Dead of Winter

by Stuart Melvin Kaminsky

  There was no choice. Stevie lumbered past the open door and into the hall.

  Behind him he could hear the cop trying to get up. The door to the apartment across from his opened. Lilly stood there looking at him.

  "I'll be all right," he said. "Go back in. Lock your door."

  "You're hurt," she said plaintively, seeing the wound in his leg.

  She began to cry.

  He glanced back at the cop who was struggling to get up.

  "No one ever cried for me before," he said.

  He smiled through the blood that covered his face and turned his teeth red.

  Stevie staggered quickly down the hall without looking back. His hand found the painted dog in his pocket. He held it tightly, but not so tightly that it would break.

  * * *

  Mac and Stella missed Stevie by no more than three minutes. They saw the drops of blood on the stairway as they climbed the stairs. They didn't know whose blood it was but they could tell that whoever had been bleeding had gone down the stairs, not up. The blood drops left a small tail in the direction from which the bleeding person had come.

  When they stood in the doorway of Stevie's apartment, Mac had his gun drawn.

  The little girl from across the hall who they had talked to earlier was kneeling next to Don Flack, who sat on the floor, wincing.

  "Rib or two broken I think," he said. "Guista can't be far. Couple of minutes ago. Shot him."

  Stella moved to Don's side as Mac turned, gun in hand, and followed the trail of blood.

  * * *

  The woman, tall, pretty, short platinum hair, probably somewhere in her mid-forties, wore a gray suit, white blouse, and a simple strand of faux pearls around her neck. She exuded class amid the smells of baking bread. The faint sound of voices wafted from the bakery down the hall and beyond the double doors.

  Danny wanted to adjust his glasses but kept from doing it. Somehow he thought the woman would pick up on the move as insecurity.

  "You want to see Mr. Marco about…?" she asked, looking at the uniformed officer behind Danny. The officer was broad, experienced, dark-skinned. His name was Tom Martin. He met the woman's eyes without blinking.

  One of the first lessons he had learned twenty-one years ago in the Academy was that when you were faced with a tough nut, don't blink. Literally, figuratively, don't blink. His instructor, a much-decorated veteran, had suggested that they watch the eyes of movie stars.

  "Charlton Heston, Charles Bronson," the instructor had said. "They don't blink. That's part of their secret. Make it part of yours."

  Martin knew where they were and why. No trouble was expected, but he had gone through seemingly innocent doors before and found himself facing semi-human or stone-cold madness. That was how he had earned the pink scar on his chin and a lot of experience.

  "Mr. Marco is busy," said the woman, who didn't introduce herself.

  "I just want to look in the bakery and ask a few questions," Danny said.

  "I can answer your questions," she said.

  "Is Steven Guista here?"

  "He has today and tomorrow off," she said. "His birthday. Mr. Marco remembers the birthdays of those loyal to him."

  Danny nodded.

  "Is his truck here?" asked Danny.

  "No," she said. "Mr. Marco let him use it for transportation for his birthday."

  "A truck?" asked Danny.

  "A small delivery truck," she said.

  "I'd like to see the bakery and Mr. Marco now," Danny said. "I could come back with a warrant."

  "I'm sorry, but…" she began.

  "You sell your bread?"

  "That's what we're in business to do," she said.

  "I'd like to buy a fresh loaf," Danny said.

  She turned her head slightly trying to decide if he was trying to be funny.

  "What kind?" she asked.

  "Whatever kind Guista delivers," Danny said.

  "We have eight different kinds of bread," she said.

  "One of each," said Danny. "I'll pay retail."

  "Wait here," she said and moved quickly down the corridor toward the bakery doors, her flat heels clicking on the well-worn tile.

  The office door was to the left of the two men. Dario Marco's name was on it in gold letters. Danny looked at Martin, who nodded and opened the door. The two men walked in and found themselves in a small wood-paneled reception area/office. On the desk was a name plate: Helen Grandfield.

  Behind the desk was a door. From behind the door came the voice of man. Danny and Martin moved to the door. Danny knocked and went in without waiting for a reply.

