Too Close to the Edge Read Online Free PDF Page B

behind their houses. One man told me he redid his roof five years ago. Jill, the old shingles are still heaped next to the porch! And piles: compost, wood, scraps, cardboard! It’s like the concept of empty space never occurred to these people. They’ve created a labyrinth back there. There are hundreds of places to hide. I know the shoe thief was hunkered down in one of those yards, watching me and laughing.”
    I almost said, “At least it’s not your case,” but once you’ve devoted as much time as Pereira had to a case, its hold is permanent. I pulled my jacket tighter around me. There was no sign of the sun now. It had settled down into the pillow of fog behind San Francisco. Now it was just a matter of that fog becoming an ever deeper gray-brown until it signaled night proper.
    But on the Avenue it might have been night already. The clutches of students who had rushed past our table an hour ago were gone. The street sellers had packed every ceramic toothbrush holder and cloisonné earring away. The Nepali import shops and the computer stores were closed, the latter with metal grates pulled across their windows. Even the pizza and the cookie take-out places were nearly deserted. The only spark of life was Pereira, kicking the sidewalk with each step.
    “You can’t dig him out that way,” I said.
    “It just makes me so mad. If I hadn’t let myself get distracted, I would have had him.”
    “Maybe.”
    “No, definitely. I run every morning. I’m in good shape. I could have been on him before he had his fingers through the laces.”
    I turned toward her and stopped. “Look Connie, the fact is that he got away. Now the only choice you have is whether you’re going to kick yourself about it for the rest of the night or get on with things.”
    “Yeah, well, it’s not so easy,” she said, continuing her pace.
    “I know.”
    “I’m not going to let this case go back to Caldwell like this.”
    “So what are you going to do?”
    Now it was Pereira’s turn to stop. “I’ve given that a lot of thought while I was waiting for you. I could stake out Shake A Leg from now till Christmas and get nowhere. We could have someone on every one of these al fresco shoes spots and still not catch him, or them. We’re not going to get anywhere till we know what the plan is, right?”
    Slowly, I nodded. I knew Pereira’s need-a-favor tone.
    “Most of the thefts have occurred on the Avenue. So it’s safe to assume that the plan is centered here.”
    I could see the request taking shape.
    “And the person who will know what that is is Herman Ott.”
    I sighed. “And you want me to ask him, right?”
    “Jill, you’re the master of dealing with Ott. No one, not even the venerables in Details, has your record.”
    “I don’t know how true that is; I’ve gotten maybe three leads from him in the same number of years. I also don’t know what it says about me.” Herman Ott viewed the police in much the same way his clients did. He was just more practical about it. He had survived all these years by knowing exactly how much he could withhold from us legally and how much he was required by law to admit but could still bargain for. He produced as little as possible, never incriminating information about his clients and nothing without being paid. For his clients to confide in him was like whispering in the confessional. As for us, threats and cajoling only devoured his minute store of patience. To say I was the officer he dealt with best or, more accurately, least unpleasantly, was a dubious endorsement. “Anyway, Connie, the department hasn’t come through with the two hundred I promised him last month. He’s not going to tell me anything.”
    “You could at least give it a try.”
    I looked down at my watch. “You know Ott better than that.”
    “What were you going to do that can’t wait half an hour?”
    “I was going to do some laps.” I was going to make myself swim laps.
    “The pool’s open till