“But it wasn’t true?” A cold breeze seemed to come down that hallway. It wasn’t real but I think Mona Strael felt it too.

Mona brought both hands to the sides of my jaw and peered deeply into my eyes. We held that gaze for long seconds.

“Roxie kinda liked Craig,” she said at last, “but he was crazy for her. That’s just the way it was. Craig was a good guy. He was immature but he was a man too. That’s why someone could push hard on him but he wouldn’t break. That’s why he’d rather get shot than tell where Roxie was.”

I had different notions about the young vet’s demise. In my mind, Brock and a pet thug or two came in on him with guns out. That triggered the kid’s shell shock and he shifted into battle mode. He had practiced hand to hand on some of the best in the world—the Vietcong. That meant that he could inflict serious damage in the shortest possible time.

When push came to shove Brock had to kill him. And once the shots were fired, he and his men had to go instead of searching the apartment. He had just enough time to go through the kid’s pockets and come up with my card.

“So,” I said. “Kirkland is smart enough not to tell Craig what’s what but he does tell you?”

“And I don’t wanna have nuthin’ to do with it,” Mona swore. “I wanna be a lawyer with an office and businessmen clients. I don’t wanna run off with that white boy on stolen money. I’m not like Roxie.”

“You could have just turned Kirkland away,” I suggested. “You could have said no.”

“Say no to a man who killed people as a profession over in Vietnam? A man who’s got armored car money and a gangster’s money too? Say no to a man that says he stole that money for me?”

Mona’s beautiful face had tied itself into a sour knot. I felt for her.

“He said that?” I asked. “He stole it for you?”

“Yes.”

Kirk used to say that she was his golden ticket. Said she could get him through any door; that’s what the bomb-blasted bartender, Meanie, told me that Kirkland had said about Mona. It wasn’t exactly corroboration—but it was close.

“Tell me something, Miss Strael.”

“What?”

“Would you mind if Kirkland gets into trouble over this shit?”

“No,” she said without hesitation. “Not in the least.”

“He told you that he had the money?”

“He said that he could get it anytime he wanted but he was safe from harm because he didn’t know where it was.”

“He had it but he didn’t know where it was,” I parroted. “You got somewhere you could go outta town? A relative or somethin’?”

“Yes. Up in Oakland. My aunt Maude.”