Fear the Night

Meg shrugged. “So what’s it all mean?”

“That’s for you guys to detect,” Zoe said, standing up from her chair.

“It means something more than game playing’s going on,” Repetto said.

“Not necessarily,” Zoe said. “But it might mean the game’s more complicated and difficult than we first thought. And maybe we’ll have to play harder.”

When Zoe was gone, Repetto turned to Meg and Birdy. “She’s right. We can start by trying to find out more about the Candy Trupiano shooting.”

“It was pretty much the same as the others,” Meg said. “Single shot fired from a distance. Admirable accuracy. And she was killed by an odd-size bullet.”

“Nobody at the publishing company where she worked thinks the victim had any enemies,” Birdy said, “only friends. You know how it goes. People get killed and achieve sainthood for a while before anybody says nasty things about them.”

“Such a cynic,” Meg said, but it annoyed her, and kind of scared her, to think he might have something there.

“We’ll hit the neighborhood again where she was shot,” Repetto said. “Also around where she lived. Talk to her neighbors, or the doormen or shopkeepers who might have been in position to witness the shooting.”

“Word is she jogged regularly in the park,” Meg said. “Maybe some of the other joggers knew her.”

“I dunno,” Birdy said. “People don’t tend to strike up conversations when they’re out of breath.”

“At least the ones who are still jogging might have the balls to speak up if they do know anything helpful.”

“She has a good point,” Repetto said.

“The city’s getting more shook,” Birdy said. “People scared of sudden loud noises. The mayor’s catching hell from talk show hosts and TV-news dickheads.”

“He’ll get over it,” Meg said.

“Police are catching hell, too,” Birdy said. “And people got a right to be scared.”

Repetto knew that whether they had a right or not, they were scared.

Candy Trupiano had been shot at 8:17 PM. The earliest the Night Sniper had claimed a victim, the media had pointed out.

Beginning that night, after 8:30 every night, there would be noticeably fewer people on the streets of Manhattan.

22

Alex Reyals came to the door this time wearing faded jeans, a black T-shirt, and in his stocking feet. He needed a shave, so his dark beard seemed almost as long as his buzz-cut hair. He smelled not unpleasantly of turpentine and raw wood.

“Been upstairs in your workshop?” she asked.

He smiled. “Yeah, but it’s nothing that can’t wait.” He moved back so she could enter.

The apartment was neat and clean today, squared up in a way that reminded Meg of military quarters. Definitely the place could use the application of some simple decorating basics. Meg thought Repetto’s wife, Lora, should see this. Lora understood interior decorating and would know a man lived here alone and devoid of color sense.

On the other hand, Alex must have some sense of color and design. He was more than a simple craftsman and furniture maker; he was an artist. She glanced again at the example of his work in the apartment, the massive, multilayered desk.

“It’s mahogany,” he said, noticing where she was looking. “Inlaid with teak.”

“It looks futuristic,” she said, of the desk’s sharply angled planes, “and yet it doesn’t.”

“It’s the present,” Alex said. “Stuck right in the middle of now.”

“Waxed slippery and full of angles?”

“Aren’t you perceptive?”

“My job.”

“Sit down,” he invited, motioning toward the sofa. “Want some coffee?”

“Kind of late for coffee.”

“I drink it all day long.”

She declined the coffee, but she sat. “Speaking of my job, I’m interested in where you were two nights ago.”

He rubbed his unshaven chin. Meg could hear the friction. “I was here.”

“Alone?”

He looked at her in a way that was unsettling. “Ah! Two nights ago. I know what you’re up to, Detective Meg.”

“Doyle.”

“Two nights ago was when that woman was shot in the park. The editor. .”

“Candy Trupiano,” Meg reminded him.

“Yeah. I had the Candy part. Listen, do I need an alibi? If I’d known you were coming I would have made something up.”

“You don’t seem to be taking this seriously.”

“It’s wearing a little thin, trying to keep track of my life in case I might be questioned about the who, where, what, when, why.”

“You should know how it is. We’re both stuck with the routine. You said you were here two nights ago. Were you alone?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, I didn’t choose that night to have a party.”

His joking manner was beginning to aggravate Meg. “Feel like talking about why you left the NYPD?”

That caused a dark cloud to pass over. She was instantly sorry she’d brought up the subject when she saw the look of pure pain cross his features.

“I think you know that, or you wouldn’t be here.” His voice had changed, too. If she wanted serious, she’d gotten it.

“You’re not the first person to shoot and miss,” she said. God! Now I’m trying to cheer him up.

“I didn’t miss.” He turned away from her. “I hit. Trouble is, what I hit was the hostage instead of the suspect.”

“It wasn’t your fault. It’s the kind of shit the bumper stickers say happens. How were you supposed to know someone was going to move at the same time you squeezed the trigger?”

“It was my job to know, just like it’s your job to be here and work at making yourself a pain in the ass. Which, as far as I’m concerned, you are not.” He wasn’t looking at her. Staring out the window. “I didn’t do my job. A woman died. Case closed.”

Without realizing she’d crossed the room she was at his side, touching his shoulder. “Then let it be closed. Stop torturing yourself about it.”

He turned slightly so he could look at her, his smile faint and sad. “It isn’t that easy. Guns can kill or maim in a lot of ways. Isn’t that the hypothesis-rogue cop tortured by guilt goes crazy and starts shooting people?”

“Not my hypothesis.”

“What’s yours?”

“I don’t have one yet. I’m doing my job, like you were doing yours when you got unlucky.”

“We talk an awful lot about the Job.”

“People are what they do,” Meg said.

“Did. Now I create things out of wood.”

“With sharp tools.”