Hire a Hangman
Authors: Collin Wilcox
A Lt. Hastings Mystery
Collin Wilcox
To Pete and Carolyn,
my old friends
Monday, September 10
9:45
PM
H
ANCHETT TURNED TO HIS
right side, glanced at the bedside clock. By ten-thirty he should be home. But first he must kiss her, stroke her, partially arouse her. Promises made, promises to keep. Then he could leave her bed. Ten minutes to shower and dress. Bringing him to ten o’clock. Another ten minutes, fifteen, perhaps, to kiss her again, stroke her again, keep the flame burning low. Then the drive home: fifteen minutes, portal-to-portal, her place to his.
If Barbara didn’t awaken, he could be asleep by eleven. Seven hours to restore the body, let the heart rest, let the organs relax. Then a new day would begin. Tomorrow, Tuesday, September eleventh. The struggle would begin anew: life, struggling against the inevitability of death, his stock-in-trade.
The struggle that made men rich.
As the hours of September eleventh passed, the sexual pulse, already waxing, would begin to throb: that beat, growing stronger—and stronger. Until he returned here, to her bed. Lying beside her. Beginning. Once more, beginning. He and Carla. Burning bright.
He knew that now, just now, she would speak. It was predictable. After three months together, it was predictable.
It was also predictable that when she spoke it would be preemptive—the predictable, preempting the predictable:
“I know,” she said. “You’re running late.”
“Ah …”He turned toward her, smiled. “You noticed.”
“I like a man who takes his domestic responsibilities seriously.”
“Is that a fact?” He touched her stomach, just above the navel. Her stomach was wonderfully taut. The tennis, the aerobics, the daily sessions on the stationary bike—all of it compounding to gratify his touch, determination defeating flab. Aware that he was quickening, he moved his hand lower. God, the wonder of her body. It was poetry. Pure, sweet poetry.
“I’d appreciate it,” she said, “if you wouldn’t do that. Not unless you intend to put your organ where your hand is.”
He chuckled, withdrew his hand. It wasn’t only her body. It was her élan—her don’t-give-a-damn-flair. Carla was brash. And smart. And essentially ruthless. His kind of woman.
He chuckled again, kissed her, pushed away, slid out of bed. “I do have responsibilities, you know. While you’re working on your forehand tomorrow, I’ll be at the office.”
“I’d rather work on my foreplay. And your foreplay, come to think about it. We mustn’t forget your foreplay. Must we?”
10:07
PM
It was as if she were awakening from a dream to discover the dream incarnate: this same quiet street, these trees, the street-lamp high overhead. Yes, there was his car, a tan Jaguar. To make sure, there was the personalized license plate:
BRICE H
.
“Check the license plate,” she’d rehearsed, “just to make sure. Absolutely sure.”
And, meek as a little girl, herself so long ago, she’d nodded. Yes, she would check the license plate.
Soon, she knew, he would come to her. It was promised, that he would come to her. The door of the small apartment building across the street would open, and he would begin walking toward his car. He would most certainly pass within a few feet of where she now stood, close beside a large, tall tree. The branches of the tree arched high overhead: dark, mysterious shapes against the night-blue sky. Sometimes dark shapes in the night frightened her. Witches’ wings, overspreading.
Once when she was small—much smaller, even, than she felt now—a bat had flown above her, so close she could hear the dry graveyard rustle of wings. She’d been alone that night. All alone.
But she wasn’t afraid. Even though she was alone, she was not afraid.
When they’d come to the door that night—when she’d heard the sound of footsteps outside the door, that night—she’d known she would never again be afraid.
Because after death, there was nothing more to fear.
Even the cold steel touch of the pistol did not frighten her. Always, for as long as she could remember, guns had terrified her. Even the sight of a gun had made her curl up inside, tight as a sow bug, and just as tiny.
But no more.
Instead, now, just as she’d been instructed, she gripped the pistol with her right hand and drew it from the canvas carryall bag. She’d bought the bag especially for this purpose. She’d bought it at a sporting goods store downtown. It was an expensive store. The clerk, she knew, had looked down his long, aristocratic nose at her. But she hadn’t cared. She and the sow bug, neither one of them cared.
10:16
PM
Hanchett glanced at his watch, touched the knot of his tie, touched his fly. His car was just ahead; miraculously, he’d found a parking spot hardly a hundred feet from her apartment. Would the Jag still be intact, stereo in place, hubcaps attached?
Aware that muggers preyed on drivers fumbling to unlock their doors, he took out his keys, ready. The night was warm, the sky was clear. The remembrance of the last two hours was still palpable, still incredibly immediate, flesh-to-flesh replete, sensation sated. When Carla lit the fuse, the rocket soared. Never—never—had they fizzled, he and Carla.
Was marriage on her mind? Children—conceivably children, the whole nine yards?
He could still remember the moment he’d first seen her. There’d been an art opening, a provocative show of semi-abstract landscapes, at the Mooney Gallery. Carla had been—
Ahead, only five paces ahead, a figure was stepping out from the shadow of a tree. It was the figure of a woman, unmistakably a woman, wearing a man’s clothing: slacks and a jacket and a cap. Did he know her? Was she—?
Her arm was coming up. Pale streetlamp light glinted on a metallic shape in her hand, level with his chest.
A gun. A—
Orange flame blossomed; the quiet of the night was shattered, a cataclysm of sound. Erupting. Rolling. Deafening. Finally fading.
Lost. All of it. Lost.
