said Sam. âOkay, tell me about that burglary. If your fingerprints are on the goods from that job, you havenât got a prayer. You know that, donât you?â
âI know that, Mr. Bemer. But I wasnât there. My prints canât be there, unless these cops can put them there. I know when a cop is killed, they can do anything. I donât even know the block where it happen.â
âOne fifty-three Stanton Street,â Sandro supplied.
âThatâs the block where Hernandez lives, but I donât know that block. I wasnât there. I read that Hernandez car was double-park there and a woman, I think sheâs a whore, you knowâand she does the womansâ operationsâshe told the cops the car belong to Hernandez.â
âWhat do you mean, operations?â asked Sam.
âWhen they got a kid, you know?â
âAbortions?â
âYeah. She live on that block in Hernandez house. She told the cops the double-park car belong to Hernandez cause she knows Hernandez robs apartments and she thinks he hit her apartment once. I think she tell them she see me too.â
âHow do you know these things?â Sam queried.
âCause they bring people when I waiting for the D.A., and the people, mostly womans, are on the other side of a glass, a mirrorâ¦â
âA two-way mirror?â Sam asked.
âThatâs right. They could look at me, but I donât see them. But I hear them, I know people are there, lookinâ, and Iâm bendinâ, sideways.â
âYou donât know who was there?â Sandro asked.
âNo. Only the one I say, the whore, cause I heard the cops on the other side talkinâ, thinkinâ I canât hear, like they know this one. Asunta, thatâs her name.â
Sam made a note. âAnybody else you know was there?â
âNo, thatâs the only one. They were others there. Womans. But I donât know their name.â
âOkay, then, if you didnât commit this crime,â said Sam, âwhere were you?â
âI got up late. I seen some guy. I do a couple things. I eat. In the afternoon, I go to my room. I go downstairs to see Jorge, the super.â
âThe same Jorge you spoke to when you came home?â queried Sandro.
âRight, thatâs the same guy. And I had this whiskey, and I ask him, âJorge, you want to buy this?â And he says, âHow much?â So I told him, two bucks, and he says, âOkay.â Then I stayed and talked to him for a while, and then I went down the block, and after, I took the subway over to Times Square.â
âWhere were you going?â
âI was going to Times Square, to the movies.â
âWho was with you?â Sandro asked hopefully.
âI was by myself.â
âGo ahead,â Sam suggested.
âThatâs all.â He lifted his hands in a gesture of finality.
âWhat are these marks?â asked Sandro, pointing to a small cluster of pinhole marks on the inside of Alvaradoâs arm near the elbow. âAre these fix marks?â
âNo. They from a scab when I failed down in the station house, when these guys are beating me.â
âYou are a junky?â Sam said rather than asked.
âYes, sir. I have no fix now since Iâm here, three weeks, so Iâm pretty clean.â
âBefore, you were using the stuff?â
âYes.â
âHeroin?â
Alvarado nodded.
âHow about pushing the stuff?â Sam continued.
âI was hustling in the street. I wasnât pushing, but sometimes a guy needed something, and he didnât know where to get it. I help him out, deliver it. Stuff like that.â
âYou serve any time for it?â
âYeah, I got busted three times.â
âWhen.â
âOnce in â60, I did ninety days. Another time in â62, I did ninety days. And another in, I donât know, I guess that was â62,