by Ed McBain
* * * *
Kling saw the shadow first.
Suddenly joining his own shadow on the ground in front of him.
He turned at once.
And saw the gun.
And threw himself headlong off the bench and onto the ground just as the first shot boomed onto the air, and rolled over, and reached in under his overcoat for the gun holstered on the left side of his belt, another shot, and sat upright with the gun in both hands and fired at once, three shots in succession at the tall black man in the long gray coat who was running out of the park.
Kling ran after him.
There were only three hundred and sixty-four black men on the street outside the park.
But none of them looked like the man who'd just tried to kill him.
* * * *
Martin Proctor had just come out of the shower and was drying himself when the knock sounded on his door.
He wrapped the towel around his waist, and went out into the living room.
'Who is it?' he asked.
'Police,' Meyer said. 'Want to open the door, please?'
Proctor did not want to open the door.
'Yeah, just a second,' he said. 'I just got out of the shower. Let me put on some clothes.'
He went into the bedroom, took a pair of undershorts from the top drawer, slipped them on, and then hastily put on a pair of blue corduroy trousers, a blue turtleneck sweater, a pair of blue woolen socks, and a pair of black, seventy-five-dollar French and Shriner shoes with some kind of synthetic soles that gripped like rubber.
From outside the apartment door, he heard the same cop asking, 'Mr Proctor? You going to open this door for us?'
'Yeah, I'll be with you in a minute,' he yelled and went to the closet and look from a hanger the eleven-hundred-dollar Ralph Lauren camel hair coat he had stolen on New Year's Eve, and then he went to his dresser and look from the same top drawer containing his undershorts and handkerchiefs a .22-caliber High Standard Sentinel Snub he had stolen last year sometime from a guy who also had a stamp collection, and then he yelled to the door, 'Just putting on my shoes, be there in a second,' and went out the window.
He came down the fire escape skillfully, not for nothing was he a deft burglar with the courage of a lion tamer and the dexterity of a high wire performer. There was no way he was going to have any kind of discussion with any representative of the law, not when he was looking at a renewed stretch in the slammer for breaking parole. So he came down those fire-escape ladders as fast as he knew how, which was damn fast, because he knew that the cop in the hallway would be kicking in the door if he hadn't already done it, and him and his partner, they always traveled in pairs, would be in that apartment in a flash, and the minute they went in the bedroom-
'Hello, Proctor,' the man said.
The man was looking up at him from the ground just below the first-floor fire escape. The man had a gun in one hand and a police shield in the other.
'Detective Carella,' he said.
Proctor almost reached for the gun in the pocket of the coat.
'Just lower the ladder and come on down,' Carella said.
'I didn't do anything,' Proctor said.
He was still debating whether he should go for the gun.
'Nobody said you did. Come on down.'
Proctor stood undecided.
'My partner's up there above you,' Carella said. 'You're sandwiched.'
Proctor's hand inched toward the coat pocket.
'If that's a gun in there,' Carella said, 'you're a dead man.'
Proctor suddenly agreed with him.
He lowered the ladder and came on down.
* * * *
10
The Q & A began in Lieutenant Byrnes's office that Monday evening at ten minutes past six. Present were the lieutenant, Detectives Carella and Meyer, Martin Proctor, a lawyer named Ralph Angelini who'd been requested by Proctor, and a stenographer from the Clerical Office, as backup to the tape recorder. The detectives did not know as yet whether Proctor had asked for a lawyer because he was facing a return trip to Castleview on the parole violation, or whether he knew that the subject about to be discussed was murder. Twice.
The lawyer was Proctor's very own and not someone supplied by Legal Aid.
A nice young man in his late twenties.
Carella knew that even thieves and murderers were entitled to legal representation. The thing he couldn't understand was why honest young men like Ralph Angelini chose to defend thieves and murderers.
For the tape, the lieutenant identified everyone present, and then advised Proctor of his rights under Miranda-Escobedo, elicited from him his name and present address, and turned the actual questioning over to his detectives.
Carella asked all of the questions.
Proctor and his lawyer took turns answering them.
It went like this:
Q:Mr Proctor, we have here a report from the . . .
A: Just a minute, please. May I ask up front what this is in reference to?
Q: Yes, Mr Angelini. It is in reference to a burglary committed on New Year's Eve in the apartment of Mr and Mrs Charles Unger at 967 Grover Avenue, here in Isola, sir.
A: Very well, go ahead.
