Page 170 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Slow Burn

“Right. Luckily, one thing that nurture can’t affect is fingerprints.
We’ll know tonight if any of the quints were in that kitchen
barehanded.”
“But don’t they have identical prints?”
“Close, but not identical. The whorls and loops are formed
ontogenetically, it seems.”
“Uh, yeah.” I put the word, or its approximation, into my
notebook for later research. Was there any limit to the number of
ways she had of intimidating a guy? Probably not. Time to change the
subject. “Then what was Quarles’ crime?”
Labelle was peering into the Honda’s passenger compartment,
careful not to touch anything. “Oh, he didn’t want to get his hands
dirty, unlike brother Quantrill. He came up with an assassination
scheme worthy of Murder, Inc., but he wasn’t going to pull the
trigger. And that was his undoing: he advertised in a guns-and-ammo
magazine for a skilled marksman willing to accompany the advertiser
on hunting trips. The Feds review those things, answered the ad, and
uncovered the plot. Nobody was harmed, and the corporation
Quarles claimed had expressed interest in his services denied
everything. So he took the rap, which was a racketeering charge the
judge had trouble taking seriously. This Carbone also received little
more than a slap on the hand.”
“What was the gimmick?”
“At one point, in order to motivate their sons to apply themselves
to getting an education, their parents gave them a lot of information
about the benefits conferred by large corporations on their
employees, particularly retirees. The implication being, of course, that
one could wind up destitute in old age if one did not make the effort
to secure a good job when young. Quarles took this moral lesson and
turned it on its head. He figured out how much corporations have to
pay out in benefits to the average retiree, and it is a considerable sum.
When an employee dies soon after leaving employment, the company
saves tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. On the other hand, if
a retired person is particularly healthy, he or she might live another
twenty-five or thirty years, costing the company much more than the
average.”
“Oh, no. And he found a company willing to bump off its
retirees?”

169