Page 179 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Jury-rigged

the air conditioning—the medical examiner could not place it in a
time frame narrower than eleven p.m. to three a.m.”
“Any of his neighbors notice when his lights went out that night?”
“No. They have a strange etiquette there: on one hand, they look
out for each other, functioning as a closed community where
strangers are concerned or the maintenance of common resources is
an issue; on the other, they strictly keep out of each other’s private
lives. People are known in the compound only by first name,
eliminating any embarrassment related to marital status or national
origin. That might explain why he was able to maintain such
anonymity living in a densely-populated compound.”
“Nevertheless,” Labelle maintained her jackhammer delivery, “he
died violently at the hands of someone who knew precisely where to
find him. The fatal wounds were two punctures with a long, thin,
cylindrical tapered blade similar to an awl, later established as the ice
pick found next to the body, between vertebrae C1 and C2. He could
not have struggled long—perhaps reflex alone explains the disorder
of the bed. Anything else of interest there?”
“The extinguished kitchen match by the head, as I anticipated. Like
the first two, chemical analysis showed nothing traceable. The killer
learned from Sherman’s mistakes. And, again, a bit of disorder
around the trailer indicated a clumsy or half-hearted attempt to
burgle the place: either an afterthought—why not do a little theft
along with murder?—or the perpetrator momentarily decided to
create the illusion of robbery as motive.”
“Do you have an inventory?”
“It’s here, in another folder.” I opened my file drawer and took it
out for her. I also extracted some cough drops: if I couldn’t get
coffee, at least I could suck on something with a better taste than
Lieutenant Gramercy’s remarks. “Usual stuff: clothing, small quantity
of fenceable items—not taken, obviously—computer, stereo, TV,
kitchen and bathroom appliances, miscellaneous furniture and books.
Not enough for the Simulians to bother with, even if they backed up
a truck and cleaned out the whole trailer.”
“And they have a variety of alibis, I see.”
“That is to be expected, given their track record—but I made
progress in breaking through that Iron Curtain of denial. Pershing
spent both Saturday and Sunday at a mountain cabin the family owns

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