Page 5 (1/2)

I thought he ot hold of himself He kept his head lowered for a ain He had some color in his face now He took a couple of deep breaths and a long swig of beer

He said, "Jesus Christ"

"You're okay now"

"Yeah, right I took one look at her lying there and I had to puke I seen dead people before My old man, he had a heart attack in his sleep, and I was the one walked in and found him And since I joined the force, you know But I never seen one like this and I hadda puke and I'ing out I dragged the stupid bastard over to the corner and I just puked in the corner of the roogles I just couldn't help it, I stood there giggling like an idiot, and this guy cuffed toof his and he asks me, 'What's so funny?' Can you believe it? Like he wants h, too 'What's so funny?' "

I poured the rest of etting bits and pieces of Richard Vanderpoel So far they didn't begin to fit together, but they were fraght never add up to anything real Sometimes the whole is a lot less than the sum of its parts

I spent another twentyback and forth over places we'd already been without getting anything much from him He talked a little about his reactions to the murder scene, the nausea, the hysteria He wanted to know if you ever got used to that sort of thing I thought of the photograph I had taken fro at it But if I had walked into that bedrooht have reacted in very et used to so new co and knocks you on your ass"

When I had all I was going to get, I put a five on the table for the drinks and passed him twenty-five dollars He didn't want to take it

"C'mon," I said "You did me a favor"

"Well, that's all it as a favor I feel funny takingstupid"

"Huh?" The blue eyes were very wide

"Stupid This isn't graft It's clean money You did somebody a favor and made a couple of bucks for it" I pushed the bills across the table at hiood collar You wrote a decent report, and you handle yourself well, and pretty soon you'll be in line to get off the beat and into a prowl car But nobody's going to want you in a car with hiet you"

"Think about it If you don't taketo make a lot of people very nervous You don't have to be a crook Certain kinds of money you can turn down And you don't have to walk the streets with your hand out But you've got to play the gaive you Take the money"

"Jesus"

"Didn't Koehler tell you there would be so in it for you?"

"Sure But that's not why I caenerally drop in for a couple of beers when irl here around ten thirty It's not like-"

"Koehler's going to expect a five-dollar bill for steering twenty-five your way You want to pay him out of your own pocket?"

"Jesus What do I do, just walk into his office and hand hi like, 'Here's that five you loaned ot a lot to learn," he said He didn't sound delighted at the prospect

"You don't have to worry about it," I said "You've got plenty to learn, but they h it a step at a tiood syste me a drink out of his new-found wealth I sat there and drank it while he told me what it ht ti I couldn't keep ot out of there and walked crosstown on Fifty-seventh to my hotel The early edition of the Tiht it and took it hoes for me at the desk I went up to my room and took my shoes off and stretched out on the bed with the paper It turned out to be about as gripping as Lewis Pankow's conversation

I got undressed When I took off my shirt, the photo of Wendy Hanniford's dead body fell onto the floor I picked it up and looked at it and i in on a scene like that with the killerhiiggling hysterically until Richard Vanderpoel quite reasonably asked the cause of my mirth

"What's so funny?"

I took a shower and puthesitantly earlier, and noas beginning to accu's and took a stool at the bar

He lived with her like brother and sister He killed her and shrieked that he had fucked his mother He rushed out into the street covered with her blood

I knew too few facts, and the ones I did know did not seeether

I drank a few drinks and sidestepped a few conversations I looked around for Trina, but she had left when her shift ended I let the bartender tell me as the matter with the Knicks this year I don't rely about it

Chapter 5

Gordon Kalish had an old-fashioned pendulu in railway stations He kept glancing at it and checking the ti to tellLater I realized it was a habit Early in life someone otten, but he still couldn't entirely make hiement I had arrived at the co a few minutes after ten and waited for about twenty ive ers spread out on his desk and was apologetic that he couldn't be more helpful

"We rented the apartment to Miss Hanniford herself," he said "SheIf so, she didn't tell us about it She was the tenant of record She could have had anyone living with her, man or woman, and ouldn't have known about it Or cared"

"She had a female roommate when Miss Antonelli moved in as superintendent I'd like to contact that wo who she was Or when sheas Miss Hanniford ca as she didn't create a nuisance, we had no reason to take any further interest" He scratched his head "If there was another woman and sheaddress?"