Julie thought, pounding her heels on the sidewalk of Ninth Avenue. Belatedly, she was furious with Russo. Thanks for coming in. She had brought him a direct link among Romano, Pete, and Mack, something it might have taken him a week to turn up without her help. She wasn’t even sure he was glad to have the information. Maybe he didn’t want the Romano connection: big in real estate. Rita was more his speed. Julie was swinging in all directions and it did not take her long to realize that Russo was not the actual object of her anger: she was. She had herself to blame now if Doctor became involved, playing police lady, first assistant to a detective third grade. Whoops. Another twist to the umbilical of truth: with his “psycho” crack, Detective Russo had alienated Friend Julie. She had to turn back to look for Haven House. Rita’s fantasy of being married to a third-world diplomat was wild; her notion of the third world could not be much deeper than Julie’s own and the first thing that came to mind with the phrase was the prevalence of black people.
