Maria sat on a stool at the far end of the bar. She nodded hello to Terry, glanced at Carella quickly to ascertain whether or not he was a prospective client, and then fell to staring through the plate glass window at the street. Carella walked over to her.
"Miss Hernandez?" he said.
She swung the stool around. "Yes?" she said coyly. "I'm Maria."
"I'm a cop," Carella said, figuring he'd set her straight from go, before she wasted any effort.
"I don't know anything about why my brother killed himself," Maria said, all coyness gone now. "Any other questions?"
"A few. Shall we sit in a booth?"
"I like it here," Maria said.
"I don't. A booth or the station house. Take your choice."
"You get down to business, don't you?"
"I try."
Maria climbed off the stool. They walked together to a booth opposite the steam table. Maria took off her coat and then slid into the booth opposite Carella.
"I'm listening," she said.
"How long have you been on the junk?"
"What's that got to do with my brother?"
"How long?"
"About three years."
"Why'd you start him on it?"
"He asked to start."
"I don't believe you."
"Why should I lie to you? He came in the bathroom one night while I was shooting up. The little snot didn't even knock. He wanted to know what I was doing. I gave him a snort."
"And then?"
"He liked it. He wanted more. You know."
"I don't know. Tell me about it."
"He got on mainline a couple of weeks later. End of story."
"When did you start hustling?"
"Aw, listen…" Maria said.
"I can find out."
"A little while after I got a habit. I had to make money some way, didn't I?"
"I suppose so. Who supplies you?"
"Oh, come on, cop, you know better than that."
"Who supplied your brother?"
Maria was silent.
"Your brother is dead, do you know that?" Carella said harshly.
"I know it," Maria answered. "What do you want me to do? He always was a stupid little snotnose. If he wants to kill himself…"
"Maybe he didn't kill himself."
Maria blinked, seemingly surprised. "No?" she said cautiously.
"No. Now who supplied him?"
"What difference does it make?"
"Maybe a lot."
"I don't know anyway." She paused. "Listen," she said, "why don't you leave me alone. I know cops."
"Do you?"
"Yeah. You looking for something free, is that it? You figure on scaring me so I'll…"
"I'm not looking for anything but information about your brother," Carella said.
"Yeah, I'll bet."
"You'd win," Carella said.
Maria kept staring at him, frowning. "I know cops who…" she started.
"I know hookers with syphilis," Carella said flatly.
"Listen, you got no right to…"
"Then let's drop this whole goddamn routine," he snapped. "I want information, period."
"Okay," Maria said.
"Okay," Carella repeated.
"And I still don't know anything." Maria added.
"You said you started him."
"Sure."
"All right, then you probably made a contact for him after he was hooked. Now, who?"
"I didn't make any contact for him. He always went his own way."
"Maria…"
"What do you want from me?" she said, suddenly flaring. "I don't know anything about my brother. I even found out he was dead from a stranger. I haven't been inside my own house for a year, so how would I know who supplied him or who didn't supply him, or even if he was supplying himself and others besides?"
"Was he pushing?"
"I don't know nothing. I didn't know him anymore, can you understand that? If I saw him on the street, I wouldn't recognize him. That's how much I knew about my own brother."
"You're lying," Carella said.
"Why should I lie? Who's there to protect? He hung himself, so…"
"I told you once," Carella said. "Maybe he didn't hang himself."
"You're making a federal case out of a lousy junkie," Maria said. "Why knock yourself out?" Her eyes clouded momentarily. "He's better off dead, believe me."
"Is he?" Carella asked. The table was very silent. "You're holding something back, Maria. What is it?"
"Nothing."
"What do you know? What is it?"
"Nothing."
Their eyes met. Carella studied her eyes, and he knew what was in them, and he knew she would tell him nothing more. He had just stared into a pair of opaque hoods. Her eyes had closed her mouth. "All right," he said.
The coroner didn't like to deal with new people. That was the way he'd been raised. He hated new faces, and he didn't like to confide secrets to strangers. The coroner's secret was a big one, and Bert Kling was a stranger, and so the coroner studied his face and reluctantly dredged through the facts in his mind, wondering how much he should reveal.
"How come they sent you?" he asked. "Couldn't they wait for our official report? What's the big rush?"
"Carella asked me to check with you, Dr. Soames," Kling said. "I don't know why, but I suppose he wants to get moving on this thing, and he figured he didn't want to wait for the report."
"Well, I don't know why he couldn't wait for the report," Soames said. "Everybody else waits for the report. In all my years here, everybody's waited for the report. So why can't Carella wait?"
"I'd appreciate it if…"
