“You can’t pick and choose what’s news, Warshawski. An old lady losing her dogs because she’s senile and they’re a nuisance—that just isn’t interesting. And neither is a drunk deadbeat falling into the canal. But when you go in, people want to know about it.”

“Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Ryerson.” I slammed the phone down as hard as I could.

I was panting with rage, my fragile calm from my trip to Atlanta completely shattered. What was with these guys, trying to run me around? I dug a basketball from the back of my hall closet and started bouncing it up and down, with an evil disregard for the family trying to sleep below, hoping to pound away some of my fury.

I’d been dribbling for about five minutes when the phone rang again. It was either Murray, hoping to bludgeon me into giving him a story, or my downstairs neighbor, Mrs. Lee. I hastily stuffed the ball back in the closet before picking up the receiver.

“Vic?” It was Dick’s light baritone. “I know it’s late, but I’ve been trying to get through for two hours.”

I sat down hard on the piano bench, surprise knocking the rage out of me. “And that gives you the right to call at eleven-fifteen?” Just because I’d stopped feeling angry didn’t mean Dick got a free ride.

“You and I need to talk. I left two messages with your answering service today.”

I realized I hadn’t checked with my service since returning from Atlanta. “This is really sudden, Dick, so I don’t have a response ready. Does Teri know?”

“Please don’t clown around right now, Vic. I’m not in the humor for it.”

“Well, that’s kind of why we split up to begin with, wasn’t it,” I said reasonably. “Because I didn’t care enough about the stuff you were in the humor for.”

“Look. You’ve been sticking your nose into my business for the last two weeks. I think I’ve been pretty tolerant about it on the whole, but you’re really asking for trouble now. And strange as it may seem to you, I don’t want to see you in major trouble.”

I made a face at the mouthpiece. “Funny you should say that, Richard. I just had that identical thought about you recently. I’ll trade you—you tell me what major trouble you think I’m headed for and then I’ll tell you about yours.”

He sighed ostentatiously. “I might have known better than to try to do you a good turn.”

“You should have known better than to think calling up to lay down the law would sound like a good turn to me,” I corrected.

“I’d like you to come to my office tomorrow. I’m free around ten.”