Free Gods of Manhattan by Al Ewing Page B

eyes, and Monk had flinched. He'd never seen Doc look that way - that look of despair. "I need to know what he's been doing since 'fifty-nine. I need to know who killed him, and why, and if he's really dead this time. I don't think I can go to the police yet. I just... I don't know, Monk. I don't quite know what to do."
    He'd looked at Monk with those steel-blue eyes, and they'd looked lost, like a kid's.
    I don't know what to do.
    The most frightening words Monk had ever heard Doc say.
    "So... you want me to take a look? Bring back some intel?"
    Doc had nodded, and suddenly the old certainty was back. "That's what we need." He'd smiled. "Remember, no risks. Take the flare gun. And listen, the slightest hint of anything and you get out of there. This is Untergang we're talking about - old school Untergang. They don't play games. Oh, and one last thing. Maya's had a dream; a man in a red mask, standing over one of us. She thinks it could be connected, so... keep an eye out."
    Monk had just smiled. "Sure thing, Boss. No risks. You can rely on me."
    And here he was, putting the picture together. A jigsaw puzzle. A portrait of a man's life, a life now ended. Under his breath, he began to murmur to himself. At the orphanage, some funny guy had given him a copy of The Jungle Book . Real funny, a laugh and a half for the popular crowd. The joke was on them. He'd devoured it, cover to cover, maybe just to show them, but that one book had started a fire for reading, for knowledge, that'd never gone out. Monk wished he could remember the funny guy's name. He'd wanted to thank him a lot in the years since. Send him a pound cake for Christmas or something.
    Anyway, after The Jungle Book he was hungry for more Kipling, so he'd moved on to the Just So Stories , and there was a verse in that one that came back to him sometimes, on a case like this one.
    " I keep six honest serving-men, they taught me all I knew. Their names are what and why and when and how and where and who. "
    Six questions. Get the answers to all six and you had the puzzle solved.
    He was in the where. The police knew the when and the what. They even figured they knew the how.
    According to the police, Donner had probably known his killer enough to let him in the door, and to turn his back. There'd been no sign of forced entry.
    Monk wasn't so sure. He'd just forced his way in and left no sign of it. Easy enough with hands like his.
    They were strong, and they were sensitive. Even under that thick layer of callus, they knew weight, and give, and push. They knew how to open a door with a cotter pin and make it look as though you'd used a key, even to the smartest cop in the world - which the ones who'd checked this place over weren't, not by a long stretch. And more. He knew, instinctively - and it was the smallest twinge in the middle of his gut and on the edges of his subconscious but by God, he knew - he hadn't been the first to force that lock.
    So the police had it wrong. Donner didn't know his killer. Didn't even know his killer was there until the sword was in his back.
    Monk considered it, weighted it in his mind for truth, then continued along the mental path. Donner hadn't gone to the window after letting his killer in. He was already standing, looking out on the city, when the killer had let himself in silently, padded across the carpet, and stabbed Donner in the back. No mercy. Not even an explanation. Just the kill.
    That was the how.
    He ran his fingers over his sloped brow, as if coaxing the thoughts into life, a physical tic from his childhood. He had the why, too. If Doc was right - and Doc was always right - Donner was the leader of Untergang, and that was why enough for a hell of a lot of people. So, five out of six. One to go.
    Put the why together with the how, the silent entry, the quiet, instant kill... secret service? Or the Special Tactical Espionage And Manouvres unit? But no, they wouldn't let it reach the papers. And Doc would have been told.