Murder in the Wings

4

Edelman arrived half an hour later, ten minutes behind two other men from Homicide Division, half a dozen uniformed officers, a trio from the medical examiner’s, and two baffled-looking young people from the press. At this time of night they were usually sitting at word processors entering a bunch of stuff that stringers provided them. They’d never handled a felony before, let alone a murder involving a famous actor from Hollywood.

Edelman still had sleep marks tattooed on his left cheek, and his thinning brown hair had been plastered down with King Kong hair spray in an effort to make it lie flat. Beneath the bottom of his trench coat you could see baggy gray work pants. He kept the coat buttoned up to his neck, which meant that he was probably wearing his pajama tops. Maybe the ones with the boats on them, which his wife had gotten him for his last birthday as a joke. “But you know, Dwyer,” she’d told me that night at the party (a party for the Edelman’s is a birthday cake and Kool-Aid for their tribe of five kids), “he just looked at them and said ‘These are great, honey.’ He didn’t think the little boats were funny at all.”

Now Edelman said, “Hastings said you’ve already given your statement.”

I nodded.

“Doesn’t sound like it’s going to be too hard to put together,” Edelman said.

“Hi,” Donna said. She’d gone down to Pizza Hut again after the rain stopped. More coffee. She handed one to me and one to Edelman.

“You should’ve been a nurse.”

“Can’t stand the sight of blood,” she said. Then, realizing the circumstances, “I guess that isn’t very funny.” She watched Edelman sip his coffee. He looked like a grade school principal. He was a gentle man, and wise in his way, and maybe the best male friend I’d ever had. When he finished sipping, Donna said, “Did Dwyer tell you?”

He was still sleepy. He seemed confused, as if he’d missed something. “Tell me what?”

“About Wade.”

“What about him?”

“How he didn’t do it.”

“Didn’t kill Reeves, you mean?”

She nodded.

He raised his eyes to me. He looked sad. For Donna. “Well, let’s wait till we get all the reports in, all right?”

“Do you think he did it?” Donna asked.

He glanced at me again. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, Donna.”

“So you do think he did it, huh?”

“I’d have to say it’s a pretty good bet. He certainly had a motive. And he came over here.”

“But somebody pushed him down.”

She sounded young and naive. I wanted to hug her, protect her. Edelman did it for me. He put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a little tug and said, “We’ll wait for the reports, okay?”

Half an hour later the whole neighborhood was alive with press. Three TV stations showed up with vans. In the cold, and by now clear May morning — cold enough to kill the early flowers — their lights were ominous.

I’d watched all the processes. Things looked worse and worse for Wade. They’d found the cabdriver who’d brought him over. The cabbie gave a positive ID. A neighbor upstairs said she’d heard Wade go into Reeves’s apartment and then heard a scuffle shortly afterward. The knife was removed from Reeves’s back and put into a plastic bag. The knife would have Wade’s fingerprints all over it.

I went out on the back porch. The smell of new-mown grass was on the air. The dawn was pink and yellow behind the thunderheads. Donna sat across from me on an empty Pepsi case. I’d asked Edelman to come out when he was finished talking with the detective in charge.

He came out with a cigar in his mouth. Unlit. “One of the guys had a baby. Or rather, his wife did. I hate the smell of these when they’re lit, but the tobacco tastes pretty good just to chew on.” He was obviously trying to avoid what he had to say to us. “He looks pretty good for it, Dwyer.”

“How good?”

“Real good.”

“What’s going to happen?”

“APB. Armed and dangerous. He drinks and you tell me he’s got a weapon.”

“Yeah.”

“We don’t have a hell of a lot of choice.”

Donna stood up. She was shaking again.

“Why don’t you take her home, Dwyer?”

I nodded.

Donna said, “You wouldn’t shoot him, would you?”

Edelman went over and put his arm around her again. “I just wish he hadn’t run, Donna. That really complicates things.”

“Yes,” she said, her voice almost gone. “Yes, I know.”