ROSEN DIDN’T ACT shocked. Or angry. He went for amused.
“I’m waiting for the punch line,” he said.
“None forthcoming,” I said.
“So, wait,” he said. “You dragged my ass over here to tell me I did it? It’s like the tennis guy said that time. You cannot be serious.”
“Call it more of a working theory,” I said.
“While I call bullshit,” he said.
“Not sure I can prove it,” I said. “But I think I’m right.”
“Why for fuck’s sake would I kill Tony’s girlfriend?” he said.
“Don’t forget her friend Callie.”
“Got it,” Jake said. “I take time off from trying to take down Tony to take out two hookers.”
“See, that’s a key element to my working theory,” I said. “I don’t think you’re actually trying to take Tony down. I think you two are partners.”
“Okay, now we’ve crossed over the bridge into Crazy Town,” he said.
“That’s not an actual place,” I said.
“Tonight it is,” Rosen said.
“Don’t think so.”
“People talk a lot of shit to me all the time,” Rosen said. “Part of the job description. But you win. Like, going away.”
He ran both hands through the thick hair, in exasperation.
“Thing is, I actually do like you,” he said.
“Is that why you’re still here?” I said.
“I’m fascinated about this working theory of yours,” he said. “Why don’t you run the whole thing by me, while I am still here.”
So I did. Told him again that I just couldn’t make Jabari for the killings, no matter how hard I tried. Told him I could never reconcile Tony hiring me and then breaking into my house. Or killing Callie after I’d already told him Callie had told me nothing useful about Lisa. Or following Lisa to Paradise.
Told him there was a lot I didn’t know yet, but figured I could find out later, maybe even from Tony himself.
“Good luck with that,” Rosen said.
“Because he won’t talk?” I said. “He’s always loved talking to me.”
“Then he’ll tell you what I’m telling you,” Rosen said. “That this is all bullshit.”
I smiled.
“You said I was the last person to see Lisa alive,” I said.
“So?” he said.
But I saw something happen with those blue eyes. No fun in them now.
“I never told you about meeting Lisa,” I said.
“Sure you did.”
“No, I didn’t. Didn’t tell Tony at the time. I only told Lee Farrell. But when I called Lee last night, he told me he’d never told anybody. So the only way somebody could have known that is if they were the one who broke into my house, locked my dog in a closet, and planted a bug in my kitchen.”
I reached into my pocket and came out with the device that had been under the kitchen table and placed it on the table in front of him.
“You know what the guy who found it told me after he did?” I said.
“Can’t wait to hear,” Rosen said.
“Police issue,” he said.
He leaned back, folded his arms across the bomber jacket. “You’re embarrassing yourself, Sunny. No shit.”
“I think you planted the bug,” I said. “I think it was your guy who followed me to Harvard Stadium, thinking I might be leading him to Lisa. And your guy who followed me to Santarpio’s the other night. Just to keep tabs.”
“My guy.”
“Gangs, guns, girls,” I said. “Probably a gang guy, acting like one of your whores. And then outside Santarpio’s, the guy told me you couldn’t ever get anywhere by threatening me.”
“So what.”
“I only said that to you,” I said.
“You must have said that to somebody else in your life,” he said.
“Not anybody he would know,” I said. “Except for you. When Lisa did come to my house that night, she was babbling about Tony getting with the man to stay the man. You know what I finally decided? You’re the man she was talking about. Later on, somebody told me they thought someone might be running Tony. I think the someone is you, Jake. I think you’re the one who decided to become an entrepreneur. I don’t know what you’ve got on him. But it must be something good.”
He shook his head.
“The balls on you,” he said.
“That’s what Tony always says,” I said.
“Sunny, listen to yourself,” Rosen said. “You’re the one who’s babbling here. Either Tony or Jabari is playing you, and you’re just slow to catch on. It’s the old poker line. If you can’t identify the sucker at the table after a few minutes, the sucker is generally you.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I didn’t do it,” he said. “Any of it.”
I shook my head. “As bad as it would have been for his image to have it out there that he was in business with a dirty cop,” I said, “you were the one with everything to lose if it got out about you. Lisa never came right out and said what she knew and what she didn’t. But when she ran, even a cool guy like you panicked.”
“Forget about painting,” he said. “You should have been a writer.”
“You probably lost your shit when Tony hired me without telling you,” I said. “But you couldn’t turn finding her into a full-time job. You already had one of those. So you figured I might help you, as long as you knew what I had every step of the way. You beat it out of Callie that Lisa was up in Paradise before you killed her and dumped her. The bug in my kitchen picked up her telling me she was going to The Fens. I didn’t know where the house was. But you did. Then you got there first, and eliminated the threat once and for all.”
He looked at his watch.
“I can hear how you’ve talked yourself into this,” he said. “And I guess I can’t talk you out of it. But it’s not me. I told you before. I’m one of the good guys.”
“Maybe once.”
“Say you’re right about all of this, just for the sake of this conversation,” Rosen said. “Could you ever prove any of it in a million years?”
“She can’t,” Tony Marcus said, walking through the kitchen door and looking like a million damn dollars. “But I can.”
He was smiling.
“Bitches,” he said. “They sure can talk.”