The other looked like an interview room. There was a table in there and I could see a man and a woman in the room eating sandwiches off deli paper unwrapped and used as place mats. Besides those two there were three others at desks in the room and a secretary sat behind a desk near the door.

"You want to see Larry?" she said to me.

I nodded and she pointed to the man sitting at a desk on the far side of the room. He was alone in the pod. I headed over. He didn't look up from his paperwork, even when I got to him.

"It snowing out there yet?" he asked.

"Not yet. But it's going to."

"It always does. I'm Washington, whaddaya need?"

I looked at the two detectives in the other pods. Nobody even glanced at me.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you alone, if I could. It's about the Smathers kid. I have some information on it."

I could tell without looking at them that this made the others look over at me. Washington, too, finally put down his pen and looked up at me. He looked like he was in his thirties but already there was a dusting of gray in his shortcropped hair. Still, he was in good shape. I could tell that before he even stood up. He also looked sharp. He wore a dark brown suit with a white shirt and striped tie. The suit jacket could barely contain his massive chest.

"You want to talk to me alone? Whaddaya got?"

"Well, that's what I want to talk to you alone about."

"You're not one of these guys wants to confess, are you?"

I smiled.

"What if I was? Maybe I'd be the real thing."

"That'd be the day. All right, let's go in the room. But I hope you're not going to waste my time-what'd you say your name was?"

"Jack McEvoy."

"Okay, Jack, if I kick those people outta there and you waste my time, they and me aren't going to be too happy about it."

"I don't think it will be a problem."

He stood up now and I could see that he was shorter than I had thought. He had the lower half of another man's body. Short, stubby legs beneath a wide and strong upper torso. Thus the name the desk cop had used, Larry Legs.

No matter how sharply he dressed this oddness in his physique would always betray him.

"Something wrong?" he asked when he came around to me.

"Uh, no. I was ... Jack McEvoy."

I put down the laptop and held out my hand but Washington didn't take it.

"Let's go into the room, Jack."

"Sure." He had traded the snub of my stare for one of his own. it was okay. I walked behind him over to the door of the room where the man and woman were eating their lunch.

He glanced back once, looking down at the satchel I carried.