“You get so you use the expressions they want you to use, you know how it works. Let’s say the psycho killed her and the boyfriend’s worried he’ll be tied into it. So he goes to the apartment, he’s got a key, and he takes the ring. Maybe he bought her other presents and he took them, too. He would’ve taken the fur, too, but it was in the hotel. Why isn’t that theory just as good as the killer yanking the ring off her finger?”

Because it wasn’t a psycho, I thought. Because a psycho killer wouldn’t be sending men in lumber jackets to warn me off, wouldn’t be passing messages to me through Danny Boy Bell. Because a psycho wouldn’t have worried about handwriting or fingerprints or towels.

Unless he was some sort of Jack the Ripper type, a psycho who planned and took precautions. But that wasn’t it, that couldn’t be it, and the ring had to be significant. I dropped the piece of glass back into my pocket. It meant something, it had to mean something.

Durkin’s phone rang. He picked it up, said “Joe Durkin” and “Yeah, right, right.” He listened, grunting acknowledgment from time to time, darting a pointed look in my direction, making notes on a memo pad.

I went over to the coffee machine and got us both coffee. I couldn’t remember what he took in his coffee, then remembered how bad the coffee was out of that machine and added cream and sugar to both cups.

He was still on the phone when I got back to the desk. He took the coffee, nodded his thanks, sipped it, lit a fresh cigarette to go with it. I drank some of my own coffee and made my way through Kim’s file, hoping something I saw might bridge a gap for me. I thought of my conversation with Donna. What was wrong with the word sparkle? Hadn’t the ring sparkled on Kim’s finger? I remembered how it had looked with the light striking it. Or was I just fabricating the memory to reinforce my own theory? And did I even have a theory? I had a missing ring and no hard evidence that the ring had even existed. A poem, a suicide note, and my own remark about eight million stories in the Emerald City. Had the ring triggered that subconsciously? Or was I just identifying with the crew on the Yellow Brick Road, wishing I had a brain and a heart and a dose of courage?

Durkin said, “Yeah, it’s a pisser, all right. Don’t go ‘way, okay? I’ll be right out.”

He hung up, looked at me. His expression was a curious one, self-satisfaction mixed with something that might have been pity.