  Dario Marco, lean, wearing slacks and a white shirt open at the collar, stood in front of his desk talking on the phone. They had interrupted his pacing. He stopped suddenly, looked at the two men, and said, "I'll call you back."

  He hung up the phone and turned to face Danny and Martin.

  "I don't remember saying 'come in,' " he said.

  He was in his early sixties, hair obviously dyed. He had probably been darkly good looking as a young man, but the weight of whatever he had done with his life wore heavily on his sagging features.

  "Sorry," said Danny.

  "What do you want?"

  "When did you last talk to your brother?" asked Danny.

  Marco looked at the beat cop, whose eyes met his. Martin won. He was better trained. Marco blinked and turned back to Danny, indicating by looking the CSI investigator up and down that he wasn't impressed.

  "Which one?" asked Marco.

  "Anthony."

  Marco shook his head.

  "Anthony's the black sheep in the family," Dario Marco said. "We don't talk. I haven't even visited him in prison."

  The look he gave Danny was a challenge. There were lots of ways to communicate with someone in prison.

  "Check his phone calls, the visitors log," said Dario.

  "We did," said Danny.

  "So what else you want?"

  "Steven Guista," said Danny.

  "He's off. His birthday. I gave him two days. Had to lay off seven bakers and cut production in half since this low carb shit started. Bread's the bad guy now. You imagine? Staff of life. Right in the Bible for Christ's sake. What do you want with Stevie? He done something?"

  "We'd like to talk to him and take a look at his delivery truck," said Danny.

  "He's driving it."

  "I know. Your secretary told us," said Danny.

  "Helen's my assistant," he said.

  The door opened and the woman came in with a large white paper bag.

  "I'm sorry," she said to Marco.

  She didn't sound sorry. Marco shrugged it off. She handed the bag to Danny.

  "If you don't mind, I'd like to go to the bakery and pick out my own bread," said Danny.

  "You think I ran out and bought bread on the street?" she asked.

  Danny shrugged and couldn't resist the urge to adjust his glasses.

  "It's okay," said Marco. "Show the gentlemen the bakery and then show them the door."

  Turning to Danny he added, "No more questions. You come back, you come with a warrant."

  Helen Grandfield turned and led the two men out the door. They followed her down the corridor and through the doors to the bakery. The smell of baking bread was strong, good and comforting.

  "Take what you like," Helen said as about a dozen bakers and bakers' assistants in white aprons and white disposable paper hats glanced at them and kept working.

  Danny collected rolls and bread in another white paper bag, then placed both bags on the floor while he scooped up flour from a table where cords of unbaked loaves sat waiting for the oven. He dropped the flour into another bag.

  "Thanks," Danny said, handing his evidence kit to Martin and picking up the two paper bags.

  Martin noticed that the CSI officer held the bags with his fingers across the top. Danny Messer was preserving Helen Grandfield's fingerprints.

  "That's it?" she asked.

 
"That's it," Danny agreed.

  He moved to the bakery door with Martin at his side. Helen Grandfield didn't follow them. On the way out, Danny automatically scanned the walls, the floor, listened, smelled. They were a few dozen feet down the corridor past Marco's office in front of another dark office door when Danny stopped and looked down. Martin followed his eyes and watched as Danny went to one knee.

  There were two dark lines about a foot long and about six inches apart. Opening his kit, Danny took photographs of the marks and then carefully took scrapings of the material of which the smudges were made.

  When he was almost finished, the bakery door at the far end of the corridor opened. Danny and Martin looked back at Helen Grandfield.

  Her eyes met Danny's across the distance. He didn't mind being the first to blink. His mind wasn't on outstaring the cat. It was about dark smudges that might, just might, from their color, touch, and smell, be heel marks.

  10

  MAC HIT THE STREET IN TIME to see the small white truck with MARCO'S BAKERY printed on the back pull out of a loading zone in front of a deli.

