Glenn Cooper - Library of the Dead

He read the room like a manuscript-red splatter all over the paint, teeth scattered on the carpet like popcorn from a messy party-and he concluded that the sofa was where the man had died but not where the attack had begun. The victim had been standing near the door when the first strike landed, an upwardly arcing swing that glanced off his skull and splashed blood onto the ceiling. He had been struck again and again as he reeled and spun around the room, unsuccessfully fending off a hail of blows from a blunt instrument. He had not gone easily, this one. Will tried to interpret the eyes. He had seen that wide-eyed stare countless times. What was the final emotion? Fear? Anger? Resignation?

Nancy was drawn to another detail in the diorama. "You see that?" she asked. "On the desk. I think it's the postcard."

The Commanding Officer of the precinct was a young turk, a spit-and-polish captain named Brian Murphy. His athletic chest proudly bulged under his crisply-ironed blue shirt as he introduced himself. This was a career-altering collar for him, and the deceased, one John William Pepperdine, surely would have been irritated at how much ebullience his passing had engendered in this policeman.

On their drive over, he and Nancy had fretted about the 45th Precinct trampling another crime scene but they needn't have, because Murphy had taken personal charge of this one. Fat, sloppy Detective Chapman was nowhere to be seen. He complimented the captain on his forensic awareness and it had the same effect as stroking a mutt while cooing "good dog." Murphy was now his friend for life and he giddily briefed them how his officers, responding to a neighbor's 911 about shouts and screams, had discovered the body and the postcard and how one of his sergeants had spotted the blood-soaked perpetrator, Luis Camacho, wedged behind the oil tank in the basement. The guy wanted to confess on the spot and Murphy had the good sense to videotape him waiving his Miranda rights and giving his statement in a dull monotone. As Murphy disdainfully put it, it was a fruit-on-fruit crime.

Will listened calmly but Nancy was impatient. "Did he confess to the others, the other murders?"

"To be honest with you, I didn't go there," Murphy said. "I left that for you guys. You want to see him?"

"As soon as we can," he said.

"Follow me."

Will smiled. "He's still here?" Instant gratification.

"I wanted to make it easy for you. You didn't want to go hauling around the Bronx, did you?"

"Captain Murphy, you are a fucking all-star," he said.

"Feel free to share your opinion with the Commissioner," Murphy suggested.

The first thing he noticed about Luis Camacho was that he was a dead-match of their physical composite: dark-skinned, average height, slight build, around 160 pounds. He could tell from the stiffening of her lips that Nancy pegged him too. He was sitting at the kitchen table, hands cuffed behind his back, tremulous, his jeans and swooshed Just Do It T-shirt starched with dry blood. Oh, he did it, all right, he thought. Look at this guy, wearing another man's blood like something out of a tribal ritual.

The kitchen was tidy and cutesy, a collection of whimsical cookie jars, pasta shapes in acrylic tubes, place mats with hot-air balloons, a baker's rack stacked with floral china. Very domesticated, very gay, Will thought. He loomed over Luis until the man reluctantly locked eyes.

"Mr. Camacho, my name is Special Agent Piper and this is Special Agent Lipinski. We're with the FBI and we need to ask you some questions."

"I already told the cops what I did," Luis said just above a whisper.

Will was redoubtable in interrogation. He used his tough-guy size to threaten then counterbalanced it with a soothing tone and gentle Southern drawl. The subject was never completely sure what he was up against and Will used that as a weapon. "We appreciate that. It's definitely going to make things easier for you. We just want to broaden the investigation."

"You mean the postcard John got? Is that what you mean by broaden?"

"That's right, we're interested in the postcard."

Luis shook his head mournfully and tears started streaming. "What's going to happen to me?"

Will asked one of the cops flanking Luis to wipe his face with a tissue.

"Ultimately, that'll be up to a jury, but if you keep on cooperating with the investigation, I believe that's going to have a positive impact on the way things play out. I know you already talked to these officers but I'd appreciate it if you'd start off by telling us about your relationship with Mr. Pepperdine and then tell us what happened here today."

He let him talk freely, tweaking the direction from time to time while Nancy took her usual notes. They had met in 2005 in a bar. Not a gay bar but they had found each other efficiently enough and they had started dating, the temperamental Puerto Rican flight attendant from Queens and the emotionally-blocked Episcopalian bookstore owner from City Island. John Pepperdine had inherited this comfortable green house from his parents and he had let a succession of boyfriends move in with him over the years. With his 40th birthday in the rearview mirror, John had told friends that Luis was his last great love, and he had been correct.

Their relationship had been tempestuous, infidelity an ongoing theme. John had demanded monogamy, Luis was incapable. John regularly accused him of cheating but Luis's job, with its constant travel to Vegas, carried a certain carte blanche. Luis had flown home the evening before but rather than return to City Island, he went to Manhattan with a businessman he had met on the flight who bought him an expensive meal and took him home to Sutton Place. Luis had crawled into John's bed at four A.M. and didn't awake until one that afternoon. Hung over, he had shakily descended the stairs to make a pot of coffee, expecting to have the house to himself.

Instead, John had stayed home from work and had camped out in the living room, an emotional wreck, almost incoherent and sobbing with anxiety, his hair uncombed, his complexion pasty. Where had Luis been? Who had he been with? Why hadn't he picked up his urgent phone and text messages? Why, of all days, had he abandoned him yesterday? Luis shrugged the tirade off, wanting to know what the big deal was. Couldn't a guy go out after work and have a couple of drinks with friends? It was beyond pathetic. You think I'm pathetic, John had shouted. Look at this you son of a bitch! He had run off to the kitchen and had come back with a postcard pinched between his fingers. It's a Doomsday postcard, asshole, with my name on it and today's date!

Luis had looked at it and had told him it was probably a sick joke. Maybe the idiot clerk John had recently fired was getting back at him. And anyway, had John called the police? He hadn't. He was too frightened. They had argued back and forth for a while until Luis's cell phone had gone off on the hall table with its campy "Oops I Did it Again" ring tone. John had leaped for it and had cried out, Who the fuck is Phil? Answer, truth be told, it was the guy from Sutton Place, but Luis had dodged the truth unconvincingly.

John's emotions had red-lined and, according to Luis, the normally mild-mannered fellow had lost it, grabbing the aluminum softball bat that he had abandoned by the front door a decade earlier after tearing an Achilles tendon in an adult-league game in Pelham. John had wielded it like a lance, pushing the end into Luis's shoulders, screaming obscenities. Luis had screamed back at him to put it down but the jabbing continued, inflaming Luis beyond his ability to control what would happen next when somehow the bat wound up in his hands and the room began to get painted with blood.

Will listened with rising discomfort because the confession had the ring of authenticity. Still, he didn't bring papal infallibility to the table. He'd been duped before, and God willing, he was being duped now. He didn't wait for Luis to stop crying before aggressively and suddenly asking, "Did you kill David Swisher?"