“Let’s get to the latest on Floyd Stevens.”

He held out the breadbasket and she took a bread stick.

“Please.” She bit off the end of the stick with a decisive snap.

“I’ve been tailing him.”

“They let you do that?” she said, surprised. “I mean with all the other crime going on—”

“I wish. No, I did this on my own time.”

“Your own time?” If Alicia had been surprised seconds ago, she was shocked now. “But why?”

“I told you. I used to work Vice, and I know these creeps. They’re out of control. You interrupted him, so I figure he might not have gotten what he wanted. And that meant he’d be on the prowl again real soon. So as soon as I got off duty, I made it to the Upper West Side and hung around outside his place, waiting for him to come in or go out.”

“And?”

“Last night he went out. Walked down to the garage where he keeps his car and drove straight to the Minnesota Strip.”

“What’s that?”

“A place you’ll probably never see. It’s sort of a sex supermarket, full of prostitutes of all ages and all sexes.”

“All sexes? I know of only two.”

“Well, there are the in-betweens. Let’s see… how do I put this… guys who’ve been changed on top—you know, breast implants and hormone treatments on the skin—but remain fully equipped below… they’re a hot item on the Strip.”

“Wonderful.”

Will shrugged. “They’re a pretty pathetic crew down there, but personally it doesn’t bother me. Whatever gets you through the night. But when the pimps start putting kids out for the chicken hawks—”

“Chicken hawks?” This is like a new language, Alicia thought. “What’s that?”

“Most times it refers to gays who cruise for very young male prostitutes, but I use it for anybody, straight or bent, looking for too-young stuff.”

“Chickens,” Alicia said, feeling queasy. “Young, tender, defenseless.”

She looked at Will. So clean-cut, almost boyish-looking with that short blond hair; his job put him in almost daily contact with humankind at its worst, yet he seemed to have remained untainted somehow.

“That’s what they like. And Floyd Stevens is one of them. I followed him. He knew exactly where he was going—in fact, I think he must have called ahead, because there was somebody waiting at a corner with a very young-looking girl when he pulled up. The kid got into the car and the two of them drove away.”

The bread stick crumbled in Alicia’s hand as her anger flared. “And you let him?”