  He hurried, almost slipped on the ice under the layer of snow, and got to the loading zone in time to see the white truck make a wobbly right turn at the corner about a hundred feet away.

  Stella was at his side now. Neither of them were panting but the cold air bit into their lungs. They both knew that by the time they got back to their car and gave chase, Guista would be gone.

  Mac looked down at the street about where the driver's side entrance of Guista's car would have been. The splotch of blood was about the size of the top of a Pepsi can. Guista was bleeding more now. His run to the truck had made his wound worse.

  Stella had a small kit in her pocket. She knelt next to the splotch of blood, took out a swab, collected and bottled a blood sample. She did the same with a second swab and bottle and then put the samples back into the kit and her pocket.

  A few people walking by paused to watch, but only for a few seconds. It was just too damned cold.

  "Now?" Stella said, getting up, trying not to show the ache in her arms and legs.

  "We call hospitals," Mac said as a car with illegal snow chains rattled past them. "We call for a lookout on the truck."

  "He's bleeding badly, deep," Stella said, looking at the dark red blood. "He may not make it to a hospital."

  "He may not try," said Mac. "Flack?"

  "Broken ribs. Guista sat on his chest. He should be fine," said Stella. "I called an ambulance."

  "I'll go back to him," Mac said, heading back toward the apartment building. "You go back to the lab, make the calls. I…"

  Mac's phone was ringing. He took it from his pocket and pushed the talk button. Stella hurried ahead of him toward the car parked more than a block away.

  "Yes," Mac said.

  "Found the bullet in the shaft," said Aiden. "You were right."

  "I'll be in as soon as I can get there."

  "That's not all," said Aiden. "Danny's got something you'll want to hear."

  "Tell him I'm coming in," Mac said.

  * * *

  They met almost two hours later. It was close to seven. Aiden hadn't had her shower. Two bags of rolls and bread from Marco's Bakery in the Bronx sat untouched on the table.

  After taking Flack to the hospital for X rays and to have his ribs taped, Mac had picked up gyros and drinks from a nearby Greek restaurant.

  They ate slowly except for Stella, who nibbled at the crust of her pita bread.

  "Heel marks in the hall at the bakery definitely came from Collier's shoes," said Danny. "I checked. He must have been strangled at the bakery."

  Mac looked at Aiden.

  "Bullet that killed Lutnikov was a.22," she said.

  "Louisa Cormier has a.22," Mac said.

  "But it hasn't been fired," Aiden responded.

  "Maybe she has another one," said Mac. "Or she got rid of the one that had been fired and replaced it with the one we saw."

  "Covering her ass," said Stella.

  "She's a mystery writer," said Mac.

  "We should have checked the registration on the gun she showed us. Do we have enough for a warrant?" asked Aiden.

  "No," said Mac. "Did you notice Louisa Cormier's hands when we talked to her?"

  "Clean," Aiden said with a shrug.

  "Scrubbed clean," said Mac. "Her hands were red. Why?"

  Mac looked around and waited.

  "Lady Macbeth," said Danny.

  "Mystery writer," said Stella. "Residue. Gunshot residue. She's afraid we'll find it."

  Mac held up the gunshot residue information report Aiden had prepared.

  During the discharge of a firearm, gases escaping from the gun leave a residue on the shooter's hand and clothing, principally lead, barium, and antimony.

  "She can't get it all off," said Aiden.

  They all knew that samples would have to be taken from Louisa Cormier's skin and then examined in the lab for atomic absorption under a scanning electron microscope.

  "Maybe she doesn't know she can't get it all off," said Mac. "She checks the Internet and then starts scrubbing, probably burns whatever clothing she was wearing."

  "So?" asked Danny. "Can we force her to use a GSR kit on her hands?"

  "Not with the evidence we have," said Aiden, "but maybe we can worry her into making a mistake."

  "How?" asked Danny.

  "We lie to her," said Aiden. "And Mac's the best liar I know."

  "Thanks," said Mac. "First thing in the morning then. Anything new on Guista?"

  "Nothing yet," said Stella.

