'Oh, no-he was a nice man! I never-he would-we talked and-' But then there was so much he wanted to say about Dr. Simon that he began to stutter again. They waited, but he had nothing intelligible to add.
'Well, we've got to get going,' Delaney said. 'Thank you for giving us so much time.' He looked down at Kane's ragged running shoes. 'I hope you have boots or galoshes,' he said, smiling. 'It's snowing outside.'
'I don't care,' Isaac said. 'I just live around the corner. I don't need boots.'
They all shook hands. Delaney and Boone headed for the doorway. A young girl with disheveled hair was propped up against the wall of the vestibule.
She looked at them with glazed eyes and said, 'Oink, oink.' Out on the sidewalk, Boone said, 'She had us pegged.'
'Stoned out of her skull,' Delaney said grimly.
They were double-parked on 80th Street. Boone had propped a Police officer on Duty card inside the windshield, and for once it had worked:
He still had his hubcaps.
They got in, started the engine, turned on the wheezy heater, sat a few moments, shivering, and watched the wet snow drift down.
'Poor guy,' Boone observed. 'Not much there.'
'No,' Delaney agreed. 'But you never know. He seems to be quick with his fists when he thinks someone is out to hurt him.'
'How could Simon Ellerbee hurt him?'
'Maybe he asked one question too many. It's possible.'
'What was the business about the boots and galoshes?'
Boone said.
'Those two sets of unidentified tracks on the Ellerbees' carpet.
'Jesus!' the Sergeant said disgustedly. 'I forgot all about them.'
'Well, we still don't know if Kane owns boots. All he said was that he wasn't wearing them today. I think we better get back to my place, Sergeant.
Chief Suarez said he'd call at noon, and I have a feeling he's a very prompt man.'
'You think he's checking with Thorsen, sir?'
'Of course. If I was in Suarez's place I'd say something like this:
'Deputy, Delaney wants six more detectives. That's okay with me, but I don't want to give him any of the people working the case for me. It would hobble what we're doing.
So I'd like to assign six new bodies to Delaney.'
'You think Thorsen will go for that?'
'Sure he will. He's got no choice.'
With the holiday traffic getting heavier and the snow beginning to pile up, it took them almost a half-hour to get over to the East Side. Boone parked in front of the 251st Precinct house, leaving his on Duty card on display. Then they trudged next door to Delaney's brownstone.
'How about a sandwich?' Delaney suggested. 'We've got some cold roast beef, sweet pickle relish, sliced onions.
Maybe a little pink horseradish. How does that sound?'
'Just right,' Boone said. 'A hot coffee wouldn't go bad either.' Delaney spread old newspapers on the kitchen table and they ate their lunch hunched over that.
'Now let's see…' Delaney said. 'You told me that Suarez's men have checked out four of the names on our list?'
'That's right, sir. Just their whereabouts at the time of the homicide.
As of this morning, they hadn't gotten around to Otherton or Gerber.'
'We'll have to double-check them all anyway. If we get the six new people, I want to assign one to each possible. But I want to question each of the patients personally. That means you or Jason Two will have to come with me to show your ID.'
'I talked to Jason. He says he'll be finished with the biogs by tonight.
He'll call you.'
'Good. I want you there when he makes his report. We'll hit Otherton this afternoon. We won't call her first; just barge in. The other four we'll have to brace in the evening or over the weekend. Sergeant, can you think of anything we should be doing that we're not?'
Boone had finished his sandwich. He sat back, lighted a cigarette.
'I'd like to get a lead on that ball peen hammer,' he said.
'We didn't ask Isaac Kane if he had one.'
'Don't worry,' Delaney said. 'We'll be getting back to that lad again. I can't see the two women owning a hammer like that-but you never know.
We'll have to lean on the four men. Maybe one of them is a do-it-yourself nut or does his own car repairs or something like that.'
'How do you get rid of a hammer?' Boone said. 'You can't burn it. The handle maybe, but not the head. And the first crew on the scene checked every sewer, catch basin, and garbage can in a ten-block area.'
'If I was the killer,' Delaney said, 'I'd throw it in the river. Chances are good it'd never be found.'
'Still,' Boone said, 'the perp might have--' But just then the phone rang, and Delaney rose to answer it. 'I hope that's Suarez,' he said.
'Edward X. Delaney here… Yes, Chief… Uh-huh.
That's fine… Monday will be just right… Of course. Maybe you and I can get together next week… Whenever you say… Thank you for your help, Chief.'
He hung up and turned to Boone. 'He didn't sound too happy about it, but six warm bodies are coming in Monday morning. I'll want you there; maybe you know some of those guys. More coffee?'
'Please. I'm just getting thawed.'
'Well, drink up. Then we'll descend on Sylvia Mae Otherton. Sure as hell no woman with agoraphobia is going out on a day like this.'
She lived in an old battleship of an apartment house on East 72nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues. Boone drove around the block twice, trying to find a parking space, then gave up. He parked in front of the marquee, and when an indignant doorman rushed out, the Sergeant flashed his shield and quieted him down.
The cavernous lobby was lined with brownish marble that needed cleaning, and the steel Art Deco elevator doors obviously hadn't been polished in years. The carpeting was fretted, and the whole place had a musty odor.
'A mausoleum,' Delaney muttered.
There was a marble-topped counter manned by an ancient wearing an old-fashioned hearing aid with a black wire that disappeared into the front of his alpaca jacket. Boone asked for Miss Sylvia Mae Otherton.
'And who shall I say is calling?' the gaffer asked in sepulchral tones.
The Sergeant showed his ID again, and the white eyebrows slowly rose.
The lobby attendant picked up the house phone and punched a three-digit number with a trembling forefinger. He turned his back to them; all they could hear was murmurs.
Then he turned back to them.
'Miss Otherton would like to know the purpose of your visit.'
'Tell her we want to ask a few questions,' Boone said. 'It won't take long.'
More murmurs.
'Miss Otherton says she is not feeling well and wonders if you can come back another time.'
'No, we cannot come back another time,' Boone said, beginning to steam.
'Ask her if she prefers to see us in her home or should we take her down to the station house and ask the questions there.'
The white eyebrows rose even farther. More murmurs.
Then he hung up the phone.
'Miss Otherton will see you now,' he said. 'Apartment twelve-C.' Then, his bleary eyes glistening, he leaned
