The Burglar on the Prowl - By Lawrence Block Page 0,7
anything at all to connect him to the burglary—”
“And you were going to ask me to come with you? Why didn’t you say something?”
“Well, as soon as I found out you had a date…”
“I’d have broken it. I can still break it, I’ll just e-mail GurlyGurl and tell her something came up.”
“No, don’t do that. This’ll be your third connection through Date-a-Dyke, and everybody knows the third time is the charm. Besides, I always feel a little guilty involving you in my crimes.”
“As long as we don’t get caught,” she said, “you’ve got nothing to feel guilty about.”
“That’s not the way they teach it in Sunday school.”
“Too bad.” She frowned. “What time?”
“I really don’t want you breaking your date.”
“I got that part. What time are you gonna be doing it?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t worked that out yet. The Mapeses have tickets for the Met. There’s an eight o’clock curtain, so they’ll most likely leave the house around seven.”
“And that’s when you’ll go?”
“No, that’s a little early for me. I figure I’ll set out around nine. They’re seeing Don Giovanni, and that lasts close to four hours, and by the time they get home—”
“I can come,” she said.
“But your date with GurlyGurl—”
“Didn’t I tell you I’d be skipping the Bum Rap Friday? I’m meeting her in the lobby of the Algonquin at 6:15. That gives me plenty of time to run home and put on jeans and sneakers and meet you wherever you say.”
“Suppose the two of you hit it off?”
“Then I’ll probably be a lot better company on the way to Riverdale than if we hate each other. So?”
“I mean really hit it off,” I said, “and decide to have dinner together, and then decide to, uh—”
“To do all the things the fifteen-year-olds dream up in the chat rooms. Relax, Bern. It’s not gonna happen.”
“But if you both really like each other—”
“If that happens,” she said, “and I really hope it does, although God knows the odds are against it. But if it does, we’ll have a second round of drinks, and then we’ll tell each other how much we enjoyed the meeting, and we’ll shake hands, with maybe a significant little squeeze at the end of the handshake. And then we’ll meet again online and arrange a dinner date.”
“That sounds complicated.”
“It’s a lot simpler to go over to the Cubby Hole and drag some drunk home with you,” she allowed, “but most of the time it doesn’t work and you wind up going home alone, and when you do get lucky, who do you wind up with? The kind of woman who lets herself get picked up in dyke bars, that’s who.”
“Oh.”
“What I figured I would do, Bern, is have my drinks with GurlyGurl, and then pick up a barbecued chicken on the way home, and after I shared that with the cats I’d go over to the Cubby Hole and make a night of it. But I’d a whole lot rather go with you to Riverdale. Can you really use the company?”
“Well, I’ll want to drive. The subway’s fine for tonight, but when you’re carrying things that don’t belong to you, public transportation’s not the safest way to go.”
“You need me,” she said firmly. “Suppose you can’t find a parking place?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“We’re in business,” she said. “I’m your henchperson, just like old times. And of course I won’t breathe a word of it, Bern, but GurlyGurl’s going to notice that I have an air of mystery about me.” She grinned. “So? What could it hurt?”
Four
I didn’t really have to go home first. I was dressed all right in what I’d worn to work that morning. They haven’t got a dress code in the subway, and I don’t suppose they’ve got one on the streets of Riverdale, but one wants to avoid calling attention to oneself, and the only thing my khakis and polo shirt might call to anyone’s attention was the relative poverty of my sartorial imagination.
It was spring—I may not have mentioned that—and, if the thermometer dropped a few degrees with nightfall, I might feel the chill in a short-sleeved shirt. Even if it didn’t, I’d had a pair of stiff scotches at the Bum Rap, and it wouldn’t hurt me to give them a little extra time to wear off. There was nothing on the agenda that required a sober head or quick reflexes, but my mission, while lawful enough all by itself, was part of a larger campaign that was as