Free The Perfect Crime by Les Edgerton Page B

onto the deal?”
    Grady looked at Marty and grinned. “He noticed there wasn’t a barbecue grill around. He thought of Grandpa and his fishing technique. His mind works funny, makes connections like that, connections most of us miss. He looked around and sure enough, found a big jar of the stuff on the bar. Boroni musta left it out like that, figuring once the explosion happened it would help it along in a big way. Me, I woulda figured it was sugar like it was labeled. It was in a glass thing that said sugar, for chrissake. Jack seen it right away, seen it was the wrong color. I never noticed, but he did and I saw what he meant once he explained it.”
    “What color was it?”
    “Well, it was mixed with the sugar, but sodium is more silvery. You’da never noticed it if you weren’t looking for it. Like I say, we woulda figured it out, but the guy would’ve been long gone by the time we did. I don’t know why he put it in the sugar jar unless he wasn’t into taking chances. Like maybe he figured she might be pissed enough she’d go off her diet. Later, we find the stuff in the sweetener and figured out that was what she’d used.”
    “Damn! That was some slick thinking!”
    “Boroni?”
    “Yeah. No. Your brother. Hell-- both of them.”
    “Jack’s smart, for sure. Lot smarter than I am. Got that from our dad.”
    Grady was more like his mother, he knew. Tenacious. Or, as his dad always put it: bullheaded. He usually got his man during his time on the police force, but it was more through dogged persistence than flashes of brilliance. Jack was the one with the insights. And now... he didn’t want to think about what was going on with Jack’s brain or his body. Maybe the doctor was wrong. He didn’t know how tough Jack was.
    Grady shook his head and got back to the present. “Look, did you guys take prints?”
    Marty shook his head. “Sure, but not any we could use, looks like. That’s why I knew you were right about the shelves. That was the first thing we dusted and the lab guys said whoever’d done that probably used gloves. You could tell where he grabbed each of them by the dust. They were smeared, but not a trace of a fingerprint. I got to tell you Grady, some of the guys think like my partner. That this is a B&E went hinky.”
    “That what you think, Marty?”
    “You know better. I’m old school, same as you. These young guys think everything fits into a category and that’s how you solve crimes. Build a profile, feed it into a computer and out comes your criminal all nice and neat. You and me, we know better. The thing is, these new guys we got, they got no respect for the criminal mind.”
    Grady agreed. Whatever this bastard was, Grady thought, he was no dummy. Marty was right. That was the difference between experience and inexperience. As much as you might hate the bad guys--and in this instance, hate was a mild description of how he felt--you couldn’t make the mistake of underestimating themHe said, “I’m glad to hear you say that. This guy is slick, all right. It’s good to know we’re both on the same wavelength. I’m going to need a friend on the force if I have any chance of solving this.”
    “Now wait, Fogarty. You’re retired. Leave this to me. I’ll get this fucker. You know what the captain’ll do if he finds you messing around on a case. Especially this one.”
    Grady turned and spit his gum into the trash can behind him. “No, you wait, Marty. This is my brother and nobody’s going to keep me from working on this case. You’re a friend, you’ll help. Matter of fact, I’ll show you my good faith, share what I know with you. And don’t worry. The captain won’t know I’m around.” Before the detective could reply, Grady began walking toward the darkened back of the store.
    “Come here. I want to show you something,” Grady said, beckoning. Marty followed. If he was going to comment further he kept it to himself. At the back of the store Grady stopped and