Final Justice Part 44

"Payne," he said, then, a moment later, "Hold one."

He shoved the telephone under a pillow on the bed.

"I asked you not to answer that," Olivia said.

"It was more like an order, but I have worked for Peter Wohl for five years, and have developed an uncontrollable Pavlovian response to my phone ringing: Answer it immediately."

"That's Inspector Wohl?"

"No. It's my regular girlfriend."

He could tell by her face that she could not quite make up her mind whether to believe him or not.

"You want me to go in the bathroom and give you a little privacy?"

"No. Come and eavesdrop," he said. "You'll probably find it interesting."

She headed for the bathroom.

"Hey!" Matt called. "Here!"

He pointed to the bed.

She didn't move.

He took the cellular out.

"Detective McFadden," he said. "It warms the c.o.c.kles of my heart to hear your voice."

He pointed to the bed again, and Olivia came and sat gingerly on the edge. He moved the cellular away from his ear so that she could hear.

"Matt, what the f.u.c.k's going on?" Detective McFadden demanded.

"You mean right now?"

"Yeah."

"I'm in bed with a beautiful, almost naked woman."

Olivia pinched Matt painfully on his inner thigh.

"I wouldn't put it past you, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d." McFadden chuckled. "I mean, Dignitary Protection at the North Philly Airport at three o'clock. Wohl just told me."

Matt responded to the pinch of his thigh by reaching into Olivia's robe and taking her nipple between his fingers.

"You wouldn't dare!" she whispered furiously.

"You and Man Mountain Martinez have been selected to a.s.sist Lieutenant McGuire and his staff, and me, in the protection of Mr. Stan Colt, the movie star. . . ."

"What?" McFadden challenged incredulously.

Matt let go of Olivia's nipple, then kissed the fingers that had held it with appreciation. Olivia shook her head in resignation.

"With particular emphasis on protecting Mr. Colt from himself."

"What the h.e.l.l does that mean?"

"He likes very young girls, Charley. We are going to see that he doesn't get any while he's in town."

"You're not pulling my chain, are you?" McFadden asked, seriously.

"No. If there is an . . . incident, we are all up that famous creek without a paddle."

"How the h.e.l.l did you get involved in this?"

Matt started to push his robe from Olivia's shoulders. She stiffened, but then relaxed and then shrugged out of it.

"Colt is here to raise money for West Catholic High-"

"I saw that in the paper," McFadden interrupted.

Matt raised his head and kissed Olivia's nipple.

She sighed. When he lay back down, she shook her head, tolerantly.

"-Monsignor Schneider, who's the cardinal's man for the visit, is a cop groupie. When Colt told him he would like to see real cops at work, Schneider thought of me and went to the commissioner, and I got stuck with it."

"But why you?"

"Schneider thinks I was a real heroic cop in Doylestown," Matt said after a perceptible pause.

"Oh, s.h.i.t!" McFadden said, sympathetically.

Susan Reynolds's sightless eyes came to Matt's mind.

"s.h.i.t!" Matt said.

"What?" McFadden asked.

Olivia looked at him with concern, then touched his cheek to turn his head so that she could look in his eyes. Her eyes asked, "What?"

"Nothing," Matt said. "Charley, I have to go. . . ."

"The naked broad's h.o.r.n.y?"

"Absolutely. I'll see you and Hay-zus at the airport at three."

"Yeah," Detective McFadden said, and hung up.

Matt tossed the telephone aside and looked up at Olivia. "A lot of people thought you acted heroically in Doylestown," she said.

"That's a joke. I didn't even do the job right. If I had, Susan would still be alive."

" 'Susan'? You were friends?"

"More than friends," Matt said.

"I saw you crying on TV," she said. "I wondered."

He looked at her but didn't say anything.

"You know what I feel like doing to you right now?" she said.

"I'm yours! And I love your imagination."

"I feel like putting my arms around you and holding you and telling you that everything's going to be all right."

"That isn't exactly what I thought you had in mind."

"Can I?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah," he said after a moment.

She leaned toward him and he half sat up, and she put her arms around him and held him to her breast.

They stayed that way for perhaps three minutes, and then Olivia glanced down at the sheet covering his groin.

