Between the time Foster left my room at the clinic and when he was due back to take me home, I had the dubious honor of being grilled by the detective investigating the deaths of Paulie West, aka Madam X, and his goon. I’d thought he was supposed to sit in while Foster debriefed me. Apparently plans had changed. Since the detective knew the facts behind why we’d set up the photography business, all he wanted was a blow-by-blow of what had happened from the moment they entered the shop until we’d managed to deal with them. When he asked why Vic and I were armed, I gave him a reason he needed that would fit the ‘official’ version of the report.
“Although it’s not a bad area, it’s not the greatest one, either, and we had thousands of dollars’ worth of cameras on the premises. We didn’t want