  "How's Don?" asked Danny.

  "Out of the hospital," said Mac. "Doctor told him to go home, gave him pain pills. He's probably in bed by now."

  Mac was wrong.

  * * *

  Don Flack, trying not to shiver, stood in front of the small house in Flushing, Queens and rang the bell. It was after nine. Night had dropped the temperature to just below zero degrees and that wasn't counting the wind chill.

  There were lights on inside the house. He rang again, trying not to breathe deeply. The doctor who taped his ribs, Dr. Singh, had told him to take one of the hydrocodine tablets and go to bed. Don had taken half his advice. He had downed one tablet before he left the hospital.

  The door opened. The warmth of the house greeted him and he found himself facing a pretty brunette teenage girl holding a book.

  "Yes?" she asked.

  "Is Mr. Taxx home?" he asked.

  "Yes," the girl said. "I'll get him. Come in."

  Flack stepped in, closing the door behind him.

  "Are you all right?" the girl asked.

  "I'm fine," he said.

  She nodded and strode away into a room on the right calling, "Dad, there's someone here to see you."

  The girl returned almost immediately to face Flack.

  The warmth of the house, the stab of pain, and the hydrocodine got to the detective. He must have swayed slightly.

  "Are you sick?" the girl asked.

  "I'm fine," he lied.

  Ed Taxx came out of the room the girl had gone into seconds earlier. He wore jeans with the cuffs rolled up and a New York Jets sweat shirt.

  "Flack," he said, "you all right?"

  "Fine, can we talk?"

  "Sure," said Taxx. "Come on in. You want some coffee, tea, a shot of something?"

  "Coffee," said Flack, following him, controlling a need to wince.

  "Could you get a cup of coffee for Detective Flack?" Taxx asked the girl.

  The girl nodded.

  "Cream, sugar, Equal?" she asked.

  "Black," said Flack as Taxx went one way and his daughter the other.

  They were in a small, clean living room. The furniture wasn't new but it was bright, flowery, clean, a woman's room. Two sofas, almost matching, sat across from each other with a low gray table between them and copies of the latest Entertainment Weekly and Smithsonian Magazine next to each other.
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br />   Taxx sat on one sofa. Flack sat across from him.

  "Cliff Collier's dead," Flack said.

  "I got a call," Taxx said, shaking his head. "Any leads on the killer?"

  "I shot the killer," said Flack straight-faced. "But he's out there someplace. He got away."

  "I didn't know Collier well," said Taxx. "Just duty those two nights. You were a friend of his?"

  "Went through the Academy together," said Flack, trying not to move, knowing it would result in a silent stab in his chest.

  The girl came back with identical yellow mugs and cork coasters in each hand. She placed the drinks down in front of the two men.

  "Thanks honey," said Taxx, smiling at his daughter.

  "I'm going back to my room," she said, "unless…"

  "Go ahead," said Taxx.

  The girl looked back once and exited slowly, probably, Don thought, hoping to pick up a bit of the conversation between her father and the unexpected visitor.

  "Wife's down the street playing bridge," said Taxx.

  They went silent, drank their coffee.

  "You in trouble?" asked Flack.

  Taxx shrugged.

  "DA's office is investigating," he said. "I'll probably get a reprimand and since I'll be retiring in about a year, I won't go back in the field again. Can't say it bothers me all that much. Someone has to take the blame for losing a star witness."

  Flack drank. The coffee was hot but not steamy hot.

  "My guess is the papers and television people will say Cliff's murder suggests that he was involved in the killing of Alberta Spanio, that he was killed to shut him up," said Don.

  "I don't believe that," said Taxx, working on his own coffee. "I didn't know him well, but I was there. He didn't have anything to do with killing her."

  "Then whoever did it thought Cliff saw something or knew something," said Flack. "Or figured something out. My best guess is Cliff was following a lead on his own and got spotted."

  "Makes sense to me," Taxx said.

  "Whoever did it may be after you next."

  Taxx nodded and said, "I've been thinking about that. I can't come up with any reason."