"Look what Marvin had in his pocket," he said. "You got a prescription for these, Marvin?" Officer McFadden asked. "I'd hate to think you were using these without a prescription."
"You're not going to bust me for a couple of lousy uppers," Mr. Lanier said without much conviction.
"We're going to arrest you for the murder of Tony the Zee," McFadden" said. "You have the right to remain silent-"
"I told you, I didn't have nothing to do with that. Someguinea shot him!"
"Which guinea?" Officer McFadden asked.
"I don't know his name," Mr. Lanier said.
Officers McFadden and Martinez exchanged glances.
They had worked together long enough that their minds ran in similar channels. Both had independently decided that Marvin had probably not shot Tony the Zee. There was no connection, and if there had been, the detectives or somebody would have picked up on it by now. It was possible, however, that Marvin had heard something in his social circles, concerning who had blown away Tony the Zee, that had not yet come to the attention of the detectives.
They knew they had nothing on Mr. Lanier. He had broken no law by having an unloaded shotgun in his trunk. The search of his person that had come up with the bag of uppers had been illegal.
"Maybe he's telling the truth," Officer McFadden said.
"This shit wouldn't know the truth if it hit him in the ass," Officer Martinez replied. "Let's take the son of a bitch down to the Roundhouse and let Homicide work him over."
"I swear to Christ, I was in Baltimore with my mother when that motherfucker got himself shot!"
"Who told you some guinea did it?" McFadden asked.
"I don't remember," Mr. Lanier said.
"Yeah, you don't remember because you just made that up!" Officer Martinez said.
There followed a full sixty seconds of silence.
"Marvin, if we turn you loose on the shotgun and the uppers, do you think you could remember who told you a guinea shot Tony the Zee?" Officer McFadden finally asked. "Or get me the name of the guinea he said shot him?"
"You are not going to turn this cocksucker loose?" Officer Martinez asked incredulously.
"He ain't lied to us so far," Officer McFadden replied.
"That's right," Mr. Lanier said righteously. "I been straight with you guys."
"I think we ought to give Marvin the benefit of the doubt," Officer McFadden said.
Officer Martinez snorted.
"But if we do, what about the shotgun and the uppers?" McFadden asked.
"What uppers?" Mr. Lanier said. "What shotgun?"
"What are you saying, Marvin?" Officer McFadden asked.
"Suppose the uppers just went down the sewer?" Mr. Lanier asked.
"And the shotgun? What are we supposed to do with the shotgun?"
"You mean that shotgun we just found laying in the gutter? That shotgun? I never saw it before. I guess you would do what you ordinarily do when you find a shotgun someplace. Turn it in to lost and found or whatever."
"What do you think, Hay-zus?" Officer McFadden asked.
"I think we ought to run the son of a bitch in, is what I think," Officer Martinez said, and then added, "But I owe you one, Charley. If you want to trust the son of a bitch, I'll go along."