"The landlady called 911 because somebody was screaming upstairs," she said. "She caters to hookers, she wouldn't have called unless she thought it was very serious."
Kling nodded.
"She quieted down just a little while ago. She's down the hall in Interrogation. I'm not sure you ought to talk to her."
"Why not?" Kling said.
"I'm just not sure," Annie said.
He went down the hall.
He opened the door.
She was sitting at the long table in the Interrogation Room, the two-way mirror behind her. Just sitting there. Looking at her hands.
"I'm sorry if I screwed it up," he said.
"You didn't."
He sat opposite her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"No," she said.
He looked at her.
"I'm quitting," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"The force."
"No, you're not."
"I'm quitting, Bert. I don't like what it did to me, what it keeps doing to me."
"Eileen, you…"
"I'm quitting this city, too."
"Eileen…"
"This fucking city," she said, and shook her head.
He reached for her hand. She pulled it away.
"No," she said.
"What about me?" he said.
"What about me?" she said.
The phone rang at a little past two in the morning.
She picked up the receiver.
"Peaches?" the voice said. "This is Phil Hendricks at Camera Works, we talked earlier tonight."
Him again!
"What I want you to do," he said, "I want you to take off your blouse and go look at yourself in the mirror. Then I want you to…"
"Listen, you creep," she said, "if you call me one more time…"
"This is Andy Parker," he said. "I'm in a phone booth on the corner. Is it too late to come up?"
"You dope," she said.
It was the last trick of the night.
