Except they didn't, not right away, and I found myself being drawn in for no good reason. On Thursday, two days after the murder, I realized in my wanderings that I was a five-minute walk from the murder scene. I went over there and sat on a park bench for half an hour.
I got into a couple of conversations, then went over and exchanged a few words with the doorman at Byron's building.
Saturday afternoon there was a memorial service for him at St.
Luke's on Hudson Street. People who had known him during the years he was sober shared reminiscences. I listened as if for clues.
Afterward I had a cup of coffee with Ginnie. 'It's funny,' she said.
'I keep having the feeling that I ought to hire you.'
'To find the guy who shot Byron? The cops can do a better job of that than I can.'
'I know. The feeling persists all the same. You know what I think it is? I'd be doing something for him, Matt. And there's nothing else I can do for him.'
* * *
Later that day I had a call from Adrian Whitfield. 'You know what?' he said. 'I've figured out how the son of a bitch is going to get me. He's fixing it so I die of boredom.'
'You hear about people dying of boredom,' I said, 'but you don't see it listed as 'cause of death' on a whole lot of autopsy reports.'
'It's a cover-up, like the Catholics do with suicide. People who die of boredom can't be buried in hallowed ground. Did you ever know a fellow named Benedetto Nappi?'
'I think I saw a couple of his paintings at the Frick.'
'Not unless there's a side to the man that I don't know about.
Benny the Suitcase is what they called him, although I couldn't tell you why. The story goes that he had a job starting Tony Furillo's car. He'd warm up the engine, and then if there was no explosion that meant it was safe for Tony to go for a ride.'
'Like a food taster.'
'Exactly like a food taster. You turned the key in the ignition and when nothing happened you went back home and watched cartoons.
Benny did this for a couple of months and then quit. Not because he couldn't take the pressure. I don't think he noticed any pressure. 'Nothing ever happens,' he complained.
Of course if anything ever did happen you'd have had to pick him up with a sponge, but all he knew was the boredom was too much for him.'
'And you know how he feels.'
'I do, and in point of fact I've got less right to complain than Benny ever had. I could gripe about having to wear body armor during a heat wave, but the truth of the matter is that I go from an air-conditioned apartment to an air-conditioned limo to an air-conditioned office. It's hotter than hell on the street, but I don't get to spend enough time out there to matter.'
'You're not missing a thing.'
'I'll take your word for it. I don't know that Kevlar flatters my figure much, and it's not the last word in comfort, but it's not like a hair shirt. So here I am living my life and waiting for the bomb to go off, and when it doesn't I start feeling cheated. What about you? Are you getting anywhere at all?'
'As a matter of fact,' I said, 'I've been thinking about sending you your money back.'
'Why's that?'
'Because I can't think of a good way to earn it. I've put in some hours, but I don't think I've learned anything I didn't already know, and I'm certainly in no position to improve on the official investigation.'
'And?'
'I beg your pardon?'
'There's something else, isn't there?'
'Well, there is,' I said, and I told him about Byron Leopold.
He said, 'He's what, a friend of a friend?'
'Essentially, yes. I knew him, but just to say hello to.'
'But not so closely that you can't sleep as long as his killer walks the streets.'
'I'm surprised there hasn't been an arrest by now,' I said. 'I thought I'd give it a couple of days, but I've already got a client.'
'You've never worked more than one case at a time?'
'Occasionally, but—'
'But you think I'll feel cheated. I'm walking around under sentence of death and you ought to be earning the money I paid you, not moonlighting while the sun shines. The friend wants to hire you?'
'She mentioned it. I wouldn't take her money.'
'You'd be working pro bono.'
