Free Harlot's Moon by Edward Gorman Page B

Then: "Oh, I forgot. About the phone call."
    "The phone call?"
    "Yeah."
    "When was this?"
    "Maybe one, one-fifteen, something like that."
    "It came to the switchboard—"
    "Came to the switchboard— it’s just a little board we've got — and I put it through to the room."
    "Father Daly answered?"
    "I assume he did."
    "Tell me about the caller. Male?"
    "I think so. It was pretty muffled. They'd put something across the phone, whoever it was."
    "What did he say?"
    "Said he wanted to be connected with Room 154."
    "So he knew the room number?"
    "Yes."
    "Was that the room number Father Daly usually had?"
    "That or Room 152 or 156. The rooms on the back wall. He always wanted one of them."
    "So you connected him and that was the last you heard from the caller."
    "Right." Then: "Mike. C'mon now, Mr. Payne is our guest."
    Mighty Mike was yipping and yapping and driving me crazy. Every time I tried to reach down and pet him, he snarled at me with spiky little vampiric teeth.
    Mighty Mike was reminding me why I was a cat man.
    "I got to get up and get going," Gaspard said. "Got my line-dancing lessons in the afternoon. The gal I go out with is kind of heavy." He smiled with cheap, gleaming dentures.
    "But I figure she likely never went out with nobody as bad-lookin' as me, so we're probably even up."
    There was a sadness and humility in his words that made me like him suddenly. He was a decent man, and an honorable one.
    "I'd like to leave my card with you."
    "I've told you everything I know, Mr. Payne. But if you want to leave your card, fine."
    I stood up, took out a card, carried it over to his recliner.
    "Just in case," I said, handing it to him.
    Mighty Mike walked me to the door, snarling at me all the way.
    "He's really a good dog," Gaspard said.
    "Yeah, I can see that."
    The two little boys were still in the window when I left. This time they waved first.
    I smiled and waved back.
    Even when I was all the way down to the sidewalk, I could hear Mighty Mike still yipping.

Chapter Nine
    Â 
    COUNTY OF LINN, INVESTIGATOR'S REPORT
    Department of Medical Examiner
    620-3764
    Homicide
    CRPD/Evans
    Â 
    INFORMATION SOURCE:
    Detectives Miles and Reynolds
    Â 
    LOCATION:
    Bowker Park
    Â 
    INVESTIGATION:
    620-3764 A 31-year-old black female is the victim of an apparent homicide.
    Â 
    STATEMENTS:
    According to Detective Miles, a woman in the park was looking for her dog when she came upon the body of the deceased.
    The decedent was last seen alive at the Suds 'N Brew tavern at approx. 8:15 P.M. on the previous evening.
    Â 
    SCENE DESCRIPTION/BODY EXAMINATION:
    I arrived at the scene at 0805 hr. The body was lying between two jack pine trees near the northwest end of the park.
    Decedent was lying on her back. She wore a plaid skirt, pantyhose, a white frilly blouse and a brown winter coat. From appearances, she did not appear to have been sexually assaulted. Her white cloth underwear showed no evidence of semen or blood.
    The most obvious wounds were a) several stab wounds in the area of her heart and b) her eyes, which somebody had crudely dug out of their sockets.
    Rigor mortis was fully established.
    More than six fresh footprints were discovered near and around the decedent.
    Â 
    EVIDENCE:
    620-3765: Hair standards and fingernail standards were taken.
    620-3766: Hair and nail standards taken as well as physical evidence by criminologist B. P. Jepsen.
    Â 
    IDENTIFICATION/NOTIFICATION:
    620-3767: Identification was established at scene by husband Thomas being summoned to the park. He identified wife immediately.
    Â 
    W hen I finished with that report, I started in on the second, wanting to refresh my memory. The report concerned a Ronald Swanson, age fifty-six. He, too, had been stabbed, though the clinical reports about the type of weapon and condition of the knife blade indicated that two very different weapons had been used.
    Probably because I felt guilty (and somewhat unprofessional) about withholding the