John Lutz - Urge to Kill

June didn’t have a wadded tissue, but she nodded her thanks for his condolences and dabbed at her swollen eyes with a dainty knuckle. Pearl caught the flash of a gold wedding ring inlaid with tiny diamonds that might have been as phony as Quinn’s charm, but maybe not.

“Did you know my husband?” June asked Quinn and Quinn only. He’d captured her full attention. They were players in the same drama; the others might join in if they so chose.

He nodded solemnly. “Oh, yes. You know how it is, dear, I’m sure. All of us on the job are brothers and sisters.”

Siblings against crime. Pearl tried not to make a face. She caught Fedderman’s eye. He looked quickly away. He was watching, analyzing, as she was.

The deal was, Quinn was going to handle the interview. Pearl and Fedderman were to make mental notes and, when it seemed wise, occasionally add momentum to the conversation, if any momentum developed. The object was to keep the talk flowing so at some point the tongue might get a little ahead of the brain. A prodding now and then from the sidelines could be very effective, as long as the subject of the questioning didn’t realize he or she was being ganged up on.

“During the days leading up to his passing,” Quinn said, “did your husband behave in any way unusual?”

June’s tilted, tear-brimmed eyes suddenly appeared suspicious. Was this about screwing her out of Joe’s death benefit?

“I mean,” Quinn said, seeing the signs, “did he seem on guard, as if someone might be posing some kind of danger?”

“He’d been retired almost five years. After that much time, who’d be looking to get even for something he did on the job?”

“Somebody who’d been in prison five years,” Fedderman suggested.

June thought and nodded. “I hadn’t considered that.”

“We’re checking his old closed case files for just that kind of thing,” Quinn said. “The work we do, the time we put in to keep this city safe…with a good cop like your husband, the years collect all sorts of things, including enemies.”

“He put away a lot of bad types,” Pearl said. “Unfortunately, not for life.”

“Those people,” June said, sniffling, “the ones he helped put away…Joe said they talk big sometimes, but they usually cool off during their time in prison.”

“That’s usually true,” Quinn said. “And usually ex-cons don’t shoot and kill ex-cops.”

“Usually not,” Fedderman said. “But sometimes.”

“It could happen,” Quinn said with a trace of reluctance, as if he really wished he could agree with June but had to acknowledge Fedderman’s point.

June shrugged one bony shoulder and dabbed at her moist right eye with the back of a knuckle. “Joe didn’t seem afraid. But then, he was never afraid of much.”

“Isn’t that the truth, dear,” Quinn said. He made a fist with his right hand and ground it into his left. “A fine man like your husband. A good and true cop. And then some worthless piece of-” He caught himself and forced a smile. “I’m sorry. It’s just that all of us here, we bleed for a lost brother as you do for your lost husband. Your love.” He crossed his arms and stood there like a compassionate figure climbed down from Mount Rushmore. “It’s a fact there are all kinds of love. It’s not too strong a word to use for the way many of us felt and still feel about Joe Galin. Your husband will be missed by a lot of people. Missed in all sorts of ways and for all sorts of reasons. The world is the worse for his leaving it.”

June lowered her chin to her chest and began to sob.

Quinn went to her and gently patted her shoulder. “There, there, dear, I shouldn’t have made you cry. But we so much want to find out what happened. If there’s anything you could tell us…”

“Everything seemed normal,” June insisted. “Joe was happy enough, even planning an elk-hunting trip with his buddies. They were going to drive up to Canada when the weather changed and elk were in season.”

“Sounds great,” Fedderman said. “You ever go with them?”

“Oh, no. It’s a men’s thing. I don’t want to shoot any animal. Shoot any living being.”

“Great to get out in the woods, though,” Fedderman said. “Nature can be beautiful.”

A slight smile glowed through the tears. “That’s certainly true.”

“I suppose you and your husband enjoyed nature together,” Pearl said.

June seemed not to have heard her.

“If you can remember anything at all,” Quinn urged, dragging June from the sylvan setting of her imagination and back to her agony.

Her body shook in another spasm of sobbing. Her nose began to drip uncontrollably.

Fedderman went to where a Kleenex box sat near a cream-colored phone on a table and pulled several of the blossoming tissues from their slot. He presented the bulky and stemless white bouquet to the widow. June accepted it and began dabbing at her eyes and nose.

“Thanks so much,” the widow told him, glancing up with reddened and grateful cat’s eyes.

“Something like what happened to your husband,” Fedderman said, “reminds us that we’re all in this together.” There was a catch in his voice.

Pearl observed all this and felt a stab of pride. These guys are good. And I’m part of the team. Just then, the idea of standing around in her gray uniform, hour after hour, in a walnut and marbled quiet bank lobby wasn’t so appealing.

“He didn’t seem exactly afraid,” June muttered into the Kleenex between sniffles.

“Pardon me, dear?” Quinn sounded casual, even distracted, as if he might have misheard a remark about the weather.

“Not what I’d describe as afraid,” June said, more clearly.

Quinn nodded his understanding. “But he must have felt something at least somewhat out of the ordinary. At least sometimes, or you wouldn’t have brought it up.”

“Yes,” she admitted. “But-”

“What, then?” he asked gently.

“I don’t know…” She sobbed some more, dabbed at her nose and eyes some more.

“Did he seem uneasy?” Quinn asked.

“No, not exactly.”

“Anxious?” Fedderman suggested. “Did your husband seem anxious?”

The widow looked at him. “Well, yes…I suppose you could describe it that way. But ‘uneasy’ is more like it. Sometimes on a case he used to get like that.”

There was something here. They could all sense it. Sitting there in Joe Galin’s Barcalounger, Pearl was wondering how a guy like Galin would act if he were involved with another woman, having a hot affair. He might act suspiciously around his wife, even a guy his age, with his experience and the elbows and who knew what else he’d rubbed over the years. Retired narc in love. And secretly loving the danger. Missing the danger.

“Anxious how?” Fedderman asked.

“I didn’t say-“

“Elated?” Pearl asked.

The widow’s head snapped around. She’d known what Pearl was thinking, and had to admit she might be right.

“Elated,” she said in a hoarse whisper. She’d almost strangled on the word. Then she made a face as if she didn’t like its taste and was considering spitting it out. Instead, she swallowed.

Quinn moved closer and gently patted her shoulder. “It’s all right, dear. You’re with friends.”

She gazed up at him with moist, surgically widened eyes. “If Joe was elated, it was about something he didn’t share with me.”

Pearl stared at her, feeling a strange pang of pity.

It isn’t okay yet to hate your husband. Not with him so recently passed from this world of the living and still a resident of the morgue. It isn’t allowed.

“Nervous,” June said. She’d found a word, a concept, she could handle. “Yes, I suppose that’s the best way to put it. The last week or so before his…his death, Joe seemed nervous. Not afraid, but nervous.”