like a sport.”
“Wonder what Logeto was doing with her.”
“Maybe she was just a good piece of ass,” the Stick conjectured. “Wasn?t he supposed to be the
Taglianis? resident cocksman?”
“That?s a simple enough explanation,” Dutch said.
I was barely listening. I was too busy wondering how Logeto and Della Norman had been killed
without being seen or heard by four goons at the foot of the stairs.
“I can think of one reason Della was killed,” I said.
“We?re holding our breath,” said Dutch.
I did some verbal logic, to hear what the ideas sounded like:
“Logeto came here every Monday night. Whoever killed him knew that, knew what time he usually
came, and he or she also knew that there was a lot of heat on. Getting past Logeto?s bodyguards
wouldn?t be easy. So what?s the answer? Come in first and kill the girl. Killer knew Logeto would
come in alone; he?s too macho to have his boys sweep the place first. So he or she killed the girl and
then waited. When Logeto came in, the killer Burked him. Logeto never made a sound.”
“Then he or she dusted off through the bathroom using a dropline,” Stick finished.
“Except they went up, not down,” I said. “And got away across to the roof next door so they wouldn?t
be seen from the ground.”
“That?s probably how he got in,” Stick said. “Went down the line, killed them both, then went back
up.”
“Beautiful planning,” I said.
Dutch chewed that over for a moment or two. “Yeah, I don?t have a problem with that. Got a lot of
guts, acing out a mobster with four of his handymen pitching coins in the hallway below.”
“Yeah. Or desperate,” I said.
“Desperate?”
“Yeah. Either somebody with more guts than Moses or somebody who can?t afford not to get it done.”
Dutch said, “In that case, if it?s Nance doing this number for Chevos, that leaves only Costello,
Bronicata, Stizano, O?Brian, and Cohen left.”
“Five to go,” said Stick.
Dutch was leaning against the wall of the apartment with his hands stuffed deep in his pockets.
“It?s the full moon,” he said woefully. “Pregnant women have babies, men go apeshit. What can I tell
yuh.”
“That?s good,” the Stick said. “That?s what we?ll tell the papers, that it was the full moon.”