Q: Thank you. Mr Proctor, we have here a report from the Detective Bureau's Latent Print Unit . . .
A: Your police department?
Q: Yes, Mr Angelini.
A: Go ahead then.
Q: A report on latent fingerprints retrieved from a window and sill in the Unger apartment, and those . . .
A: Retrieved by whom?
Q: Retrieved by the Crime Scene Unit. Now Mr Proctor, the fingerprints retrieved from the Unger window and sill match your fingerprints on file downtown. Can you tell me . . . ?
A: Do you have a copy of that LPU report?
Q: Yes, Mr Angelini, I have it right here.
A: May I see it, please?
Q: Yes, sir. And may I say, sir, that in this Q and A so far, your client has not been allowed to give a single answer to any of the questions I've put. Pete, I think maybe we ought to call the DA, get somebody here who can cope with Mr Angelini, because I sure as hell can't. And I'd like that left on the record, please.
A: I believe I have every right asking to see a report purporting to ...
Q: You know damn well I wouldn't say we had a report if we didn't have one!
A: Very well then, let's get on with this.
Q: You think maybe your client can answer a few questions now?
A: I said let's get on with it.
Q: Thank you. Mr Proctor, how did your fingerprints get on that window and sill?
A: Is it okay to answer that?
A: (from Mr Angelini) Yes, go ahead. Answer it.
A: (from Mr Proctor) I don't know how they got there.
Q: You don't, huh?
A: It's a total mystery to me.
Q: No idea how they got on that window and sill just off the spare bedroom fire escape.
A: None at all.
Q: You don't think you may have left them there?
A: Excuse me, Mr Carella, but . . .
Q: Jee-sus Christ!
A: I beg your pardon, but . . .
Q: Mr Angelini, you are perfectly within your rights to ask us to stop this questioning at any time. Without prejudice to your client. Just say, 'That's enough, no more,' you don't even have to give us an explanation. That's Miranda-Escobedo, Mr Angelini, that's how we protect the rights of citizens in this country of ours. Now, if that's what you want to do, please do it. You realize, of course, that on the strength of the LPU report, the DA will undoubtedly ask for a burglary indictment, which he'll undoubtedly get. But I thank you should know there's a more serious charge we're considering here. And . . .
A: Are you referring to the parole violation?
Q: No, sir, I'm not.
A: Then what charge are you . . . ?
Q: Homicide, sir. Two counts of homicide.
A: (from Mr Proctor)
What?
A: (from Mr Angelini) Be quiet, Martin.
A: (from Mr Proctor) No, just a second. What do you mean homicide? You mean murder? Did somebody get murdered?
A: (from Mr Angelini) Martin, I think . . .
A: (from Mr Proctor) Is that what you're trying to hang on me here? Murder?
Q: Mr Angelini, if we could proceed with the questioning in an orderly manner . . .
A: I wasn't aware that this Q and A would concern itself with homicide.
Q: Now you are aware of it, sir.
A: I'm not sure my client should answer any further questions. I'd like to consult with him.
Q: Please do.
(Questioning resumed at 6:22 p.m. aforesaid date)
Q: Mr Proctor, I'd like to get back to those fingerprints we found in the Unger apartment.
A: I'll answer any questions about the alleged burglary, but I won't go near whatever you plan to ask about homicide.
Q: Is that what Mr Angelini advised you?
A: That is what he advised me.
Q: All right. Did you leave those fingerprints on the Unger window and sill?
A: I did not.
Q: Were you surprised in the Unger apartment by Mr and Mrs Unger at approximately one-thirty a.m. on the first of January?
A: I was home in bed at that time.
Q: For the record, I would like to say that we have a sworn statement from Mr and Mrs Unger to the effect that . . .
A: May I see that statement, please?
Q: Yes, Mr Angelini. I didn't plan to read it into the record, I merely . . .
A: I would like to see it.
Q: I wanted to explain the content so that your client . . .
A: Just let me see it, okay, Mr Carella?
Q: Okay, sure, Mr Angelini.
A: Thank you.
(Questioning resumed al 6:27 p.m. aforesaid date)
Q: Do I now have your permission to summarize the content of that statement for your client and for the tape?
A: (inaudible)
Q: Sir?
A: I said go ahead, go ahead.
Q: Thank you. Mr Proctor, the Ungers have made a statement to the effect that at one-thirty a.m. on the first of January, they entered their spare bedroom . . . what they use as a TV room . . . and surprised a young man going out the window onto the fire escape. They described him as having blond hair . . . excuse me, but what color is your hair?
