Fighting Chance(82)

A moment later, Ray Berle emerged from the melee. He looked tense as hell. “Come on back,” he said. “The kid says you can identify the body. He says he can identify the body. We want a second opinion.”

“It’s somebody I know?”

“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?” Ray said. “Maybe it’s somebody you know, and maybe what we’ve got here is a psychopath. And don’t ask what this has to do with the thing with the priest, because we don’t know it has anything to do with it. It’s just that we took one look at this guy’s name, and it’s not a hard name to remember. Also, what’s the odds the kid stumbles on two bodies in one week?”

The alley was narrow and there were too many people in it. Gregor followed Ray Berle as best he could until they came to a short line of doors and even more people, bunched up together and looking like they were doing nothing. A stretcher and a body bag lay on the ground a little to the side of the center door.

Just then, Gregor saw Petrak Maldovanian. He was sitting off to the side, just outside the door. He looked as dejected, and as oddly small, as his brother had looked in juvenile detention.

It was astonishing how small trouble could make someone look, when it really got hold of him. Petrak, like his brother, had to be taller than six-three.

Petrak stood up as soon as he saw Gregor. “Mr. Demarkian,” he said. “Mr. Demarkian. I didn’t do anything. I just found him, he was in the door, and it was where I was told to go, and then I called them. I called the police. I wouldn’t have called the police if I’d killed him, and why would I kill him? What did he have to do with me?”

Tony Monteverdi emerged from the building. “Don’t ask me what’s going on here,” he said. “Right now, I just don’t know. The kid here says the body belongs to a man named Mikel Dekanian.”

“What?” Gregor said.

“He says he knows him from church,” Tony said. “He says you know him from church. Am I hearing this right?”

“Holy Trinity Armenian Christian Church,” Gregor said. “Yes, that would be right. If the body is Mikel Dekanian, that would be right. There aren’t that many Armenian churches in the city. A lot of us go there.” Gregor paused for a moment. “It’s Father Tibor Kasparian’s church. He’s the priest there.”

“Jesus Christ,” Tony said. “Yes, of course, why wouldn’t it be? Will you come in here and see if you can confirm identification of the body?”

Gregor went into the cramped dark space that must be used as a service area. There were mops and brooms leaning against the wall. There were buckets in a stack near a utilitarian back staircase. Mikel Dekanian’s head had been bashed in at the back, so that there was a crater the size of a boulder just at the curve coming down from the crown. Tony touched the corpse’s shoulder and moved it just a bit, so that the head fell back and the face was clearly visible. It was Mikel Dekanian’s face.

Gregor nodded.

“Well, that’s one less mystery we’ve got to solve,” Tony said. “Do you have any idea at all what this guy was doing in this neighborhood? The kid says he lives, the guy lives, over near Cavanaugh Street, and that isn’t anywhere near here. Does he work near here? Does he have relatives?”

Gregor shook his head. “He works for a guy named Howard Kashinian. I don’t know what he does. Kashinian is a wheeler-dealer sort of person. He’s got interests in some city construction. It might be that.”

“Would any of that be in this neighborhood?”

“I don’t think so,” Gregor said. “I don’t know, really. I don’t pay that much attention to Howard.”

“The kid’s got quite a story,” Tony said. “Sounds like James Bond.”

“Do you think he killed Dekanian?”

“We don’t know,” Tony said. “But if he did, he did it yesterday and then came back to call us. The body’s been cold for at least eighteen hours.”

“Eighteen hours,” Gregor said.

“Is that significant to you?” Tony asked.

“Remember our meeting yesterday?” Gregor said. “I saw him when I was coming out of that. He was in a big hurry. He said he had an appointment. He said he’d been to the Hall of Records.”

“Was he headed this way?” Tony asked.

Gregor nodded. “I think he was.”

“You’d better go talk to the kid. He said he wanted to talk to you. He said we could listen in. We’re going to.”

3

Petrak Maldovanian was sitting just where he had been when Gregor first saw him. He still looked very dejected and very small. When he noticed Gregor standing over him, he said, “Everything Stefan has said is true. They tell you they want you to tell the truth. Then when you tell the truth, they don’t believe you.”