“Cleaning up after me?” I repeated the scary words, trying to tame them. “Come on, guys. Ben Loring at Paragon knows all about this. The city cops know about Chamfers getting the Hulk to knock Mitch Kruger into the canal. Did he also kill Eddie Mohr, Milt? Or did you do that yourself?”

“I told you she knew too much,” Jason said. “You should have done something sooner.”

“Oh, for Christ sake, Jason. I’m telling you this really is the last time I get involved in your problems.”

“Got that right, big guy,” I said brightly. “This one is probably going to take the rest of your life to sort out.”

“I can see why Yarborough ditched you as fast as he could,” Peter said. “If you’d been mine I would have beaten some sense into you.”

A cold rage gripped me, straightening my legs. “You might have tried it once, Felitti, but you sure wouldn’t have wanted to do it twice.”

I noticed the light switch out of the corner of my eye. For the first time since arriving I felt able to think clearly, to plan for action.

Felitti tightened his lips. “You’re everything I’m glad my daughters aren’t. I just can’t see what attracted a man like Yarborough to a—a dyke like you.”

It was such a feeble insult and he looked so steamed up saying it that I couldn’t help laughing.

“Yeah, laugh,” Jason said. “You’ll do it out of the other side of your mouth in a minute. Why’d you have to come around here, anyway?”

“Mitch Kruger. He was an old friend of a good friend of mine. And he ended up dead in the canal. If everything you were doing with the pension fund and the bonds was so open, why did Chamfers get so bent out of shape when Mitch Kruger showed up last month demanding a piece of the pie in order to keep his mouth shut?”

“I told you Eddie Mohr would be a weak link,” Milt said to Peter. “He claimed he never said anything to any of the boys that would make them think he got his money from the company. But I always had my doubts.”

“And what about Eddie Mohr and Chicago Settlement?” I persisted. “Why on earth was he giving money to that outfit?”

“That was Dick’s idea,” Jason said. “I told him it was a mistake, but he said they’d take a lot of the bonds, only we had to encourage people who’d benefited from the deal to contribute.”

“And you’ve got to admit that the guy preened at getting his picture taken with a lot of downtown money,” Chamfers said.

“I see.” I smiled. “My … uh … partner couldn’t figure it out—he said Eddie was a Knights of Columbus man all the way.”

“Your partner?” Peter demanded. “Since when do you have a partner?”