"If you can keep your lust under control, you can kiss me, Matthew."
He leaned across the table and kissed her lightly on the lips.
"I like kissing you better than fighting with you," Penny said. " Let's try that for a while and see what happens."
****
Peter Wohl, lying in his bed, had just decided that his delicate condition, the session with Larkin, Washington, Malone, and John Barleycorn having lasted until after ten, indicated a couple of soft boiled eggs on toast, rather than a restaurant breakfast, when his door buzzer sounded.
Who the hell is that, at quarter to seven?
He got out of bed, put on a bathrobe, and walked barefoot to the door.
"Hello, Hay-zus," he said. "How are you? Come on in."
What the hell do you want? That you couldn't have said on the telephone?
"I brought this back," Martinez said, thrusting the loose-leaf notebook with BUREAU OF NARCOTICS AND DANGEROUS DRUGS Investigator's Manual FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY stamped on its cover at Wohl.
At seven o 'clock in the goddamned morning?
"Thank you," Wohl said.
"And I wanted to talk to you," Martinez said a little uncomfortably. "I thought it would be better if I came. Instead of calling, I mean."
"Absolutely. Do you know how to make coffee?"
"Yes, sir."
"You make the coffee, then, while I catch a quick shower," Wohl said, and pointed toward his kitchen.
"Yes, sir."
****
"What's on your mind, Hay-zus?" Wohl asked, walking into the kitchen buttoning the cuff of his shirt.
"Inspector, the last time I was here: sir, you asked me if I had a gut feeling about anybody, anybody dirty, I mean, and I told you I didn't."
And now you 're going to tell me, right?
"I remember."
"I did, but I didn't want to say anything."
"I understand. What's your gut feeling, Hay-zus?"
'There's a corporal out there, name of Vito Lanza."
"And you think he's dirty? Why?"
"He just came back from Las Vegas with a lot of money. Enough to buy a new Cadillac."
"Your pal Matt Payne was just in Vegas and did about the same thing."
"Payne's different. Payne's got money. He can afford that kind of money to gamble."
"Is that all you've got to go on, Hay-zus?"