Deadline for Lenny Stern Peter Marabell (best ereader for comics .TXT) 📖

glaring at each of us. “How’s that going?”

There was no good answer to that question, so I said, “What happened to Kate?”

“No, no,” Fleener said. “You first, Russo. From the top.”

I reprised the basics of our assignment, starting with the email threats and Charles Bigelow. I knew Fleener well enough. He’d interrupt if he had a question or thought I’d left something out, intentionally or otherwise.

“You have anything to add?” Fleener said to Henri.

Henri shook his head, slowly.

“So what happened?” I said.

“One shot, back of the head. Small caliber, probably a .22, but we’ll wait for the report.”

“Assassinated?” I said. “A book editor?”

“I assume it’s tied to the Stern threats.”

“I would, too,” I said. “But she just arrived, so who would know she was here?”

“And that she was connected to Lenny and Gloucester Publishing.”

“Someone’s watching Stern,” Fleener said. “In walks Kate Hubbell.”

“Then you have to wonder, why kill her and not Lenny?”

“Who found her?” Henri said.

“Sheriff’s deputies. Routine patrol, called it in.”

“Then you got a call,” I said.

“Usually the way it happens.”

“Where was she found?” Henri said.

“West Conway Road. Behind a small warehouse.” The area was a small industrial park just off US 31, north of town.

“Was she killed at the warehouse?” I said.

“Too early to tell,” Fleener said. “But we didn’t find a car at the scene.”

“Somebody took her off the street?” I said. “After she and Tina Lawson split up?”

“Apparently,” Fleener said. “Lawson left her at her car and walked back to the Perry. We checked, found the car parked at a meter on Lake Street. Had it towed in. We’ll look it over.”

“Okay if we talk to the others?”

Fleener nodded. “Be my guest.”

“Was Tina Lawson the last one to see Kate alive?”

“As far as we know right now,” Fleener said. “We’re still working the area.”

“Not much to go on.”

“One more thing,” Fleener said.

“What?”

“A four-foot length of line was tied around her neck.”

“Strangled?” Henri said.

“That’s just it,” Fleener said. “No marks. It was tied loosely.”

“If a bullet did the job, why the rope?” Henri said.

“Wouldn’t be the first time the mob sent a message,” I said.

“Yeah, but what’s the message here?” Fleener said.

“The eyes see, the mouth talks,” I said.

“That might fit if she was actually strangled,” Fleener said.

I shook my head. “Makes no sense, Marty.”

“Got to be a connection,” Henri said. “Has to mean something, or why bother?”

“Could be the killer’s trying to throw us off,” I said.

“The mob’s an in-your-face bunch,” Fleener said. “It doesn’t waste time on clever.”

“Yeah, I get that. But Henri’s right, Marty, it has to mean something.”

“We’ll have to think on it,” Fleener said. “I’ll put it in the system, see if it hits a match.”

“Anything with the rope?” Henri said.

“It’s a section of line, like they use on boats.”

“Could have come from a dozen places around here.”

“We’ll check anyway,” Fleener said.

“Any suspects?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Fleener said. “We’ll start with the threats to Stern. So who do you think’s been threatening northern Michigan’s favorite reporter?”

“You know about his book?”

“I do now,” Fleener said.

“Chicago, murder, and the mob,” I said. “The Baldini crime family’s in the middle of the action. And we know who runs the family.”

Fleener took in some air and let it out slowly. “Guess we start with Joey DeMio.”

“He’d be my first choice,” I said.

Fleener looked at his phone, swiped the screen.

“Have to get back to the office. What’s the next stop on the book tour?”

“Harbor Springs, two days,” I said.

“Okay,” Fleener said. “Anything else?”

I shook my head.

“You’ll give me a heads up, you think of anything, right?” Fleener said.

“You’ll be the first to know,” I said as the captain left the conference room.

“You held out on a couple of details,” Henri said.

“That bother you?”

“Of course not,” Henri said. “I figured you had your reasons.”

“What would we have told him? Some teenager with a tattoo tried to scare us? He’d laugh. Let’s find something solid before we take it to Fleener.”

16

“What’s next?” Henri said.

“Lenny and Tina. Let’s talk to them first.”

We returned to Maury’s office. He sat at the small conference table with Lenny. No Bigelow, no AJ, no Tina.

“Where’re the others?” I said.

“Charles went to pack,” Maury said. “Tina and AJ went out front.”

“You taking Bigelow to the airport?”

Maury shook his head. “Two of our people will do it in the company van.”

I glanced at Lenny, who seemed to be staring off somewhere.

“You okay, Lenny?” I said.

He shrugged, but his face looked tired and drawn. Absent was the mischievous grin of the street-hardened veteran crime reporter.

“I want to catch Tina and AJ,” I said. “Stay here ‘til we get back, Lenny. Okay?”

“No argument from me.”

We found Tina alone out front of the building. She sat on the steps in the sun, her knees pulled up, tissues clutched in her hand. Henri and I sat down with her.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” Tina said. “AJ went home to get dressed for work.”

“Feel like talking?”

“I’ve been talking since the cops woke me up this morning.”

“I know. Just a few more minutes.”

“Sure.” She sounded too tired to argue.

“You and Kate walked off last night …”

Tina nodded. “City Park Grill.”

“Tell me about it,” I said.

“There’s not much to tell,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “We sat down, drank some wine … Kate only had one glass, she had to drive to her sister’s …”

Tina froze for a moment. “Oh, my god. Her sister. I should tell her.”

“The police will do that, Tina,” I said.

“But I …”

“The police have done this before, Tina. It’ll be all right.”

She stared across the street, like she’d spotted something interesting.

“They won’t forget?”

“They won’t forget. It’s part of their job.”

“Lousy job.”

“Some days, yeah,” I said.

“I guess that’ll be okay.”

“Do you know Kate’s sister?”

“We only met once, but I still think …”

“You can call her later if you want.”

Two uniformed officers left the building, walked to a patrol SUV and drove off. The three of us watched them intently, as if witnessing something quite important.

“Tina,” Henri said, “did anything odd or strange happen at the restaurant?”

“Like what?”

“Anything. Anyone hit on you?