Page 73 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Thrown for a Loss

talk to a girl! So I just kept quiet. Then a little while later I got that
page, so I went over to the escalator to see who it was. I was still
waiting around a few minutes later when somebody yelled and all that
money went bouncing around on the floor. Then the buzzer went
off.”
“All right,” said Lieutenant Gramercy. “That’s enough.” Well, I
expected her to bust him right there. That was the flimsiest alibi I’d
ever heard. I tried to remember if Autumn had a two-way pager. No
matter. They were easy enough to steal, and even though you might
not be able to receive a message because its own phone number
hadn’t been recorded internally, you could still send one. And then
get rid of it, say, in the ladies’ room at Krumpet Kozy. I would have
to get Waylon to call in a sanitary engineer for that search. But
Labelle had sent him off in the opposite direction.
Then she said: “Cal, please go back to the table and send Newt
over here.”
He stood up, anger and fear tugging at his face. “He’d better tell
the truth!”

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The policewoman did not reply. He stomped off to the food
court. I looked at her. Impossible to read that hard-set face. Most
people look more attractive when they smile. I didn’t think I’d ever
see that happen with her. She remained standing by the bench, hands
at her sides, watching the mall rats. I followed her gaze. Newt and Cal
were yelling at each other. Curt was trying to get Cal to sit down.
Luke was backing away from the table, knocking over his plastic
chair. Newt finally made an obscene gesture and walked away from
the scene without undue haste, showing his superiority to an
adversary by turning his back on him. Kids!
“You wanted to see me?” said Newt to Labelle when he arrived.
Same old insolence.
“Yes. Cal told us you had interceded on his behalf with Meza
Patamian this afternoon? Is that true?”
“Me? Not a chance! Why would I do that? I was talking to her, but
not about him! You can ask her! Yeah, maybe I went back afterward
and kidded him about her again. I do that a lot. You can ask the

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