"It did?"

"Yes, Jerry. You have the killer. He's dead, but he would have been just as dead in a year after a trial and a batch of appeals. The state comes out a few dollars ahead and the case is closed out that much faster." I took a breath, smiled. "I know I played it cute. Maybe I was wrong. My reasons seemed good at the time."

He sighed, then punched me in the arm to show that we were still friends. I took Jill by the arm and went down the stairs behind Gunther. A police car was parked in front alongside a fire hydrant. Jerry's uniformed driver was at the wheel.

Jerry got in next to the driver and Jill and I sat in the back. The driver didn't use the siren. We drove moderately across town, then went down to Centre Street on the East Side Drive.

It took time for them to get our statements. I gave them mine as quickly as possible in a little room with Gunther and a police stenographer. I took it from the top, starting with the first phone call the day before and concluding with the arrival of the law. I left out little things like the interlude with Jill at Maddy Parson's apartment. Certain facts don't belong in a police report.

Jill took a little longer with her statement. The stenographer typed them both up and we signed them.

"You can both go now," Jerry said. "We'll be getting a report from ballistics and a run-down on Traynor pretty soon. So far everything checks out."

Jill nodded. She got to her feet and turned to me. "Are you coming, Ed?"

"I'll stick around for the ballistics report," I said. "But how about dinner?"

"Wonderful," Jill said.

Jill said goodbye to Jerry, and we watched her go. Afterward we sat for a few minutes without saying anything. Then Jerry commented on Jill's looks. He poked me in the ribs. "Hearty appet.i.te, tonight." He smiled. Then, serious again, he said, "Ed, you certainly fall into some bizarre cases."

"I guess so."

"But it all works out. Ballistics should confirm what we've already pretty well established. Jacqueline Baron was shot with a slug out of a .25 caliber automatic, probably foreign-made. The gun that finished Traynor was an Astra Firecat. It fits."

"A little gun."

"Uh-huh. Easy to hide in a pocket. No bulge under the jacket, like the cannon you're wearing." He tapped me over the heart. "No gun for deer hunting, but good enough at close range. And he got close enough to the Baron girl to leave powder burns on her forehead."

"I know," I said. "I saw them." I lit my pipe. "A peculiar gun for a man like Traynor to use. A little gun would get lost in those big mitts of his."

Jerry grinned. "Sure. Chances are he'd have bought himself a Magnum, if he had the choice to make. But when it comes to picking up an unregistered gun, you take what you can get. We had a little old lady who shot her husband with a Super Blackhawk. The recoil on that thing must have knocked her into the next room. And then a hulk like Traynor uses a little job like the Astra. Those foreign guns-the thing is you can get 'em sent to you through the mail, Ed." He frowned. "Traynor's gun did a job though. Killed the Baron girl, then killed him."

He had things to do. I went outside and walked around the corner to a lunch counter.

When I finished, I went back to Headquarters. The ballistics report had confirmed what everyone already took for granted. The same gun had killed both Jackie Baron and Ralph Traynor.

Gunther pa.s.sed me in the hallway. He said, "Go home now, Ed. We have everything we need. We'll want you and Jill Baron for the inquest in a day or two. Let her know, will you?"

TEN.

Something stank.

I spent a long time sitting at my window watching the rain come down on 83rd Street.

The packet of p.o.r.nographic pictures was still in my jacket pocket. Gunther had not wanted them. They were evidence, but with Traynor dead there would be no trial, just the formality of an inquest to tie up what loose ends remained so the file could be marked closed.

I took out the manila envelope and opened it. I spilled the black-and-white glossies into my lap. Then, one by one, I examined them again.

An odd sensation. p.o.r.nographic photos, sure to arouse the libido of any vicariously oriented lecher. But this was a special case: both subjects engaged in such lively activity were lively no more. The nubile blonde was dead, and the ma.s.sive man was dead, and neither would again have the chance to play bedroom games.

I looked at the pictures again. Three of them had similar scratches, little seemingly meaningless spots...

At a quarter after four I called Centre Street and got through to Jerry Gunther. "I was wondering about Traynor," I said. "Get anything more on him?"

