church would have any familiarity with him.â
I kept quiet for the next few minutes while Bobby laid out our plan for the day. Then we all stepped from the little room and walked up the narrow stairs to street level. Bobby kept close to Walker and made an effort to chat amiably on the way. After a few steps, I took Johnsonâs elbow, drew him aside, and let Bobby and Walker walk on ahead.
âListen, Johnson,â I muttered quietly. âI got something for you. If you see a tall, skinny colored boy, about thirteen, big eyes like a cow, maybe name of Joshua, you let me know, all right? Heâll be shaking like a leaf, probably. Maybe wearing his pants too big, hoisted up with a belt. You find out what you can, you donât do anything, you just let me know. And keep it under your hat. Donât say anything to Walker or Swope about it either. You follow?â
âSure,â he answered. âBut whatââ
âAnd donât ask me any questions until I see whether you can handle that much.â
CHAPTER 4
As Bobby drove through the gates of the Grosse Pointe Shooting Club, I hung my arm out the window and dangled my hat. âSome joint,â I said. I took in the heavy, ivy-covered facade of the old building and listened to the popping of pistols and shotguns from the range out back. âLooks like a funeral home.â
âThis is where the big money comes to socialize.â Bobby rubbed his palm over the panel of his car door. âThereâs more money changing hands here than in any of the big offices downtown. Mark my words, Pete,â he said. âPretty soon Iâll be kicking up my heels in a place like this.â
âWhen you get rich.â
âWhen I get rich, thatâs right. Itâs in the works, Pete. Someday remind me to tell you about the little thing Iâm running on the side.â Bobby tightened the knot in his tie and smoothed his sparse hair close to his pate. âA little foresight, thatâs what it takes. You think Lloyd or Chrysler got rich, excuse my French, standing around with his thumb up his ass, working for somebody else? This police thing is just a temporary stop for me, mister, on the way to something better.â
I mulled it over. I knew that Bobby had been with the department since he was twenty or twenty-one, and so the temporary stop had stretched to something approaching twenty years. And though I had been paired with Bobby for only a short while, I had heard derisive references to his moneymaking schemes and failed side jobs for years.
I said, âMoneyâs just sitting around waiting for you to find it, eh?â
âThatâs exactly right. You have to train yourself to see it. Itâs everywhere. Every little thing you see is just floating on a river of it. Itâs like a fish floating along in the water. If he never says to himself, âHey, whatâs this stuff Iâm floating in?â then heâs never going to be able to take advantage of it, you see? And another thing,â he said, fluttering his hands for emphasis, âitâs always about money, no matter what anybody tells you. Not just in business but in every other thing. Every bit of crime that gets done in Detroit or anywhere, it all comes down to money. You follow the money, and youâll always get to the bottom of things.â
âSo somebodyâs getting rich off this dead girl, is that it?â I felt disgust well up. âBig market for dead little girls around here?â
âJesus, Pete, donât get hot. I just said that, at the bottom, itâs all money. I donât say I can attend to every detail. Iâm letting you in on some of my stuff, thatâs all. I thought you might appreciate it. Listen, I know they all like to get a laugh out of me in the locker room. But let me ask you, do they laugh when they consider the number of good collars Iâve brought in? Is there anybody else
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