10:17
PM
Still naked, with her hand on the knob of the bathroom door, Carla heard the shots: one shot, a pause, then two more shots.
Shots?
Or backfires?
Had she ever heard the sound of shots, identifiable shots? Short, staccato sounds, yes; sounds of the city, of people, of cars and trucks. But had she ever—
Voices. Someone shouting. A man’s voice. What was the word? Police? Was that the word?
10:18 pm
Was this the way? In the darkness, the shapes were unfamiliar, constantly changing. Had she lost her way? Would they find her wandering, helpless? Would they—?
The gun.
She could still feel its weight, inside the canvas bag she’d bought where the sales clerk had been so rude. But it was wrong, she knew, that she still had the gun. It was a promise broken.
But where was the sewer grate? In the darkness, she’d lost that particular sewer, with that particular grate, large enough for the gun.
And where was the rapture?
Please, God, where was the rapture?
10:20
PM
“There.” Bob Miller pointed ahead. “There it is. As advertised.” As the squad car angled across the steep Russian Hill slope of Green Street to park in a driveway, Miller keyed the microphone he’d taken from its hook, called Dispatch, identified himself.
“Go ahead, Unit three-twenty-one.” It was Diane Granger’s voice. Starchy, by-the-book Diane Granger.
“We’ve got a victim down in the eleven-hundred block of Green Street, between Hyde and Leavenworth. Maybe ten onlookers. We’ll need an ambulance and another unit. Maybe two units.”
“Roger, three-twenty-one. Are you going to your hand-held?”
“That’s affirmative.”
“Channel three.”
“Channel three,” Miller acknowledged. He replaced the microphone, automatically verified that the shotgun was shackled and the keys were in his pocket, safe. As he pushed open the door, held it against the steep hill’s gravity, and levered himself out of the cruiser, uphill, he sighed heavily. Whichever it was, either homicide or aggravated assault, the same chain-of-evidence rule applied: first on the scene, last to leave. Meaning there was no way, no way at all, that he’d be relieved when his shift ended at midnight.
10:35
PM
Alone in the Homicide squad room, eight desks, seven of them unoccupied, seated at his own desk, feet propped on the open lower file drawer, Canelli felt the numbness of sleep descending. Since eight o’clock he’d been alone in the squad room, the officer in charge. Until the fifteenth of September, his turn in the rotation, he was the after-hours duty officer. The after-hours duty tours were fifteen days. So, multiply fifteen days by eight—no, by seven—and he would know when his turn would come again, the graveyard shift. And even after midnight, the duty officer was hooked up to his pager, score another point for science, the electronic revolution. The last time he’d caught the duty, three, four months ago, he’d—
When his telephone rang, he realized that his eyes had closed. Really closed. Guiltily reflexive, he looked at the glass walls that separated him from the two lieutenants’ offices as he picked up the phone.
“Homicide. Canelli.” Automatically he drew a notepad closer, clicked his ballpoint pen, checked the time.
“It’s a call from the field, Inspector.” It was a woman’s voice. Bored. Plainly bored. The two of them, bored. “It’s Patrolman Miller. North Station.”
“Oh. Yeah. Right.” He remembered Bob Miller: a big, good-natured man, a whiz at slow-pitch softball.
Or was that another Miller?
He waited for the patch-through: two clicks, a pause, then two more clicks. Finally: “This is Unit three-twenty-one.”
“Yeah. This is Canelli. Homicide. That you, Bob?”
“Hey, Joe. Yeah. You sound sleepy.”
“I know. What’ve you got?”
“I got a dead one for you, Joe. Russian Hill, eleven-hundred block. Upscale neighborhood, upscale guy, looks like. We got two units here, got the yellow tapes up, even got some witnesses for you.”
“Eleven hundred Green Street, you say?” Trying to visualize the neighborhood, Canelli frowned.
“Between Hyde and Leavenworth, that steep hill. At the top of the hill, everything’s gold-plated. Here, it’s—” Unable to find the word, Miller broke off.
“Nice, though,” Canelli offered.
“Yeah. Nice. One of the witnesses says the victim was a doctor. Big-shot doctor. She’s a friend, this witness. And she’s a beauty, too. A real beauty.”
“A doctor, huh?”
“Right. A doctor. Or so this lady says. I’m not going to go for his ID, though. I’d have to move the body to get to the wallet. But he’s got a key ring in his hand, with Jaguar keys on it. The car’s right here, at the scene. Very fancy car.”
“So what d’you think? A robbery that went wrong? Is that how it looks?”
“Like I say, I don’t know about his wallet. Maybe he’s got it, maybe he hasn’t. So about robbery, I’m not going to guess. And I haven’t really interrogated the witnesses. I wanted to call you guys first.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there. Twenty minutes, probably, by the time I call the coroner and the crew. Hang on to the witnesses, okay?”
“Yeah. Sure. Obviously.” In Miller’s voice, Canelli caught a note of faint irritation. The reason: Canelli should have assumed that Miller, the pro, would keep the witnesses at the scene. Was an apology called for? No. An apology would only make it worse—for him.
Canelli said good-bye, broke the connection, checked the time again, then sat motionless for a moment, eyeing the phone. According to departmental guidelines, he should call out the equipment, then go to the crime scene. He should secure the scene and make a preliminary examination. At that point he must decide when to call a lieutenant. If the hour was late and the homicide routine—a small-time drug dealer, or a hooker killed in the line of duty—the call could wait until morning.