“You were out.”
“Yes. I was doing a little work.”
“Did you follow Alta?”
“If you want to know, yes.”
“Where?”
“To the movie.”
He gulped the rest of his cocktail quickly and exhaled a sigh of relief. He picked up the cocktail shaker, refilled my glass, and poured his own full to the brim. “You impress me as being a young man who has sense.”
“Thanks.”
He fidgeted around a minute, and I said, “You don’t need to make any build-up with me. Just go ahead and get it off your chest.”
That seemed to relieve him. He said, “Bernard Carter saw Alta last night.”