Cockeyed

“Hu

“Impulsive.” He laughed. “Well, he’s an effeminate gay.

They’re a mystery to me. So, who knows? Are the Brienings also homosexuals?”

“Not that I know of.”

“My supervisor’s daughter is a dyke. She’s hot, too. Two women. It’s a turn-on. I saw her with her girlfriend and I thought, 100 Richard Stevenson

Jesus, I wouldn’t mind watching those two going at it. Or even getting in there. I wonder if my wife wouldn’t consider that cheating.”

“You could ask her.”

Sanders followed Hu

“There are still guys in the department who badmouth gays.

But not so much as before. You never know who you might be talking to.”

“No. For heterosexual America, it’s a minefield.”

After a moment, Sanders said, “For example, I heard you were gay. So there you are. I wouldn’t have suspected.”

“No, I don’t wear my bumper sticker on my forehead. But I do drive around with it on my car.”

“Gays like Mr. Van Horn make a lot of people uncomfortable.”

“This is true.”

“If it wasn’t for fruity guys like that, gay people would have an easier time. People get turned off, is what happens.”

I said, “Ever hear of Stonewall?”

“Sure. The gays in the city revolted against the cops. Back in the sixties.”

“Hu

“Vidal the hairdresser?”

“No, he might have been there.”

We were on Western Avenue now, Hu

Sanders parked within sight of the rear of the restaurant, and we CoCkeyed 101

watched Hu

“Ours.”

Hu

Then he lifted the heavy plastic top with one hand and held it open while he heaved the travel bag over the lip and into the receptacle. He let the lid fall back, glanced around, and walked back to his vehicle. No one in the area seemed to notice Hu

Hu

Sanders said to me, “We’ve got three teams of two monitoring the Dumpster. Now we wait for word from Sergeant Nechemias that the kidnappers have released Mrs. Van Horn and phoned the house with the drop-off information. But they’ll pick up the ransom first, and we’ll be told when that happens.”

We were nearly all the way back to Hu

“Okay.”

“The bag has been picked up,” Sanders told me. “By a man and a woman in an old Buick LeSabre. We’re on them.”

Back at the house, Hu

“No call yet?” Sanders asked Nechemias.

“Nothing. Just a few calls from media.”

Hu

At eight o’clock, no call had been received from the 102 Richard Stevenson

kidnappers. Sanders learned that the old Buick had been followed back to Elton Steckenfinger’s second-floor apartment in a rundown section of Watervliet, and the man and woman who had taken the ransom bag had disappeared inside.

Hu

Sanders talked to somebody on his phone just after eight fifteen, and a decision was made to confront and arrest the two people who had picked up Hu

Twenty minutes later, Sanders received a call. He listened and said, “Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Sure. That’s all you can do. Okay.”

Sanders rang off and said to Hu

The Steckenfingers are a couple of crystal meth freaks who tried to exploit your situation. Everyone is extremely disappointed. As I’m sure you must be. At least we got the twenty K back.”

Hu

Sanders had no answer for that.

ChAPteR fouRteen

Bill O’Malley rarely left his New York City studio, but he had been driven up to Albany for what the promos on Focks News were calling a special investigation into “bombshell developments at the New York State Lottery.” O’Malley had bumped Geraldo Rivera from his Sunday-night-at-ten spot so that he could score a scoop with his expose of “moral corruption involving underaged drinking, deviant sexuality, and impersonating a socialite” at the home of Huntington Van Horn, “the homosexual celebrity lottery billionaire.”

Hu

While Rita Van Horn was not a missing child, Hu

I had driven over to the house on Crow Street to pick up some clothes and toiletries so that I could spend the night at Hu

Timmy said, “Poor Hu

“Sobering? Not exactly that, no.”

“Oh?”

“I advised him against doing the O’Malley show. He’d had more than a few shots of what I think was undiluted Jack Daniels 104 Richard Stevenson

and was semi-fuddled when he left the house for Cha

Anyway, the interview is sure to be unfriendly, and these promos we’ve seen can only begin to hint at just how hostile and unfair O’Malley is bound to be. But Hu

tête with Anderson Cooper, but — media-savvy celeb that he’s become — Hu

“I have to say, I really do feel sorry for the guy. Obnoxious as he often acts, it’s apparent that Hu