“I was out there last night.”

“Out there in Queens?”

He sounded impressed. “Out there on Queens Boulevard,” I told him. “With a couple of cops. It was the same killer.”

“You sure of that?”

“They didn’t have the scientific evidence sorted out when I was there. But yes, I’m sure of it.”

He thought about it. “Then Kim was just unlucky,” he said. “Just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Maybe.”

“Just maybe?”

I got my watch from the nightstand. It was almost noon.

“There are elements that don’t fit,” I said. “At least it seems that way to me. A cop last night told me my problem is I’m too stubborn. I’ve only got the one case and I don’t want to let go of it.”

“So?”

“He could be right, but there are still some things that don’t fit. What happened to Kim’s ring?”

“What ring?”

“She had a ring with a green stone.”

“Ring,” he said, and thought about it. “Was it Kim had that ring? I guess it was.”

“What happened to it?”

“Wasn’t it in her jewelry box?”

“That was her class ring. From high school back home.”

“Yeah, right. I recall the ring you mean. Big green stone. Was a birthstone ring, something like that.”

“Where’d she get it?”

“Out of a Crackerjack box, most likely. Think she said she bought it for herself. It was just a piece of junk, man. Chunk of green glass is all.”

Shatter wine bottles at her feet.

“It wasn’t an emerald?”

“You shuckin’, man? You know what emeralds cost?”

“No.”

“More’n diamonds. Why’s the ring important?”

“Maybe it’s not.”

“What do you do next?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “If Kim got killed by a psycho striking at random, I don’t know what I can do that the cops can’t do better. But there’s somebody who wants me off the case, and there’s a hotel clerk who got scared into leaving town, and there’s a missing ring.”

“That maybe doesn’t mean anything.”

“Maybe.”

“Wasn’t there something in Sunny’s note about a ring turning somebody’s finger green? Maybe it was a cheap ring, turned Kim’s finger green, and she got rid of it.”

“I don’t think that’s what Sunny meant.”

“What did she mean, then?”

“I don’t know that either.” I took a breath. “I’d like to connect Cookie Blue and Kim Dakkinen,” I said. “That’s what I’d like to do. If I can manage that I can probably find the man who killed them both.”

“Maybe. You be at Sunny’s service tomorrow?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Then I’ll see you. Maybe we can talk a little afterward.”

“Fine.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Kim and Cookie. What could they have in common?”