So warm and cheerful,'
'Thank you,' she said.
'I hope you and your wife will visit us, A social visit-no talk of murder.'
'Rosa would like that,' he said.
'Thank you very much.'
He sat a moment in silence, staring into his glass. His long face seemed drawn, olive skin sallow with fatigue, the tic at the left of his mouth more pronounced.
'You know,' he said with his shy, rueful smile, 'since the death of Doctor Ellerbee, there have been perhaps fifty homicides in the city.
Many of those, of course, were solved immediately. But our solution rate on the others is not what it should be; I am aware of that and it troubles me. I will not speak – to you of our manpower needs, Mr.
Delaney; I know you had the same problem when you were in the Department.
I mentioned all this merely to tell you how grateful I am for your assistance. I wish I could devote more time to the Ellerbee murder, but I cannot. So I am depending on you.', I warned you from the start,'
Delaney said.
'No guarantee – Naturally. I realize that. But your participation lifts part of my burden and gives me confidence that, during this difficult time, I badly need. Mrs. Delaney, do you have faith in your husband?'
'Absolutely,' she said.
'And do you think he will find Ellerbee's killer?'
'Of course he will. Once Edward sets his mind on something, it's practically done. He's a very tenacious man.'
'Hey,' Delaney said, laughing, 'what's this-the two of you ganging up on me?'
'Tenacious,' Chief Suarez repeated, staring at the other man.
'Yes, I think you are right. I am not a betting man, but if I was, I would bet on you, Mr. Delaney. I have a good feeling that you will succeed. Now I have a favor I would like to ask of YOU.'
'What's that?'
'I would like it if we could call each other by our Christian names.'
'Of course, Michael.'
'Thank you, Edward.'
'And I'm Monica,' she said loudly.
They all laughed, and Delaney went into the kitchen for another round of drinks.
After the Chief had left, Delaney came back into the living room and sprawled into his chair.
'What do you think of him?' he asked.
'A very nice man,' Monica said.
'Very polite and softspoken. But he looks headed for a burnout. Do you think he's tough enough for the job?'
'It'll make him or break him,' Delaney said roughly.
'Headquarters is a bullring. Turn your back for a second and you get gored. Monica, when I was telling him what we're doing in the Ellerbee case, was there anything special that caught your attention? Something that sounded false? Or something we should have done that we haven't?'
'No,' she said slowly, 'nothing in particular. It sounded awfully complicated, Edward. All those people…'
'It is complicated,' he said, rubbing his forehead wearily.
'In the first stages of any investigation, you expect to be overwhelmed by all the bits and pieces that come flooding in.
Facts and rumors and guesses. Then, after a while, if you're lucky, they all fall into a pattern, and you know more or less what happened. But I admit this case has me all bollixed up.
I've been trying to keep on top of it with reports and files and time schedules, but it keeps spreading out in more directions.
It's so complex that I'm afraid I may be missing something that's right under my nose. Maybe I'm getting too old for this business.'
'You're not getting older,' she said loyally, 'you're getting better.'
'Keep telling me that,' he said.
During the next two days, the disorder in the Ellerbee case that had troubled Edward X. Delaney showed signs of lessening.
'It's still confusion,' he told Sergeant Boone, 'but it's becoming organized confusion.'
Driving his little task force with stern directives, he was able to move them around so each had the chance to eyeball several patients. By Wednesday night, Delaney, Boone, and Jason were able to achieve optimum pairings of detective and subject. They went like this: Benjamin Calazoisaac Kane.
Robert Keisman-Harold Gerber.
Ross Konigsbacher-L. Vincent Symington.
Helen K. Venable-Joan Yesell.
Timothy Hogan-Ronald J. Bellsey.
Brian Estrella-Sylvia Mae Otherton.
'If it doesn't work out,' Delaney told his people, 'we'll switch you around until we start getting results.'
Brian Estrella, the pipe-smoker, hoped he wouldn't be switched from Sylvia Mae Otherton. The woman fascinated him, and he thought he could do some good there.
On the morning he started out to meet her for the first time, his horoscope in the Daily News read: 'Expect a profitable surprise.' And as if that wasn't encouraging enough, his wife, Meg, called from the nursing home to report she was feeling better, her hair was beginning to grow back in, and she would be home soon.
Which was, Estrella knewa lie-but a brave, happy lie all the same.
Sergeant Boone had warned him what to expect, but still it was something of a shock to walk into that dim, overheated apartment and confront someone who looked like all she'd need would be a broomstick to soar over the rooftops.
She was wearing a voluminous white garment which could have been a bedsheet except that it was inset with triangles of white lace. It hung quite low, almost to the floor, but not low enough to hide Otherton's bare feet. They were short and puffy, the toenails painted black.
Boone had mentioned the woman's jewelry and perfume, the wildly decorated room and burning incense. It was all there, but what surprised Detective Estrella was Otherton's patience. After all, this was the third time she had been braced by the cops on the Ellerbee kill, and he expected her to be hostile and indignant.
But she led him into her apartment without demur and answered his questions freely without once reminding him that she had replied to the same queries twice before. He appreciated that, and decided to try an absolutely honest approach to see if that might tempt her into additional disclosures* ' 'You see, ma'am,' he said, 'we're most concerned about your whereabouts the night of the crime. You've told us you were here alone. That may be true, but we'd feel a lot better if we could confirm it. Did you go out at all that night?'
'Oh, no,' she said in a low voice.
'I very rarely go out.
That's part of my problem.'
'And you say you had no visitors, saw no one, made and received no phone calls?'
She shrugged helplessly.
'No, I'm afraid not.'
'I wish you'd think hard and carefully about that night, Miss Otherton, and see if you can remember anything that will help confirm what you've told us.'
'I'll try,' she said.
'Really I will.'
Estrella looked at that face marred with clown's makeup and suddenly realized that with the chalky mask removed, and the long, unkempt hair brushed, she would be reasonably comely-maybe not pretty but pleasant enough.
To his horror, he found himself blurting all that out, and more, telling this strange woman how she might improve her appearance, her dress, not so much to impress others but for the sake of her own self-esteem.
