"Lou Alvarez."
He took her hand. He seemed uncomfortable shaking hands with women. Eileen was suddenly glad it would be Shanahan out there with her tonight.
"Why The Chameleon?" she asked.
"Man of a thousand faces," Annie said, and looked at the photograph in Eileen's hand. "Nice," she said, and grimaced.
"Never mind the pictures," Alvarez said, "the pictures can't talk. We got statements in there from a couple of girls working the Zone, they give us a pretty good idea who we're looking for. Homicide's been pressuring us on this from minute one. That's 'cause the mayor made a big deal in the papers about cleaning up the Zone. So Homicide dumps it on us. You help us close this one out," he said to Eileen, "I'll personally give you a medal. Cast it in bronze all by myself."
"I was hoping for gold," Eileen said.
"You'd better take a look at those other pictures," Shanahan said.
"She don't have to look at them," Alvarez said.
"Which ones?" Eileen asked.
"You trying to spook her?"
"I'm trying to prepare her."
"She don't have to look at the pictures," Alvarez said.
But Eileen had already found them.
The earlier photographs had shown slashed faces, slit throats.
These showed rampant mutilation below.
"Used the knife top and bottom," Shanahan said.
"Uh-huh," Eileen said.
"Slashed the first girl in a doorway two blocks from the bar."
"Uh-huh."
"Second one in an alleyway on East Ninth. Last one on Canal-side."
"Uh-huh."
"What I'm saying is watch your step," Shanahan warned. "This ain't your garden variety weirdo jumpin' old ladies in the park. This is a fuckin' animal, and he means business. You get in the slightest bit of trouble, you holler. I'll be there in zero flat."
"I'm not afraid to holler," Eileen said.
"Good. We ain't trying to prove nothing here, we only want to catch this guy."
"I'm the one who catches him," Alvarez said, "I'll cut off his balls."
Eileen looked at him.
"What'd these other girls tell you?" Annie asked.
She did not want Eileen to keep studying those pictures. Once around the park was once too often. She took them from her hand, glanced at them only cursorily, and put them back into the folder. Eileen looked up at her questioningly. But Alvarez was already talking.
"You familiar with the Canal Zone, you know most of the girls work on the street," he said. "A car pulls up, the girl leans in the window, they agree on a price, and she does the job while the trick drives them around the block. It's Have Mouth, Will Travel, is what it is. But there's a bar near the docks where you get a slightly better-class hooker. We're talking comparative here. None of these girls are racehorses."
"What about this bar?" Annie said.
"It's called Larry's, on Fairview and East Fourth. The girls working the cars go in there every now and then, shoot up in the toilet, fix their faces, whatever. But there's also some girls a little younger and a little prettier who hang out there looking for tricks. Again, we're talking comparative. The girls on the meat rack outside get only five bucks for a handjob and ten for a blow-job. The ones working the bar get double that."
"The point is," Shanahan said, "the three girls he ripped were working the bar."
"So that's where you're planting me," Eileen said.
"Be safer all around," Alvarez said.
"I'm not looking for safe," she said, bristling.
"No, and you're not a real hooker, either," Alvarez said, bristling himself. "You stand out there on the street, you keep turning down tricks, the other girls'll make you for fuzz in a minute. You'll be standing out there all alone before the night's ten minutes old."
"Okay," she said.
"I want this guy," he said.
"So do I."
"Not the way I want him. I got a daughter the age of that little girl in there," he said, wagging his finger at the folder.
"Okay," Eileen said again.
"You work the bar," Alvarez said, "you get a chance to call your own shots. You played hooker before?"
"Yes."
"Okay, so I don't have to tell you how to do your job."
"That's right, you don't."
"But there are some mean bastards down there in the Zone, and not all of them are looking to carve you up. You better step easy all around. This ain't Silk Stocking work."
"None of it is," Eileen said.
They both glared at each other.
"What'd they say about him?" Annie asked, jumping in.
"What?" Alvarez said.