Another Paradise police car pulled up with its blue light revolving, and Arthur Angstrom got out.
“Anyone minding the store?” Jesse said.
Angstrom was looking at the hanging corpse.
“Maguire,” Angstrom said. “Suicide?”
“I wish,” Jesse said.
The blue light on Angstrom’s cruiser stayed on.
“Murder?” Angstrom said.
“Peter Perkins will fill you in,” Jesse said. “After you shut off your light.”
Angstrom glanced back at the cruiser, and looked at Jesse for a moment as if he were going to argue. Jesse looked back at him, and Angstrom turned and shut off his light.
“Car keys?” Jesse said.
“Nope.”
“So how’d he get here?”
“Walked?” Perkins said.
Angstrom joined them.
“Or came with the killers,” Jesse said.
“Or met them here,” Perkins said, “and one of them drove his car away after he was hanging.”
“Or took a cab,” Jesse said.
“I can check that out,” Angstrom said.
Jesse looked at his watch.
3
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“Eight thirty,” he said. “Town cab should be open now.”
“I’ll call them,” Arthur said. “I know the dispatcher.”
“Arthur, you’re the cops, you don’t have to know the dispatcher.”
“Sure,” Angstrom said, “of course.”
He walked to his car. Jesse watched him go.
“Arthur ain’t never quite got used to being a cop,” Peter Perkins said.
“Arthur hasn’t gotten fully used to being Arthur,” Jesse said.
4
2
Jesse slid into the backseat of the cruiser, where Molly was talking to the young woman.
