“I vote guilty on the first ballot. Only one other query. Why did Berger dump part of the remains into the Gowanus and lug the torso clear over to the East River?”
“Wanted to keep us from dredging up the whole of it — if any part should come to the surface. Less we’d find, harder it would be to identify. He got away with that. The part that would have helped us we haven’t found. Might not.” He sneaked a brief glance sternward at Joslin, apart from the others, holding Ellen in his arms. “I hope we never do.”
“What interests me more is, will we be finding any more of Berger’s partners in treachery?”
“Consult the star-student back there. I can’t read the lines in Berger’s palm. Be up to the feds, from here in, anyway. And Navy Intelligence. They’ll likely find out Gjersten was only one of the hands on the Nazi payroll. A pipe-line like this,” he touched Berger with his shoe, “generally has other outlets.”
“How did you persuade the bird to sing? I told him we had Ansel. But I guess I forgot to mention Gjersten was cold meat.”
“You forgot! Yeah! You remembered to save him from burning to death, though.”
Koski saw the violet glow pale down to a thin gauzelike haze, die out. The fog shut down; the police-boat moved slowly on through a film of mist.
“I won’t do that a second time, Irish. You can call your odds on that. Next time there’s any burning he’s on his own.”