You used to be a cop, right,” Jesse said.

“Right,” Dix said.

“I want to talk cop talk.”

“You mean you didn’t come for treatment?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, you didn’t come for treatment?”

“Yes.”

“You want to talk about a case?”

“I do.”

“I’ll have to charge you just the same,” Dix said.

“I figured,” Jesse said.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“The murder.”

“The murder of the prostitute?”

“Yes.”

“What about it?”

“The deeper I dig and the more I uncover, the curiouser it all becomes.”

“Meaning?”

“I don’t trust anything any of them are telling me.”

“Who?”

“Thomas Walker. Fat Boy Nelly. Jimmy Sloan. Gino Fish. All of them.”

“Okay,” Dix said.

“They’re all hiding something. They’re lying and withholding. Everything I get from them is either inconclusive or subject to reinterpretation. Nothing is as it appears.”

Dix didn’t say anything.

“Walker and the Fat Boy are antagonists. Nelly believes that Walker’s out to kill him. Walker believes the same of Nelly. Each of them met with the dead girl at the Surf and Sand. Walker three times. Nelly once. I think they were vying for her.”

“Vying?”

“To represent her.”

“Represent her how?”

“Make her a part of their organization,” Jesse said.

“You mean each of them wanted to pimp for her.”

“Yes.”

“Go on,” Dix said.

“I believe that she managed to became the fulcrum in this conflict between them.”

“You think she was the cause of Walker and Nelly’s antagonisms?”

“Not the cause. The catalyst.”

“Okay.”

“Both of them want to be top dog. But their methods are diametrically opposed. Nelly sees Walker as an anachronism, a throwback to times past. He sees himself as the future. He’s wired up and fired up.”

“Meaning?”

“He’s part of the technological revolution, and he believes that technology is the pathway to the future.”

“For prostitution?”

“Especially for prostitution.”

“And how does Walker see it?”

“Differently.”

“So how did the girl fit in?”

“The girl was the touchstone. The prize. By making them court her, she managed to force each of them to define himself. To sharpen their respective messages in an effort to win her.”

“And,” Dix said.

“I believe one of them murdered her.”

“Because?”

“That’s what I don’t know.”

“And you plan to find out.”

“I do.”

“And you’ll piss people off in the process.”

“More than likely.”

“Which will place you in some danger.”

“Possibly.”

“But you’re going to go forward regardless.”

“I am.”

“I see.”

Dix stood and walked over to his coffeemaker. He poured himself a cup. He offered one to Jesse, who declined. He returned to his desk and sat down.

“Do you have any advice,” Jesse said.

“You’ll want to watch your ass.”

“That’s your advice?”

“The best that money can buy.”

“And at such reasonable prices, too.”

“Which I’m thinking of raising.”

“Good luck with that,” Jesse said.