“If that goes off accidentally, you?re gonna have to change your name,” Dutch said. Lewis didn?t say
anything. “Okay,” said Dutch, “let?s have the long and short of it.”
“It?s SOP, Logeto coming over here. It?s every Monday night, rain or shine, six o?clock or close to it.
he usually stays an hour, hour and a half. He had two limos and four shooters. He goes in, the four
goons start pitching coins in the hail. Two hours later the mark?s still there. About eight thirty, I
started getting nervous. Finally I decided to take the door, have a look.”
“By yourself, with four gorillas between you and Logeto? That don?t call for backup in your book?”
Dutch demanded.
Cowboy shrugged. “I had buckshot loads in the Magnum. I go in, start up the stairs, get some shit,
show the cannon. „You wanna get picked up in a dustpan, flick around? is all I told „em.
I put my ear against the door, give a call or two. Nothin?. So I kicked it in.”
He swung his arm casually around the room, indicating what he had found.
The bed looked like a ploughed field. Covers and sheets half on the floor, pillows on head and foot.
The woman lay on her side naked, her hair sprawled across her face. Logeto was on his face, fully
dressed, both fists clutching the sheets, his feet hanging off the bed but not quite touching the floor.
“So that?s Della Norman,” I said. Even in death, you could tell she was a dish.
“Apeshit,” Stick said.
“He means Longnose ain?t gonna handle this too well,” Dutch said, and shook his head ruefully. “A
new wrinkle,” he went on. “What in hell was Tony Logeto doin?, shacked up with the Nose?s
favourite lady?”
The arrival of Chess, the ME, broke his thought train. Chess was short and on the tubby side, wearing
old pants and a pyjama top stuffed half in and half out of his pants. He was not too happy about being
there.
“And who do we have here?” he asked.
“Tagliani?s son-in-law and Longnose Graves? girlfriend.”
Chess looked up with a lascivious grin. “Isn?t that interesting,” he said. “It?s the best part of the job,
y?know, the inside stuff. I wonder how Longnose is going to take this.”
“Badly,” Stick chimed in.
Chess put down his black satchel. “Ladies first. Let?s get some pictures before I mess things up.”
The photographer appeared, shot the room top and bottom, and was gone in ten minutes. The doc
stepped in and started his work, jabbering continually as he did.
“We got a simple strangulation here, on the woman. From the front I?d say. See the thumbprints here
on her larynx. Death was quick. My guess?s her carotid, jugular, the whole shooting match in her
