Part 7 (2/2)
”Of course.”
”Run it?”
”Duh.”
”So who is he?”
”Charles B. Wayne.”
”Doctor Charles B. Wayne?”
”The same.”
”No s.h.i.+t?”
”No s.h.i.+t.”
I thanked him and got up to go.
”Mulligan?”
”Um?”
”If the good doctor is a chicken hawk, do me a favor?”
”What?”
”Bury the sonuvab.i.t.c.h.”
11.
The most interesting thing about Mary and Joseph Mendoza was that they had eight children and had named the three girls Mary and the five boys Joseph. I wondered how Joseph Sr. would manage now that his wife, just thirty-seven, had died from what the undertaker described as ”a short illness.”
I had two obits to go when Jimmy Cagney screamed, ”You'll never take me alive, copper!” The line from his 1931 cla.s.sic, Public Enemy, was my ringtone for incoming from law enforcement sources.
”Mulligan.”
”Steve Parisi.”
”Afternoon, Captain.”
”Thought you'd like to know Vanessa Maniella and her mother came home Tuesday.”
”Three days ago?”
”That's right.”
”Guess you've been a little busy,” I said.
”Be grateful I called at all, smart-a.s.s.”
”They ID the body?”
Five seconds ticked off. Maybe six. ”No, they did not.”
”It's not him?”
”We still don't know.”
”What? Okay. Start from the beginning and tell me the whole story.”
”You're joking, right?”
”Hey, you called me, remember? What can you tell me?”
Five seconds again. ”Just that they're home. When I drove up to their place on the lake again Tuesday night, they were pulling a couple of big suitcases out of the Lexus.”
”Where'd they been?”
”They declined to say.”
”Did they say anything?”
”I asked when did they last speak to Sal.”
”And?”
”Vanessa informed me that she and her mother had nothing to say to the police and referred me to her attorney.”
”Why would she act like that?”
”Been asking myself the same question.”
”Makes you wonder if maybe she had him killed, doesn't it?”
That five-second delay again. ”The thought crossed my mind.”
”Got tired of waiting for the old man to turn the rest of the business over to her, did she?”
”I wouldn't want to speculate.”
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