Flashing lights. Police cars parked willy-nilly, noses to the curb. Yellow tape stretched around some hydro poles,and the front door of the club contained a group of uniformed and plain-clothed police. A paramedic team stood by talking to the coroner's assistant. Des and Parker stepped under the tape and were immediately blocked by two policemen.

"We work here," Des stated. "On the news they said you were looking for us."

"And just who did it say you were?" The cop stood with legs apart and thumbs in his belt.

"I'm Desdemona Jones and this is Parker Nevens now could we speak to a detective please?"

"Let's see some ID."

Desdemona gave the cop a pained look and turned away. "C'mon Parker, they don't want to see us."

With a helpless glance at the cop, Parker jogged after Des who was taking long strides around the police tape.

"Hey! Hold it!"

"You hold it, you're a big boy." She called over her shoulder and kept walking.

"Des, Jesus. That was a cop." Parker hurried to catch up.

"And a dumb one at that." She slowed down as he came alongside and the shout of her name made her stop.

"Miss Jones! I'm Detective Leo Holt and I would like to speak with you and Mr. Nevens."

They both looked back at the man standing just inside the tape, one arm gesturing in a friendly beckoning wave.

******

They sat together in the dancer's dressing room and Des took the opportunity to gather some of her things because until the investigation was completed the club would be closed for business. Detective Holt closed his notebook and considered the couple in front of him.

The woman was too clever not to tell the truth, and truth it seemed to be after a few quick confirmations. The guy, well he seemed a little paranoid. The stranger that he said he saw choking Earl in his office couldn't really be substantiated by anyone else at the club.

The women all said a man stuck his head in their door, but they were focused on shooing him out and couldn't really give a description, and it didn't mean that it was the same man just because Nevens said it was. Nobody saw Parker's man enter or leave, only Parker Nevens. Matter of fact, only Nevens even says there was another man.

Holt took out his wallet and stood. His problem was he believed the guy.

"If you think you can improve on your description of this guy please give me a call." Holt handed them each a card.

"It was only a quick glimpse." Parker shrugged.

"Still." Holt gestured at the card and then said his goodbye.

They watched him leave without closing the door then Des turned to Parker. "That was pretty painless, aren't you glad now that we got it over with?"

"Yeah, I suppose. You think he believed me about the guy with Earl?"

She chuckled and led the way from the room. "Your delivery was faultless, Parker."

"Ah now that wasn't funny. What if he doesn't believe me? I was the last guy to see Earl alive."

"Only if you did kill him." She chuckled again.

"This is no time for your smart aleck comments, Des. How the hell can I convince him if he doesn't believe me?"

"If at first you don't succeed." She waved a pacifying hand.

Parker looked disgusted. "Right, then I shouldn't skydive."

******

Des was still laughing when they arrived at her apartment. Parker had accompanied her home, professing his chivalrous upbringing, and smug inside that she actually thought his comment was originally funny. He'd leave it there.

"Well thanks for the escort, Parker. Are you sure you can get home now... alone?"

"I don't know. Maybe I should stay over."

"Yeah, and if I agreed we'd both be wrong. Good night, Parker." She climbed the few steps to the door.

He gritted his teeth, grasping wildly for something to keep her from leaving. "What about work now? What are you going to do?"

"Catch up on my laundry, cleaning and reading; until the cops release the club none of us will be doing anything."

"With Earl dead, who's gonna run it anyway?"

"I'm sure there's a lawyer or accountant somewhere in Earl's business that will want that asset to keep generating money." She smiled at him, opened the door and went inside, buzzing herself through the security door and out of his sight.

"Hell." He turned and looked up and down the empty street. He rankled at the fact that she seemed so bloody centred and smart. She answered all his whining with common sense... even her jokes were funnier. A car crawled past, the driver gave him a quick look as he began walking in the same direction, his head filling with a Pandora's Box of worrisome scenarios.

Desdemona's street was just off the main drag, with a few commercial businesses but mostly low-rise apartments that dated back to the thirties. At the one end of her street was the subway and the bus services. Parker reached the intersection and waited for the light so he could cross to the bus stop. His trip was shorter than the next subway stop, but tonight it was too far to walk.

When the light changed, he and a young woman with a shopping cart began to cross. The sound of the horn and the squeal of tires made them both jerk to a halt and gape around. The horn blew again and Parker saw the woman stopped for the red frantically waving from her car window and pointing. He spun around and saw the car speeding toward them. The shopping cart lady screamed as Parker tackled her out of the way as the car's fender totalled her cart, sending a spray of groceries and milk into the roadway. They crashed to the curb and the woman yelped again as he fell on her leg.

He eased himself up and grasped the woman by the arm, helping her to her feet with a series of mumbled apologies.

"Are you okay?"

She grimaced and rubbed the leg he fell on. "Can't complain too much I guess considering the alternative."

"That damn fool, it almost seemed deliberate."

"Are you folks alright? I've called the police. That was terrible. I honked and honked but he just kept coming." The breathless woman waddled quickly across from her car, purse and arms flapping. The door of her little Civic was open, and the traffic was inching its way past with their own angry horn tooting.

"We're fine ma'am, thanks. And thanks for blowing that horn. I never would have looked otherwise."

Parker assisted the woman in picking up what was left of her groceries and straightening the handle on her cart then looked up to see the police car coast up to the curb. Detective Holt stepped out of the passenger side and walked deliberately toward Parker, his head tilted in a 'what have we here' attitude.

"Mr. Nevens, we meet again."

"You been demoted, Detective, answering traffic accidents?"

"Was it?" He slipped his hands into his pockets and smiled benignly.

The EMS had arrived a second or two after Holt and were tending to the woman, dressing the scrape on her leg and generally checking her over. The woman from the Honda was dancing from foot to foot, wringing her hands, eager to tell the story of the event. She interrupted, announcing that it was she who had called 911 and was a witness to the entire episode. Holt nodded to her and asked for a brief repeat of those facts then he sent her over to give a detailed statement to the patrol car officers that pulled up behind the ambulance.

"I just happened to catch the call on my way back so I answered and look what I found, Mr. Nevens, a witness to violence, an imagined victim and a hero all in one night."

"I'm not so sure about the imagined victim part." Parker said. "I walked Miss Jones home and as I left her street I saw this car crawling past me. I gave it a boo and it sped off. Next thing-"

"A boo?"

"I looked at it, okay?" Holt smiled. "When that woman blew her horn and I looked up I was sure it was the same car but it all happened so fast..."

"You tackled the woman and saved the day."

"As a matter of fact." Parker snapped. "And if you people are any good at your work the first two plate letters were, PT."

"What kind of car?"

"That I don't know. Black, new I guess. Who can tell these days. Two-door. He clipped the woman's shopping cart so there might be paint on it." He added, brightening.

Holt asked a few more unanswerable questions and then bade Parker good night. No safe ride home. No query as to his condition; not even a thank-you. Parker walked to the ambulance and asked the woman if she was okay, chatted a bit and commiserated over her leg then looked for the Honda driver, but saw that she was bending the ears of the two patrol car officers so he just turned and nervously headed home.