My chat with Daisy left me with burned ears and a threat to leave if she didn't get paid soon - fantastic dinner forgotten. I decided I'd let her cool down and argue with her later. I was still clinging to the chance Caroline Grace would call back.

I was due in court in a couple of days to testify for the DA and who knew how long that would take. Doc never called back about the autopsy results, and since Lulu had been in for an I.D. I thought my connection in the cop shop might be worth a call.

***************

"Oh my, my! It's the DA's star witness, Mr. Gunn. Here to give out autographs, Gunn?"

"I'd ask for yours, Smith, if I thought you could write."

"Hey you mugs, back off." Billy McCarty pushed his angry partner away and told him to grab some joe and calm down.

"Why do you always have to light him up, Gunn?"

I grinned and said, "He started it, officer."

McCarty shook his head. "You should work with him, he always starts it."

We went outside and sat on the front steps of the station, watching the labourers clear up all the debris from the explosion.

"Know who did it?"

"They think it was some Spanish gang or somethin', I don't know."

"Why would a Spanish gang take out McGinty?"

"Huh? I thought you meant this, the station."

"Who cares about the station, coulda bin any citizen that's had to deal with you and Smith." I punched his arm and he gave me a tired grin.

We chewed the fat about old times and gradually worked around to the case. "How did Lulu take doin' the ID?"

"Hard, real hard. She actually loved the bastard."

"You think so? Unlike you, eh?"

His look was frosty but melted quickly. There was something bothering him and my PI antenna started pinging.

"Can I trust you to keep your lip buttoned?"

"Billy, If those old times we just visited don't answer that then nothin' will."

He nodded and pulled a face. "I met her in Shamus' place at the funeral parlour, you know, Velveteen. She's scared, Gunn. She's holded up at one of the jerk's love nests because the Feds are sending Order in to take over the investigation."

I snorted. "Lorne Order, Mr. By the Book, why am I not surprised." I pulled out a fag and lit up. "I have a hard time picturing Lou scared, Billy."

"There's something else too . . . a dame, a writer. She showed up at the crime scene the night of and she was in the Speak when I met Lulu . . . she saw us."

"Who is she? How'd she get into Velveteen, he was poison to the press?"

"She's not press, she's a writer." His eyes rose with his shoulders. "Name's Annie O'Cappella."

"So, why does that matter?"

"She's a writer, Gunn. What the hell does that suggest?"

"You want me to find her and find out exactly what she's writing about, eh." I gave him a grim smile.

"Uh- I uh- I already know . . . and where she lives."

"Billy, what the hell's goin' on?"

***************

He told me all about the undercover business, how it blew up in his face and the deal he and Lou made about her feeding him dope on the mob deals as long as he left Shamus alone. It saved his job but left him a pariah in the department.

When she asked to meet him at Velveteen's he thought he might get back in with her but she put the kybosh on that and even said they shouldn't meet again. He warned her about messing with Order and to be careful. That was when they noticed the writer dame watching them. Billy had braced her and taken her home.

"Why did you meet her there?"

His body sagged and he slowly shook his head.

"It was the only safe place for her."

"Billy . . . why did you meet her period?"

"I couldn't help it Gunn . . ." He tilted his face in a silent plea.

"You know you're an ass don't you?"

***************

My gut was starting to tell me this wasn't a mob hit but something more personal and when it was personal it was usually bread or broads. Shamus had plenty of both and that meant the list of suspects was ridiculous; a mob hit would have been easier.

But it also meant Louise McGinty was now calling the shots, even if she was in hiding. Billy had mentioned her interest in a piano player at Velveteen that was just filling in that night. I hit the Rusty Nail in Oh Aces since it was also a Shamus haunt; maybe I could get a lead on the guy that was playing the night Lulu and Billy were there.

The Rusty Nail was always busy and they had a piano player too. The bartender said he didn't remember all the dames that hung out there. Shamus played host to every mobster and chippy in Oh Aces and the Muffin District.

That wasn't news. I tipped back a beer and scoped the piano player; It was Bruce Buchanan, a known small time grifter. Now that was interesting. Was he there that night? Did Lulu and Buchanan have something going?

"Not the usual clientele for your bunco games, Bruce." I said, leaning on the piano and giving him my best Bogart stare.

"Not your best detecting either, Truss." He ran a trill up the keyboard.

"It's Tres, buster."

"And it's Buck, pal. Bruce is my twin brother."

I straightened up and drank some beer, miffed I had muffed my intro.

"Okay. I'm sorry. You look a lot like him." The minute I said it I ground my teeth. "Don't say it. You know what I meant."

We called a truce and I sat with him while he played. He told me about his brother and what happened the night Shamus was killed and about Brody and Lou coming to see him. It seemed like he had to get it all out; to tell somebody. The guy was nothing like his brother.

Apparently the O'Cappella dame had been pumping him for info too and left her card. Another coincidence? I had her address so it was time to talk to the writer. When I asked him about Lou helping him get away from the raid he clammed up.

I gave him my card and dropped a deuce in the tip jar on the piano. Out in the lobby I called Daisy and told her what I had learned. Brody and Shamus had put the arm on Bruce Buchanan the night Shamus was killed. Billy McCarty told me Lorne Oder was taking over the case for the Feds. Louise McGinty had gone to ground, and I needed to see a writer who was nosing around.

She hadn't reached Caroline so for now I was spending money I didn't have.

I told her to call it a night and lock up and go home. I drove back to BG and parked near the crime scene. I wanted to get a lay of the land before talking to the Annie broad.

The shove from behind sent me face first into the alley wall and when I turned around a fist like a wrecking ball hit me in the stomach and I went down like wilted lettuce.

"Dicks that poke around where they don't belong get lessons." A shoe caught me in the shoulder and the pain went through me like a sky rocket.

"Better keep your nose clean, shylock, or you might just find it in your ear."

The last blow was that fist again, this time on the side of my head. I'd had the lessons but I was pretty sure I failed. I lay still, watching the light at the end of the alley wink out.