Page 1 (1/2)

Chapter 1

I didn’t see hi’s at my usual table in the rear The lunch crowd had thinned out and the noise level had dropped There was classicalIt was a gray day out, a ood day to be stuck in a Ninth Avenue saloon, drinking bourbon-spiked coffee and reading the Post’s story about so passersby on First Avenue

"Mr Scudder?"

Sixty or thereabouts High forehead, ri blond hair combed to lie flat on the scalp Say five-nine or -ten Say a hundred seventy pounds Light complexion Cleanshaven Narrow nose Small thin-lipped mouth Gray suit, white shirt, tie striped in red and black and gold Briefcase in one hand, umbrella in the other

"May I sit down?"

I nodded at the chair opposite mine He took it, dreallet from his breast pocket and handeda Masonic ring

I glanced at the card, handed it back "Sorry," I said

"But-"

"I don’t want any insurance," I said "And you wouldn’t want to sell me any I’m a bad risk"

He hter "God," he said "Of course you’d think that, wouldn’t you? I didn’t co I can’t remember the last tiroup policies for corporations" He placed the card on the blue-checked cloth between us "Please," he said

The card identified hient with Mutual Life of New Hampshire The address shoas 42 Pine Street, don in the financial district There were two telephone numbers, one local, the other with a 914 area code The northern suburbs, that would be Westchester County, probably

I was still holding his card when Trina came over to take our order He asked for Dewar’s and soda I had half a cup of coffee left When she was out of earshot he said, "Francis Fitzroy recohteenth Precinct"

"Oh, Frank," I said "I haven’t seen hihteenth now"

"I saw hilasses, polished their lenses with his napkin "He recommended you, as I said, and I decided I wanted to sleep on it I didn’t sleep , and then I went to your hotel, and they said I ht find you here"

I waited

"Do you knoho I aer’s father"

"Barbara Ettinger I don’t-wait a ht his drink, set it down, slipped wordlessly away His fingers curled around the glass but he didn’t lift it from the table

I said, "The Icepick Prowler Is that how I know the nao"

"Nine"

"She was one of the victi over in Brooklyn at the tien and Flatbush Barbara Ettinger That was our case, wasn’t it?"

"Yes"

I closedthe memory come back "She was one of the last victims The fifth or sixth, she must have been"

"The sixth"

"And there were two more after her, and then he went out of business Barbara Ettinger She was a schoolteacher No, but it was so like that A day-care center She worked at a day-care center"

"You have a good h to deterain At that point we turned it over to whoever had been working that case all along Midtown North, I think it was In fact I think Frank Fitzroy was at Midtown North at the time"

"That’s correct"

I had a sudden rush of senses wo disarrayed, innumerable wounds in her flesh I had no memory of what she looked like, only that she was dead

I finished ht bourbon Across the table fro a small tentative sip of his scotch I looked at the Masonic sy and wondered what they were supposed to ht women within a period of a couple hout, attacked theht hours Multiple stab wounds with an icepick Struck eight times and then went out of business"

He didn’t say anything

"Then nine years later they catch hio?"