Drietch looked at the target. The pattern was all inside the bull's-eye. Aiden could have done almost as well if the targets were twice the distance away.
"You're good," he said with respect.
"Thanks," she said. "Have everyone stop firing and tell them to put their guns down."
"Why the-?" he began.
"Because there's a lock out there," she said. "And I'm going to go bag it as evidence."
"Everything is arranged," said Arthur Greenberg.
Mac had called him to double-check.
"Snow, rain, anything but the terrible Wrath of God will not stop us from going ahead," Greenberg continued. "Is there anyone you want notified?"
"No," Mac said.
He was waiting at the courthouse for a homicide detective named Martin Witz and an assistant DA named Ellen Carasco to come out of the chambers of Judge Meriman's office, hopefully with a warrant to search the apartment of Louisa Cormier.
"Then," said Greenberg, "we'll see you at ten tomorrow morning?"
"Yes," said Mac, looking at the solid door with the name of Judge Meriman engraved impressively on polished brass.
Greenberg hung up. So did Mac as the door to Judge Meriman's chamber opened and Ellen stepped out.
"He wants to talk to you," she said.
Carasco was deceptively lean. Mac knew that beneath her loose-fitting suit were the impressive muscles of a bodybuilder. Carasco was ranked among the top thirty female bodybuilders in the world in her division. Her face was clear, pretty, her hair dark and long. Stella had more than once suggested that Carasco would not turn him down if Mac were to ask her out to dinner. Mac had never followed up on the suggestion. He didn't plan to.
Mac followed her back into the judge's chamber where Detective Martin Witz sat heavily in a reddish-brown leather chair facing the judge behind the desk.
Meriman, nearing retirement, proud of his mane of white hair and his well-groomed signature white mustache, nodded at Mac, who nodded back.
"We've been over the evidence," said Meriman in a practiced baritone. "I want to go over it again with you before I make my decision."
Mac nodded again. Meriman held out a palm indicating that Mac should sit. He sat upright in a chair identical to the one Witz was in. Carasco stood between the two seated men.
"Victim was Charles Lutnikov," said Mac. "Lived in the same building with Louisa Cormier. They knew each other."
"How well?" asked the judge.
"From the evidence, reasonably well," said Mac.
Mac told the judge about Aiden Burn's discovery of the lock that had been used on the box that held the firing range gun, the recovery of the bullet in the elevator shaft, the typewriter ribbon and what they had found on it, the report by Kindem saying that someone other than Louisa Cormier may have written most of her novels.
"Gun been tested for a match with the bullet?" Meriman asked.
"We're doing that now," said Mac.
"Flimsy," said Meriman, folding his hands and looking up at his three visitors.
"Search warrants have been issued with less," said Carasco.
"Two pieces of information," Meriman said. "First, this is a world-famous author we are talking about, a person with resources including an attorney of high cost and great skill. Second, your evidence is largely circumstantial and without substance. Highly suggestive, I agree, but- "
Mac's cell phone vibrated insistently in his pocket. He reached for it saying, "I'm sorry, Your Honor, but this may be pertinent."
"Keep it brief," said the judge, looking at the clock on his wall, "and get off the phone if it has nothing relevant pertaining to this request for warrant."
Mac answered the phone with, "Yes."
He listened. The call lasted no more than ten seconds. He flipped the cell phone closed, pocketed it, and said, "That was CSI Investigator Burn. The lock that was cut from the box has two clear fingerprints on it, Louisa Cormier's."
"It was her gun," said the judge.
"No," said Mac. "It belonged to the range. She didn't have a key, but, according to the firing range owner, she did know where the box was."
Aiden had said something else, something Mac didn't share with the judge, although he would share it if pressed. Aiden had just told Mac that the bullet from the elevator shaft and the firing-range gun were not a match.
Why, Mac thought, had Louisa Cormier broken into Drietch's to get to a gun that was not the murder weapon? The problem, Mac concluded, was that his prime suspect was a mystery writer who knew how to make a straightforward investigation look like it was committed in the Land of Oz.
Judge Meriman swiveled his chair and looked out at the gray day threatening fresh snow. Then he swiveled back and said, "I will issue a warrant for a search of the premises of Louisa Cormier for the purpose of searching for a.22 caliber weapon for the purpose of comparison with the bullet your investigator found."
There was no way there could be a match with the weapon Louisa Cormier had shown them. Mac was certain it hadn't been fired in at least two or three days, probably much longer. The chances of there being a third.22 were very slight. If there was a third gun, the murder weapon, and he didn't rule it out, Louisa Cormier had almost certainly gotten rid of it by now. For now, however, Mac would take what he could.
"Thank you," said Mac.
"And I'll need forensic evidence that, should you find it, the weapon in question proves to have been fired. If the.22 at the firing range is not the murder weapon, you can then run gun fire tests on any.22 you find in Louisa Cormier's apartment to determine if the bullet that killed Charles Lutnikov came from that weapon."
A look of conspiratorial cooperation passed between Mac and the judge.
"If in search of the specific items indicated, you come up with further evidence that Louisa Cormier has been involved in the crime under investigation, that evidence must be discovered during a search for the gun. Is that clear?"
"Yes," said Carasco, Witz, and Taylor in chorus.
"Then it's done," said Meriman.
Meriman picked up his phone and punched a button. He told someone to come into his office.
"One more thing you should know, Your Honor," Carasco said. "We have a confession from another party."
The judge sat back with an irritated sigh.
"Detective Taylor believes the confession is false," Carasco added.
"When you have evidence that the confession is false, then I'll issue the warrant for Louisa Cormier's apartment," Meriman said. "Now leave. You've wasted enough of my time."
The three visitors left the office, hearing the click of a radio being turned on behind them.
13
"MR. MARCO HAS NOTHING TO SAY TO YOU," said Helen Grandfield when Stella and Danny entered the office with two uniformed officers behind them. "And this is private property so if you don't have a warrant- "
"This is a crime scene," said Stella.
The smell of baking bread had to be strong but Stella smelled nothing. She controlled her urge, her need to wipe her nose.
"What crime?" Helen Grandfield said, rising.
"We have evidence that strongly suggests a police officer was murdered in your corridor," said Danny.
Helen Grandfield looked at Danny and the two uniformed cops who had come in with them and then glared at Stella.
"This is bullshit," she said.
"Mrs. Contranos," Stella said.
"I use and prefer the name Grandfield," the woman said.
"Except at the door to your apartment building," said Stella. "And you were born Helen Marco. Lots of names."
Helen Grandfield tried not to glare. She failed.
"We'd like to know if any of your bakery employees didn't show up for work this morning and we'd like to interview everyone working in the bakery and we'll have to insist on talking to your father again."