Free Detective by Arthur Hailey Page B

American by adoption, he was
a Homicide veteran, his retirement
at age sixty not far away.
    Quinn was respected and liked by
colleagues, in part because he was
never a threat to anyone's
ambitions. After becoming a
detective and doing his job well, he
had not sought promotion. He simply
did not want to be responsible for
others, and had never taken the
sergeant's exam, which he could have
passed easily. But Quinn was a good
man to have as lead investigator at
any crime scene.
    "This will be your case, Bernie,"
Ainslie said. "I'll stay to help,
though. Get you started."
    As they passed through the
spacious, foliage-lined hotel lobby,
Ainslie saw two women reporters near
the registration desk. Media people
sometimes cruised the streets, lis
    DETECTIVE 75
    teeing to police radio, and got to
crime scenes early. One of the two,
recognizing the detectives, hurried
toward an elevator they had boarded,
but the door slid closed before she
reached it.
    As the elevator rose, Quinn sighed.
"There must be better ways to begin
a day."
    "You'll find out soon enough,"
Ainslie said. "Who knows? You might
even miss this in retirement."
    At the eighth floor, as they
emerged, the security guard, Cobo,
stepped forward. "Do you gentlemen
have business " He stopped on seeing
the Miami Police ID badges that
Ainslie and Quinn had clipped to
their jackets.
    "Unfortunately," Quinn said, ''we
do."
    "Sorry, guys! Sure glad you're
here. I've been stopping everyone
who has no "
    "Keep it up," Ainslie told him.
"Stay on it. Lots of our people will
be arriving, but don't let anyone by
without identification. And we'll
want this corridor kept clear."
    "Yes, sir." With all the
excitement, Cobo had no intention of
going home.
    From the doorway of room 805,
Officer Ceballos approached,
treating the Homicide detectives
with respect. Like many young
policemen, his ambition was to shed
his uniform one day for a
detective's plain clothes, and it
did no harm to create a good
impression. Ceballos handed over the
security guard's note identifying
805's occupants, and reported that
apart from the two brief inspections
by Cobo and himself, the crime scene
was undisturbed.
    "Good." Ainslie acknowledged.
"Remain on the scene and I'll get a
two-man unit to assist you. The
press is already in the hotel and
pretty soon they'll be swarming. I
don't want a single one on this
floor, and don't give out any
information; just say a PI officer
will be here later. Meanwhile, no
one else gets even close to room 805
with
    76 Arthur Halley
    out seeing me or Detective Quinn.
You got all that?"
    "Yes, Sergeant."
    "Okay, let's see what we have."
    As Ceballos opened the door of
805, Bernard Quinn wrinkled his nose
in disgust. "And you think I'll miss
this?"

Ainslie shook his head dismally.
The odor of death was a sickening,
rancid smell that permeated every
homicide scene, especially where
there were open wounds and seeping
body fluids.
    Both detectives recorded in
notebooks their time of entry. They
would continue making notes about
every action taken until the case
was closed. The process was
burdensome, but necessary in case
their memories were later challenged
in court.
    Initially they stood stock-still,
surveying the awful scene before
them twin pools of partially dried
blood and the mutilated, already
decomposing bodies. Homicide detec-
tives learn early in their careers
that once a human body has ceased to
live, the process of decay is
extraordinarily swift; when
heartbeats stop and blood no longer
flows, armies of microbes soon turn
flesh and body liquids into rotting
offal. Ainslie remembered a veteran
medical examiner who was given to
proclaiming, "Garbage! That's all a
human corpse ever is, and once we've
learned what we need to, the sooner
we dispose of it the better. Burn
cadavers! That's the best way. Then
if somebody wants to spread the
ashes over some lake, fine, no harm
done. But cemeteries, coffins,
they're all barbaric a waste of good
land."
    Apart from the bodies in 805,