'I don't deal in maybes. When you found him, were his pants wet?'
'Excuse me?'
'Did he void his bladder when he was stabbed?'
'I dunno. Gordon?'
Sumner nodded. 'Yes, sir, as I recal he did.'
'In that case he hadn't just taken a piss.'
The visiting detective looked from one of his hosts to the other. 'What forensic samples have you recovered from the scene?'
'None that have significance,' the Lieutenant answered. 'We've identified every print we found in the house; no wild ones left.'
'Fibres?'
'Nothing out of place.'
'Dirt from footwear?'
'None that we found.'
Skinner's right eyebrow rose, almost theatrically. 'Come on, gentlemen,' he exclaimed. 'The intruder comes through a door, which Mrs Wilkins said she locked, without leaving a trace. He comes straight down here and kills his victim, then leaves without disturbing anything in the house, without leaving a single print, or shedding a single body hair.
'Fine, he takes the dead man's wallet and jewellery, his laptop, and a clock off his desk. But none of the credit cards… I don't even bother asking the question because I know the answer… have been used, and none of the other items have been offered for sale to any pawnshop or known fence in the massive and great state of Montana. You guys have been close up to this investigation; I understand that and I respect it. But now, take a step back from it, look at those circumstances and tel me what you see.'
Polhaus looked at Sumner, then back at Skinner. He sighed, heavily.
'I'll admit it; there was something about this investigation that didn't sit right, almost from the start, but out here we don't have much experience of burglary homicides. Like I said back then, we welcome your input.'
'No one has much experience of burglary homicide, Chief,' said Doherty, gently. 'Even in the cities it's a relatively unusual type of felony. We're here because of three incidents within a two-week period, and this is one of them: three retired lawyers, with career histories going back to Washington in the sixties.
'Tell me, was Mr Wilkins active in Democrat politics in Helena?'
Polhaus laughed, unexpectedly. 'Sir, this is Montana. There ain't too many active Democrats out here. Sure, I knew that Bart was on that side, but it was in his past. You're not suggesting that's what got him killed, are you?'
'To be frank, Chief, we don't know for sure, but at this point we are not ruling out any connection. Past involvement in Democrat politics is one of the factors linking the three homicide victims. But let's go back there; you said you knew Mr Wilkins.'
The big investigator nodded. 'Sure I did, and so did Gordon here. We both have kids in junior high school; they have a football team.. . touch footbal only at their age, you understand… and Bart was one of the coaches. Football was his main interest in life, apart from politics and the law. I guess he was a pretty good player in his youth; you have to be, if you're a first-string line-backer for Notre Dame.'
Doherty was impressed, instantly. 'He played for the Fighting Irish?'
'Yes, sir; class of fifty-three. He had pro offers, he said, but he turned them down, and went on to Yale law school instead.'
'Mr Grace was at Yale, wasn't he?' the FBI man asked the Scot.
'Yes, but before fifty-three. He was back from Korea by then and starting out in practice.'
Skinner looked at Polhaus. 'Did you play at col ege?'
'I wish. I was good enough for high school, but I didn't make the team when I stepped up; too slow, the coaches said..; and they were right.'
'Did Mr Wilkins talk much about those days?'
'College?'
'Well, yes, but afterwards too. Did he ever talk about his early career; his Washington days?'
'Not much. He told me once that his father sent him there to gain work experience outside Chicago. His law firm was founded by his grandfather and his great-uncle; Wilkins, Schwartz, Wilkins, it was called, at the beginning at least. There never was a Schwartz, though; the two brothers added the name on for, let's say, commercial reasons. They wanted the Jewish business as wel as the Irish.'
The DCC nodded. 'I've come across that one before.'
'For the last eighty years, though,' Polhaus continued, 'itybeen Wilkins, Schwartz, Wilkins and Fellini. The Italian bit was for real; Bart said that the original Mr Fellini was made a partner in the early twenties, when they saw the way things were going in Chicago. They couldn't pul the same trick with the Italians; for one thing, a lot of them would only speak their native language when doing business.'
'Are you saying the practice was Mob-connected?'
'No, and Bart never did either. But you're a smart man, Mr Skinner; you'll realise that back in the Roaring Twenties, in Chicago, it was bound to be.'
'And is it still?'
It was Joe Doherty who answered. 'No,' he said, emphatical y. 'That was one of the first things I checked out when we became aware of the possible link between these three killings. The Bureau maintains a continuous investigation of organised crime in this country. We know just about al of the law firms who deal with the Mob, knowingly; Mr Wilkins' firm isn't on that list, nor is Grace, McLean, Wylie, Whyte and Oakdale, Mr Grace's firm, nor Gregory, Mozlowski and Harold, the former practice of Sander Garrett. These days, at least, they're all clean… although so much hot money is re-invested these days in legitimate business that it's possible to be connected without even knowing it.'
'That's true in Europe as well,' Skinner admitted. 'The Mafia investigations in Italy have thrown up plenty of names in other countries, the UK among them, who connect up to other things.'
'I guess we're best off out here in the wilderness. Tad,' said Sumner.
'There is no wilderness any more, pal. I know a man, an American, who owns a large piece of Scotland, where few people, even tourists, ever go. He's officially legitimate, but still, his FBI file reads like a novel; I know in my heart that he was behind a major crime on my patch, but I'll never prove it because we killed the people who carried it out.
'You've got a nice little city here, in the heart of a spectacular state, but make no mistake… the world is coming to get you. Now,' he said sharply 'Back to the crime scene. Did Mr Wilkins keep any business papers?'
'There was a filing cabinet in his den,' said the State Bureau Chief.
'But we didn't check its contents. I reckon we better had now.'
'I reckon,' agreed Skinner. 'Come on, let's do it now.'
29
He could see as soon as he walked through the door that she was having a bad day; frown lines showed on her forehead, and her hair, which was normal y perfectly arranged, was ruffled.
Mario braced himself for the outburst. 'You would think that in this day and age, cash payrol s would be a thing of the past; but no such Honest to God, some of our employers are still stuck in a time-warp.
'We advise them, we warn them, we plead with them, and do they take a blind bit of notice? Do they hell as like!'
Maggie frowned at him. 'And you can wipe the daft bloody smile off your face. You won't be grinning when you have an armed hold-up in the middle of your division… as you wil, sooner or later.'
'Anyone hurt?' he asked at once.
'No, thank goodness. They waved shotguns around, but no shots were fired.'
'Where was it?'
