"Last night, when Mr. McDermott called him. But there was nothing we
could do to help you until this morning."
"What's going to happen to me?"
"Nothing. You're free," Brewer said, smiling loftily. "The city doesn't
have a case against you. There's no proof you were soliciting, no proof
you were receiving money. All they can definitely accuse you of is
being present in Mr. McDermott's suite in--ah--a state of undress. In
short, they could make trouble for you, but not very much, and in any
event we've succeeded in having charges against you removed."
Laura understood. Spinelli had pull. Brewer had spoken a few magic
words and they were letting her go. But all the other girls rounded up
last night, the streetwalkers and whores who didn't have fancy legal
assistance to help them, they would have to pay the fines and serve the
workhouse terms for prostitution.
_Don't complain_, Laura thought. _At least you're free, aren't you?
It's their hard luck that they don't have any pull._
There were a few technicalities involved in her release. Within half an
hour, she and Brewer stepped out of the House of Detention into bright
morning sunlight. A black limousine pulled up.
Spinelli was inside. Laura and Brewer got in. Spinelli looked grim.
"Was there any trouble, Leon?" he asked.
"Not a bit," Brewer said. "I just explained that they had accidentally
nabbed a Spinelli girl without realizing it, and they let her go with
apologies."
"A damned good thing," Spinelli muttered. "I pay thousands a year for
protection, and what happens? They pick up one of my own girls. Christ,
I'm going to smash someone for this!" Suddenly solicitous, he said to
Laura, "How do you feel?"
"Tired. Filthy. Scared as hell."
"Take a couple of days off. And don't worry about this thing. It was
a big mistake. Some hotshot flunky wanted to have a morals raid,
that's all. And McDermott's wife put a bug on him. It was just a lousy
coincidence."
"What about McDermott?" Laura asked.
"Up the crapper, I'm afraid. He went back to Boston on a midnight
train. You better forget any deals you might have been offered by him,"
Spinelli said. "He's going to need every cent he has, by the time his
wife gets through with him. The lousy bitch."