Garbo Towers

Chapter 16

White stood at the office window watching the distorted street through the rain swept window. Heavy, bruised clouds sagged over the city, pushing everything down including his enthusiasm for working. He drained his second coffee of the day and wandered back to his blackboard.

The lab found nothing on Regina's clothes and they had not been cleaned or washed. He was beginning to side with Art on her dubious guilt.

So many things had changed since the murder; one couple split up, two of the woman seemed to become a new couple, the wallflower went out to work at, of all places, the Flaming Skewer, the same place as the Morano woman. And best of all, the old guy Art was zeroing in on, had taken up with the vic's old girlfriend. He looked at the tangle of information and belched a loud, discontented sigh.

"Studying your masterpiece again?" Art shook his raincoat out in the corner and grabbed an old serviette to dry his head and hands.

"We got a memo this morning from..." He jerked his head toward the Captain's office. "He wants to see some progress on this thing pronto. Maybe we should get the old guy and ask some questions."

Art scrunched his face and flopped down at his desk. "You like him now too?"

"It's the dog, Art. The dog bothers me. Why didn't the damn thing bark?"

"Maybe we should bring the dog in."

"Maybe we should bring them all in—and their clothes."

"That's a budget buster."

"Hey! He wants progress, progress costs money."

"Yeah but it's been two weeks, Pete. What are the chances of getting anything now?"

"Well we can't spend anything until we find out if there's anything to spend it on, right?"

"I guess. You want to do the honours?"

"Oh yeah, make me the lead in this." He picked up the phone and ordered a car from the police garage.

"I've been thinking," White said when he got off the phone. "The murder weapon. Do you think it was specifically chosen or was it an object of convenience?" Both men slipped their jackets on together.

Art considered him for a moment. "In light of the iffy time line, and the fact that his going inside couldn't be foreseen, I would say convenience."

"Okay. So then disposal would be an on the run decision too." He turned to look back at the board and strained to organize his thoughts. "Nobody came out the fire escape door after the Dasher guy went in and the only other exit is the front door, so... we have the old man who says he was checking on his dog. We have Dasher and Morano. Dasher's wife and maybe the vic's girlfriend..."

"You're wasting your time, partner. They could have taken it away with them after we left. Are we going or what?"

"But we searched everyone, clothes, purses... and the boys found nothin' in the apartments. I bet the damn thing is still there somewhere. Probably right out in the open too." Art went out the door, missing the last of his partner's statement.

Stanley was all smiles when he answered the door along with a noisy Haggis. The two detectives looked meaningfully at one another and then down at the dog.

"Come in, come in," Stanley backed away, shushing Haggis to no avail.

"We need to ask a few questions, sir," White began. "Would uh, would it be possible to uhm..." He pointed at the dog and at his ear.

"He'll stop in a minute, detective and then you won't hear another peep. It's his guard dog display mode. I let him have his moment. He usually does it once then ignores any others." Stanley waved the two men to chairs and folded himself into one opposite. "Now, you have questions."