“Let me assure you, I’d do the same for any client, Lieutenant.” A beat. “But if you must know, Jack was married to my mother’s sister and then she died and he married Daisy. So technically, Daisy’s my step-aunt but I think of her as my full aunt, she’s dear to me, she’s a dear woman.”

“She seemed very nice.”

“Jack’s nice, too.”

“No doubt.”

“So do we have a deal?”

“That depends on what you have to offer.”

“I have the truth to offer, Lieutenant Sturgis—may I call you Milo?”

“Sure.”

“Milo, this can be extremely simple if we go the simplicity route. I give you information and you use it as you see fit in your criminal investigation but you don’t draw Jack and Daisy into it.”

“I have no desire to complicate their lives, Floyd, but I need to be up front with you. If they’ve got crucial information, it could find its way into the case file.”

“Not true,” snapped Banfer. “Just call them confidential informants and everything will go smooth as silk.”

“I can do that but I can’t promise that at some point a prosecutor’s not going to want to know their identity.”

“If that happens, you say no.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Floyd.”

“Then we … have a problem.”

“You may have all kinds of problems if Jack and Daisy don’t cooperate, Floyd. I don’t need to tell you about all the unpleasant legal maneuvers at the D.A.’s disposal.”

“I’ll fight each and every one.”

“That will toss Jack and Daisy right into the limelight.”

Banfer slanted forward, walked faster.

Milo said, “All this hassle just to make sure Premadonny doesn’t get mad at them?”

“It’s not a matter of mad,” said Banfer. “It’s a matter of excommunication. Do you know how powerful those two are?”

“A-list.”

“Oh, no, no, no.” Banfer’s hand arced above his head, like a kid playing airplane. “Miles above A-list. It’s like pissing off the queen of En gland.”

“Last I checked the queen hadn’t excommunicated anyone, Floyd.”

“Okay,” said the lawyer, “perhaps I engaged in a bit of hyperbole, but still. If word gets out that Jack somehow violated a confidence, the results could be professionally and financially devastating.”

“Jack and Daisy signed a gag clause.”

Banfer frowned. “Standard operating procedure when dealing with clients at that level.”

“Maybe so, but we already know Jack sent Adriana Betts to work at Premadonny’s compound and we’re fairly certain he did the same for a couple of other people who may be connected to Adriana Betts’s murder. Did you read today’s Times?”

“Of course,” said Banfer. “That’s why I called you.”

“The reporter’s itching for anything I can give her. I’ve been holding her off but that could change.”

“You’re threatening to leak my clients’ identities?”