Read Online Muller, Marcia - [McCone 05] Leave a Message for Willie [v1.0] (htm) - Free Book Online Page A

to find a connection between
your business and Levin."
    "I can stand up to it. I have before, without falling apart."
    There were voices in the hall near the door to the garage, and the
cop went back there. In a few seconds he reappeared, Hank Zahn close
behind him. I'd made Willie phone Hank after he'd called the police.
In addition to being the fence's lawyer, Hank was mine, and I felt
more comfortable having him there.
    Hank's eyes, behind his thick horn-rimmed glasses, were t filled
with concern, but a flicker of amusement crossed his , face. "Well,
you're a hangdog pair if I ever saw one." He came over and sat
down on the coffee table in front of us, his lanky form blocking the
cop's view. "What happened?"
    Briefly I explained about Levin, our planned meeting with him, and
our discovery when we'd returned here. Hank looked around the room,
then said to Willie, "You have any idea what he might have been
looking for?"
    "It's pretty obvious, isn't it? Those Torahs."
    Hank nodded, but I said, "Sometimes the obvious can fool
you." They both watched me as I got up and went over to one of
the end-table drawers that had been dumped on the floor. "Hank,
how big is a Torah?"
    Hank, who had been bar mitzvahed at thirteen, held up his hands
about a yard apart. "Like this."
    The drawer was a small one, around a foot square. "Levin
would know a Torah couldn't fit in here. Or in the bedside table
drawers that were ransacked upstairs. Or even in that woodbox."
    "So what else could he have been looking for?" Hank
said.
    "Or
who
else could have been looking? It doesn't
have to have been Levin, you know. His killer might—"
    Again there were voices in the hall. I turned to the door and
stifled a groan when I saw who was standing there.
    The Homicide inspector's name was Leo McFate. I knew him slightly
because I'd been seeing a lieutenant on that detail when McFate had
been transferred from General Works. Earlier tonight I had been
afraid my old boyfriend, Greg Marcus, would be the one to be called
to the scene—a confrontation that would have been sticky at
best. McFate's appearance, however, was ultimately worse.
    Between Greg and me there would have been the professional clash
between a cop and a private operator, as well as the more basic one
between former lovers. With McFate, it would be less a conflict than
a complete failure to relate. We just didn't talk, act, or think on
the same plane.
    Most women would have been delighted at the sight of McFate. He
had a tall, muscular body; thick dark brown hair with that
distinguished touch of gray at the temples; a luxuriant, well-trimmed
mustache; a movie star's cleft chin. He dressed impeccably in
designer suits—tonight a three-piece blue pinstripe—and
he did all the status things, like going to the symphony and opera
and openings at the art museums. Most women would have taken one look
at him and seen a real prize.
    During our brief acquaintance, however, I'd taken more than one
look at Leo McFate. What I saw was a man who worked too hard at
getting his name in the gossip columns, a man who did the status
things because they were considered 'in,' not because he enjoyed
them. McFate was rumored to be a ladies' man, and his name had been
linked with some of the city's most eligible women. But when he
talked with the less eligible women—like me—his eyes took
on a cool politeness that masked the fact he wasn't really listening.
I'd long sensed that, underneath, McFate harbored a deep-seated
dislike of women in general and, in fact, was a little afraid of
them.
    Now he surveyed the room with a faint look of distaste, then
nodded to Hank and me. "Counselor. Ms. McCone." His glance
flicked to Willie, then back to me. "I presume this is Mr.
Whelan, the owner of the house?"
    "You got it," Willie muttered. I was somewhat surprised
at his surly reaction, but chalked it up to an instant and
well-placed dislike of the inspector.
    McFate frowned. "Which one of you found the body?"
    I said, "I