Kiss Her Goodbye Read Free Page B

that."
    "Social life?"
    "He would go to departmental retirement parties sometimes—I figure for him that was a big night out."
    "What about his granddaughter?"
    His wife and daughter were deceased; the one granddaughter was the only relative I knew of.
    Pat said, "She still lives upstate with that slob she married. They got in town a couple hours ahead of you."
    "Nothing there either?"
    "Zilch. The grandson-in-law hasn't missed a day at work all year. Staying sober is probably killing him. If he gets drunk and beats up on Anna one more time, he goes up for a year. The judge really laid on him last time."
    "She ought to dump that bum," I said.
    "Right now she thinks she loves him. You know, old Doolan beat that kid's ass couple years back—Doolan in his seventies, the guy in his late twenties or early thirties. Funny as hell."
    "So there's a suspect already."
    He winced at that, and his eyes seemed tired now. "I told you, Mike, I've covered
all
the angles, including that one. There's not a reason in the world to label it anything except suicide."
    I nodded, knowing that Pat was certain of his facts, but still reluctant to admit Doolan would renege on his ethical standards and take his own life. Hell, drugs could wipe any pain out right until he died, and Doolan had kissed death often enough not to be afraid of her.
    "Take me through it, Pat," I said.
    "Mike, imagine how many times I've—"
    "One more time."
    He sighed. "We got the call, the squad car responded, the officer broke the door down, went back to Doolan's study, flipped on the light, and saw the body—"
    "Hold it. The place was dark?"
    "Sure. But that's not unusual. You remember how Doolan was. Whenever he had a problem, he'd sit there in the dark listening to that classical music. And he had a problem, all right. That's what he was doing—thinking out a problem ... a problem he finally solved with a single shot. And before you ask, the music tape was still going when the officer entered. At that point it was about three quarters completed."
    "How long was the tape?"
    "Ninety minutes." He let me drift over the picture, then added, "Convinced?"
    I shrugged. "I keep forgetting the first lesson Doolan ever taught us."
    "What's that?"
    "Don't get emotionally involved with your cases."
    Pat snorted. "Yeah, well, that's a lesson you didn't learn so good, did you?"
    I grinned at him, but there was nothing funny in it. "Must've dozed off in class that day, Pat."
    His eyes locked with mine. "You're satisfied with what I told you?"
    "Absolutely, buddy," I said. "There's no disputing the facts at all. Everything points to a suicide. But are
you
satisfied, Pat?"
    "Yes," he said. His eyes were hard, his chin jutted. "I'm satisfied." Then the eyes hooded and the chin lowered, and he let out a deep breath and shook his head. "But
you're
not, are you, Mike? Not
really?
"
    "Buddy," I told him, "I'm not doubting you at all. It's just that I feel highly pissed off at Doolan for pulling a stunt like that."
    If
he pulled a stunt like that.
    "He wasn't Doolan," Pat said resignedly. "He was an old man, Mike."
    I was older. I was jaded. I had changed. I was tired. I was retired.
But I was still Mike Hammer.
    "Bother you if I look into it myself?" I asked Pat.
    "Nope." He let out a sigh that must have started yesterday. "I knew you were going to. No matter what I said. Just tell me why."
    "So I can be convinced—like you."
    "Fine," he said. "Be my guest." He slapped the tabletop. "
Now
...let's go give the old boy a proper send-off."
    And that was the real question, wasn't it?
    Had somebody already given Doolan a send-off?

Chapter 2
    T OMORROW THERE WOULD be an inspector's send-off for Doolan.
    The city would escort the cortege to the county line and the motorcycle squads would pick it up from there. At the gravesite there would be rifles fired over Doolan's casket, bugles blowing, and somebody would present a flag to his granddaughter. Then it would be over and everybody would go home