Chill of Night

by John Lutz

  “And you’d like the media informed, so the Justice Killer will know you won’t be available for…justice,” Beam said.

  “That be good. Knee High don’t like bein’ on that Justice mother’s mind.”

  “Okay. I think I can get it done.”

  Knee High backed up a step. “Say what?”

  “I’ll see to it you get your wish: jail, and an informed news media.” Though not necessarily in that order.

  “Minute ago you be sayin’ it was impossible.”

  Beam shrugged. “Things change.”

  Knee High was obviously amazed. What he’d considered a futile, desperate effort was about to bear fruit. “You shittin’ Knee High?”

  “Not in the slightest.”

  “Knee High be safe then.” His relief was obvious.

  “Knee High be safe then,” Beam confirmed.

  But not until then.

  Nell awoke to Terry kissing her bare breasts. She smiled and pulled him to her, cradling his head with both arms, and felt his tongue explore her right nipple.

  They were in Nell’s bedroom, after late-night drinks, then a midnight tumble in her bed.

  It was certainly bright in the bedroom. She noticed the clock—almost eight thirty—and was alarmed for a moment about being late for work. Then she relaxed, remembering the team had agreed to sleep in this morning after working late last night. Except for Beam, who had an early meeting at Grand Central with Knee High.

  This might work out well.

  “I happen to have some spare time this morning,” she told Terry.

  He answered unintelligibly, then kissed her left nipple, the hollow between her breasts, her stomach, lower.

  And raised his head, then sat up.

  “Something?” Nell asked.

  “Yeah. ’Fraid I’ve got an early appointment. He smiled down at her. “Not that I wouldn’t rather stay here for a while. It’s been over eight hours since we’ve had sex.”

  “I don’t like that to happen,” Nell said, and gripped his arm to try pulling him back down on her.

  Easily breaking her grasp, Terry stood up. “I really do have to run. There’s a restaurant over on Amsterdam that needs its fridge looked at before things go bad.”

  “I called you for days before you came over here to repair the air conditioner,” Nell said. “Now you’re mine for a while.”

  “More than awhile,” Terry said. “But this morning I’ve gotta hurry, really. I promised. And you know me and promises.”

  “Do I ever.”

  She watched the athletic litheness of his muscular body as he moved toward the bathroom to shower. Nell loved to watch Terry walk. There was something catlike about him, as if he were unconsciously luxuriating in simple motion.

  He was in the shower less than five minutes, then quickly dressed in short-sleeved shirt, Levi’s, and jogging shoes.

  “Gotta go by my place and pick up my tools,” he said, then walked over to the bed, kissed her, and was gone, leaving behind his smile, a scent of soap, and a few drops of water from his wet hair on her pillow.

  Here, then gone.

  Men.

  Nell lay in bed and closed her eyes, listening to the tick of the rotating ceiling fan. She moved her fingertips lightly over her nipples, then across her bare stomach. With a sigh, she rolled onto her side and found herself staring at the phone.

  Alone in the silence, alone in her desire, she decided without really thinking about it to call Jack Selig.

  He’d be glad to talk with her even if she woke him from a sound sleep. Jack would be up for phone sex, if she suggested it to him. Nell knew that despite his dominating personality, she could dominate him with his love for her. The thought was an aphrodisiac.

  But what she got was Selig’s machine, telling her to leave a message and he’d get back to her as soon as he returned home.

  Nell didn’t feel like leaving a message. Not now.

  She replaced the receiver and fell back on the bed.

  The hell with both of them, she thought, then set the alarm to sound in half an hour and went back to sleep.

  60

  “Cops everywhere,” Knee High muttered to himself.

  He was out on his balcony, thirty-five stories above the street, and could barely make out the blue uniformed figures; might not have noticed them at all, except by now he knew where to look. He knew there were also plainclothes cops down there, and undercovers in the building. Asshole detective Beam wasn’t kidding when he said the law would be where Knee High was, but Knee High knew they were more interested in capturing who shot Knee High than in protecting Knee High.

