Lorraine bit at a nail, drew blood. “You caan’t.”
“Sure I can. Sharon Kostenza’s in custody, so she can’t make bail for you. Pierce Patchett is under surveillance and your friend Ava just spilled what you read there. She talked first, and all I want you to do is fill in some blanks.”
A little sob. “I caan’t.”
“Why not?”
“Pierce has been too nice to–”
Cut her off. “Pierce is finished. Lynn Bracken turned state’s on him. She’s in protective custody, and I can go to her for the answers or save myseW the trouble and ask you.”
“I caaan’t.”
“You can and you will.”
“No, I caaan’t.”
“You’d better, because you’re an accessory to eleven felonies in Paula Brown’s statement alone. Are you afraid of the dykes at the jail?”
No answer.
“You should be, but the matrons are worse. Big husky bull daggers with nightsticks. You know what they do with those–”
“All right all right all right! All right I’ll tell you!”
Ed took out a notepad, wrote “Chrono.” Lorraine: “It’s not Pierce’s fault. This guy made him do it.”
“What guy?”
“I don’t know. Really, for real, I don’t know.”
“Chrono” underlined. “When did you start working for Patchett?”
“When I was twenty-one.”
“Give me the year.”
“1951.”
“And he had Terry Lux perform surgery on you?”
“Yes! To make me more beautiful!”
“Easy now, please. Now a second ago you said that a guy–”
“I don’t know who the guy is! I caan’t tell you what I don’t know!”
“Sssh, please. Now, you confirmed Paula Brown’s statement and you said that a ‘guy,’ _whose identity you don’t know_, coerced Patchett into the extortion plans detailed in that statement. Is that correct?”
Lorraine put out her cigarette, lit another one. “Yes. Extortion is like blackmail, right, so yes.”
“When, Lorraine? Do you know _when_ ‘this guy’ approached Patchett?”
She counted on her fingers. “Five years ago, May.”
“Chrono” hard underlined. “That’s May of 1953?”
“Yeah, ’cause my father died that month. Pierce called us kids in and said we had to do it, he didn’t want to, but this guy had him by the you-know-whats. He didn’t say the guy’s name and I don’t think none of the other kids know it either.”
“Chrono” one month post–Nite Owl. “Think fast, Lorraine. The Nite Owl massacre. Remember that?”
“What? Some people got shot, right?”
“Never mind. What else did Patchett tell you when he called you in?”
“Nothing.”
“_Nothing_ else on Patchett and extortion? Remember, I’m not asking you if you did any of this. I’m not asking you to incriminate yourself.”
“Well, maybe three months or so before that I heard Veronica–I mean Lynn–and Pierce talking. He said him and that scandal mag man who got killed later were gonna run this squeeze thing where Pierce would tell him about our clients’ secret little . . – you know, fetishes, and the man would threaten the clients with being in _Hush-Hush_. You know, pay money or be in the scandal mag.”
_Extortion theory validated_. An instinct: on some level Lynn was playing straight, she hadn’t told Patchett to prepare–he never would have let these people come in. “Lorraine, did Sergeant Kieckner show you some pornographic pictures?”
A nod. “I told him and I’ll tell you. I don’t know any of the people and those pictures gave me the creeps.”
Ed walked out. Duane Fisk in the hallway. “Good work, sir. When you got her on that ‘this guy’ bit, I went back and ran it by Ava. She confirmed it and confirmed that no ID.”
Ed nodded. “Tell her that Rita and Yorkin have been booked, then release her. I want her to go back to Patchett. How’s Kieckner doing with Yorkin?”
Fisk shook his head. “That boy’s a hardcase. He’s practically daring Don to make him talk. Hey, where’s Bud White now that we need him?”
“Amusing, but don’t keep it up. And right now I want you to take Lux and Geisler to lunch. Lux is here voluntarily, so be nice. Tell Geisler that this is a multiple homicide major conspiracy case, and tell him Lux gets full collateral immunity for his cooperation and a signed promise of no courtroom testimony. Tell him it’s already in writing, and if he wants verification to call Ellis Loew.”