One Grave Too Many Read Free Page A

likely to keep advertising mementos in his bedroom? I don’t see anything else like that around.”
    “I really don’t know.”
    Easy unfastened a button on his shirt. “I’ll borrow these pictures.”
    “You don’t need the one of my father,” she said, rising.
    “Even so.” Easy slid them under his shirt. “Okay now, Gay, you’re absolutely sure you don’t know what happened here?”
    “Gary and I are very close; we see each other a good deal, Mr. Easy,” she said. “He never told me he was in any kind of trouble.”
    “Adultery can be trouble,” said Easy. “How long has he been seeing Danny?”
    “A few months,” she said. “Gary mentioned to me when he ran into her again, said she was married now. He didn’t give me any more details. I do know, though, he’s been dating her since then, quite a bit.” She walked into the living room of the cottage. “Would it be all right if I cleaned it up now?”
    “You don’t want the police in?”
    “No.”
    “Then there’s nobody else to show this mess to.” He watched her as she knelt and began gathering up a spill of hardcover books. Absently he read the titles. Digging Up the Past , Archeology From the Earth , Ur of the Chaldees , Still Digging , The Mountains of Pharaoh. “Is archeology a hobby of your brother’s?”
    “No, my father. Gary likes to keep a few of them around.” When she picked up one of the books the pages fell free of the cover. “Someone tore this apart.”
    Squatting next to her Easy quickly went through several piles of books. “Looks like they paid special attention to the ones on archeology. That suggest anything to you?”
    “No, nothing.” She lowered her buttocks until she was sitting on the mat rug. “I think I’ll put off cleaning up till tomorrow. It’s funny, I was only the other day telling Gary I should be getting over here to help him houseclean.” She let the broken book slide from her hands. She began, very quietly, to cry.
    Easy put his hand on her shoulder. “Two days isn’t a very long time.”
    “They can kill you in a minute,” she said. “Someone … someone vicious did all this. No matter what they were searching for, they didn’t have to be this destructive.”
    “They may have been mad at your brother.”
    “He never told me about anyone … hating him.”
    “Could he have taken something from Danny’s husband?”
    “No, he’s not the kind of person who could steal anything.”
    “Suppose he took Danny herself?”
    “Gary’s not impulsive, Mr. Easy. He’s worked six years building up Marks & Feller, using his own money. He wouldn’t run off and throw it all away for the likes of Danny,” she said. “I just don’t know where he is.”
    “Okay,” said Easy, “I’ll find out.”

CHAPTER 4
    A N OLD LADY ON a motorcycle gave Easy the finger.
    He ignored it and took the parking space anyway, after having cut around the chubby gray-haired woman.
    “Schmuck,” she said before roaring off up Cherokee.
    Easy eased out of his dusty black Volkswagen, commenced walking through the hazy afternoon.
    Two platinum blonde hookers were arguing in front of a narrow store which sold used appliances. Both wore chartreuse body shirts, white Levis and crimson clogs.
    “Dumb cunt,” accused one.
    “Dumb cunt,” replied the other.
    A retired character actor went by, wearing an overcoat and muffler, carrying a chihuahua dog in a brown shopping bag.
    Easy turned down the alley that showed up now on his right. There was a large brownstone warehouse at the alley’s end. In the middle of its highly polished oaken door was a small brass nameplate saying: Hagopian. Easy knocked.
    The door opened, letting out a gnashing grinding sound. “John Easy,” said Hagopian. “Enter, enter.” He was a dark-haired man, the hair tight-curling. His nose was hooked, his eyes underscored with shadowed half circles. In two months he’d be forty.
    “Having some dental work done?”
    Hagopian led him over to