TWENTY-ONE

When we knocked on the door Bing answered.

‘Come on in, boys,’ he said, backing away. ‘Katy’s out getting her hair done.’

‘Have you told her—’ I started to ask.

‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘I thought I’d . . . wait. For what, I don’t know. A better time?’

‘What’d you tell her about the horse?’

‘That I was thinking about it.’

‘Bing, this is Danny Bardini, the private detective I told you about.’

They shook hands.

‘Did you find Red Stanley?’ Bing asked him.

‘I did, Mr Crosby,’ Danny said. ‘He’s dead.’

Bing looked shocked, then said, ‘Damn. You fellas want a drink? I’m gonna have one.’

‘Sure,’ Danny said.

‘Bourbon,’ I said.

‘All around,’ Bing said, and poured out three bourbons.

We sat at the bar, with him behind it.

‘So what do we do now?’ he asked.

‘We were just talkin’ about that downstairs in the bar,’ I said.

‘What did you come up with?’ Bing asked.

‘Well, the police in both jurisdictions are workin’ on the murders,’ Danny said. ‘Do we need to do anything?’

Bing looked at me and I shrugged.

‘The cops are still gonna come lookin’ for us, aren’t they?’ Bing asked. ‘To question us some more?’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘but they’ll have to make the connection between Arnold and Stanley.’

‘I’m the connection,’ Bing reminded us. ‘The detectives from this morning already know about Red Stanley.’

‘He’s right,’ I said to Danny. ‘He had to tell them why he was there.’

‘Then unless Mr Crosby—’

‘Just Bing, Danny.’

Danny smiled at Bing and said, ‘If Bing doesn’t tell them that Red Stanley is dead, they’re gonna wanna know why.’

‘Then I better call them,’ Bing said. ‘That one detective, Lewis, gave me his number.’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Call him. Tell him you just found out that your trainer is dead.’

‘They’ll wanna know how he found out,’ Danny said.

‘He can tell them you told him,’ I said.

‘Then do we tell them that you hired me on Bing’s behalf to look for him? Or should we just say that Bing hired me and keep you and Jerry out of it?’

The three of us were staring at each other, trying to figure out the best course of action, when the phone rang.

‘Hello?’ Bing said. ‘Oh, really? Well, yes, I suppose you’d better. Thank you.’ He hung up.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘I think the question just got answered for us,’ he said. ‘That was the front desk. They said the police are here to talk to me. They asked if they should let them come up.’

‘And you said yes,’ Danny said.

Bing nodded.

‘OK,’ I said, ‘look, none of us has done anything wrong. Why should we be worried about talking to the police?’

‘What about Jerry?’ Danny asked.

‘Jerry doesn’t have to be here,’ I said. ‘He had nothing to do with Red Stanley. All he did was ride out to that ranch with Bing to look at a horse.’

‘Right,’ Bing said.

‘So there aren’t even any questions we have to avoid,’ Danny said.

‘Is this an unusual situation for you two boys to be in?’ Bing asked.

‘Actually,’ I said, ‘it is.’