Flowering Judas(98)

Gregor allowed himself to be shown downstairs, but he was relieved that Jason Feldman disappeared immediately afterward.

“Mr. Demarkian,” Tony Bolero said. He looked exhausted. “It’s still here. Safe and sound.”

“And I’m Ferris Cole,” a tall, thin, aggressively bald man said, coming out of the shadows to hold out his hand. “I’m a little early, I know, but I thought that, under the circumstances, it might be a good idea.”

“Thank you,” Gregor said. “It was a good idea. I take it there were no disturbances at all last night?”

“Not a thing,” Tony Bolero said. “I’d say it was as quiet as the grave, but you’d probably hit me.”

“What about Howard Androcoelho?” Gregor said. “Isn’t he supposed to be here.”

“He called,” Tony said. “He’s running late. He’ll be here about half past nine. He didn’t sound like he was running late. He didn’t sound like he was rushed, if you know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean,” Gregor said.

Ferris Cole laughed. “Howard never sounds rushed. And I mean not ever. It doesn’t matter what kind of an emergency there is. But you have to wonder how long they’re going to be able to go on with this. It’s not 1950 any more. It’s not even 1980. Some nasty things happen in Mattatuck these days.”

“They got a slum,” Tony Bolero put in helpfully. “Jason Feldman told me.”

Ferris Cole brushed this off. “Every town has a slum,” he said. “Even the smallest one. There’s always someplace where the houses are small, or they’re trailers, and the people who live there don’t bother to pick up their own garbage, and they’re always out of work, and there are too many mind-altering substances. Alcohol, mostly, around here.”

“There was a meth lab a couple of years ago,” Tony said. “It blew up.”

“Yes, well,” Ferris Cole said. “That’s what happens when people who couldn’t pass high school chemistry try to do high school chemistry. I’ve given the body a quick look over, if you’re interested. I don’t think I’m going to be able to get you what you want.”

The body was still in the cold locker. Gregor went to it and pulled it out. Chester Morton looked very much as he had looked when Gregor first saw him, much as he had looked in the big stack of photographs Howard Androcoelho had sent him, except that now he seemed a little worse for wear. There wasn’t anything definite Gregor could put a finger on, but there it was. The body looked older—older as a body.

Gregor stepped back. “Well,” he said.

“We’ll take him off your hands and give him a good thorough autopsy,” Ferris Cole said, “but if you ask me, we’re going to end up finding that suicide is just as likely as murder, and maybe more likely. And yes, I know, he didn’t hang himself off that billboard. But my guess is that he was dead when somebody else hung him. A toxicology screen might be interesting. If he was drugged before he was hanged, that might prove murder for you. It’s going to be touch and go, though.”

“That’s all right,” Gregor said. “What about the tattoo?”

“You mean the MOM thing? I think after death is a good guess, and definitely not much before. That’s a hairy chest and the area of the tattoo is absolutely clean. Someone either shaved him and tattooed him after he died, or he got that within a few hours of dying. Weird thing to find there, don’t you think? It’s like one of those ones the guys do to themselves and each other in prison. You know, no proper equipment. Ink and safety pins or sewing needles or whatever they can get their hands on.”

“If somebody did tattoo him after he died, maybe the somebody wasn’t a professional,” Gregor said. “Or even if he was, maybe he wasn’t within reach of his equipment.”

“True enough,” Ferris Cole said. “Do you really think you have a murder here? I don’t know. Usually I’m crazy about getting Howard to ask for help. You have no idea what kind of trouble he’s caused for himself over the years, what kind of trouble they’ve both caused for themselves—”

“Both?”

“Howard and Marianne Glew. The mayor. Haven’t you met the mayor, yet? She almost certainly had to okay your coming here. Nobody spends money in Mattatuck without Marianne having her say about it. Which is largely why nobody spends money in Mattatuck. I can complain about Howard, but it’s Marianne who’s running the show. It always was. Even back when they were partners.”