Free Blood Innocents by Thomas H. Cook Page B

workman?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œI thought he was out sick.”
    â€œWell, he was in a way,” Bryant said. “He called in sick on Sunday afternoon, I understand. But I saw him walking by the coffee shop at about three A.M. Maybe a little before.” Bryant stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray. “Anyway, I called him in. He came in for just a minute, wouldn’t sit down. He’s been real upset lately on account of his wife’s been sick and he’s been thrown out of his apartment.”
    â€œHe was evicted?”
    â€œYeah, him and his whole goddamn family. I guess he couldn’t pay the rent because of the medical bills.”
    â€œSo the landlord evicted him?”
    â€œThat’s right,” Bryant said. “Wouldn’t you if you was his landlord?”
    Reardon avoided asking himself that question. “But he came to work that night?”
    â€œYeah. He said he’d been busy with his kids, you know. The wife’s been sick and so he had to do all the work in the house.”
    â€œAnd you say he was upset?”
    â€œYeah,” Bryant said, “upset and mad as hell.”
    â€œWho was he mad at?”
    â€œThe landlord, who else?”
    Reardon nodded.
    â€œHe was really pissed, you know what I mean?” Bryant said. “He didn’t know what he was going to do. He looked like he was about ready to give up on everything. He borrowed ten bucks from me, and he’s never done that before. I never seen him ask anybody on the job for a penny. But he was broke. I mean broke . So I gave him a ten spot. We was kind of friendly on the job, you know? We used to take our breaks together. We always used to go to this little coffee shop, the one I told you about, the one on Second Avenue.”
    â€œDid you see where he went when he left the coffee shop?”
    â€œYeah, he walked out in the direction of the zoo.”
    â€œYou sure?”
    â€œYeah. He crossed the street going toward the zoo, up Sixty-fourth Street,” Bryant said. “The coffee shop is right on the corner of Sixty-fourth Street and Second Avenue. I could see him for a good ways. He was walking toward the park.”
    â€œWhy did he decide to come to work?”
    â€œNeeded the money,” Bryant said. “Why do you decide to come to work?” He looked mockingly at Reardon. “He ran out of vacation time and sick time and all that, but they been letting him kind of work by the hour, you know?”
    â€œWhat time did he leave the coffee shop?” Reardon asked.
    â€œI don’t know for sure. About three A.M. or so, I guess.”
    â€œHow long were you in the coffee shop?”
    â€œToo long. I should have been doing the aviary at about three.”
    â€œWhy weren’t you?”
    â€œHave you ever owned a bird?”
    â€œNo,” Reardon said.
    â€œWell, if you had you’d know they shit all the time, and when you got ten or fifteen birds in a cage, that cage is going to be covered with bird shit no matter how much you clean it. So I decided I’d stay a few extra minutes in the coffee shop and then just hose it down when I got back. That don’t take long.”
    â€œHow long were you in the coffee shop?”
    â€œHell, I must have been there for about an hour and a half, from a little before three till about four-thirty.”
    â€œWhat were you doing before you left the zoo?”
    â€œWell, for a while me and Gil was working on some of them monkey cages. Then Gil went to do the elephant cages.” Bryant winked. “He already had his break, you know?”
    Reardon nodded.
    â€œFrom about one to two-thirty,” Bryant added impishly.
    â€œThat doesn’t matter.”
    â€œMaybe not to you, but to the Parks Department it matters, by God. They’d raise holy shit if they knew.”
    â€œUh huh,” Reardon sighed, no longer able to conceal his total indifference.
    â€œPoor old