A: Blond.
Q: And they said he was thin. Would you describe yourself as thin?
A: Wiry.
Q: Is that thin?
A: It's slender and muscular.
Q: But not thin.
A: He's answered the question, Mr Carella.
Q: They also said he had a mustache that was just growing in. Would it be fair to say that you have a new mustache?
A: It's pretty new, yes.
Q: And they said that the young man pointed a gun at them and threatened he would be back if they called the police. I show you this gun, Mr Proctor, a High Standard Sentinel Snub, .22-caliber Long Rifle revolver, and ask if it was in the pocket of your overcoat when you were arrested this afternoon.
A: It was.
Q: Is it your gun?
A: No. I don't know how it got in my pocket.
Q: Mr Proctor, when you were arrested tonight, were you wearing a camel hair coat containing a Ralph Lauren label?
A: I was.
Q: Is this the coat?
A: That's the coat.
Q: Where did you get this coat?
A: I bought it.
Q: Where?
A: At Ralph Lauren.
Q: Mr Angelini, we have a list of goods stolen from the Unger apartment on the morning of January first - I'm showing you the list right this minute before you ask for it - and one of the items on that list is a Ralph Lauren camel hair overcoat valued at eleven hundred dollars. I wish to inform your client that the Ungers in their statement said the man going out their window was wearing the camel hair coat described in the list of stolen goods. Mr Proctor, do you still claim you were not in the Unger apartment that night?
A: I was home in bed.
Q: Mr Proctor, the Ungers said that the man going out their bedroom window was also wearing a black leather jacket, black slacks and white sneakers. I show you this black leather jacket, these black slacks, and these white sneakers and ask you if these articles of clothing were found in your closet this afternoon at the time of your arrest.
A: They were.
Q: I also show you this emerald ring which was found in your apartment at the time of your arrest, and I refer you again to the list of goods stolen from the Unger apartment. An emerald ring and a Kenwood VCR are on that list. Mr Proctor, would you now like to tell me again that you were not, in fact, in the Unger apartment at the time and on the night in question, and that you did not, in fact . . .
A: I would like to talk to my lawyer, please.
Q: Please do, Mr Proctor.
(Questioning resumed at 6:45 p.m. aforesaid date)
A: In answer to your question, yes, I was in the Unger apartment that night.
Q: Thank you. Did you commit a burglary in that apartment on the night in question?
A: I was in the apartment. Whether that's burglary or whatever, it isn't for me to say.
Q: How did you enter the apartment?
A: I came down from the roof.
Q: How?
A: Down the fire escapes.
Q: And how did you get into the apartment?
A: By way of the fire escape.
Q: Outside the spare bedroom window?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you jimmy the window?
A: Yes.
Q: How did you leave the apartment?
A: The same way.
Q: The Unger apartment is on the sixth floor, isn't that so?
A: I don't know what floor it's on. I just came down from the roof and when I saw an apartment looked empty, I went in.
Q: And this happened to be the Unger apartment.
A: I didn't know whose apartment it was.
Q: Well, the apartment where you stole the Ralph Lauren coat and the Kenwood VCR and the . . .
A: Well . . .
Q: That apartment.
A: I guess.
Q: Which was the Unger apartment.
A: If you say so.
Q: Now when you went out of this sixth-floor window onto the fire escape, did you then go up to the roof or down to the street?
A: Down to the street.
Q: Down the ladders, floor by floor . ..
A: Yes.
Q: To the street.
A: Yes.
Q: Did you stop in any other apartment on your way down to the street?
A: No.
Q: Are you sure?
A: I'm positive. Oh, I get it.
Q: What do you get, Mr Proctor?
A: Somebody was killed in that building, right? So you think I done the sixth-floor burglary and then topped it off with a murder, right?
Q: You tell me.
A: Don't be ridiculous. I never killed anybody in my entire life.
Q: Tell me what you did, minute by minute, after you left the Unger apartment at one-thirty a.m.
A: Really, Mr Carella, you can't expect him to remember minute by minute what he ...
Q: I think he knows what I'm looking for, Mr Angelini.
A: As long as it's clear that you don't mean minute by minute literally.
Q: As close as he can remember.
A: May I ask on my client's behalf, is he correct in assuming that a homicide was committed in that building on the night of the burglary?
Q: Two homicides, Mr Angelini.