Vincent couldn’t understand why he didn’t just come over and sit at the table. But he explained what happened: how the four of them walked up the street from Deacon’s to the station, Gutierrez with his gun in the bag. How Vincent felt the situation was worth closing down, so he’d popped the trunk and told the Cuban he had a gun in there.

Locke said, ‘And what’d he do?’

‘Nothing, for a while. I think he wanted to find out who’d shoot first. Or maybe he didn’t think I had anything, I don’t know. In the end he just walked off.’

‘What, you mean you talked him down?’

‘Uh-huh. Basically.’

This seemed to be some kind of revelation. Locke looked at the wall and then back to Vincent. He adjusted his glasses, a careful move with both hands: dainty fingers, pinkies cocked. He said, ‘All right. And what about the blood?’

Vincent said, ‘Yeah, I left that bit out.’

Locke waited.

Vincent said, ‘I think it belongs to the guy called Lou.’

‘You think it does.’

‘Yeah, I’m pretty confident.’

Locke waited, but then seemed to gather he wasn’t getting more detail on the matter. He said, ‘What about this white car you saw up at Lamar’s? The Navigator. When did you first see that?’

‘It went past on State Street as Andre was walking off.’

‘Right … And what did he do, exactly? Andre, I mean.’

‘Sylvester Crow pulled up in his car—the Tahoe—and Andre went over and talked to him.’

‘Did you see him get in?’

Vincent thought back to it. ‘I assumed he did. But I only saw him standing at the window, talking to him.’

The Marshal said, ‘So he could’ve got in the white Navigator?’

‘Maybe. But Andre is Sly’s man. And we’re dealing with two different parties. Sly was after Lamar for two million, but whoever sent the Navigator wanted thirty. According to Freeman, anyway.’

The amplitude of Locke’s toe-bouncing increased and then subsided. He said, ‘Andre isn’t Sly’s man.’

‘How’d you know that?’

Locke said, ‘I mean, he’s not a fulltime employee. He goes where the money is. He’s a contractor.’

Vincent said, ‘And you think he’s working two jobs at once.’

‘I don’t know. But if Sylvester Crow was after Lamar for two million, and someone else wanted thirty, maybe Gutierrez was in on both.’

Vincent said, ‘Marshals don’t investigate homicides.’

Locke said, ‘Oh, is that right?’

‘So what’s so special about Andre you want to be part of this?’

Locke seemed to think about that, lips slightly pursed, as if formulating something diplomatic. ‘I just know about him, put it that way.’

‘I’m not going to faint if you go into details.’