"You h.o.r.n.y sonofab.i.t.c.h," she said, wonderingly.

"Is that a complaint?"

She pushed him away from her breast and back onto the bed and looked down at him for a moment before shaking her head, "no."

Fifteen minutes later, they got into the unmarked Crown Victoria and rode out to the Northeast Detectives Division and gave their statements.

THIRTEEN.

[ONE].

J. Richard Candelle, a squat, gray-haired fifty-year-old black man who wore his frameless spectacles low on his nose, looked over them at Detective Tony Harris, backed against a laboratory table, shook his head, and announced, "Tony, I'm sorry, that's the best I can do. There's just not enough points."

The reality of identification through fingerprints is not nearly as simple, or as easy, as a thousand cops-and-robbers movies have made the public-and, in fact, a surprising number of law enforcement officers-think it is.

Fingerprints are identified-and compared with others- through a system of point location, and the cla.s.sification of these points. The more points on a print, the better. The more prints-prints of more than one finger, of the heel of the hand, or ten fingers and both heels-and the more cla.s.sified points on each print, the easier it is to find similarly cla.s.sified prints in the files.

Presupposing having both both to compare, comparing the print found on the visor hat left behind by the doer at the Roy Rogers restaurant with the print of the doer himself would be relatively simple and would just about positively identify the suspect. to compare, comparing the print found on the visor hat left behind by the doer at the Roy Rogers restaurant with the print of the doer himself would be relatively simple and would just about positively identify the suspect.

But establishing the ident.i.ty of the doer by finding a match of his index-finger print among the hundreds of thousands of index-finger prints in the files of the Philadelphia police department, or the millions in the FBI's files, was a practical impossibility. establishing the ident.i.ty of the doer by finding a match of his index-finger print among the hundreds of thousands of index-finger prints in the files of the Philadelphia police department, or the millions in the FBI's files, was a practical impossibility.

Except, if a print could be obtained with many "good" points, that could be point cla.s.sified. if a print could be obtained with many "good" points, that could be point cla.s.sified.

J. Richard Candelle, Philadelphia's fingerprint expert, had just not been able to detect enough points on the single index finger print he had to offer even a slight chance of matching it with a print in the files.

"f.u.c.k, that's not good enough," Harris said, bitterly.

"I will elect not to consider that a personal criticism, and under these circ.u.mstances forgive your vulgarity." Candelle, whose forensic laboratory skills were legendary, was a dignified man, befitting his part-time status as an adjunct professor of chemistry at Temple University.

"It wasn't a shot at you, d.i.c.k, and you know it," Harris said.

Candelle waited until he saw what he thought was a genuine look of regret on Harris's face, and then went on: "I was here all f.u.c.king night, Tony. I had two f.u.c.king doughnuts for breakfast, my f.u.c.king feet hurt, and I have had every f.u.c.king white shirt in the Roundhouse in here making sure I was really doing my f.u.c.king best."

Harris looked at him.

"Well, in that case, you f.u.c.king overworked old fart, I guess I better buy you some f.u.c.king lunch before you f.u.c.king expire of starvation, old age, and self-pity right here in the f.u.c.king lab."

"I think that would be an appropriate gesture of your grat.i.tude, " Candelle replied, smiled, and started to replace his laboratory coat with a sports coat.

Using tweezers, Candelle picked up the crownless visor cap the doer had left behind in the Roy Rogers and replaced it in the plastic evidence bag.

"You want me to hang on to this, Tony?"

"No. Give it to me. Maybe I'll take it to a psychic."

Candelle chuckled.

"I really am sorry, Tony," he said.

Harris punched him affectionately on the arm.

"We both are, d.i.c.k," he said. "What do you feel like eating? "

They went to DiNic's in the Reading Terminal Market on Twelfth Street and sat on stools at a counter. Both ordered roast pork sandwiches with sharp provolone cheese and roasted hot peppers and washed them down with beer.

"I hate to reopen a wound," Candelle said, "but I just had another unpleasant thought."

"Which is?"

"It's really a shame Luther Stecker retired."

"Who's he?"

"The State Police guy, in Harrisburg. Lieutenant."