“Try Robert Murphy, lieutenant in Homicide.”
“Don’t know him. Anybody else?”
“Yeah, but they’d hang up on you.”
Hagan sat back, tenting his hands at belt level. “So what’s your interest in Jane Rust?”
“She came to see me on Monday afternoon. She didn’t strike me as close enough to the edge to kill herself Monday night.”
“She goes to a private investigator, she must have had something bothering her.”
“Look, Captain, we can dance around a while longer if you’d like, but we both know why she came to see me. She thought your department was involved in the death of Charlie Coyne.”
“You ever meet Coyne?”
“No.”
“If he graduated high school, they would’ve captioned his photo ‘Most Likely to Die in an Alley.’ Which is exactly what happened to him.”
“Suspects?”
Hagan snorted a laugh. “No more than a hundred. When Coyne got drunk, he got sentimental, wanted to share things with his brothers on the street. As in homeless and on the street.”
“And you figure one of them did him?”
“One of them saw it. Or at least the end of it. Or at least he thinks he saw the end of it.”
“What did he see?”
“Biggish bum, hobbling away after stabbing Coyne. The witness says Coyne managed to knife the killer in the leg.”
“The big guy show up at a hospital?”
“Not that we can tell. If he tried to patch himself up, he’ll lose the leg within a month. If he crawled off somewhere to die, a pair of uniforms will get a call to investigate a godawful smell coming from some abandoned building.”
“You seem pretty casual about all this. You have that many homicides down here?”
“You mean murders, no. You mean deaths by unnatural causes, hell yes. The leading killer of the homeless is frostbite. Right behind is guys beaten to death or stabbed in the heat of passion over cigarettes or a couple of returnable empties, net the guy a quarter maybe.”
“I wasn’t aware that Coyne was homeless.”
“Next thing to. He was shacked up with a girl and a kid she claims is his. You saw the place, you wouldn’t let your dog run loose in it.”
“Mind giving me her name and address?”
Hagan came forward again, all business. “Look, Cuddy, I can see the position you’re in. This girl Rust comes to see you, ends up dead that night. You maybe feel a little responsible, or that you owe her something. Fine. I’d feel that way myself if I were in your shoes. That’s why I’ve been so open talking with you about things. But everybody—me, the medical examiner, the statie attached to the DA—everybody has Coyne down as a simple death by stabbing.”
“And Jane Rust?”
“Autopsy and lab report came in by hand an hour ago. She swallowed enough sleeping pills to drop an elephant.”
“Except she couldn’t.”
“Swallow them you mean.”
“Yes.”
“We found a mug and a tablespoon on her kitchen table. One of the latents on each matched her index finger. The girl ground up a handful of the pills like an old-fashioned pharmacist with the mortar and pestle things.”
I thought about it. “Seems a hell of a complicated way to take your own life.”
“Rust was a complicated girl under a lot of stress, most of it self-inflicted. Besides, maybe she didn’t have a razor handy.”
“Any note?”
“No.”
“Strike you as odd a reporter didn’t leave one?”
“No.”
“Aside from the paper, was she under any stress you know of?”
Hagan shook his head. “She’s dead now. Whether it was intentional or accidental, it was by her own hand. Whatever problems she had won’t get helped by me airing them to a guy I met ten minutes ago.”
“I talked to her landlady. She says Rust had two visitors the night she died.”
“I spoke to Mrs. O’Day. Personally, face to face. Even with her ‘distance specs,’ she couldn’t tell me how many arms I had.”
“She told me she heard car doors slam. Two different cars, two different times.”
“The house is in a neighborhood, not the sticks, for chrissakes. She keeps her windows open and ears cocked, she’ll hear David Letterman swing by, she stays awake late enough.”
I tried a different tack. “I understand you and a man named Schonstein were partnered a while ago.”
Hagan got his back up a little. “You understand correctly.”
“It’s Schonstein’s son that supposedly was on the take from the porno peddler, right?”
“That’s right. And you be real careful to say ‘supposedly’ or ‘allegedly’ every time you ask about that around here, because Coyne and Rust were both full of shit about Mark.”
“Mark’s the son?”
“That’s right. He’ll never be the cop his father was, but then nobody will. Schonsy was a god around here, buddy. The kind of cop doesn’t just keep the order, he makes the order. He trained every cop in this department’s any good at all, including me, from the ground up.”
“Mind telling me where young Mark was the nights Coyne and Rust died?”
Hagan ground his teeth. “I hope that’s your last question, because it’s the last one I’m going to answer. Mark was here, in the station, both nights. Doing paperwork in front of six other officers because his partner was home, sick. Now get out.”
I thought better of asking if he meant out of his office or out of his town.
I’d just closed the hallway door to Hagan’s office when I heard a gruff voice say, “Hey!”
I turned. A monstrous uniformed officer was beckoning to me, so I walked toward him. The plastic name tag read “Manos.”
He said, “Captain wants to see you.”
“I just saw him.”
The officer moved his hand toward a doorway at the end of the corridor. “Other captain.”
“My name is Hogueira. You’re Mr. John Cuddy, private investigator from Boston.”
