brunettes, redheads. Hundreds of photos, but none of Abby Dalton.
âHeâs got âem,â I said. âHeâs got âem with âim.â
âSo he is gonna sell them to you tonight,â Jerry said.
âMaybe,â I said. âIâll find out when I see him.â
âIâll come along.â
âHe doesnât want you there, Jerry,â I said. âIf he sees you, he might not show up.â
âHe wonât see me.â
âLook, Jerry,â I said, âDannyâs gonna be inside. Irwinâs never seen him.â
âIâll be outside, Mr G.,â he said. âIrwin wonât catch on and neither will the dick. I wonât come in unless thereâs shootinâ.â
âYou didnât bring a gun with you on this trip, did you?â
âNo,â Jerry said, âbut I can get one.â
âLook, Jerry, Iâll tell you what I told Danny. This guyâs a middle-aged photographer, not a hard guy. Thereâs not gonna be any shooting.â
âAnd Iâll bet Iâm tellinâ you what the dick told you,â Jerry said. âYou never know what kind of a guy somebody is. Sometimes, you find out too late. So itâs better to be ready.â
âHe didnât tell me that.â
âWell, he shouldâve.â
âHe told me a simple swap is not always a simple swap.â
âHeâs right about that.â
I looked down at the photos in my hand.
âWhat do we do now?â Jerry asked.
âI donât think weâre gonna find any photos of Abby here,â I said, âbut letâs keep looking, just in case.â
âFine by me.â
We spent a good hour searching the whole house. We found more nudes in a bedroom closet, in a cardboard box, but they were more than nude. They were porn, showing men and women engaged in many different types and positions of sexual activity.
âMan, thatâs gotta hurt,â Jerry said, of one photo in particular.
âThese are not just photos,â I said. âThey look like stills.â
âFrom blue movies, you mean?â
I nodded.
âBut this isnât what weâre interested in. Letâs put âem back and go back downstairs.â
On the way down I said, âIâm thinking we missed something in his studio.â
âMaybe he just kept the pictures of Miss Dalton all someplace else,â Jerry said. âMaybe heâs really gonna give âem all to you tonight.â
âYou believe that?â
âNo. Blackmailers are the worst. Theyâre never satisfied.â
âWeâve got to satisfy this one, Jerry.â
âIâm ready, Mr G.,â Jerry said. âI love squeezinâ blackmailers.â
âWell, let me talk to him tonight, and then weâll see about squeezinâ him.â
âWith me outside and the dick inside, we gotcha covered.â
âI know,â I said. âI appreciate it.â
âWe gotta clean up here.â We were in the basement again, the nude photos still spread out on a table. âOr heâll know we was here.â
âNo,â I said.
âWhat?â
âI want to take all these with us.â
âAll of âem?â
âOh, yeah,â I said. âIf heâs planninâ to blackmail anybody else, I want to throw a monkey wrench into the works.â
Jerry went back to the file drawer and looked inside.
âWe got negatives here, Mr G.â
âGood,â I said. âWeâll take all the copies, and the negatives.â
âThen heâll really know we was here.â
âHeâll know somebody was here,â I said. âHe wonât be able to prove it was us.â
âOK,â Jerry said. âYouâre the boss.â
We found some brown envelopes, stuffed them full of photos and negatives, then went out the back door to the Caddy.
Jerry looked
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