  He wished the wheels of bureaucracy would turn faster and he could be safe in jail. Damn paper pushers took forever to do everything.

  His skin began to crawl. He didn’t like being out on the balcony more than a few seconds, but he had to come out now and then so he could actually see some of his protectors—so-called, anyway—and know for a fact they were on duty. There was no denying the Justice mother psycho was coming after Knee High, and Knee High had a better chance of survival with the cops than without.

  Justice mother might be sighting in on Knee High right now with a rifle, so Knee High hurried back inside and pulled the sliding glass door shut, then closed the drape.

  Maybe he oughta call Beam, see if he could use his pull to hurry things along. Clerks and various ass kissers, even judges, take it seriously when a bad mother like Beam puts the eye on ’em and makes a suggestion.

  But he’d already called Beam several times, and Beam either gave him a line of bullshit or didn’t call back. Seemed nobody gave a shit about Knee High.

  The apartment was cool and shaded by thick drapes, sparsely furnished except for black box speakers larger than most of the furniture. Alongside the door was the only wall hanging, a five-by-five blow up of Cold Cat, photographed from behind, performing at a jammed concert, people on their feet, yelling, Knee High down in the right-hand corner, waving his arms and urging them on. Knee High couldn’t look at the poster without getting pissed at Edie Piaf.

  Part of a kitchen was visible through a pass-through, white cabinets, refrigerator, a corner of a stove. On the pass-through’s shelf sat several white foam takeout containers and some empty beer cans. Similar containers were stacked on a low coffee table with more empty cans. There were more containers and cans on the floor. Knee High hadn’t left the apartment for days, and had all his food delivered from the Great Wall Restaurant over in the next block. Egg foo yung, usually beef, sometimes chicken or pork for variety, made up almost all of Knee High’s diet. Sometimes he wished he had some cold or room-temperature pizza for breakfast, but for lunch or dinner he never chose it over egg foo yung. Knee High considered ordering a pizza this evening to go along with his regular order and not eating it, just putting it up someplace so he could have it cold tomorrow morning.

  He looked at his watch, a TAG Heuer given to him a few years ago by Cold Cat. Food should be here soon. He’d phoned the order in twenty minutes ago. The restaurant always used the same delivery guy, Hispanic dude with tattoos all over him. The cops would recognize him and not get excited. Delivery guy didn’t like all the cops around at first, maybe thinking they’d ask for his green card or something. But it wasn’t him the cops were interested in, so by now he’d relaxed and enjoyed the fact that Knee High tipped tall.

  “Notice the cops on your way up here?” Knee High would always ask him.

  “Was nothing but,” the guy would always answer with a smile. It made Knee High feel better, knowing his new friends in blue were present in such numbers.

  Delivery guy would hand over the takeout, and Knee High would give him three ten-dollar bills even though the check was always for eighteen dollars. Guy would always tell him gracias and give him a big smile. Knee High would smile back, just for the human contact. He was a people person, had always loved being around people.

  In anticipation, he pulled his wallet from his back pock
et and got out three tens, slipped them folded over in his shirt pocket so he’d be ready for the delivery guy. Returned wallet to pocket.

  His heart was hammering and he stood still, breathing deeply. This was getting to him, knowing the Justice mother was out there wanting to kill him. True, he had security, NYPD style, but security could only go so far. That Dudman guy, he’d had professional bodyguards, and Justice still got to him, shot him dead as John Lennon.

  Dead as Cold Cat.

  That whole thing was Edie’s fault. Nobody should ever trust that kind of bitch. Knee High knew now, when it was too late, that he’d made a horrible mistake. But damn! she was fine-looking that day she’d come to him and lifted her blouse, gave him a wide smile, and asked if he’d help her with the clasp on her brassiere. When she’d turned around, he saw her brassiere was fastened and told her so. She said she wanted him to help her unfasten it, then leaned back against him and kind of rubbed herself against him, rotating that tight little rump.

