Pale Kings and Princes by Robert B. Parker

got here?"
    "I don't know. Rogers said the same kind of stuff that Henry said a minute ago."
    "Who were the guys that burned your car?" Lundquist said.
    "My guess is that Rogers sent a few local good old boys. Not cops, when I shot one of them they didn't know what to do. Not Hispanics."
    "Or Esteva was smart enough to send Anglos," Lundquist said.
    "Possible," I said. "What happened to Rogers?"
    "Shot twice in the head, close range, big-caliber gun. One of the patrol cars found him about six A.M. in his car. Apparently sitting in it when he was shot, probably by someone in the backseat. Rogers's gun was still on his hip, snap fastened. Blood had dried, and he was starting to rigor, so it had been a while. When I get the coroner's report I'll give you a buzz."
    "Thanks," I said.
    "You learn anything you give me a buzz," Lundquist said.
    "Instead of the Wheaton police?" I said.
    Lundquist shrugged. "Might be nice," he said.
     

Chapter 15

     
     
    I found Juanita Olmo at her office in the Quabbin Regional Hospital Administration Building. The small plastic plaque on the door said DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, in white lettering cut into a brown background.
    "Good morning," I said.
    "Good morning."
    "I wonder if I might take a few moments of your time," I said, and closed the door and sat down in the client chair next to her desk. There was no one else in the office and no room for anyone else.
    "Looks like a one-person department," I said.
    "Full-time, yes," she said. "We do have some people help us on a consulting basis."
    "Did you hear that Chief Rogers was killed last evening?"
    "Yes," she said. "I will not be a hypocrite. I won't say I am sorry."
    "Always good to encounter standards," I said. "You have any thoughts on who might have done it?"
    "I? Why should I have such thoughts?" she said.
    "You told me he was a bully, an evil man, and you suggested he might have killed Valdez."
    "I told you the truth."
    "Any possibility that the Valdez killing and the Rogers killing are connected," I said.
    "I don't see why," she said. "Do you mind if I smoke?"
    "Feel free," I said.
    Juanita took a cigarette from the pack on her desk and lit it with a disposable lighter. She took in some smoke and let it out and looked at me through the haze of it. She raised her eyebrows. "Do you?"
    "Do I see why there should be a connection? Sure. Town like this has two murders in a month. They are probably connected."
    "They don't have to be."
    "No, they don't," I said. "But assuming that gets me nowhere. Assuming the greater likelihood, that the same people clipped Valdez and Rogers, gives me places to go, people to see."
    "Like me?"
    "Like you."
    "I have no idea of who killed Chief Rogers," Juanita said.
    "How about Felipe Esteva?" I said.
    "No!" she said.
    "No?"
    "No. Of course you'll try to say he did it. He's a successful Hispanic and you'd love to bring him low. But he's too . . . too much man for any of you."
    "Successful at what?" I said.
    "At business, that's why you hate him. He's beaten you at your own capitalist game."
    "My game? Capitalism? You overestimate me, I think."
    "You know what I mean," she said.
    "None of this means he couldn't have shot Rogers for getting too close to things that Esteva wants concealed."
    "Guilty until proven innocent?" Juanita said, and took in most of the rest of her cigarette in a long angry drag.
    "If you run a legitimate produce business," I said, "you don't employ guys like Cesar to walk around with you."
    "I don't know any Cesar," she said.
    "Why'd you tell me about Valdez and Esteva's wife?" I said.
    "You tricked me," she said.
    "I'm a tricky devil," I said. "What kind of woman is Mrs. Esteva?"
    "She is his weakness," Juanita said. She took a short puff on the cigarette and exhaled and took another. She held the cigarette with the first two fingers of her right hand, between the tips and the first joint. I nodded encouragingly.
    "She is a slut and he won't throw her out," Juanita said.
    "She sleeps