But it was all crap. His eyes were slate gray, and all they did was watch. The way he held his right hand, his revolver was still on his hip somewhere.
Parker stood loose, hands at his sides with the palms showing. When Dougherty pushed open the storm door, Parker said, ‘I’m glad I caught you home.’
Dougherty said, ‘That’s your car up the street, isn’t it? The Buick?’
Parker shrugged. ‘It’s mine.’
‘Come around to the side door.’ Dougherty pointed with the hand that held the napkin. ‘Around to the right there. It’s okay to cut across the lawn.’
Parker went around to the right, where there was a narrow space between garage and house. When he’d first driven by, he’d thought the garage was attached, but not quite. The roof overhang from both sides nearly met in the middle overhead, and a side door in the garage wall faced a side door in the house wall, but the two were separate buildings.
Parker moved down this cramped alley to the side door, and a minute later the door was opened by Dougherty.
Four steps led up to a closed door. Going to the left instead, a flight of stairs led down to the basement. Dougherty, standing up on the steps in front of the closed door in order to leave room for Parker to come inside, motioned toward the basement and said, ‘We can talk down there.’
Parker went first. Dougherty shut the side door and went down alter him.
The basement had been half converted to a game room or family room or some such thing. Vertical wood paneling covered the walls and formed a partition separating this part of the basement from the part with the utilities in it. Nothing had been done to make a ceiling yet, but over in a corner a few squares of vinyl flooring had been put in place over the original cement. For furniture, there was a pingpong table, plus a bulging sagging scratchy-looking sofa and a card table and some folding chairs.
Dougherty said, ‘The sofa’s too uncomfortable. Let’s sit at the card table. Take off your coat, why don’t you?’
‘I won’t be staying long.’
Dougherty shrugged and said, ‘Well, sit down a minute anyway.’
They sat across from one another at the card table. Parker sat leaning back, his hands at rest in his lap. Dougherty leaned forward with his elbows on the table.
Dougherty said, ‘My wife tells me you have information for me. On the Canaday case.’
‘Something like that.’
‘You wouldn’t be here to give yourself up, would you?’
‘Not me.’
‘I didn’t think so. But you are the man found at the scene of the crime.’
‘Probably.’
‘And you’re here to tell me you didn’t kill Miss Canaday, I should concentrate on others of her friends.’
Parker shrugged. ‘I don’t care what you do,’ he said. ‘I want a list from you, that’s all.’
‘You want from me?’
‘Boyfriends, all kinds. Anybody still living around town. Did she have an address book?’
Dougherty took his elbows off the table. ‘Let me get this straight,’ he said. ‘You want to ask me questions?’
‘That’s right.’
Dougherty shook his head. ‘You don’t look the type,’ he said. ‘You look too smart for that sort of thing.’
‘What sort of thing?’
‘You’re going to go do it yourself, am I right? You’re going to find your girlfriend’s murderer and bring him to justice all by yourself.’
‘Not me.’
‘No? What, then? I already know you didn’t kill her, if that’s what’s worrying you. You’d been living with her a couple of weeks, neighbors identified you. You didn’t make the phone call, the timing is wrong. You wouldn’t have had to kick the door in if Miss Canaday was still alive. I imagine you’d be interesting to me in a number of other ways, because otherwise you wouldn’t have run off like that, and I’d like to know what all those guns were doing in that closet, but I’m not sold on you for murder. You wouldn’t be connected with the robbery out at the stadium, would you?’
‘I’m not connected with anything. If you already count me out, who do you count in?’
Dougherty smiled and said, ‘I don’t see a reason in the world to tell you anything. What’s your name, by the way?’
‘Joe,’ Parker lied.
‘All right, Joe. I’m engaged in a murder investigation. In order to keep my pigeon from flying away, I’ve let the newspapers concentrate on the search for you. But I’m not searching for you, the robbery detail is. They figure you were probably in on the robbery at the stadium, or at least you know the people who were. The guns in the closet connect you definitely.’
Parker said, monotoned, not trying to convince Dougherty but just getting it said so it could be done with ‘I had nothing to do with the robbery. I went in and saw her there killed, and when the cop opened the closet door I saw all the guns in there, and I figured I’d be the fall guy so I ran.’
Dougherty nodded. ‘That’s bound to be your story, sure. But I’m not the one to tell it to. You want someone from robbery detail.’
‘I want Ellie’s boyfriends.’
Dougherty shook his head. ‘You’ve got to be kidding. You’ve got to have some other reason to come in here.’
Parker said, ‘You’re at a dead end on the killing. Robbery detail is at a dead end on the heist. Give me a couple answers, toss me in the middle of it, maybe I stir things up.’
‘You muddy the waters, you mean.’
Parker cocked his head. ‘You want to go up and tell your wife anything?’
‘Like what?’
‘Like don’t leave the house. Don’t take the kids anywhere. You weren’t dumb enough to have her phone the precinct, were you?’
‘No, I wasn’t. You haven’t killed anybody yet, and you’ve got no reason to kill me. I’m in no hurry to arrest you for anything, because I’m working on a murder case and you connect somewhere else entirely. My wife and kids are going next door for a visit.’
‘Bad.’
Dougherty said, ‘Don’t pressure me. I won’t pressure you and you don’t pressure me. Why are you still in town?’
‘I want names,’ Parker said.
‘You won’t get them from me. Could it be the actual killer knows something? Something about the robbery, maybe. You can’t afford to have him talk to the police; he might try to trade information for a lesser charge.’
‘I’ll give him to you,’ Parker said. ‘Alive and talking.’
‘You don’t make any sense at all,’ Dougherty told him. ‘Why do you want him, if not to kill him? What makes you think I’ll give you any information?’
‘You’re too exposed, Dougherty. You know my arguments.’
Dougherty glanced at the ceiling. ‘You mean my family? I don’t believe it, it’s too strong a reaction. You can’t want information that bad.’
‘I do. My friends and I do.’
‘You touch me, or my family, and the force won’t rest until you’re found.’
‘You mean they’ll start looking? They’re just kidding around up till now?’
Dougherty gnawed his lower lip. ‘There’s no point involving them in this,’ he said. ‘We should be able to work this out between us, just the two of us. Leave my family out of it, leave your friends out of it, leave the force out of it.’
‘Then what?’
‘If I give you names, you’ve got to know I’ll have those people put under immediate surveillance. If you show up to ask questions, you’ll be grabbed.’
‘Let me worry about that.’
Dougherty chewed and chewed on his lower lip. He didn’t seem worried, just thoughtful. ‘I haven’t got this figured yet,’ he said. ‘I believe you, you think this is important. Important to you, I mean. I believe you, you’ll do whatever you have to do to get what you want. What I don’t understand is why you want it, or why it should be so necessary.’