I shook his hand and we sat down, the uniform staying inside the office but at the door behind me. Hogueira was about five-eight, probably just over the minimum back before sex discrimination suits wreaked havoc with that requirement. Pushing fifty, mainly around the waist of his uniform pants and Sam Brown belt, he had the same black wavy hair as the desk sergeant downstairs, but with little sideburns and less mustache. His eyes were a warm, chocolate brown, like a particularly loyal and affectionate spaniel. Right.
He said, “I’m told you’re looking into Ms. Rust’s death.”
“Indirectly. She hired me on another matter.”
He nodded solemnly, sympathetically. “A difficult situation for us all, Mr. Cuddy.”
“How’s that?”
He spread his hands expansively. “We are a small city, sir. A poor one in many ways, rich only in our helping of each other. The several deaths weigh heavily in such a community.”
“I had the impression Charlie Coyne might have been a tad light in the mourner department.”
“Mr. Coyne, who I remember well from his exploits as a juvenile, was not the most popular of individuals. Also, his employment environment was not conducive to long life and happiness. It is the circumstances prior to his death that concern me, however.”
“The allegations of corruption.”
“Yes, the ‘allegations.’ That is exactly how you should refer to them.”
“Thanks, but I’ve already heard that advice once this morning.
“My peer, Captain Hagan, advises you well.”
I decided not to say anything, let him lead me.
“You see, it is good advice because there are many who would poison the community against the police force. There are enough in the minority community who already wish to do so, despite the fact that our present revered chief is himself of Portuguese descent.”
“Would that part of the communit
y be reassured by the appointment of a similarly descended successor when the current chief retires?”
A small smile toyed with the corners of Hogueira’s mouth. “Many would be so, yes.”
“And a provable corruption scandal on the plainclothes side of the hallway might substantially increase that possibility.”
“Very likely.”
“But it also couldn’t look like the uniform side had given things a boost.”
“Oh no!” said Hogueira. “That would be unseemly.”
“But perhaps some information, civically shared with a concerned individual like myself …”
“Perhaps in the form of more good advice.”
“I’m always open to good advice.”
Hogueira wiggled his rear end deeper into the chair. “There are several quite dangerous places to be avoided in the part of our city called, unfortunately, The Strip. An area of sex and sin which my uniforms patrol, but are discouraged from investigating. One such place is a theater called the Strand which shows unwholesome films. Another is a bar catering to voyeurs called Bun’s.”
“Let me guess.”
“The management would say you were wrong. They would say they drew the title from the nickname of the owner, one Bernard ‘Bunny’ Gotbaum. But your guess about the quality of entertainment offered there would be distressingly accurate.”
“Is there any special reason I should stay away from these two places?”
“Oh yes. The unfortunate Mr. Coyne was employed at the Strand, and he died behind Bun’s after drinking heavily there.”
“Captain, if Coyne had lived, would the DA have sought an indictment against whoever on the force was allegedly involved in the porno business?”
“You ask a question that a man in my delicate position should not answer. I believe, however, that without Mr. Coyne, no district attorney could possibly present a successful case. The state police investigator in that office, a Trooper Cardwell, might offer the same opinion, if you were to ask him.”
“Hagan said that a bum in the alley saw Coyne’s killer and that Coyne was living with a woman somewhere around here. Can you help me out with their names?”
“Mr. Cuddy, you should have learned by now that one captain cannot discuss a case assigned to another captain. I trust that you will take my good advice.” He glanced over my shoulder. “Officer Manos will be pleased to escort you from the building now.”
Eight
I DROVE UP the road fifteen miles or so to the district attorney’s office. I was lucky: a secretary covering the front desk said Trooper Cardwell was in.
She pointed to his office, a slope-sided garret with another desk in it and the headroom of an attic crawl space. Seated in a low-back, wheeled chair, Cardwell was black and under thirty. He wore a military haircut and bearing, over a short-sleeved dress shirt and yellow tie. After we introduced ourselves, I closed the door behind me.
Cardwell said, “What’s on your mind?”
I sat across from him and said, “Charlie Coyne and Jane Rust.”
With a toe, he propelled himself around to use the telephone. “References?”
“On me?”
“That’s who I’m talking to, isn’t it?”
“Try Lieutenant Murphy, Boston Homicide.”
Cardwell’s eyebrows perked up an inch. “Robert Murphy?”
“That’s right.”
“You give me his name because he knows you well or because he’s black?”
“Both.”
Cardwell stifled something, but whether a laugh or a curse, I’m not sure. He’d acquired the knack of stifling.
After dialing and routing through some transfers, he said, “Lieutenant Murphy? Sir, this is Trooper Oliver Cardwell. I’m attached to … thank you, sir, I remember that, too. … Lieutenant, I’ve got a private investigator sitting in front of me named Cuddy, first name John, says he …” Cardwell grinned. “Nossir, I haven’t been vaccinated recently … yessir, he looks that way to me, too. … You say so, that’s good enough for me. … Right, right, look forward to it, Lieutenant.”
Cardwell replaced the receiver. “Murphy says you’re an asshole.”
