liked other guys, imagine how I feel that a girl you actually had a relationship with is begging for your jock at 3:00 a.m.'
'She's not… Okay, you have a point.'
'I usually do.'
'Okay, I promise to talk to Mya. Now I have to get to work, time's wasting. I need to find out where this gun came from.
First I need to talk to Jack.'
I opened the phone, dialed O'Donnell's direct line. He picked up on the first ring.
'Hello?'
'Jack, it's Henry. You busy?'
'I was going to have my shoes shined, and hope a stray bullet didn't find my old ass.'
'Listen, can you meet me at O'Grady's restaurant in twenty minutes?'
'You want me to leave the office to meet you somewhere, you'd better give me a reason, and it better not be that you're in the mood for an undercooked hamburger.'
'No, but I might have a hell of a scoop on the Paradis murders, and I need some help.'
'Are you stupid, kid? Half the Gazette goes to O'Grady's for lunch. Meet me at McPhee's pub in twenty, at least we can talk in private. Besides, it's the only bar in a ten-block radius that charges less than five bucks a beer. What's the occasion for this midday imbibing?'
'I need you to use the archives and run a search for me, then bring whatever you can find.'
'A search for what?'
'Guns,' I said. 'I need to know what museums and collections carry authentic Winchester rifles, model 1873.'
'The gun that won the West,' Jack said, a sense of romance in his voice. 'John Wayne would be proud. What does this have to do with the murders?'
'I'll tell you then,' I said. 'But I think this killer is more than just a fan of history-I think he's trying to re- create the bloodiest parts.'
21
I walked into McPhee's pub. And immediately decided that
I never wanted to go back again. McPhee's was the kind of dive bar you were happy to get into in college despite your crummy fake ID, where the bouncer weighed upward of six hundred pounds and was covered in tattoos that looked like they'd been painted on by an epileptic spider monkey. Where the bartender served beer whose advertisements settled for round men in green hats because they couldn't afford buxom women in bikinis. Where the decibel level never rose above
'angry grumble.'
Yep, this was Jack O'Donnell's kind of bar.
I walked past several booths that contained paper menus stuck under dirty glass. The walls were lined with flickering neon beer signs, the owners apparently making a statement
(that statement being 'we don't pay our electric bill').
I found Jack O'Donnell in the very back of the bar, sitting alone in a dimly lit booth. He was sipping a brown liquid which, by the fill line, had been an inch higher before I arrived.
'Having a midday nip?' I asked.
'It's eleven in the morning. Either you don't get much sleep or you have no concept of what midday means.'
'Actually I was just trying to make a bad joke.'
'Bad jokes don't get funny just because you admit they're bad.' Jack took another sip. A waitress came by, her hair done up in one of those fishing nets that all the classy ladies were wearing. She was also chewing gum. I could have sworn chewing gum while serving food had been outlawed alongside smoking and trans fat, but I stayed silent.
'Can I getcha?'
'Coors,' I said.
'Bottle or draft?'
I looked at Jack's drink. Noticed an unidentifiable speck on the rim.
'Definitely a bottle.' She smacked her gum and left.
'Probably the safe choice,' Jack said.
'I've been known to make a few.'
Jack took another long sip. His cheeks were red; I could even sense it under his beard. No doubt he'd had a nip or two before I got to the bar, but I wondered if Jack's drinking calendar had been more busy than usual.
'I have a few leads on the Paradis murders,' I said.
Jack said, 'I thought you asked me here on a date.' I scowled at him. 'So what have you come up with, boy wonder?'
The waitress came back with my beer. I felt relieved as she popped the bottle cap in front of me. Somehow I wouldn't put it past this place to refill empty bottles from the tap.
'It was confirmed that Athena Paradis and Joe Mauser were killed by the same caliber bullet. And it's only a matter of time before the cops release a statement confirming the same bullet and weapon was used to kill Jeffrey Lourdes.'
Jack mimicked jerking off, yawning while he did so.
Nobody ever said he wasn't a classy guy. 'That's been run-138
Jason Pinter ning all morning, first or second lead in every major newspaper. It won't make Wallace bat an eye. What else you got,
Nancy Drew?'
'You're an asshole, you know?'
'I know. So spill it.'
'The actual bullet used was a magnum. 44-40. Very uncommon usage due to its high recoil and over-the-top stopping power.'
'That's true. Cops don't need to go around blowing suspects in half,' Jack said.
'Exactly. So it seemed odd to me that a murderer who obviously went to great lengths to take down Athena and Mayor
Perez, not to mention Jeffrey Lourdes, in such a public manner would use such an unusual bullet to do the job.'
'You're thinking…'
'The killer chose the caliber of the bullets on purpose.'
'Keep talking.'
I smiled, took a gulp of my beer. Jack was interested. His shoulders were hunched forward. He hadn't touched his drink in several minutes.
'Figure if he's using a rifle, he's also gotta be carrying around something to transport it in,' I said. 'Suitcase, knapsack. And he's likely staying near transportation, a subway stop or bus terminal.'
'You're not the only one who's thought of that. Rather than have cops sit in the subway and wait for guys in turbans carrying ticking packages to walk by, the NYPD has started searching bags over a certain length and width that are brought into the subway. They're searching hotels within walking distance of the stops, as well,' Jack replied.
'That's a start, but we can't just follow the cops and report on Carruthers's statements. I want to go ahead and follow up on the gun. Amanda was able to hook me up with one of her old professors who's a hair away from certifiable. I gave her a description of the bullet and rifle, and we think the killer is using an 1873 Winchester. Like you said, the Winchester
1873 model is known as 'The Gun that Won the West.' It was by far the most popular model of that era, was
