Free Death Through the Looking Glass by Richard; Forrest Page B

stores, and a couple of bars with exotic dancers. He’s been busted six or seven times, all nolles.”
    â€œThat sounds like syndicate stuff. I’m surprised he’s not into book.”
    â€œPat suspects that he’s the local layoff bank.”
    â€œI think I’d like you with me in mufti when I meet with Mr. E. tonight.”
    â€œWhat did you tell him?”
    â€œThat Tom Giles assigned his business interest in the transaction to me.”
    â€œChrist, that’s a good way to get yourself killed!”
    â€œThat’s why I want you along.”
    â€œYou know, of course, that I can get in a sling over this. I’m limited because this is out of my jurisdiction. Norbert will have my—”
    â€œWhat did you say?” Lyon interrupted excitedly.
    â€œEsposito lives out of my jurisdiction.”
    â€œNo. ‘Limited.’ You said ‘limited’—limited service.”
    â€œWhat in hell are you talking about?”
    â€œWhat’s the day today?”
    â€œIf you were a working man like the rest of us, old buddy, you’d have the date engraved on your heart.… It’s the first—payday.”
    â€œAnd the plane went down on, Sunday the thirtieth.”
    â€œOr Monday morning the thirty-first.”
    â€œThe phone call from the lake house came after midnight Sunday—on the thirty-first. Damn! Let’s go to the phone company.”
    â€œYou can’t trace a local call.”
    â€œWe’ll see, Rocco. Let’s go down to the phone company and talk to the night supervisor.”
    â€œOne problem, Lyon.”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œDon’t you think you should put some clothes on first?”
    Terrance Ralston, night supervisor of the Murphysville phone office, smiled and shook hands. “I’m sorry, Chief Herbert. Ma Bell can do a lot of things, but we don’t keep records on local calls. Sometimes the subscriber will request it for business reasons of some sort, and we can attach a monitor to the line for counts, but that’s about it.”
    â€œLimited service,” Lyon said.
    â€œI told you it couldn’t be done,” Rocco said. “This is a waste of time.”
    â€œYes,” the supervisor said. “If the subscriber was on limited service, we’d have a count for the billing period.”
    Rocco turned to face the still-smiling supervisor. “What’s that?”
    â€œPeople who own vacation homes, or retired people on small incomes, often have limited service. It costs less, and the phone’s there if they need it,” Lyon said.
    â€œThat’s right,” the supervisor agreed. “The monthly base rate is half the regular rate, but you get only thirty free local calls a month; after that we charge twelve and a half cents per call.”
    â€œThe Murphysville billing period is the thirtieth of each month, and the phone at the Giles lake house was cut by the time you got there. Which means that there was only the period from midnight until the time the line was cut that someone could have made a call on the lake-house phone, and that one call should appear on the register.”
    â€œI’ll be right back,” the supervisor said.
    In five minutes they had proof from the phone company that a call had gone out from the Giles lake house between midnight and two.
    â€œThat still doesn’t prove that it was Giles calling you,” Rocco said. “Hell, it could have been someone ordering pizza.”
    â€œIt was Giles,” Lyon said. “But I still haven’t figured out how.”

7
    â€œI wonder when he’s going to finish the house,” Rocco said as he pulled the car to a halt in front of 711 Braeland.
    A distant streetlight partially illuminated the long, low white building that stretched along the secluded lane. A high wall enclosing the backyard hid the rear portion of the house. The building’s flat roof