Free Holy Terror by Graham Masterton Page A

through, and that she was prepared to share them.
    The doorbell rang. ‘I’ll get it,’ said Lacey. ‘It’s probably Gina, wanting to borrow some coffee.’
    Conor continued to towel himself while Lacey opened the door. In the steamed-up mirror over the washbasin, he didn’t look like himself at all. Older, tireder. A man who had lost his mission in life.
    The bathroom door was slightly ajar. He heard Lacey saying, ‘It’s OK … I’ll get him. Just hold on a minute.’
    She came into the bathroom. It’s Drew Slyman, and he’s brought two uniforms with him.’
    â€˜Slyman? What the hell does he want?’
    He wrapped the towel around his waist and went into the living room. Lieutenant Slyman was standing by the window. The pharmacy sign across the street made his face glow green. Two police officers stood beside the couch with matching Village People mustaches and self-satisfied looks on their faces.
    â€˜O’Neil …’ said Lieutenant Slyman. ‘Sorry to interrupt your ablutions.’ He stepped away from the window, looking around the apartment and rubbing his hands together. ‘This isn’t quite what you’re used to. But maybe, well … let’s not beat around the bush. Maybe that was your motive.’
    â€˜Motive? What are you talking about? My motive for what?’
    â€˜Oh, come on, now. You didn’t think we were that slow, did you? I don’t exactly know yet what kind of a complicated stunt you’ve been trying to pull here, but believe me I very soon will.’
    â€˜I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.’
    â€˜Hey,’ said Lieutenant Slyman, spreading his arms to appeal to his officers. ‘He doesn’t know what the hell I’m talking about? What did you think I was going to do, once we’d taken those safety deposit boxes back to Spurr’s? Say: “That’s it, fine, case closed, ex-Chief O’Neil has stitched everything up, we can all go home early?’”
    â€˜Why not? None of the boxes was missing. I put them back into the strongroom myself. You saw me.’
    Slyman came up close. His eyes were shining andhis mouth was even more Cupid-like than ever. ‘Yes, I did. But you know me. I always like to be extra-specially thorough, cover my ass. I went through that list you gave me and I managed to contact nine of the fifteen lessees of those safety deposit boxes and tell them what had happened.’
    â€˜Thanks a lot. That’ll be great for business.’
    â€˜I invited all nine of them to come to Spurr’s and check that their boxes were still
virgo intacta
, so to speak. Only seven of them live in the midtown area and only four of them were able to drop into Spurr’s, but those four were enough.’
    â€˜I still don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.’
    â€˜The boxes were
empty
, that’s what I’m talking about.’
    â€˜
Empty
?’
    â€˜I’m still trying to work out how you did it. It’s possible that you could have switched boxes, who knows – but there were no other boxes in that Brinks-Mat truck. My strongest suspicion is that they were empty even before those poor saps came in to steal them.’
    â€˜Meaning?’
    â€˜Meaning only one thing. That you had already cleaned out those boxes before your Brinks-Mat robbers got there.’
    Conor shook his head in exasperation. ‘This is ridiculous, Slyman, and you know it. I can’t open the strongroom on my own. They give me only half the code and a senior member of Spurr’s staff has the other half.’
    Lieutenant Slyman took out his notebook andflipped it open. ‘That’s right … this week it was Darrell Bussman. Well, Darrell Bussman’s still in a coma, and so he can’t speak for himself, but I’d sure like to talk
to you
.’
    â€˜Darrell wouldn’t steal from