deliberately waited before telling him this. He understood and was glad, because he thought he knew where it was going and it figured to make him mad as hell.
Linda had just told him about a woman found dead in a landfill outside Newark, New Jersey. Found pretty much by luck, actually, because a bulldozer operator happened to notice a human foot protruding from the dozer's scoop as he was about to drop a load into a valley of varied trash that would soon be filled over with earth.
'Let me guess,' Quinn said. 'Wes Nobbler got this from the Newark police and is keeping it secret for now.'
'Good guess. Nift hasn't mentioned it to anyone, either. But they'll both have to soon, even though their position is that the dead woman's simply another homicide victim and has nothing to do with the Torso Murders.'
'If she was found in Newark, how come we have her body here in New York?' Quinn asked.
'Nift and Nobbler pushed hard, told Newark there's a possible tie-in with the Torso Murders.'
'And Newark's keeping this quiet.'
'For now. Nobody wants to screw up catching this guy.'
'But that's exactly what Nobbler and Nift are doing.'
'I agree. But that wouldn't be their spin.'
Quinn felt his anger rise. 'They're going to get away with this shit?'
'For a while,' Linda said. She seemed to have given this a lot of thought and become resigned to it. 'It seems there's only one thing that links this one to the Torso Murders. She died of massive internal bleeding from injuries caused by the insertion of a sharpened broomstick stake.'
'Quite a link, I'd say.'
'Yes and no.'
'Renz isn't aware of any of this?'
'He knows about the homicide victim. Not about the broomstick.' Linda reached over for her warm can of Diet Pepsi. It was leaving a damp ring on a magazine lying on the table on her side of the bed. She took a long swig, made a face, and put the can back down. 'More importantly, he doesn't know what they found out yesterday, that the broomstick's the same kind used in most of the Torso Murders. Nift is keeping it from his media mistress, too, but he'll have to tell her soon or she'll know he stalled on it. He wouldn't want to get Cindy Sellers pissed off at him.'
'For damned sure.' Quinn found himself again longing for a cigar. Here, in his own bedroom, smoking one wasn't even remotely possible. Women and cigars. 'No bullet wounds in this one?'
'None,' Linda said. 'And she's still got her head and all her limbs. There's a positive ID, too. Ruth Margaret Malpass, address on the East Side. It didn't take long for her to be missed. She was a costume designer working on an off-Broadway play, Major Mary, scheduled to open in the fall. Two assistants from work went by to check on her when she didn't come in to her studio. Not like her, they said. They got the building super and her neighbors in on the hunt. When they and no one else were able to locate her, they called the police. It was too early for her to be officially missing, but her description matched the woman found in the landfill. She was positively identified almost immediately through her fingerprints. She'd been in the army, and they were on file through her military records.'
'So the sharpened broomstick is the only connection,' Quinn said.
'It was inserted anally, like in the latest Torso Murders.'
'Something else similar.' Quinn said.
'And it was inserted when she was alive,' Linda said. 'Continuing on the killer's new variation on his M.O.'
'God help us.' Quinn said.
'He didn't help Ruth Malpass,' Linda said. 'I hope He doesn't help Nobbler and Nift.'
'Nobbler's counting on all the dissimilarities to keep him out of trouble, but you're right, he can't play dumb much longer.'
'He's got a defense,' Linda said. 'There are no prints on the broomstick, the victim is whole and easily identifiable, and she lived quite a while in New York, even went to art school here, and seems to have had plenty of acquaintances and connections. Something else. I used my home computer to check out E-Bliss's database. They don't have a Ruth Malpass as a client.'
'How'd you get to their client list?' Quinn asked.
'Easy,' Linda said. 'I joined it.'
Quinn didn't wait until morning. It was eleven-fifteen. Renz might still be awake. If he wasn't, Quinn would take care of that.
He phoned from where he was, in bed next to Linda. Though he was seething inside, he might as well be physically comfortable.
Renz picked up on the second ring, sounding angry.
Quinn began relating what Linda had just told him, but Renz interrupted.
'I already know,' he said. 'It's breaking news, all over TV, all over the damned country, but not in my office.'
'Nobbler must have gotten nervous and released it.'
'Or Cindy Sellers learned it somehow. I'll bet City Beat already has a special edition all over town.'
'Was it on TV news about the broomstick stake?'
'Second from the lead. First thing I saw was one of Tom Coulter's old mug shots, then a news anchor holding up a sawed-off broomstick explaining what happened to the poor Malpass woman. The news sees a tie-in because Coulter killed his victims in New Jersey. They think he might have come home.'
'Maybe he did,' Quinn said. 'This could be a copycat killing.'
'That's what Nobbler's going to say, a copycat job.'
'It's possible, considering what wasn't done to the victim.'
'Don't even go there,' Renz said. 'I don't want to think we might be responsible for Coulter figuring he was going down for the Torso Murders anyway and joining the party.'
'I doubt it was Coulter,' Quinn said. 'He's basically a professional burglar that killed in a panic.'
'Once they get a taste…'
'Yeah, sometimes. But I still don't like Coulter for it. The media's on him because we gave him to them. If we hadn't, they wouldn't even be mentioning his name.'
'That's true,' Renz said, after a pause. 'Meat to the wolves. Tell me something else reassuring, Quinn. Like what we do next.'
'You have a press conference as soon as possible,' Quinn said. 'Emphasize the differences between the Malpass murder and the Torso Murders. Hint that we have good reason to believe Malpass wasn't murdered by the same person, that we know something the public and the killer don't know. Say we have no reason to believe there's any connection.'
'Play dumber than Nobbler?'
'Dumber faster. You can do it. I know you can.'
'Hmm.'
'It takes a fox to play a rabbit,' Quinn said.
'Have I told you lately that I like your style?'
'It's why you hired me.'
When Quinn clicked off his cell phone and laid it back on the nightstand, Linda sat up straighter in bed, drawing up her knees and hugging them. She'd been listening to Quinn's end of the conversation.
'Do you think it's possible this one is Coulter's?' she asked.
'No. The balls to commit burglary and the balls to commit murder are two different things.'
'Four,' she said.
Quinn did half a sit-up and kissed one of her knees, then settled back down.
'Do you think Ruth Malpass's death is connected to E-Bliss?' she asked.
'I don't think there's a chance in hell it isn't the same killer,' he said.
Linda frowned, puzzled. 'If Malpass wasn't an E-Bliss client, why would the Torso Killer murder her? I don't see anything to gain. She was outside the circle. Where's the motive?'
