Wheelman, The

be a liability to a guy in my profession, you know? But to be honest, I hadn’t made up my mind about you yet. Katie was so in love with you—she idolized you. I didn’t see how you could possibly live up to your reputation.

“And now that I see you, and now that I’ve seen my dead fiancee and unborn child on a slab in a police morgue … well, I’ve gotta say. I’m disappointed. Did you even know her? Did you know she’d do anything for you?

“Ah, maybe I’m being harsh. I don’t even know you. Maybe you tried your best.

“Maybe you didn’t.

“Maybe I’m going to have to finish what you started here tonight.”

Michael stared down at Lennon and, after some consideration, made the sign of the cross. The sirens were almost upon him.

“Okay, good talk, bro.”

Michael picked up Lennon, then carried him over to the pipe.

Lennon floated across the blood-splattered concrete slab, his lifeless body headed toward the pipe.

Had he been a smoker, Lennon would have savored a last few puffs before smashing the butt into the metal lip of the pipe. Just one cigarette—something for the geeks in khaki pants and navy blue windbreakers to pick up with tweezers, drop into a thick Ziploc bag, tag, log, then store in their evidence cases.

Maybe someone would have gotten around to analyzing the brand, try to pluck some DNA from the butt.

Maybe some part of Lennon would have lived forever.

A Beautiful Friendship

OH, IT WAS BAD. SAUGHERTY DIDN ’T HAVE ANY ILLUSIONS. The wound under his right arm was pumping blood like a kid’s water pistol. The impact of sliding down the pipe had snapped his spine, and he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore. He was folded like a V inside a dank, fetid, slimy, and circular metal coffin. There were soft, squishy things beneath him. Bodies. He had been to enough crime scenes to distinguish the degrees of ripeness.

But at least he wasn’t upside down. Saughtery could look up and see the night sky through the opening of the pipe.

Things were looking up already, he thought to himself, and chuckled, which hurt.

Then a hand appeared in the opening, and an arm. Draping itself over the side.

A head, in shadow.

What the hell … ?

The opening of the pipe suddenly went dark. Saugherty heard a scraping sound that became louder and louder until—

Impact. A hard skull pounded into his chest. An elbow smashed his nose, and another slammed into the middle of his left shin.

That Michael asshole had pitched his own brother-in-law—well, his almost brother-in-law—into the pipe.

Which made no fucking sense whatsoever.

“You son of a bitch,” Saugherty finally mumbled, when the waves of shock and pain finally ebbed. He took his frustrations out on Lennon’s body. “Shouldn’t you be out collecting your money? Isn’t that what this is all about?”

Nothing.

“I know you’re still alive. I can feel your body breathing.”

Nothing.

“You’re trembling. You’re scared, ain’t ya?”

Still nothing.

“Goddamnit, I wish you could have held on to your voice a bit longer. ’Cause you know, I’m really dying to know what was going through your head the past couple of days.”

Saugherty felt the trembling increase. At first, he thought the mute bank robber was going through death spasms. His body finally giving out. After a while, he realized he was wrong.

Lennon was laughing.

NEWS BULLETS

Briefly … CITY/REGION

Cement foundation poured for New Jersey’s children’s museum

After countless political delays and bitter turf squabbles, the new Children’s Discovery Museum in Camden, NJ, took one step closer to reality as workers laid the museum’s thick concrete foundation. “The first kids will be running through the front doors in about seven months,” promised wunderkind developer Jeffrey Greenblatt. “This will breathe new life into the dead urban center that is Camden.”

Briefly … CITY/REGION

13^thdead Perelli associate … linked to mystery slayer?

The mob wars in Philadelphia continue to heat up this summer, even though members from both the Perelli and Barone families deny they’re feuding. The latest victim: 45-year-old Manny Namako, a suspected arsonist and bookmaker, found dead in the bathroom of his South Philly row home. “The police need to investigate this for what it is: a madman with a rifle preying on innocent businessmen,” mob lawyer Dan Behuniak told reporters yesterday.

Officially, police refuse to acknowledge the rumors that a vigilante dubbed “Mr. K” has been systematically erasing alleged wise guys for the past nine weeks.

But one law-enforcement insider confirms: “Yeah, there’s somebody out there. He’s pissed. And he’s a good shot, too.”

CITY/REGION

Strange odor disturbs summer visitors to NJ kids’ museum

“Like old fish and cheese … ick!” says Alison Eaton, 10, of her July visit to the Children’s Discovery Museum.

Kids are discovering things, all right. They’re discovering how adept their noses are at detecting foul odors.

For some unexplained reason, the brand-new museum is inundated with an odor that one security guard—a