murder,' I said. 'One of yours. September 1974. Woman was killed in a bank holdup in Audubon Circle.'
Bennati drank the rest of his beer and reached down and got another one out of the cooler under the table. He twisted off the cap and drank probably four ounces of the beer in one long pull. He looked at the bottle for a moment and nodded.
'Yeah, sure, bunch of fucking hippies,' he said. 'Stealing money to save America. Killed her for no good reason.'
'I read the case file yesterday,' I said.
'So you know we didn't clear it.' He drank some more beer. 'They're always a bitch, the fucking cases where shit happens for no good reason.'
I nodded. 'Anything you remember, might help me?' I said.
'You read the case file, you know what I know,' he said.
'I used to be a cop,' I said. 'Everything didn't always get included in the case file.'
'Did in mine,' Bennati said.
'What happened to the FBI intelligence report?' I said.
'Huh?'
'In your notes you say the FBI was sending over an intelligence report. It's not in the file and you never mentioned it again.'
'FBI?'
'Uh-huh.'
'For crissake, we're talking like thirty fucking years ago.'
'Twenty-eight,' I said. 'You remember anything about the FBI intelligence report?'
'Too long,' he said. 'I'm seventy-six years old and live alone except for the dog, and drink too much beer. I can barely remember where my dick is.'
'So you don't remember the FBI report?'
'No,' he said and looked at me steadily. 'I don't remember.'
I took a card out of my shirt pocket and gave it to him.
'Anything occurs to you,' I said, 'give me a buzz.'
'Sure thing.'
As I walked toward my car, he took another High Life out of the cooler and twisted off the cap.
6
The Boston FBI office was in Center Plaza. The agent in charge was a thin guy with receding hair and round eyeglasses with black rims named Nathan Epstein. It was like finding an Arab running a shul. We shook hands when I came in, and he gestured me to a chair.
'You're the SAC,' I said.
'I am.'
'At least tell me you went to BC,' I said.
'Nope.' He had a strong New York accent.
'Fordham?'
'NYU,' Epstein said.
'This is very disconcerting,' I said.
'I know,' he said. 'People usually assume I'm from Accountemps.'
He was wearing a dark blue suit, a white shirt, and a powder-blue silk tie.
'I am looking into a murder during a bank holdup in 1974,' I said.
'Tell me about it,' Epstein said.
I told him about it.
'Why did she come to you,' Epstein said when I finished.
'Mutual friend.'
'And why did you take it on?'
'Favor to the friend,' I said.
'Favor to a friend?' Epstein said. 'The case is twenty-eight years cold. You have some reason to think you can solve it?'
'Self-regard,' I said.
Epstein smiled. 'So they tell me,' he said.
