Poking idly through her papers, he waited for her to finish her call. “How’s it going, Lowenstein?”

“My garbage disposal’s throwing up and the plumber wants three hundred, but that’s all right because my husband’s going to fix it.” She spun a form into her typewriter. “It’ll only cost us twice as much that way. How about you?” She smacked his hand away from the Pepsi on her desk. “Got anything new on our priest?”

“Just a corpse.” If there was bitterness, it was hard to detect. “Ever been to Doug’s, down by the Canal?”

“I don’t have your social life, Paris.”

He gave a quick snort then picked up the fat mug that held her pencils. “She was a cocktail waitress there. Twenty-seven.”

“No use letting it get to you,” she murmured, then seeing his face, passed him the Pepsi. It always got to you. “Harris wants to see you and Ed.”

“Yeah, I know.” He took a long swallow, letting the sugar and caffeine pour into his system. “Got a message for me?”

“Oh, yeah.” With a smirk, she pushed through her papers until she found it. “Bunny called.” When the high, breathy voice didn’t get a rise out of him, she sent him an arch look and handed him the paper. “She wants to know what time you’re picking her up. She sounded real cute, Paris.”

He pocketed the slip and grinned. “She is real cute, Lowenstein, but I’d dump her in a minute if you wanted to cheat on your husband.”

When he walked off without returning her drink, she laughed and went back to typing out the form.

“They’re turning my apartment into condos.” Ed hung up the phone and went with Ben toward Harris’s office. “Fifty thousand. Jesus.”