Everybody has heard the 48hour rule in investigations. Do it in two days or most likely it becomes a whodunit so the odds on it getting solved get longer and longer. It is even more true that get a lead in 24 or you have a long hard road.

The more information you have the easier it is to get that first lead. At the moment every cop working the case knew that information of any kind was important, but most also knew they wouldn't want anyone looking at their personal lives too closely. Every cop worth a damn has some larceny in his heart. Charlie was no exception.

I had been Charlie's longest partner because I knew how to turn a blind eye to things. I had been around long enough by the time I hooked up with Charlie to know a grass eater from a meat eater. A grass eater would take a buck, if you threw it at him. He was usually no danger to himself or the department. The man doing the offering was guilty of something, so there was almost never a report on the officer. A meat eater was a different story. He went looking for bribes. One day all meat eaters get caught. Yes they make a lot of money on the side and may get away with it for years, but they all get caught in the end.

Charlie had been a grass eater as far as I knew. Since he knew I wanted no part of it and didn't want to know about it, he could have become a meat eater without me knowing. I didn't know what he was into at the time of my retirement, but I knew where he went to get laid. No cop could afford Lois's house and keep his family fed. Charlie managed it.

I drove the Ford over to Lois's house. It was dinner time, but the house was never really closed. I parked in the driveway even though there was a small discrete sign forbidding it. the whole back yard of Lois's was a parking lot. There was a twelve foot redwood fence around the back yard for privacy.

From having dropped Charlie at the house a few times, I knew that the gate to the rear parking area had a guard. One who had been a guest of the state on more than one occasion. Lois hired only hard men to work for her.

I left the car and walked directly to the front door. No one used the front door except delivery people, and the occasional Jehovah's Witness salesman. Cops working cases used it though. They usually didn't want to know whose car was parked out back.

With all the cheap hookers on the street, why would anyone go to a house, you ask? Security is the simple answer. You didn't get rolled at Lois's. The girls went to the doctor once a week for a blood test, and none of them were screwing low lifes on the side. In other words your odds were better with Lois. Not to many carriers of disease could afford Lois's rates.

I used my cop knock on the door with the results I expected. A big black man about a hundred pounds heavier than me, and all it muscle opened the door.

"Whatever you sellin' we don't want none," he said trying to close the door. A good way to get your foot broken is to put it in the crack of the door. It is much better to throw all your weight on it while he still had just his one hand on it. That's what I did, and for good measure I pulled the South American .38 revolver. Before he realized it he had the snubby up his nose.

"But you didn't give me a chance to demonstrate what I have to sell. Do you want to see it now." He just looked mean, not a bit scared, but he also did try me either.

"Abba, if you kill him you are going to have to dispose of the body, and take his place," the female voice came from the stairs to my left.

"That's why he ain't dead already." I said quietly.

"Eddie, you go on back to the kitchen and watch the gate. Abba is a man in pain, he would probably like to kill someone just now, and I just had the carpets cleaned."

"Lois we need to talk," I said it as Eddie walked away.

"Put the piece away and we will talk."

I holstered the cheap Smith and Wesson know off as I followed her into the empty parlor. At this time of day it was appointment only. "So who iced Charlie?" I asked.

"You know I'm no snitch," she said.

"And I'm no cop," I replied.

"Abba, Charlie wasn't a really bad cop. He just did favors that he charged for," she suggested.

"Like?"

"If somebody tried to make trouble for me, he had a talk with them that's all."

"Did he have a talk with anyone recently?"

"Several of his friends were having a problem with some new guys from up north. They wanted to sell us protection."

"Protection from what? Fire and theft insurance kind of protection?" I knew better.

"More like broken bones, and life insurance."

"And Charlie had a talk with them?"

"He was just supposed to find out, if they were connected. If not, I could get a dozen guys badder than them. I just didn't want a war none of us did. You know Charlie, always a cowboy. Most likely he went to see them."

"And are they connected?"

"Don't know, Charlie never got back to me. I figure he rattled their cage and the pushed back."

"Give me some name and a place to find them."

She scribbled for a minute or so then I left. She didn't even offer me a cup of coffee.

I had two choices give the names to Louise or go kill them both. Since Charlie didn't seem to have done anything that we couldn't cover up, it was an easy choice.