  That had been it for Knee High. Whew! Woman like that…

  The intercom buzzed, jolting Knee High out of his thoughts.

  He went over and pressed the button, asked who was downstairs.

  “Great Wall,” came the answer. Not the doorman, or the cop who was pretending to be the doorman, but a familiar voice. Hispanic guy.

  Knee High buzzed him into the building.

  In less than half a minute there was a knock on the door. Egg foo yung on his mind, Knee High absently reached into his pocket for the three tens as he worked the dead bolt then jingle-jangled the chain lock with his free hand and opened the door.

  “You fast tonight,” he said.

  And was shot between his widening eyes.

  61

  “Who found him?” Beam asked.

  “Delivery man with takeout from a restaurant a block over,” said the uniform who’d been first on the scene. He was a tall, thin man with a weathered face and the long fingers of a concert pianist. Beam had seen him around; his name was Alfonse something.

  “That what’s all over the hall floor?” Beam asked.

  “Yes, sir. Chinese.”

  That explained the peculiar, pungent scent in the hall that Beam had noticed when he stepped out of the elevator.

  That, the aftermath of gunfire, and what was left of the back of Knee High’s head.

  Beam had almost stepped on the food mess when he’d first approached the apartment’s open door. His gaze had been fixed on Knee High lying on his back just beyond the doorway, staring up at the ceiling in something like wonderment at having obtained a third round, dark eye just above the bridge of his nose. On his very still chest lay a neatly cut out red cloth letter J.

  The crime scene unit had arrived shortly before Beam and was crawling all over the apartment beyond the body. The halls were quiet, guarded now by men and women in blue and made off limits except for tenants. On a small, ornate iron bench halfway to the elevators, next to a brass ashtray and a stalwart looking uniform standing with his arms crossed, sat a glum Hispanic man in his thirties. He had on jeans and a white shirt, worn down Nikes, and was wearing a white baseball cap lettered GW. His arms were heavily tattooed.

  “Delivery man?” Beam asked Alfonse.

  “Him. Says his name’s Raymond Carerra.”

  Beam walked toward the man, who kept his head bowed and refused to acknowledge that anyone was approaching. Beam saw that the tattoos were mostly of snakes and flowers. “Raymond?”

  Carerra nodded without looking up at him. Beam thought he appeared a little sick to his stomach. He showed Carerra his shield and introduced himself as police.

  “I already told what happened,” Carerra said, with a slight Spanish accent.

  “You watch TV, Raymond. You know I need to hear it again.”

  “I did nothing but come here as usual and deliver Mr. Knee High’s egg foo yung.”

  “From?”

  “Great Wall. Place where I work just a block away. Mr. Knee High’s regular order.”

  “That all he ever orders, egg foo yung?”

  “Always, that’s all. Because ours is very good.”

  Beam didn’t know whether Raymond was being a smart ass, so he let it pass. He got out his notepad and pen. “So tell me how it went, Raymond.”

  “I came to deliver the food, got off the elevator, walked down the hall to that apartment, and that’s what I found. The door was open, and Mr. Knee High was laying there like that. I was so surprised I dropped my take-out boxes, then I got scared. At first I thought I might be in trouble and figured maybe I should get out fast. Then I remembered I was sent here by the restaurant, and I knew there were cops all over the building, guarding Mr. Knee High. Where was I gonna go?”

  Raymond looked at Beam as if he might actually answer his question. Beam shrugged.

  “I decided I’d go back downstairs,” Raymond said, “and find a cop, tell him what I saw, then come back up here with him.”

  “Who’d you find?”

  “That man.” Raymond pointed to Alfonse.

  “Was the letter J already on Mr. Knee High’s chest?”

  “Yes. Everything was just as it is now. Exactly.”

  “There are some ten-dollar bills in his right hand.”

  “They were there, to pay for the egg foo yung and my tip. Always the same amount. Mr. Knee High was a big tipper.”

  “You call upstairs on the intercom before entering the main lobby?”

