Tiny looked uncomfortable.
“Matt, I don’t think booze is the solution.”
“I was with Washington at the Mall Tavern.”
“Doing what?”
“Ostensibly, it was so that he and I could listen to Homicide gossip. About the time he went home, I decided it was to introduce me socially to the Homicide guys; he was playing rabbi for me.”
“My father said they’re really going to be pissed that the Mayor sent you over there.”
“I think their reaction, thanks to Washington, has been reduced from homicidal rage, pun intended, to bitter resentment by Washington’s act of charity. Actually, they seemed to understand it wasn’t my doing.”
“I would have been here yesterday,” Tiny said. “Personally, not because Wohl would have sent me. But Washington said there would be enough people here then, and I should come today.” Tiny paused. “I’m sorry about what happened, Matt.”
“Thank you.”
“Anyway, you’re stuck with me,” Tiny said. “And apropos of nothing whatever, I haven’t had my breakfast.”
“See what’s in the refrigerator while I have a shower,” Matt said.
Matt came back into the kitchen ten minutes later to the smell of frying bacon and percolating coffee, and the sight of Tiny Lewis neatly arranging tableware on the kitchen table. He had taken off his suit jacket and put on an apron. It was a full-sized apron, but on Tiny’s massive bulk it appeared much smaller. He looked ridiculous, and Matt smiled.
“I’ll bet you can iron very well, too,” he said.
“Fuck you, you don’t get no breakfast,” Tiny replied amiably.
“When you’re through with that, you can vacuum the living room.”
“Fuck you again,” Tiny said. “Tell me about the double homicide at the Inferno.”
Over breakfast, Matt told him.
“This Atchison guy is very good,” he concluded. “Smart and tough. And his lawyer is good, too. Just when Milham was starting to get him, the lawyer—”
“Who’s his lawyer?”
“A guy named Sidney Margolis.”
Tiny snorted. “I know who he is. A real sleazeball. My father told me he’s been reported to the bar association so often he’s got his own filing cabinet.”
“He’s smart. He saw Milham was getting to Atchison, and said, ‘Interview over. My client is in great pain.’”
“Was he?”
“After Margolis told him he was, he was. And that was it.”
“I wish I could have seen the interview,” Tiny said.
“Milham is very good.”
“You heard about his lady friend’s husband?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think he had anything to do with it?”
“No,” Matt said immediately.