Free Brass Rainbow by Michael Collins Page A

simply and with conviction, why they work at what they do, why they went into their work, or what they get out of it. Most gave me a three-hour sales talk full of overenthusiasm and too many words. A lot just stared at me. They seemed mystified. No one had ever asked them why they worked at their work, and they had obviously never asked themselves. Maybe they were afraid to ask themselves.
    â€œAll right, Fortune, step down.”
    Usually a prisoner is ordered to Felony Court, or Magistrates Court, or some such disposition. Gazzo gave no instructions on me, so I knew that where I was going had been arranged in advance. That was good to know. It meant that Gazzo and the others had only been softening me up.
    I was taken across to the Annex by a detective who made no show of guarding me. In Gazzo’s office the detective left me to wait with Gazzo’s female sergeant. She is pretty, but I never had learned her name. Gazzo doesn’t really know her name. He never married, and women make him nervous. I waited an hour in silence and cigarette smoke.
    â€œInside,” Gazzo said when he arrived.
    I sat in the dim midnight of Gazzo’s inner office, and it was hard to believe that it was early morning out in the winter city. Gazzo watched me from behind his desk. He is a hard man who has lived long enough in a hard world to leave the obvious hardness to others. An eager man no longer eager to punish.
    â€œI had enough to cool you a week, Dan.”
    â€œI know,” I said. “You can get to business, Captain.”
    â€œYou’ve been busy,” Gazzo said. “Upper East Side, Lower East, the Village, Westchester. All for Sammy Weiss?”
    â€œWhy not for Weiss?”
    â€œYou’re not that close to him. Did he pay you big?”
    â€œHe didn’t pay me at all.”
    â€œYou’re sure, Dan?”
    It was a serious question. Gazzo had a special reason for wanting to know if Weiss had paid me. Something more than whether or not Sammy had money or I could be bought. I let it slide. If he wanted me to know, he would tell me.
    â€œI’m sure,” I said, and then I told him what I had done, except for my trip to the morgue and Baron’s story. I told him about George Ames, the North Chester people, Carmine Costa, and what I knew of the murder.
    â€œWeiss said he hit Radford and left him alive?” Gazzo said.
    â€œThat’s what he said. About one-thirty.”
    â€œSo we know that Radford was alive at one-fifteen when Weiss got there. I wasn’t sure of that. The doorman saw him at one. We only had the Fallon girl’s word for one-fifteen. Now Weiss agrees.”
    â€œHe was alive when Sammy left at one-thirty, too.”
    â€œAccording to Weiss only. Mrs. Radford got no answer at two. We know she had no key, and there wasn’t time for her to get in, kill Radford, and still get back down in time for the doorman to see her when he did.”
    Gazzo rubbed his stubble. “Everyone in the family is clear from around noon until past three o’clock. We haven’t found any suspects in Radford’s private or business life. If Weiss didn’t kill him, we’ve got fifty minutes for someone else to get in, kill, and get out unseen. And we’ve got no reasonable suspect.”
    â€œThe sister, Morgana, suspects Deirdre Fallon.”
    â€œSwell. Only she’s got an alibi, and not much motive.”
    â€œThe engagement is pretty sudden.”
    â€œThey all agree Jonathan liked her. What does she gain?”
    â€œWalter is the prime suspect to me,” I said. “He needed money, he was on a leash that pinched, he had most to gain, and he’s a weak, arrogant type who probably never knows what he’ll do.”
    â€œHe’s been all that for a lot of years,” Gazzo said. “Why does he kill with less than a year to wait for his money?”
    â€œPaul Baron.”
    â€œWalter was squeezed before; he never