"A little. Listen, it's over, Ed. And you're out of it anyway. What's your interest?"

"I've got to type up a report for my client."

He didn't argue. They had found a little more about Traynor, not a h.e.l.l of a lot but enough. He was in good shape financially, though not rich. He had been seeing a lot of Jackie Baron, and his wife knew he was playing around-but not with whom. She had been thinking of divorcing him, had even gone to a lawyer to ask what a divorce would entail. She wanted to get rid of him, but she also wanted to gouge him for every nickel she could get.

"That made him a good blackmail prospect," Jerry Gunther said. "With those pictures in her lap, Mrs. Traynor wouldn't have to take a plane to Reno. She could get a New York divorce and a nice piece of alimony. But Traynor wasn't rich enough to pay forever. He forked over money once or twice, which accounts for the dough you found in Jackie's safe-deposit box. Then she squeezed too hard and he decided to kill her instead."

"Did you check his bank account for large withdrawals?"

"Ed," he said exasperatedly, "we're not working on this case. We're closing it. Something eating you?"

"No. Just routine, Jerry."

I thanked him. He said what the h.e.l.l, call him anytime, he was just a public servant.

I took him up on it twenty minutes later, after two cups of coffee and a lot more thought. I got him on the phone and heard him growl something to somebody else; then he asked me what the h.e.l.l I wanted now.

"A favor."

"Shoot."

"Has Jackie Baron's body been released yet?"

"No."

"It's still at the morgue?"

"Yes. The sister hasn't claimed it yet, probably won't until tomorrow, I guess. Why?"

"Call the morgue for me. Tell them I have permission to look at the body."

He didn't say anything at first. Then he spoke softly. "Ed, you're onto something."

"Partly."

"You think there's something funny?"

"There could be. Make the call for me, will you?"

The little man at the morgue had thick gla.s.ses and no jaw. He was not a lovely man and he had an ugly job.

"Here we are," he said finally. "Miss Jacqueline Baron. We didn't know who she was, you know, until a few hours ago. That's dreadful, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"To be dead and unknown. I'd hate that. People should have serial numbers." He clucked his tongue. "Do you want to see the girl?"

"Yes."

He nodded, drew the sheet down as far as her neck. They had performed an autopsy. It wasn't pretty.

"All the way," I said.

He took the sheet off and we stood viewing the body like a pair of necrophiliacs in paradise. I tried not to look at the chinless man's eyes. His job might have unwritten compensations for him, and I did not want to think about them.

I looked at the body, at the legs. Smooth white skin everywhere. No scars, no blemishes. Nothing but clear flesh frozen in the gray permanence of death.

I turned away. The little man covered her with the sheet and joined me. We walked to the exit. He asked me if I had known the girl. I said I had seen her once, not mentioning that she had been dead at the time. He did not say anything more.

At 7 P.M P.M. I parked in front of the building on 58th Street. I went up the stairs for Jill Baron. She was ready, and she looked better than ever. "You're on time," she said. "Let's go, I'm starving."

We drove to a steakhouse on Third Avenue.

Afterward I said something about a club downtown where they played good jazz. She took my arm, stepped up close, and let me smell her perfume. "We don't have to go anywhere," she said.

"I thought you'd want to celebrate your deliverance from terror."

"I do." Her voice turned husky. "But we can celebrate at my place, can't we?"

I smiled. Who was I to argue with a woman?

We drove back to her apartment.

She poured drinks and we sat on the couch and imbibed them. Traces of chalk marks remained on the carpet, and a throw rug did not quite hide the stain of Traynor's blood.

"I won't be living here much longer," she said. "I may even leave New York. One thing is sure...I'm getting out of this business, Ed."

I didn't say anything.

"I can't say I hated every minute of it because I didn't. It was easy and profitable. But it does things to a girl, makes her start hating herself. Jackie wasn't a blackmailer, not at heart. The work changed her. It must have. I don't want to turn into something that would fill me with self-loathing. It's important to like yourself, Ed."

