Brass Go-Between by Ross Thomas Page A

door to change shifts and it’s also got something to do with fire-department regulations. I figure that since Sackett had twelve-minute check-in intervals he could use one of them to carry the shield down to the ramp that led to the emergency door. A couple of punch-in intervals later he could carry it up the ramp, open the door, hand it to the thieves, and then make it back upstairs in time to punch in again. He’d give his buddies a half hour or so to get clear and then report the shield as stolen.”
    “Did he report it?” I said.
    “He reported it.”
    “And there was no full-time guard on that emergency door?”
    “No.”
    “Did you talk to him? Sackett, I mean.”
    “Me and Fastnaught were off. I was home in bed when it happened; God knows whose bed Fastnaught was in.”
    Fastnaught chewed his gum a little more rapidly, making it pop on every third or fourth chew. “She’d just turned eighteen,” he said. “In fact, it was her birthday. I gave her a real nice present.”
    “You don’t have to lie to us,” Demeter said mildly.
    “When were you assigned to the thing?” I said.
    “Friday,” Demeter said. “When we came on our shift. We went looking for Sackett, but by then he’d disappeared. You know something, St. Ives?”
    “What?”
    “About all we’ve got on this is the Sackett woman.”
    “Shit, she doesn’t know anything,” Fastnaught said.
    “Well, I might go along with that, but maybe she does and maybe she doesn’t. But I didn’t say she was the only thing we’ve got. I said she was about the only thing.”
    “What else is there?” Fastnaught said.
    “Why, we’ve got ourselves a fancy New York-type go-between, Sergeant Fastnaught, that’s what we’ve got.”
    Fastnaught took his feet from the desk and put them back on the floor. He leaned forward, his jaws moving rapidly on his stick of gum, and stared at me with his blue eyes. I noticed that they seemed a little bloodshot. “That’s right,” he said, “we have Mr. St. Ives.”
    “Who’s going to be most cooperative,” Demeter said, and smiled at me in a happy, friendly way as if I’d just told him that the promotion had gone through after all and he would be Captain Demeter come next Wednesday morning.
    I decided it was time to go. I got up and moved toward the door. “Thanks very much for the information, gentlemen. If you break the case before eight-thirty this evening, I’ll be at the Madison. After that, I’ll be in New York.”
    “Did you hear that, Sergeant Fastnaught? Mr. St. Ives will be at the Madison until eight-thirty.”
    “I figured the Madison,” Fastnaught said. “The Hilton’s getting too commercial.”
    “If you hear of anything from the people—probably just some irresponsible kids who thought it’d be a good joke—anyway if you hear anything from the people who stole the shield of Komporeen, you’ll let us know, won’t you?” Demeter said, waving his cigar again. “Through no fault of your own, you’re sort of mixed up in a murder now, Mr. St. Ives, and we’d more or less like you to stay in touch, if it’s not too much trouble.”
    “No trouble at all,” I said. “I always like to support my local police.”
    “Well, that’s good to hear because I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other,” Demeter said. “Just one more thing.”
    “What?” I said.
    “You be careful,” he said, and then grinned at me around his cigar as if he had just told a very funny and extremely dirty joke.
    “And cautious, too,” Fastnaught called as I closed the door behind me and went down the green and black marble hall, into the bronze-doored elevator, and out into the yellow sunlight. I walked around until I spotted the window with the lowered Venetian blind, and when I found it I was pleased to note that the only view it had was that of a parking lot.

CHAPTER FIVE
    I WAS SURPRISED THAT it was a woman’s voice. She called a little before six, just after I had finished a second