and the baby out.”
“What if I did? It was nothing to do with me!” he insisted.
“It was everything to do with you if you thought she was going to talk to your wife. So you went over to the Ruoccos’
place, sneaked up the back stairs, and killed her.”
“I didn’t! I wasn’t anywhere near there that night!”
“Where were you then?”
“Here, right here! After Brigit came to tell me, I stayed until about eleven-thirty. Ask her. She was here, too.”
“Where did you go then?”
“Home to bed. My wife will tell you.”
“I’m sure she will,” Frank said. “Officer Donatelli, take him to Headquarters and lock him up for the night.”
“What?” Keith roared in outrage. “You can’t lock me up!”
“Don’t annoy me, Keith,” Frank warned. “It’s all I can do to keep from smashing your face in right now.”
“But I didn’t do anything!”
“You’ve done enough to deserve a night in the lockup,”
Frank told him pleasantly. “If Brigit and your wife vouch for you, I’ll think about letting you go.”
“You can’t ask my wife!” he cried desperately. “She’ll want to know why you’re asking. You can’t tell her!”
“Would you rather go to prison for murder?”
“What about the Ruocco boys?” Gino asked.
“We’ll have to catch up with them later,” Frank said.
“Don’t tell her! Please, don’t tell her!” Keith pleaded as Gino grabbed him by the collar and started hustling him down the sidewalk.
Frank ignored him. He was already climbing the steps back up to the dance house. The music was blaring again, and Frank stood in the doorway, watching the couples spin-ning by. He wondered what his mother would say if she saw the way these men held the girls so obscenely close. And the steps they did, so suggestive. The fellow guarding the door watched him glumly, probably expecting the worst, but this time he knew better than to challenge Frank’s entrance into the hall.
When he’d circled the room twice and looked at every woman there, he had to conclude that Brigit had escaped.
Seeing them carrying Keith out would’ve frightened her, of course. She had probably run out some back entrance as soon as they left. Well, he knew where she lived and where she worked. He’d find her soon enough. And the longer it took to check Keith’s alibi, the longer he’d have to stay in jail. That suited Frank just fine.