We finished our drinks. On cue we turned to each other. Her face was flushed from the drink and her lips tasted of it. She snuggled up against me and whispered sweet somethings.

The bedroom was neat and clean, the bed turned down. She moved to turn off the light. I told her to leave it on.

"You want to see me naked, Ed?" A narcissistic smile showed I had scored one hundred percent with an apt remark.

"Yes, from head to toe."

"I'm glad," she murmured. "I like that."

We kissed. She undressed slowly, sensuously. We stretched out on the bed. She lay back, her eyes closed, her arms at her sides. A nude G.o.ddess, waiting.

I touched her cheek, her shoulder. My hand moved over silken flesh. My finger touched the strawberry birthmark on the side of her thigh and she quivered beneath my touch.

The birthmark. The one that had been scratched from the negatives of the p.o.r.nographic photographs. The one that was nowhere to be seen on the body in the morgue! The one that was nowhere to be seen on the body in the morgue!

Her eyes opened and she looked at me. There was the shadow of a question on her face but she kept it back, waiting. I took my hands away from her body.

"It was a nice try, Jackie, Jackie," I said. "It almost worked."

Her mouth made an O and her eyes bugged. She was already out of her clothes. Now she jumped out of her skin.

ELEVEN.

She wasn't talking. She lay naked on the bed with beads of sweat already starting to emerge upon her forehead. Her eyes were trying to say that she didn't know what I was talking about. Their message didn't convince me.

"I've been calling you Jill," I said. "But you're not Jill. Jill's in the morgue. She's there because you put a gun to her forehead and killed her!

"You're not Jill. You're Jackie. And some of the things you told me about Jackie were true. Jackie had money worries. Jackie was a gambler and Jackie owed a lot of tabs around town. Jill had money in the bank but Jackie didn't. Jackie owed money."

I stopped for a breath. "So Jackie killed Jill," I said. "You needed money, fast. A long time ago you and Jill took out policies naming each other as beneficiaries. If Jill was eliminated, then you got the money you needed in a hurry. So you thought it all out and decided to kill your sister."

"You're insane-"

"No. You figured it all out and somewhere along the line you saw a way to do it better. It was one thing to kill Jill-then you got the money and paid your debts. But it was even neater to kill her and a.s.sume your sister's ident.i.ty. Then your debts would be written off completely. You could start fresh with no one mad at you. You could be Jill."

I looked at her coldly. "Probably Jill was a nicer girl, anyhow."

The room was quiet. I looked at her naked body and looked quickly away. Flesh in and of itself is no stimulant. She kindled no desire, not after I'd proved to myself that she had killed her own sister, and Ralph Traynor.

"There was more to it than that," I went on. "You might have had a lot of trouble figuring out a good way to kill Jill. But it became infinitely easier when you made it look as though Jackie had been murdered. Jill didn't have any reason to work a blackmail dodge. Jill had money in the bank. But you had plenty of reason to be a blackmailer, and if you made your sister look like a blackmailer n.o.body would look your way if she got herself murdered. They would just look for the person she had been blackmailing.

"You probably started to play a little blackmail at the beginning. Figured on squeezing some money out of Ralph Traynor. h.e.l.l, you're not the sentimental type. You wouldn't have put Traynor on the free list because you liked his looks. You started seeing him because you thought you could blackmail him. You had a set of blackmail pics taken and were ready to start showing them to him; but then you realized he couldn't come up with the big money you needed."

Jackie had a pack of cigarettes on the night table. I took one and lit it. "That was one thing I wondered about," I continued. "Traynor made a good living but he wasn't rich. I could see him coming up with three thousand dollars in a pinch, but I couldn't see how you figured on getting any more than that from him. But you never blackmailed him at all. You had the pictures taken, and when you saw the prints and thought about the money you needed, you got the idea of killing Jill.

"And you went right ahead with it after you put a pile of money and the pictures in your safe-deposit box. That set the stage. Jill never suspected a thing. Maybe she noticed you were a little nervous. Probably not. You're a good actress, Jackie."

She looked at me. Her face showed no expression whatsoever, as though she was waiting patiently for me to finish spouting my nonsense and to return to reality.