Chill of Night Read Free Page B

fabric warehouse. Two weeks before that a tax attorney named B. Eder was whacked.”
    â€œWhat’s the B stand for?”
    â€œNothing. Like with Harry S. Truman.”
    â€œNobody ever called Truman ‘ S. ’”
    â€œDoesn’t matter. Two weeks before B. Eder, an exercise equipment salesman named Harry Meyers was murdered.” Da Vinci sipped coffee and looked at Beam. “All of the victims were shot.”
    â€œWith the same gun?”
    â€œNo doubt about it. A serial killer. The media hasn’t tumbled to it yet.”
    â€œThey will soon. The NYPD does nothing better than leak information.”
    â€œSo it won’t be long before they leak the letter J. ”
    â€œIs it something like Truman’s S and the victim’s B ?”
    â€œNo, we think it stands for something. At the scene of each murder was a capital letter J. Lois Banner’s employees discovered her body under some kind of fabric, and a red cloth J had been cut out and placed on the corpse.”
    â€œAll the J s cut from red cloth?”
    â€œNo. But they’re all red. The attorney had red marking pen on his forehead. The exercise salesman had a red J torn out of a magazine ad tucked in his breast pocket.”
    â€œBut you don’t know what the J s stand for?”
    â€œWe’re not sure. But Eder was Jewish. Meyers wasn’t, but his name could have suggested in the mind of the killer that he might have been. Same way Banner, though her real name was Banion.”
    â€œAnti-Semitism. Nasty.”
    â€œIf that’s what’s going on. Some kinda religious or political nut.” Da Vinci stared at his coffee cup, as if he didn’t like its contents, then placed the cup on its saucer and stared across the table at Beam. “I don’t really give a frig about the why of it, Beam. I just want the bastard stopped.”
    â€œWhy not give this knotty problem to a working homicide detective instead of one who’s happily retired?”
    â€œYou’re not happily retired. And you happen to be the best at this kind of investigation. And I’m gonna be honest with you. You break this case, as I know you will, and I’ll get credit for putting you on the scent. I could make chief.”
    â€œBeing nakedly ambitious becomes you.”
    â€œI also think you’re a certain kind of cop, Beam.”
    â€œThe kind you are?”
    â€œYeah, only much more so. What I think of your kind of cop is that they’re Old Testament cops. Now and again, they play God. You got a reputation for bending the rules, even the law, in the interest of seeing justice done. And as you’re already retired and more or less don’t give a shit, you’ll bend whatever you have to in order to nail this letter J scumbag.”
    Beam had to smile. “I’m more used to being called a dinosaur than God.”
    Da Vinci shrugged. “God is a dinosaur.”
    Beam thought he better not ask what da Vinci meant by that. Didn’t want lightning to strike the booth.
    â€œYou do this thing, Beam, and you’ll be on a work-for-hire basis, have a captain’s status, and all the resources of the NYPD at your disposal. And I’ll assign you a team of detectives.”
    Da Vinci bolted down the rest of his coffee, making another sour face, then stood up from the booth.
    â€œThis where you ask me to think about it?” Beam said.
    â€œNaw. You know I know that you know.”
    â€œThat I’ll do it,” Beam said.
    Da Vinci smiled. “I’ll have Legal draw up a contract.”
    â€œNothing in writing,” Beam said.
    â€œThat’s not the way it works.”
    â€œThat’s the way I work.”
    Da Vinci’s grin widened and he shook his head. “Okay. Dinosaurs never had anything in writing.”
    â€œI’ll work this case my way, out of my apartment.”
    â€œWhy?”
    Beam shrugged. “I’m retired. But I do