Urge To Kill. John Lutz

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СКАЧАТЬ Opened the door to get out of his car, then bang.”

      Pearl nodded. “We don’t know what we’re talking about. Not at this point. We’re just wagging our jaws making noise.”

      “That’s okay,” Quinn said, “as long as we don’t make up our minds about anything important yet.”

      “Galin’s dead” Pearl said. “That’s important.”

      “Not to him,” Fedderman said. “Not anymore.”

      “He had a wife,” Quinn said. “He was important to her. Still is.”

      “Maybe,” Fedderman said.

      “Either way,” Quinn said “we’re gonna talk to her.”

      11

      Her name was June.

      Joe Galin’s widow was in her forties and looked as if she’d had drastic cosmetic surgery done to her eyes. They were dark brown and slanted like a cat’s, and would have been beautiful if she hadn’t been sobbing most of the day. Though short, she had a high-fashion model’s anorexic figure, and even wearing an oversized T-shirt, baggy brown shorts, and flip-flops, it was easy to imagine her strutting along a runway. The widow would have been stunning if she hadn’t had a nose that appeared as though it belonged on a much larger face.

      Do the nose next, Pearl thought, when she, Quinn, and Fedderman had introduced themselves. She took in the widow’s eyes, the possibly collagened lips, the probably uplifted boobs, and wondered about June’s priorities.

      June invited them all the way into a surprisingly well-furnished and tastefully decorated home that was on a middle-class street of single-story houses with vinyl siding.

      Quinn had noticed that the Galin home was the only brick-fronted house on the block. He also was noticing the way Pearl was sizing up June, figuring that when the interview was over, Pearl would have something to say.

      June offered them tea or coffee, and after the offer was declined motioned for them to sit. She sat down herself in a flower-patterned chair with wooden arms. Pearl took a more comfortable gray leather recliner, thinking it had probably been Joe Galin’s favorite chair, the point from which he’d observed the narrowing world of the retired cop. Quinn and Fedderman remained standing.

      “We’re sorry for your loss, dear,” Quinn began.

      ‘Dear.’ Starting with the phony Irish charm, Pearl thought. So obvious. But that was his talent, how he got people to confide in him. Pearl could see right through Quinn, and wondered why the suspects and witnesses he laid his phony bullshit on couldn’t.

      June didn’t have a wadded tissue, but she nodded her thanks for his condolences and dabbed at her swollen eyes with a dainty knuckle. Pearl caught the flash of a gold wedding ring inlaid with tiny diamonds that might have been as phony as Quinn’s charm, but maybe not.

      “Did you know my husband?” June asked Quinn and Quinn only. He’d captured her full attention. They were players in the same drama; the others might join in if they so chose.

      He nodded solemnly. “Oh, yes. You know how it is, dear, I’m sure. All of us on the job are brothers and sisters.”

      Siblings against crime. Pearl tried not to make a face. She caught Fedderman’s eye. He looked quickly away. He was watching, analyzing, as she was.

      The deal was, Quinn was going to handle the interview. Pearl and Fedderman were to make mental notes and, when it seemed wise, occasionally add momentum to the conversation, if any momentum developed. The object was to keep the talk flowing so at some point the tongue might get a little ahead of the brain. A prodding now and then from the sidelines could be very effective, as long as the subject of the questioning didn’t realize he or she was being ganged up on.

      “During the days leading up to his passing,” Quinn said, “did your husband behave in any way unusual?”

      June’s tilted, tear-brimmed eyes suddenly appeared suspicious. Was this about screwing her out of Joe’s death benefit?

      “I mean,” Quinn said, seeing the signs, “did he seem on guard, as if someone might be posing some kind of danger?”

      “He’d been retired almost five years. After that much time, who’d be looking to get even for something he did on the job?”

      “Somebody who’d been in prison five years,” Fedderman suggested.

      June thought and nodded. “I hadn’t considered that.”

      “We’re checking his old closed case files for just that kind of thing,” Quinn said. “The work we do, the time we put in to keep this city safe…with a good cop like your husband, the years collect all sorts of things, including enemies.”

      “He put away a lot of bad types,” Pearl said. “Unfortunately, not for life.”

      “Those people,” June said, sniffling, “the ones he helped put away…Joe said they talk big sometimes, but they usually cool off during their time in prison.”

      “That’s usually true,” Quinn said. “And usually ex-cons don’t shoot and kill ex-cops.”

      “Usually not,” Fedderman said. “But sometimes.”

      “It could happen,” Quinn said with a trace of reluctance, as if he really wished he could agree with June but had to acknowledge Fedderman’s point.

      June shrugged one bony shoulder and dabbed at her moist right eye with the back of a knuckle. “Joe didn’t seem afraid. But then, he was never afraid of much.”

      “Isn’t that the truth, dear,” Quinn said. He made a fist with his right hand and ground it into his left. “A fine man like your husband. A good and true cop. And then some worthless piece of—” He caught himself and forced a smile. “I’m sorry. It’s just that all of us here, we bleed for a lost brother as you do for your lost husband. Your love.” He crossed his arms and stood there like a compassionate figure climbed down from Mount Rushmore. “It’s a fact there are all kinds of love. It’s not too strong a word to use for the way many of us felt and still feel about Joe Galin. Your husband will be missed by a lot of people. Missed in all sorts of ways and for all sorts of reasons. The world is the worse for his leaving it.”

      June lowered her chin to her chest and began to sob.

      Quinn went to her and gently patted her shoulder. “There, there, dear, I shouldn’t have made you cry. But we so much want to find out what happened. If there’s anything you could tell us…”

      “Everything seemed normal,” June insisted. “Joe was happy enough, even planning an elk-hunting trip with his buddies. They were going to drive up to Canada when the weather changed and elk were in season.”

      “Sounds great,” Fedderman said. “You ever go with them?”

      “Oh, no. It’s a men’s thing. I don’t want to shoot any animal. Shoot any living being.”

      “Great to get out in the woods, though,” Fedderman said. “Nature can be beautiful.”

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