I said, “A long time ago, she made the choice to be the way she is. She earned the job and the house and the position within the community. She rose above the bad thing in her life and has tried to get it out of her life and is trying again. I think she made gutsy choices. Be a shame if she had to regret them.”

Pike moved in the dark, and the orange and white cat came from beneath the car and rubbed against him. Pike bent and picked up the cat and held him close. “You’re right when you say that Charlie’s already pissed. She doesn’t show when he expects her, he might drive around to find out why. He might try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“Think you could stay close to her, keep him from doing that?”

Pike’s mouth twitched in the moonlight. “Unh-hunh.”

I nodded, and Pike put down Karen Lloyd’s cat and we got into the Taurus. The final light went out in Karen Lloyd’s house, and all was darkness.

Chapter Nineteen

Nineteen

Roland George called at 7:32 the next morning and said, “NYPD owns a guy named Walter Lee Balcom. Busted him seven weeks ago on two counts of murder and one count kidnapping and about two dozen ancillary counts. Most of them smut and sex crimes.”

“Do the DeLucas run porno?”

“No. That’s the DeTillio family. But Walter’s not mob. He’s just been around for a long time and knows people who know people who know people. He’s been singing up a storm to try to cut a deal, and Charlie DeLuca’s name has come up a few times.”

“Can I talk with him?”

“Ten o’clock at the Hall of Justice, downstairs, room B28. I’ll meet you there.”

“Right.”

Rollie hung up.

At a quarter before ten I pulled into the parking garage next door to the Criminal Courts Building on Centre, just north of Foley Square in Chinatown, then walked across and down to subbasement B. A fat cop sitting behind a narrow table asked my business. I told him I was looking for Roland George in room B28. The fat cop looked through a little box, took out a pass with my name on it, and jerked a thumb to the right. “That way.”