Light Before Day by Christopher Rice

West Side, and its parking lot was full of expensive SUVs and luxury sedans.
    At a small Italian restaurant, the hostess seated us on a patio fenced in by hedges. Our fellow diners were all white women dressed in white drinking white wine.
    "The food's good here," Wilton remarked.
    "It's romantic, too."
    "Shut up."
    When I tried to order an iced tea, Jimmy demanded I get something that had sugar in it so that I would stop glowering at everything that made a sound. I gave the waitress a broad smile and said, "You should see what he's like when I don't have dinner ready on time."
    Jimmy glowered at me as the waitress laughed all the way back to the kitchen. He instructed me to start at the beginning and I did. I omitted the specific words Koffler had used to send me over the edge.
    "Your working theory was that one of Koffler's clients requested an audience with a hot marine, right?" he asked. I said yes. "You didn't like Koffler very much when you started, did you?" he asked. "It sounds like you don't like any of his wealthy clients very much either. Let me guess. You think moral bankruptcy is the price they pay for financial success and swimming pools full of cute young things."
    "Something like that," I answered.
    He nodded. "Is any of what I'm saying the reason you didn't stop to assume that maybe Daniel Brady was the client?"
    "You think Daniel Brady wanted to sleep with one of Scott's kids?" I asked.
    "I think that's where you should have started," he said. "The stunt with your buddy Nate—it sounds like Koffler had something to prove to this guy Brady. That he was powerful. That he could manipulate pretty boys into doing his bidding. That implies that Koffler was supposed to give Brady a lot more than a nice drive." He let me absorb this. When I didn't speak up, he continued. "You had the guts to peel back the layers of the world you live in, and I admire that, little man. The problem was, you picked your hero and your villain from the get-go. Brady was the victimized closet case, Koffler the devious pedophile. I'm a little surprised, to be frank."
    "Why?"
    "Daniel Brady threw your friend into the middle of traffic," he said. "Not Scott Koffler."
    I felt my face get hot. He had exposed my bias and laid it on the table between us.
    "Brady was stationed at Pendleton, right?" I nodded. "You should have gone after him first.
    You were dealing with a closeted marine prone to violent outbursts around his sexuality. You should have hit the bars down in San Diego. Maybe Brady made a similar appearance there and left some wreckage. If he had, you could have given it to Scott Koffler."
    "Why on earth would I give it to Scott Koffler?"
    "Because then you allow Koffler the chance to play the victim," he said. "You tell him that you've been made aware he was traveling in the company of a violent, self-hating closet case.
    You express concern for his well-being. And you give him the chance to clear the air about a guy who probably ruined his night."
    Every defensive bone in my body went dry. He saw how much his analysis had affected me and continued. "Now let's look at what you did do. You went out to Scott Koffler's house and found him with two underage boys. But you didn't pay one whit of attention to either one of them, and when Koffler offered you a drink you didn't accept. Instead, you opened the interview by shoving a picture of Daniel Brady in his face."
    He picked up his fork and tapped it on the table to accentuate each point. "You accept the drink. You ask Koffler to join you. He tells you he's a guardian angel to those boys, and you express nothing but admiration for his charity work. You ask him how he does it and how he finds the time. You ask to meet the boys, and you play the perfect gentleman. If need be, you give the subtle impression that you're interested in getting to know one of them on a more intimate basis.
    "That gets Koffler talking about what you'd have to do to sleep with them. Privately you give those boys