Fear the Night

He gave her his smile again. “You’re probably wondering how I know about the notes. I’ve still got lots of contacts in the NYPD, Meg. Once a cop, always a cop. And you might have noticed, the NYPD leaks like the Titanic.”

That was true. She had noticed.

Jesus! I’m trying to reassure myself.

“Don’t worry,” Alex said, “I don’t leak.” He walked across the room and moved a folding screen aside to reveal a rolltop desk with something beneath a plastic cover on it. He lifted the cover and stood aside. “My typewriter.”

It was an old IBM Selectric, the kind with the replaceable lettered ball. Any police lab could identify one from the typeface immediately. Meg was relieved. The Night Sniper’s typewriter was an ancient Royal manual.

“You actually came to see me, right, Meg?”

“Detective Meg-Doyle. And of course I came to see you. You’re the only one who lives here, right?”

“Right. Please don’t get pissed at me, Detective Meg.”

“Doyle.”

“Meg, we both know this is primarily a social call. I have alibis for the Night Sniper murders.”

“You think they’re tight ones? Remember, you used to be a cop.”

“They’re tight as could be expected. Like you said, I’m the only one who lives here. So there’s nobody else to say for sure that, yes, I was home watching TV or reading a book or sanding a piece of furniture.”

“What about copycat murders?” Meg asked. “Who’s to say you didn’t commit one, on one of those weak-alibi nights?”

He frowned at her. “This is all hypothetical, of course.”

“Sure.”

“It’s possible that I could have committed one, or even more, of the Sniper murders. But I didn’t, and you know it.” He shot his smile at her again. “Tell me you know it, Meg.”

“I don’t regard you as a strong suspect,” Meg admitted.

“But you do have a point about copycat murders. The sniper used a different rifle for each murder-that was in the papers, Meg. Have you guys figured out that one yet?”

“We thought he might be a dealer or a collector, only we’ve gone down the list and checked all of them out, and they look clean.”

“Lots of people collect guns and don’t let anyone know. Especially long guns. They’re easier to buy outside the law because they’re mostly used as collectibles or for hunting, not for holding up convenience stores.”

“It could be somebody like that,” Meg said. “There are all sorts of gun nuts.”

He shook his head. “Not a nut, necessarily. Just a collector, a lover of precise mechanisms.”

She looked around at all of his precision tools that he used so precisely. “By nut I didn’t mean wacky, I meant he could be a gun enthusiast.”

“Yeah, enthusiast is better.”

He seemed mollified. Was he a gun nut? It wouldn’t be a surprise-he’d been a SWAT sniper.

Meg knew she shouldn’t be talking about the case this way with Alex. It was because he’d been a cop. That was why, once he got her talking, she couldn’t seem to shut up. She told herself that was the reason.

She stood up from the sofa.

“Not going so soon, I hope,” Alex said. He seemed genuinely disappointed.

“I got answers to my questions,” she said.

“About the theater and typewriter?”

“More or less.”

He moved closer to her, not much, but enough that his presence affected her just the way he planned. Clever bastard. Seducer. Paint thinner never smelled so good. “I’d like to see you again,” he said, “on an unofficial basis.”

“Not wise. Especially not while the Sniper case is hot.”

Now he put on a sad expression. “You don’t even want to see my rocking chair after it gets its final coat of finish?”

She did. Very much. But something told her it was time to leave. It was an instinct she’d learned to trust.

“Sorry, but I don’t have time.” She moved toward the door.

“You’re the first person other than me who’s been in here in months. Usually I don’t show people my work before it’s finished. I don’t want their reaction to influence me.” He reached out and touched her shoulder ever so lightly. “But for you I made an exception.”

“Don’t think of me as an exception,” Meg said. “It doesn’t make sense for either of us.”

“Yet you came here.”

“Yet I did.” She went to the door and opened it. “Thanks for your cooperation, Mr. Reyals.”

He was grinning.

“If you ever want to take in a play. .” she heard him say as she went out.

Her heart was banging away like the percussion section of a symphony orchestra as she made her way back downstairs and outside. Seeing Alex had been a mistake, made her infection worse.

I screwed up, coming here, she told herself over and over, crossing the street toward her parked car.

What would Repetto think if he knew about this visit? He wouldn’t buy that additional questions crap any more than Alex had.

I really screwed up!

20

Candy Trupiano cleared work in progress from her desk and switched off her office lights. It was past seven o’clock in the evening, and workaday New York had wound down. Towering buildings had dropped thousands of people to stream from lobbies and join the rush and roar of the homeward bound. The sun wouldn’t set for more than an hour, but except for the pale fluorescent glow leaking in from the hall, the office was dark.

Everyone else at Hamilton Publications had gone home. Candy’s was one of the few offices that didn’t have a window. She didn’t mind. Until a few months ago she’d been Army National Guard Corporal Candice Trupiano, Second Maintenance and Combat, stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Her unit hadn’t left the country, but she’d served nonetheless and was proud of it. And apparently Hamilton Publications was proud of her. Not only had they saved her job while she was away, when she’d returned they awarded her with a sizable raise. This for a twenty- five-year-old associate editor. Old man Hamilton, who owned and ran the company, believed in her, and Candy was happy working hard in her windowless office in order to repay his faith and generosity.

She’d been a more than competent soldier, and the army had tried to convert her to a regular, but she was convinced she’d be a better editor. Besides, it was really what she wanted to do. She loved books and knew the marketplace, had a feel for what people wanted to read. She knew line editing, and she knew how to deal with writers, who could be a persnickety bunch.

Candy was a tall, lanky brunette, with bright blue eyes and a lean jaw. She was reasonably attractive in repose, and when she smiled she became incandescent. In the army she’d learned how to keep herself in top physical condition, and these were habits she didn’t want to lose in civilian life. She worked out three times a week in a gym, and she jogged at least five evenings a week.

After leaving the office and subwaying uptown, she set out walking the three blocks from the stop to her apartment on West Seventy-second Street. Candy wouldn’t have been able to afford the apartment except for her roommate, Annette, an American Airlines flight attendant who was away most of the time. It was an arrangement Candy could live with easily. Annette was working the international flights now and was somewhere in Europe, where she’d remain until later this month. Living with Annette was almost like living alone, only with a DVD collection Candy couldn’t afford.

Candy was moving fast, taking long strides in her jogging shoes that didn’t go well with her businesslike gray