Jade in Aries by Donald E. Westlake Read Free Book Online Page A

you see Manzoni,” he went on, “do keep that in mind. If he looks to you as though he would prefer lucre to lunacy, see if you can find out how much it would take to turn him into a rational being.”
    I shook my head. “Even if he were the type to take it,” I said, “which I doubt from what I’ve heard about him, I’m not the type to offer it. You’ll have to do that yourself, if you want it done. And if you’re going to do it, I’ll have to bow out and have no more connection with the case.”
    Cornell said, anxiously, “No no, don’t do that! I didn’t say anything about a bribe, this is the first Stew’s even mentioned it.”
    “I simply thought it would be quick and neat, if possible,” Remington said, and shrugged his heavy shoulders expressively, to show he didn’t much care one way or the other.
    “If you decide to approach Manzoni that way,” I said, “be sure to let me know first, so I can be well clear before you try it.”
    Remington smiled like a cupid. “When a man says something like that,” he said, “I ask no more questions. Bribery is too dangerous to consider; consider it unconsidered.”
    “Good,” I said, and saw that Cornell looked less anxious.
    Remington said to me, “So what you’re going to do is detect, is that it?”
    “With any luck.”
    “Forgive me, but have you a license?”
    “No.”
    “Now you’re being frightening.”
    “Yes, I know,” I said. “I can’t apply for a license, for reasons of my own.”
    “I respect everyone’s private reasons, and ask only for the same treatment in return. But what if the dread Manzoni turns his attention toward you? Can’t he make life difficult?”
    “If I’m not careful.”
    “So you intend to be careful.” His smile this time was almost a smirk. “Most of my clients intended to be careful,” he said. “But all of a sudden, there they were in Times Square with their trousers around their ankles. Very well, you’ll be careful. In the meantime, is there anything I can do to be of assistance?”
    “I think so,” I said.
    “You have only to ask.”
    “Good. The first thing I want to know is where you were at nine o’clock Monday evening.”
    His look of surprise may have been the first genuine unamplified expression I’d yet seen from him, and it was shortlived, followed almost at once by a roar of laughter. Cornell was looking embarrassed, but neither of us paid him any attention. I sat there and watched Remington, and he rolled about, helpless with mirth, and watched me, and finally he allowed the tempest to subside; wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, he said, “So I’m on your little list, am I? That will complicate our teamwork, won’t it? I was at the bath.”
    “All evening?”
    “Oh, for hours and hours. I got there about seven, and I don’t believe I left until well after three in the morning.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said, “I don’t follow you. You took a bath from—”
    “No no, not in the bath, at the bath. The Borough Hall Baths, it’s a public bath, maintained by the City of New York or the Borough of Brooklyn or some other excellent body. Swimming pool, steam rooms, massage, bathing, and lots of little cubicles with cots in which to”—he did smirk this time—“rest awhile. I love to go there.” He turned and smirked at Cornell. “Ronnie used to go there, long long ago, didn’t you, Ronnie?”
    “Before Jamie.” It was a whisper, but full of misery. Cornell had suddenly been given a vision of his future. Even without Detective Manzoni, it would be bleak.
    I said, “Did anybody see you there, anybody who knew you?”
    “Well, they got to know me, I do assure you of that. But honestly, you know, it’s not exactly the sort of crowd that would like to get on a witness stand and say, ‘Oh, yes, I was there and so was he.’ It gets a little scary to talk about one’s fun under oath like that.”
    “I’m not talking about oaths and courts,” I said. “I’m talking