“See?”
“Says I’d be better off throwing you out the window than down the stairs on account of you might hurt the stairs.”
“Good old—”
“Says you fuck me up down here, he’ll take more than your weapon by the time you check your next mail delivery.”
“So he said you could trust me. Can I get on with this?”
Cardwell eased back. “You can get started, anyway.”
“I already did. Charlie Coyne and Jane Rust.”
“Way you say that, you think they’re connected. Doesn’t look that way to me.”
I’d like to hear it.”
“You talked with Hagan down to Nasharbor yet?”
“Yeah.”
“And he didn’t tell you much or show you much, so you came up to me.”
“That’s right.”
“You know anything about my position here?”
“I know the state police supplies investigators to the DA’s. I know you guys are supposed to run the major crime stuff for the local cops in the smaller towns, but you don’t get much involved in Boston. That’s about it.”
“Right as far as it goes. Problem for us is political.”
“That’s a surprise.”
“Yeah. Everybody starts in uniform on highway patrol. You request investigation, maybe you get assigned to the Bureau of Investigative Services, and maybe, if a DA wants you, you get assigned to a CPAC unit—that’s Crime Prevention and Control —in a DA’s office.”
“I’m with you so far.”
“Well, in case you haven’t been doing a lot of highway driving lately, there ain’t a fuck of a lot of troopers of color on the roads. So when I requested investigation, where you figure I’d be assigned?”
“Someplace there are a lot of people of color, where a black face on a cop might make a real difference in whether the jury gets to hear the witnesses who saw things go down.”
Cardwell canted his head, reassessing something. “Instead I’m down here. Know why?”
“Politics.”
“Good guess. The DA down here is on the outs with the current administration. That means every time one of his investigators gets good enough, the trooper or corporal gets promoted and finds himself riding a sergeant’s desk in a barracks someplace, rearranging patrol patterns instead of looking into homicides and related major action. Guy I replaced seven months ago’s doing that, and if I get good enough, same thing’ll happen to me, unless I decline the promotion.”
“Sounds pretty counterproductive.”
“It is. But it helps you appreciate where I stand. And where you stand.”
“And where’s that again?”
“I stand where allegations of police corruption in local departments that support the DA don’t get taken at face value, and you stand somewhere out by Montana unless the Nasharbor force tells me to cooperate with you.”
“What if I don’t ask to read the paperwork or anything. What if I just want to talk a little about the crime scenes themselves?”
Cardwell used a strong hand to rub on his chin. “Try an easy one first.”
“You see Coyne before they took him away?”
“No. Nasharbor covered that. I came on it the next morning.”
“Anything about it trouble you?”
Cardwell shook his head. “Coyne was small time. Delivery boy for dirty pictures, videos, and like that.” Without changing his neutral tone, Cardwell said, “Mostly kiddie porn. You want to see some of the shit we caught him with?”
“No thanks.”
Cardwell dipped his chin to his chest. “Good. Makes me sick to think about it.”
“You think the movies got him killed?”
“Doubt it. Most you could make of it is he steps in something, don’t know enough to wipe his shoes before walking
through the house, somebody decides he don’t get to walk no more. And that’s if he was hit on purpose. More likely, it’s just bum sticks bum.”
“You talk to any witnesses?”
“No. One of Hagan’s detectives took a statement from a derelict in the alley. Miracle anybody saw or remembered anything. Statement made things sound pretty typical.”
“You see Jane Rust?”
“Yeah. Walked through the place with Hagan himself. No sign of forced entry, struggle, even anybody else being there. Cocoa in the mug, some ground up pills in another one, some—”
“Wait a minute. Two mugs, one with cocoa, and one with the pills?”
“Yeah. Like she used the one to drink from and the other to grind them up. You got a problem with that?”
“Rust told me that afternoon she couldn’t abide pills. I guess I can’t see her being that methodical about them. Seems to me she’d just grind up a couple in a mug, then run the cocoa right in on top. One mug, not two.”
“Assuming she was just trying to fall asleep, maybe. But if she’s going off the deep end, and I’ve never seen more evidence of it short of a notarized bye-bye note, maybe she keeps grinding in the one and pouring in the other till she fades out.”
Cardwell made sense. I said, “Anything else?”
“You talk with her landlady yet?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s all I’ve got.”
I thanked him and rose.
“Hey, Cuddy?”
“Yes?”
“You bring me something on this kiddie porn shit, I’ll think about it. Especially if, and I say again, if, the cops are in on it. Jane Rust never even tried me. Don’t know why, but she never did. You find something that ain’t ranting and raving, something tangible I can tie an evidence tag to, you come back and see me. Otherwise, I don’t want to know about you. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Someone, maybe Murphy, had taught Cardwell how to swim among the sharks. But I had the feeling he was learning how to grow that extra row of teeth all on his own.
The Nasharbor Redevelopment Authority was tucked above a coffee shop on Main Street, about three blocks down from city hall. I left my car in the municipal lot and walked it, passing on the way one Roman Catholic church with high windows of stained glass and two taverns with low windows of neon beer signs.
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