  “Yes, sir. I said hello to the doorman, too. He told me go ahead and use the intercom instead of calling up himself and announcing me, like they sometimes do.”

  Beam was surprised. The doorman was actually an undercover cop.

  “Ever seen the doorman before?”

  “Sure. Last three nights. Never before that. I been delivering to this building for two years. Doormen here, they come and go. Lots of picky tenants, I guess.”

  So he was familiar to the cop-doorman, deemed safe.

  Beam pointed toward the mess on the floor down the hall. “I see the egg foo yung that spilled on the carpet when you dropped the order, but what’s in that other, smaller box that didn’t open when it was dropped?

  “That’s Mr. Knee High’s fortune cookie,” Raymond said. “I guess maybe I should have delivered that first, by itself.”

  Beam decided Raymond was okay, a guy with a sense of humor poking through his apprehension. “Did you see anyone else down in the lobby, somebody who might have overheard what you were doing here, where you were going?”

  “There was nobody else in the lobby. And I didn’t say into the intercom where I was going, just that I was here from Great Wall.”

  “Was anyone else in the elevator?”

  “No.”

  “See anyone else in the halls?”

  “No one. And I saw no one after I got in the elevator until I saw Mr. Knee High…like he is.”

  Beam scribbled, then put away his notepad and clipped his pen back in his pocket.

  “You guys aren’t gonna take me in, are you?” Raymond asked.

  “Maybe, just to make a statement. Recorded, signed, that kind of thing. To make it official.” See if there are any contradictions.

  “You mean I’m gonna have to tell my story again?” Raymond asked.

  “No doubt about it.”

  “You mind if I borrow your notes?”

  Beam smiled. Raymond was tuned in, all right.

  So simple, the Justice Killer thought, sitting in the back of the cab speeding through the neon and sodium-lit night. He’d simply waited for the inevitable food delivery from the Chinese restaurant, and made his way to Knee High’s apartment just ahead of the deliveryman. Knee High, hungry for his supper but not his death, had eagerly opened the door and received death.

  Justice.

  It had gone precisely as planned. The police profiler, who kept telling lies about him on TV and in the newspapers, was proved wrong again. Justice wasn’t coming unraveled. He wasn’t increasing
ly burdened by the deaths he’d caused—the executions. Why should he be? He was simply setting right what the city let go so very wrong.

  Those who’d died by his hand deserved death.

  Except for Richard Simms. Cold Cat. Pathetic sociopath who thought he had talent.

  Who didn’t deserve to die young.

  Damn it! The crime is in the intent! And the intent remains pure.

  It’s Beam and his fellow hunters who are coming unraveled, not me. Surely public opinion must be convincing them they’re wrong and I’m right. Look at the polls. They have only to look at the polls. The people want the city to be a place of peace and order and justice. Justice. The people—The cab struck a series of jolting potholes and for a moment was airborne, landing with a thud that caused the driver’s sun visor to flip down and jarred the Justice Killer’s teeth.

  He’d bitten his tongue and almost slid off the worn-smooth back seat.

  Christ! Whoever’s responsible for patching these potholes deserves to be shot!

  62

  Beam noticed movement down the hall and saw three figures approaching. Nell, Looper, da Vinci.

  “I caught these two hard at work,” da Vinci said.

  When they’d arrived at Knee High’s address, Beam had instructed Nell and Looper to talk to the doorman or any of the other cops stationed in or around the building, and find out if they saw anything suspicious in the time frame of the shooting.

  “We came up together in the elevator,” da Vinci explained. Beam figured Knee High’s death had to have hit him hard. And he wouldn’t be feeling kindly toward Beam, who’d talked him into using Knee High as “the cheese.” He looked quietly angry, and frustrated. His usual smooth, tanned complexion was mottled and flushed.

  Nell started to speak, but da Vinci held up a hand to quiet her.

  “I wanna take a look at this debacle before I hear more about it,” he said.

  He walked to the door, careful to avoid the spilled egg foo yung, and looked down at the body, then peered into the apartment where the crime scene unit was working.