The Devil's Own Rag Doll by Mitchell Bartoy

church would have any familiarity with him.”
    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 Johnson’s elbow, drew him aside, and let Bobby and Walker walk on ahead.
    â€œListen, Johnson,” I muttered quietly. “I 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? He’ll be shaking like a leaf, probably. Maybe wearing his pants too big, hoisted up with a belt. You find out what you can, you don’t do anything, you just let me know. And keep it under your hat. Don’t say anything to Walker or Swope about it either. You follow?”
    â€œSure,” he answered. “But what—”
    â€œAnd don’t ask me any questions until I see whether you can handle that much.”

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. “Some joint,” 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. “Looks like a funeral home.”
    â€œThis is where the big money comes to socialize.” Bobby rubbed his palm over the panel of his car door. “There’s more money changing hands here than in any of the big offices downtown. Mark my words, Pete,” he said. “Pretty soon I’ll be kicking up my heels in a place like this.”
    â€œWhen you get rich.”
    â€œWhen I get rich, that’s right. It’s in the works, Pete. Someday remind me to tell you about the little thing I’m running on the side.” Bobby tightened the knot in his tie and smoothed his sparse hair close to his pate. “A little foresight, that’s 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.”
    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, “Money’s just sitting around waiting for you to find it, eh?”
    â€œThat’s exactly right. You have to train yourself to see it. It’s everywhere. Every little thing you see is just floating on a river of it. It’s like a fish floating along in the water. If he never says to himself, ‘Hey, what’s this stuff I’m floating in?’ then he’s never going to be able to take advantage of it, you see? And another thing,” he said, fluttering his hands for emphasis, “it’s 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 you’ll always get to the bottom of things.”
    â€œSo somebody’s getting rich off this dead girl, is that it?” I felt disgust well up. “Big market for dead little girls around here?”
    â€œJesus, Pete, don’t get hot. I just said that, at the bottom, it’s all money. I don’t say I can attend to every detail. I’m letting you in on some of my stuff, that’s 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 I’ve brought in? Is there anybody else