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“look what I found here. The elusive private dick. I introduced myself to
the lady. She has to be your client because she’s way out of your league.”
    “I’ll decide who’s in or out of my league, Captain,” Lillian snapped.
    I appreciated her retort. He didn’t. He had lost some of his edge. The
smile on his face faltered and vanished. Still, he had me. “Sit down.” The
authority in his voice prompted me to pull out my chair and comply. We had a
staring contest for a few seconds. I lost. “May I?” I said, indicating my
sandwich.
    The smile returned. “By all means. It’ll be the last good sandwich you’ll
have for a long, long time.”
    I lost my appetite as my stomach flipped. I thought I knew what he meant,
but wanted him to say it. To appear nonchalant, I took a bite out of the
sandwich. The usual hot and sweet tang of the sauce tasted bland.
    “We found another body at the crime scene,” Burman said, leaning back in
his chair. “Know anything about that?”
    Something nagged at the back of my mind. How had Burman found me? I would
have sworn I’d lost the tail when we fled the crime scene. I said nothing, just
kept chomping on my sandwich.
    “Must be a good sandwich,” he said. “I’ve had a few here myself. Bubba’s
a friend of mine, helps me see things I don’t normally see.” He grinned, like a
teacher who had just instructed the pupil. “Maybe I ought to order one. That
one’s so good it made you lose your voice.” He arched an eyebrow.
    I chewed and stared at him. “I haven’t lost my voice. Not much to say.” I
didn’t risk a glance at Lillian.
    “What?” Burman said. “I just accused you of murder.”
    “No, you didn’t,” I said. “You asked if I knew anything about a dead body
at one of your crime scenes. How many crimes have happened in this town over
the past few days? I wasn’t sure which one you meant.”
    He pursed his lips. “You’re being cute.”
    “That’s what the ladies at all the dance halls call me. Glad you agree.”
    In my peripheral vision, I saw Lillian crack a smile. She reached out and
slid her untouched bottle of beer over in front of Burman. “You might need this
more than I do.”
    He ignored her. Only half of Burman’s face smiled. “I see you’re a
joker.” He stuck a finger at me. “You know damn well what crime scene I’m
talking about. The one you were at today.”
    My thoughts went back to the events of the last twelve hours and the
number of crime scenes I had witnessed. Being shot at, being attacked, being
kidnapped by American agents, being accosted by a man who was likely a Nazi
sympathizer, being chased by those same folks, and, finally, getting a
front-row seat for the death of a man who tried to kill me. Sure, I had been to
many crime scenes today. I was ready to stop seeing them.
    “Oh, that one.” I took another huge chomp out of the sandwich. My cool
demeanor shattered when I realized that I had sauce dribbling down my chin. “I
was there today. You know I was.”
    “But did you go back?”
    “Anyone see me go back?”
    Burman shook his head. “I ain’t helping you with this. I can bring you in
right now just on suspicion.”
    “You don’t want to do that.”
    “Why not?”
    I glanced at Lillian, then back at Burman. “Because I know who killed
that man at the crime scene.”
    Burman leaned back, not sure what to say next. “You see him in the
mirror, right?”
    I thought back to the image of the man’s face, half-covered in shadow,
the look of pure hate in his eyes as I cowered with nowhere to run. Yes, I’d
see him in the mirror from now on. Probably in my dreams, too.
    “No,” I said, “I didn’t.”
    Burman smirked. “Okay, wise guy. But know this: it’s only a matter of
time before we dig out those slugs from the wall and the corpse. We’re going to
run ballistics on them and then start seeing if we can find a match in the
books. We might even ask some folks for samples of bullets fired from