Herbie shook his head. “I got smart before it was all gone. Now I actually make more than I spend.”
“A good practice,” she replied, sipping her coffee. “I’m there, myself, and I like it.”
“Are you getting interesting work?” Herbie asked.
“I am. I like investigation, especially when people are trying to hide things, which they usually are. I’m a whiz on the computer, and that helps. I’m an urban girl, and I don’t really like fresh air all that much.” She cocked her head. “Ever been married?”
“Once,” Herbie said.
“How long?”
“Let’s say it was counted in months, not years. She and her brother ran off with a huge sum of money stolen from their father’s business and moved to a safe haven in the Pacific.”
“Didn’t she invite you?”
“Yes, but I have this thing: I can be sneaky, but I’m not dishonest. I wouldn’t live on money stolen from somebody else. Mind you, I got a very nice divorce settlement, and I don’t mind having that in the bank.”
“How do you get a divorce settlement after being married only a few months?”
“By getting it before no-fault divorce was signed into law in New York State. She didn’t really mind signing the money away, since it had already been sequestered by the feds, pending settlement of the firm’s losses. My attorney managed to get it unsequestered. You ever been married?”
“Yeah. I married a guy I met when we were both at the Police Academy. Lasted a little over two years. We were working different shifts in different precincts and hardly ever saw each other. He was a sweet guy, but not smart. He was on the take a week after he got his shield, and I couldn’t live with that.”
“You were smart to get out.”
She shrugged. “I guess. He’s doing time now, along with a dozen other guys who got caught when Internal Affairs busted them. I had to loan him money for a lawyer.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Herbie said.
Harp shrugged. “I just chalked it up as life experience. I decided to make more objective judgments of people, instead of being hooked on charm.”
“I noticed that last night,” Herbie said. “I didn’t have time to be charming.”
She smiled. “You were more charming than you realized. Honesty is charming. Beats bullshit every time.”
—
Not far away, Dino Bacchetti and Vivian DeCarlo were sitting up in bed, naked, eating toast and drinking coffee.
“Viv,” Dino said, “how many nights have you spent here in the past three months?”
She smiled. “Most of them, I guess.”
“Just about all of them, and yet you haven’t moved any clothes here. Not to speak of.”
Viv brushed crumbs off her breasts. “I’ve got a little problem, Dino.”
“Let me help you solve it.”
“There’s something I can’t figure out.”
“Cough it up, you’ll feel better.”
“I’ve always thought you were an honest cop, and I admired that. But this apartment—how can you afford the rent on a lieutenant’s salary? It’s gotta be ten grand a month.”
“I don’t rent, I own. The maintenance is two grand a month. I can afford that.”
“Your father ran a candy store. Where’d you get the money to buy it?”