Slaughter

“You don’t really want to. Besides, I have a contract.”

“Then fulfill it.”

“Okay.” Qui

“Where?”

“To look at some collapsed buildings.”

“They’re still digging out the dead and wounded over there,” Renz said.

“Maybe somebody will dig out a clue.”

“Already we’ve got twenty-seven dead and sixty injured. What a hellish mess.”

“Like a war zone,” Qui

“I’m thinking more of the political side.”

Qui

As soon as they stepped outside, the heat hit them. They took Qui

For a while it seemed they were in normal New York traffic. Then, three blocks away, they began to see police barricades and detours and No Parking signs. They parked the car and went ahead on foot.

The two uniforms handling traffic and trespass problems recognized both the commissioner and Qui

When they reached the corner they looked at the blocks of damage. The desolation caused by the original bombs was more than bad enough, but the gas explosions spread fire and more gas explosions, and damage that encompassed what seemed like the entire neighborhood.

Three bulldozers were roaring and snorting, working among the debris with cautious, elephantine delicacy, and Qui

“I know it’s early on,” he said to Renz, “but has anybody come forward as a witness?”

“Only to be on TV or in the papers. Your people learn anything that might be helpful?”

“Might. Yeah. But it’s a meager might.”

Renz said, “Maybe security cameras caught something.”

“If they didn’t cook in this weather,” Qui

“So you haven’t just been sitting on your ass.”

“Nope. Did I mention, I’ve got a contract?”

“Now I’d like for you to have a clue.”

After a depressing twenty minutes, during which everyone other than Renz moved wreckage to reveal more wreckage, one of the uniforms came over and told Qui

Qui

Renz, flushed and puffed up from the heat and pervasive smell, called for his limo to pick him up.

Now that he’d delivered his message, Renz had little use for Qui

Only to reappear on the opposite side of the bomb blast area and fire damage. Maybe Renz had thought of something helpful. A clue.

Qui

Renz was helping her as much as possible. He removed his suit coat and rolled up his white shirtsleeves. He found a high spot in the debris so the photos would have a flattering upward angle. For some shots, he propped his fists on his hips and raised his chin. A portly Mussolini.

Qui

That was Renz’s talent.

48

That evening, in his office, Renz was less circumspect in talking to Qui

The conversation was so amiable that Renz gave Qui

Qui

“Now that we’re off the record we can talk,” Renz said.

Qui

Renz tilted back his head as if about to administer eye drops. He made a perfect O with his lips and blew an imperfect smoke ring.

“Are we really getting any traction in finding this Gremlin bastard?” he asked. “Something or somebody we can toss to the media wolves?”

Qui

“They won’t believe me.”

“They won’t believe you no matter what you say, so why waste the truth on them?”

Renz chewed on his cigar but didn’t take smoke into his mouth. “This Gremlin guy would be easier for us to get a line on if he was a professional. But real experts in those fields always peg him as a talented amateur. New to his work, maybe, but he knew or learned enough about killing that he manages to make the hit and then get away unseen.” Renz produced a white handkerchief as big as a surrender flag and wiped his forehead and neck with it. Watching him made Qui

“For instance, he knew how to neutralize all those elevator safety brakes in the Blenheim Building,” Renz went on. “All those floors.” He tapped ashes from his cigar into an ashtray on his desk and made a face suggesting he was nauseated. “God! All that bone sticking through flesh. And the fires! The arson guy said it took some knowledge and some jerry-rigging to bring off what this guy has done. Imagine the pla

“You would think so,” Qui

“He knew where the flammable wooden support beams and joists were,” Renz said. “How the fire would dance its way through the place. Which walls were load-bearing. Everything that’d cause the fire to feed on itself and turn buildings into ovens.”

“Fire seems to fascinate people who like gadgets.”

“Does it follow that people who like gadgets like to kill?”

Qui

“So he thinks that by abduction and torture he can learn about women?” Renz looked skeptical.

“Only some things,” Qui

“It sounds reasonable when you say it,” Renz told Qui

Qui

Qui