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now
he’s the Godfather. He makes the deals people can’t refuse.”
    The corner
of his mouth twitched up. Good. I’d nearly made him laugh. I’d always been good
at that. I was also secretly pleased that someone finally got one of my Mafia
jokes.
    “Something
like that,” Dan said. “I hadn’t seen him in years, until he called me.”
    “You guys
sound like a Lifetime movie.” I deepened my voice to sound like I was
narrating a movie trailer. “‘They grew up together on the mean streets of El
Cajon. Now one’s a cop, and one’s a criminal.’”
    Dan
shrugged. “If I ever get him on a murder, I’m not going to lose any sleep
putting him away.”
    I
nodded. Typical, incorruptible Dan. “What do you think about the case?”
    “I think
it’s a domestic dispute.”
    “Then
why get me involved?”
    “Didn’t
we just have this conversation?”
    “You
probably could have found something else for me to do, if you really wanted
to.”
    “Well,
this is what landed on my desk,” he said. “And maybe it’s not a domestic thing.
Even if it is, it gets you out of that house for a few days. It’ll be a few
days you’re not drinking yourself to death.”
    I
decided to let that one go. “You think there’s any chance Davies is an abuser?”
    “I
wouldn’t swear to it, but I doubt it. He never seemed like the type to me.”
    “He’s a
criminal.”
    “Doesn’t
mean he hits his wife or the kid. And he told me he’d consider the matter
closed if you gave him your word that they were somewhere safe. Even if he
changes his mind, he’s not fool enough to threaten you.”
    “You
think I intimidate him?”
    “I don’t
know,” Dan said. “But I know I do.”
    “Aw,” I
said, clasping my hands together under my chin. “My hero!”
    “Shut
up.”
    I took a
breath. The hairs on the back of my neck were suddenly standing up. I had the
feeling I’d missed something. “Does this seem strange to you?” I asked.
    “What?”
    “If your
wife took your kid and left town, would you be satisfied as long as you knew
that they were safe?”
    “I don’t
have a wife or a kid.”
    “Stretch
your big detective imagination,” I said.
    “I get
the idea this kind of dispute is typical for them,” Dan said. “So maybe he’s
used to it.”
    “Maybe,”
I said. “But the money…”
    “What’s
he paying you?”
    “Thirty
thousand dollars.”
    Dan’s
eyes widened slightly. “ Thirty thousand ? You’re serious?”
    “Yeah. I
don’t know what the going rate on this kind of thing is, but that seems pretty
excessive.”
    Dan
opened his desk drawer and started looking through it. “I have his number in
here somewhere. I’m calling him.”
    “No,” I
said, a little too quickly. Dan looked up in surprise. “I mean, it’s his money
to spend, and he can afford it. I’m sure it’s a normal kind of expense for
him.” I was sure of nothing of the kind. The truth was I wanted Davies’s money.
Well, the real truth was that I needed the money. I didn’t have the
luxury to want it.
    “All
right,” Dan said. “If you get the idea something’s not right, call me. I’ll put
cops on it. Deal?”
    “Deal.”
    He took
the .38 off the desk and put it back in his desk drawer.
    “What
would you have done if I’d shot myself?” I asked.
    “Do you
really think I’d hand you a loaded gun?” He shrugged.
    I
laughed. Of course it hadn’t been loaded. After a moment, Dan laughed, too.
    “Look,
the last time we spoke…” I began.
    “Forget
it.”
    “No. I
was horrible to you. I’m sorry.”
    He
looked at me for a moment. “All right.”
    “ All
right ? That’s it?”
    “I
really can’t imagine what you went through,” Dan said. “Maybe if I had I could
have been a better friend to you and kept you from…” he looked at my sunken
cheeks and shook his head. “From this.”
    “Nobody
was going to keep me from this,” I said quietly.
    “Maybe.
Maybe not.”
    We sat
in silence for a moment, then Dan