Ed Mcbain - Money, Money, Money

“You think somebodythrew her to those lions?” he asked Meyer.

“Be a new one, all right,” Meyer answered.

CARL BLANEY HATED EXAMINING BODIES that were in parts. If he’d wanted to become a butcher, he would not have gone to medical school. This one was particularly disgusting. All chewed over and everything. Your cases involving severed parts were usually your blunt force injuries, where a person got run over by a truck or a subway train. The other times you got a bundle of disconnected arms and legs was when somebody was trying to dispose of a murder victim, and sawed the body up into pieces and packed them in a trunk. This particular corpse, he’d been told, had been attacked by lions, of all things, you’d think this city was the African veldt.

There was not much more than the bare bones remaining of the victim’s left leg. All the tissue and muscle had been torn away, leaving the exposed femur, patella, tibia, and fibula, portions of which had been gnawed through as well. The right leg was in a similar state of obliteration, the bones cracked open, the marrow sucked out. The woman’s right breast was completely gone, her left breast consumed to almost where it joined the chest. Her right arm was still connected to the body, but the hand had been consumed, bones and all, and from the wrist up to the elbow, the tissue and muscle were gone, exposing the ulna and radius.

The heart, the liver, the pancreas, the stomach—all the tasty parts—were gone. He was examining the woman’s head and face, which had been partially consumed, the nose and ears gone, the lips gone, the eyes gone, when he noticed—

But how could that be?

He was looking at a tiny circular perforation in the skull, just above what was left of the woman’s hairline.

To the naked eye, it looked a great deal like a small-caliber pistol wound.

IT WAS TWO-THIRTY THAT SATURDAY AFTERNOON when the phone on Carella’s desk rang. He picked up the receiver.

“Carella,” he said.

“Blaney here.”

“Hey, Carl.”

“On this dead girl who got eaten by lions?” Blaney said, as if he still couldn’t quite believe it. “I’ve lifted a good thumbprint and two fingerprints. I don’t imagine you know much about her …”

“Not a thing so far.”

“Reason I’m asking … I’ve come up with something interesting.”

“What’s that, Carl?”

“I found a tiny perforation in the left temporal region of the skull. At first, it looked like a bullet wound, but upon further …”

“Looked like awhat?” Carella said.

“But it wasn’t.”

“What was it?”

“An ice-pick wound. Somebody stabbed her with an ice pick.”

He waited while Carella absorbed this.

“The tract passed into the brain as deep as the left cerebral peduncle,” he said. “Now, the reason this is interesting, such a wound will rarely cause instant death. Absent concussion of the brain, we’ve had victims surviving for as long as five days after an assault.”

“I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying, Carl.”

“I’m saying there are cases on record of victims walking long distances from the scene of the trauma. Eventually, there’ll be either subcortical or subdural hemorrhaging from the wound, with subsequent compression of the brain and resultant death. Butbefore then …”

“Before then, she could’ve walked to the park, is that it?”

“Yes. Or someone could have transferred her there from wherever the trauma occurred. In either case, I’m merely stating as a positive fact that she was stabbed first. With an ice pick.”

“When will I have those prints?” Carella asked.

“They’re on the way now,” Blaney said.

THE PRINTS REACHED CARELLA by messenger at three-seventeen that afternoon. A half-hour later, AFIS—the automated fingerprint identification system—got back to him with a hit on a United States Army lieutenant named Cassandra Jean Ridley.

3 .

THE TELEPHONE DIRECTORY gave them a listing for a C J Ridley on South Ealey Street in Silvermine. Carella and Ollie went there at once. They had phoned ahead and a pair of technicians from the Mobile Crime Unit were waiting for them downstairs. The building was a twelve-story red brick a block away from the oval. They introduced themselves to the doorman, and asked to speak to the superintendent, a man named Peter Dooley, who immediately took them up to apartment 9C and unlocked the door for them.

Carella and Ollie stayed out in the hall with Dooley while the techs got to work. The super was a tall, wide-shouldered man with a shock of black hair and piercing blue eyes. He was wearing wide-wale blue corduroy trousers and a navy blue sweater vest over a red plaid shirt. He told them the woman lived here alone, took the apartment in November, was gone for a little while, came back again early in December. He figured she was worth a little something, the fur coats and all, don’t y’know.

“When’s the last time you saw her?” Carella asked.

“She was in and out a lot the past few days,” Dooley said. “Doing her Christmas shopping, I guess. This the same case as the other one?”

Carella and Ollie looked at each other, puzzled.

“Had some detectives from the Eight-Seven here the other day,” Dooley said.

“Oh? When was that?” Ollie asked.

“The other day. Thursday.”

“What do you mean by the other case?” Carella asked.

“The break-in. We had a patrol car come by and then two detectives.”

“No, this has nothing to do with that.”

“I thought… well … Miss Ridley and all.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was her apartment got broken into. She had me change the lock on the door the very next day.”

“Let me get this straight,” Carella said.

“There was a burglary here?” Ollie said.

“On Thursday, yes, sir. I changed the lock on this door only yesterday.”

“Because the apartment was broken into?” Ollie said.

“Yep. I was outside with the doorman when your two detectives come by to investigate,” Dooley said. “One of them a redhead, the other one this short little fellow with curly black hair. Doorman called upstairs, Miss Ridley told him to send them right up.”

“Who were they, do you know?”

“Thought you might.”

Carella was already on the cell phone.

“Anybody else here for the lady in recent days?” Ollie asked.

“Not that I noticed. I’m busy in the office most of the time.”

“Bert?” Carella said. “This is Steve. Can you check with the Loot, see if Willis and Hawes responded to a burglary here on South Ealey this past Thursday?” He listened. “321,” he said. “Apartment 9C. Sure.” He turned to Ollie. “Kling. He’s checking.”

“Did you see anyone coming out of the building with Miss Ridley late last night, early this morning?” Ollie asked the super.

“I go home at six,” Dooley said. “You’re lucky you caught me.”

“Which doorman was on last night, would you know?”

“Same one as now.”

“Can you send him up, please?”

“Sure,” Dooley said, and walked off toward the elevator.

“Yeah,” Carella said into the phone. “Just what I thought. Are either of them there now? Put him on, willya?” He turned to Ollie. “Willis and Hawes were here around four Thursday,” he said. “He’s getting Willis now.”

They waited.

The apartment seemed suddenly very still.

“Hal, hi, it’s Steve,” he said. “Bert tells me you investigated a burg here at 321 South Ealey this past Thursday. Can you tell me a little about it?” He listened. “No, this is a homicide. Right. The lady got stabbed with an ice pick and thrown into the lion exhibit at the zoo. No, I’m dead serious. Can you give me the back story?” He listened. “A sable worth forty-five grand, right. And a mink stole worth six. Initials in both of them, CJR. Is that it? Okay, good, thanks a lot.” He hit the end button, flipped the lid shut, turned to Ollie. “You heard?” he said.