Page 1 (1/2)

Chapter 1

He was a big ht with a little more flesh on his heavy frame His eyebrows, arched and proray, co his lasses but had placed them on the oak table between us His dark brown eyes kept searching es If he found any, his eyes didn’t reflect them His features were sharply chiseled-a hawk-bill nose, a full y jawline-but the full effect of his face was as a blank stone tablet waiting for someone to scratch commandments on it

He said, "I don’t know very much about you, Scudder"

I knew a little about him His name was Cale Hanniford He was around fifty-five years old He lived upstate in Utica where he had a wholesale drug business and sos He had last year’s Cadillac parked outside at the curb He had a aiting for hihter in a cold steel drawer at the city mortuary

"There’s not much to know," I said "I used to be a cop"

"An excellent one, according to Lieutenant Koehler"

I shrugged

"And now you’re a private detective"

"No"

"I thought-"

"Private detectives are licensed They tap telephones and follow people They fill out fors Soifts"

"I see"

I took a sip of coffee I was drinking coffee spiked with bourbon Hanniford had a Dewar’s and water in front of hi ood sound saloon with dark alls and a sta It o in the afternoon on the second Tuesday in January, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves A couple of nurses fro beers at the far end of the bar, and a kid with a tentative beard was eating a haer at one of thetables

He said, "It’s difficult for me to explain what I want you to do forI can do for you Your daughter is dead I can’t change that The boy who killed her was picked up on the spot From what I read in the papers, it couldn’t be more open-and-shut if they had the ho that fil I went on quickly "They picked him up and booked him and slapped him in the To they found hi in his cell Case closed"

"Is that your view? That the case is closed?"

"From a law enforcement standpoint"

"That’s not what I meant Of course the police have to see it that way They apprehended the killer, and he’s beyond punishs I have to know"

"Like what?"

"I want to knohy she was killed I want to knoho she was I’ve had no real contact with Wendy in the past three years Christ, I didn’t even know for certain that she was living in New York" His eyes slipped away from mine "They say she didn’t have a job No apparent source of incoo up to her apartment, but I couldn’t Her rent was alest to you?"

"That so her rent"

"She shared that apartment with the Vanderpoel boy The boy who killed her He worked for an antiques ihborhood of a hundred and twenty-five dollars a week If aher as his mistress, he wouldn’t let her have Vanderpoel as a roouess it must be fairly obvious that she was a prostitute The police didn’t tell me that in so many words They were tactful The newspapers were somewhat less tactful"

They usually are And the case was the kind the newspapers like to play with The girl was attractive, the e, and there was a nice core of sex to it And they had picked up Richard Vanderpoel running in the streets with her blood all over him No city editor worth a damn would let that one slide past him

He said, "Scudder? Do you see why the case isn’t closed for uess I do" I made myself look deep into his dark eyes "Theto open for you Now you have to knohat’s inside the room"

"Then you do understand"

I did, and wished I didn’t I had not wanted the job I work as infrequently as I can I had no present need to work I don’t need much h Besides, I had no reason to dislike thismoney from men I dislike

"Lieutenant Koehler didn’t understand what I wanted I’ rid of me" That wasn’t all there was to it, but I let it pass "But I really need to know these things Who was she? Who did Wendy turn into? And ould anyone want to kill her?"

Why did anyone want to kill anybody? The act of murder is performed four or five times a day in New York One hot week last summer the count ran to fifty-three People kill their friends, their relatives, their lovers AIsland de his two-year-old daughter to death Why did people do these things?

Cain said he wasn’t Abel’s keeper Are those the only choices, keeper or killer?

"Will you work for ed a small smile "I’ll rephrase that Will you do me a favor? And it would be a favor"

"I wonder if that’s true"