him from playground bullies. Do you honestly think a guy like him could murder a retired police detective?”
“It doesn’t take balls to commit murder, dude,” Very said. “Just desperation.”
“We have to look at him, Mitch,” Yolie added. “These Flasher incidents coincide with his visits. The victim was putting the screws to his mom, like the lieutenant says. And he has no one to vouch for his whereabouts at the time of the murder. Kimberly told us he was in his bedroom sending e-mails, but he could have slipped out the bedroom window.”
“No way,” Mitch shot back. “If he’d gone out the window Des would have seen him. She was staked out right there.”
“True enough,” Des conceded. “Except the window wasn’t his only way out.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Kimberly was out on the porch, right? Kenny could have just tiptoed through the apartment without her knowledge and gone out by way of the front door of the building. Then I wouldn’t have seen him.”
“Maybe somebody else did,” Very said.
“Maybe.”
“Now that you mention it,” Yolie said, “that scenario plays for Kimberly, too. She was alone on the porch. No one to vouch for her. And she’s plenty strong.”
“Why would she kill Dawgie?” Very asked.
“Because Kenny wasn’t up for it. The man’s a wimp, like Mitch said. What we don’t know is why they’d go to such lengths to protect his mom. I mean, so what if Augie was hassling the lady? All she had to do was just Say No-unless he was a total creepaholic stalker, in which case Des would have gotten involved, right?”
“Actually… there’s a bit more to it than that,” Very put in slowly. “Another angle that I worked this afternoon with my man Mitch here.”
Yolie glowered across the table at him. “What angle?”
“Augie was absolutely convinced that Beth Lapidus and her married boyfriend, Vinnie Brogna, were up to no good together.”
“What kind of no good, Romeo?”
“It’s Romaine. Are either of you ladies familiar with the Seven Sisters?”
“Wait one second…” Des said. “Augie asked me that on Friday. I thought he was talking about the colleges. He called me a hick.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Dawgie.”
“So what is the Seven Sisters?” Yolie demanded.
“A somewhat legendary Jewish crime family,” he replied. “They got their start a hundred years ago on New York’s Lower East Side. And still exist to this day. I happen to know a little about them because I’m a member of the family. So is Beth Breslauer. We’re both descended from the same long line of thieves. The two of us are cousins.”
Yolie looked at Des in amazement. “Okay, I didn’t see that one coming, did you?”
“Not even.”
“Wait, wait, there’s more,” Mitch said eagerly. “Beth’s not the only one who’s connected to the family. Back in the thirties, when she was a young chorus girl, Bertha Peck-nee Bertha Puzewski-was the mistress of Beth’s grandfather, Saul, a big time racketeer.”
“Okay, now this is just plain whack,” Yolie said.
“Very,” Des agreed.
The lieutenant looked at her. “Yeah, Master Sergeant?”
“Um, it’s very weird.”
“I’m down with that,” he said, nodding, nodding. “Beth claims that she’s kept her thing with Vinnie a secret from Kenny. He doesn’t know about them. She never entertains the guy at her condo. Won’t even let him pick her up there.”
Des mulled this over. “So she’s saying she slipped out the back door last night to go meet Vinnie?”
“Exactly. Told us he picked her up down the block and the two of them hit the Mohegan Sun. Saw Linda Ronstadt. Got themselves a room.”
“The front desk can confirm whether or not her story’s the real deal,” Yolie said.
“Augie told you that Beth and Vinnie were up to no good together,” Des said. “You still haven’t told us what kind.”
“He thought they were working the Mohegan Sun. You know, snatching handbags, wallets, jewelry. Beth insists not, naturally. And her criminal record is spotless, but…”
“Wait, why am I just finding out about this now?” Yolie demanded, glaring at Very.
“Because I’m telling you about it now. You want to hear my thing or throw down?”
“Did Augie have any evidence to back that up?” Des asked.
“He sent me some photos that, in his opinion, show Beth lifting a lady’s bracelet. You can look at them and see what you think. Mitch has seen them.”
“And I don’t think they show Beth stealing a thing,” Mitch said. “Augie saw what he wanted to see.”
“The photos are inconclusive,” Very acknowledged. “They for damned sure aren’t anything a prosecutor could run with. And yet I’m positive that both Beth and Bertha were playing me this afternoon.” He took a drink of his beer. “I found another roll of film hidden in his apartment, Sarge.”
“Hidden where?”
“Inside a jar of mayo in the reefer.”
Yolie glared at him once again. “We made a deal, remember? You promised you’d tell me if you found anything.”
“Which is exactly what I’m doing.”
“How many hours after the fact?”
“I had to get the roll developed, Sarge.”
“Do you have to keep calling me that? Makes me sound like some grizzled old gee with a potbelly. Make it Yolie, will you?”
“Or Precious,” Mitch said. “She really likes to be called Precious.”
“I can shoot you, hon,” Yolie reminded him.
“You wouldn’t dare. You’d leave Des bereft.”
“What’s on this roll of film?” she wanted to know.
Very fetched the photos from his knapsack and laid them out on the picnic table, one by one, without comment. They were photos of Beth Breslauer. Beth on her screened-in porch in a shortie nightgown, sipping her morning coffee. Beth in a halter top and shorts, painting her toenails. Beth in a one-piece bathing suit soaking up some sun out on the lawn. Her figure was quite good for a woman her age. Toned and shapely. She was showing skin in most of the photos, and was generally barefoot. The longer Des looked at them the more they creeped her out. They’d been taken by a lonely voyeur who had a schoolboy crush.
“The fifty-year-old girl next door,” Mitch observed, studying them closely. “A lot of these remind me of those old issues of Playboy in his footlocker-minus the R-rating, of course.”
“I’m with you,” Very said. “It’s pinup stuff.”
“And they aren’t that recent, Lieutenant. See this one? The cartoon daisies behind her are in full bloom. That was in mid-July. This roll’s been sitting around for weeks.”
“Playing you how?” Yolie said suddenly.
Very looked at her blankly. “Sorry?”
“You said you had a feeling that both she and Bertha were playing you.”
“Totally. They were holding something back. I’d stake my life on it.”
“I’ll have a go at her myself in the morning-minus Bertha. Squeeze her a little. See what pops out.”
“And I can go at Vinnie in the City,” Very said. “Dawgie’s photos of him with Beth give me big-time leverage. I’ll threaten to drag his wife in for questioning. No way he wants that to happen. Yeah, Vinnie I can squeeze plenty hard-if you want me to, that is. Your case, Yolie.”
“Squeeze away,” she urged him. “I really want to break this tomorrow.”
“I know you do. We’ll get there,” he promised.
Mitch had fallen strangely quiet. Just stood there gazing out at a sailboat on the water.
