Free Proof Positive: A Joe Gunther Novel (Joe Gunther Series) by Archer Mayor Page A

Kendall?” she asked. “What the hell kind of name is Dummerston?”
    Everyone in the room laughed.
    “Detective,” Joe told her, “I was about to tell you that you’re on a speaker up here. I’m with members of my squad.”
    “Hey, guys,” she said, unconcerned. “So, who’s Kendall?”
    “Why’re you askin’?” Willy asked from across the room.
    “You’re no Vermonter,” she shot back. “Even I know that.”
    “He’s ex-NYPD,” Joe explained. “A long time ago.”
    “Apparently not long enough,” Sam threw in.
    “Apparently not,” McLarney agreed. “Look, you’re calling me ’cause I got the ball rolling. You show me yours, I’ll show you mine. Not the other way around.”
    Joe could see that Willy was about to argue the point, so he spoke quickly, “Ben Kendall was a local hoarder, originally from your fair city, but up here for decades. We found him dead in his house a few days ago, of undetermined causes, and he wasn’t fresh. In the process of cleaning out the hoard, we found another body, also decayed.”
    “Jesus. Don’t you people have noses up there?”
    Willy could no longer keep silent. “No—we have houses, with things like trees and grass between them. Ya oughta try it.”
    “He lived in the boonies,” Joe filled in. “But there’s another wrinkle to it: We just found out that the second body also has ties to Philadelphia. We got a name of Tomasz Bajek.” He spelled it out for her. “That’s all we have, though, and apparently the national data bank didn’t cough up any criminal history, which strikes us as unlikely. So, any help you could give us from local sources down there would be appreciated. You willing to share now?”
    “We found his ex-wife, Jennifer Sisto, tortured to death,” she answered bluntly.
    The air in the squad room instantly electrified. Joe felt his face redden. Beverly had told him that Ben had married before going to Vietnam, and divorced upon being discharged from the hospital. He’d had it in his notes to chase that angle down, to see what the ex-wife might have to offer, but he hadn’t done so. Now, not only had Bajek’s origins compounded the oversight, but Rachel’s missing photographs of the pretty young woman on Ben’s wall also suggested a sickening, coldly logical connection to what they’d just been told.
    “Why was she tortured?” he asked, covering his embarrassment.
    “We have no clue,” McLarney reported. “Right now, our theory is that the bad guys didn’t get what they were after, ’cause they ransacked her place from one end to the other. We figure they came up empty. And no,” she added without pause, “there was no record of a safe deposit box, or any alternate hiding spot. We’re still checking her background, coworkers, neighbors, and so on, but right now, it’s not looking good. Would you be willing to send me what you got on Kendall?”
    “Sure,” Joe readily agreed. “Would you do the same with Sisto and whatever you can find on Bajek?”
    “You got it.”
    “When was Sisto worked over?” Willy asked, having reached the same conclusion as Joe.
    McLarney gave them the approximate date, prompting Willy to say, “That sounds like it was after our guys got killed.” He glanced at Joe, but without criticism, and added in a quiet voice, “And after those pictures disappeared from Kendall’s house.”
    “We’ll include whatever the medical examiner found out about Bajek,” Joe said, keeping on task. “Given the hometown coincidence, it may be useful.”
    “Hey,” McLarney said, “you never know.”
    “Okay,” Joe concluded, his finger poised above the speaker button. “Any full face shots of Sisto would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help, Detective.”
    “No problem, Hon,” she said. “Talk to you later.”
    The line went dead and Joe looked up at his colleagues. “What did she call me?”
    Willy shook his head. “It’s a Philly thing.”

 
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    “I’m