Read Hark! for Free Online Page B

remarked.
    â€œHe spelled oh wrong,” Genero said, sure of it now. He’d looked it up in the dictionary last night. At five feet nine inches tall, Genero thought he was very tall. From his father, he had inherited beautiful curly black hair, a strong Neapolitan nose, a sensuous mouth, and soulful brown eyes. From his mother, he had inherited the tall Milanese carriage of all his male cousins and uncles—except for his Uncle Dominick, who was only five-six.
    â€œTell me something,” Byrnes said. “Doesn’t the perp realize we know this girl’s name? I mean, he left her in her own apartment, he didn’t dump her in the park someplace without any ID on her, he’s got to realize we already know who she is. Isn’t that so?”
    â€œIt would appear to be so, yes, sir,” Carella said.
    Byrnes looked at him. He was not used to being sirred by his detectives.
    â€œSo why is he asking us who she is? And why is he telling us there’s a hint in his note? Where’s the hint? Do any of you see a hint? Hot or otherwise?”
    â€œAm I the only one eating here?” Parker asked.
    â€œI can use some coffee,” Brown said.
    He appeared to be scowling, but that was merely his normal expression. A big man…well, a huge man…with eyes and skin the color of his name, Arthur Brown was the sort of detective who reveled in playing Bad Cop because it fulfilled the stereotypical expectations of so many white people. He particularly enjoyed being partnered with Bert Kling, whose blond hair and healthy cornfed looks made him the perfect Good Cop honkie foil. Going to the bookcase feast now, eating a donut in three bites before he poured himself a cup of coffee and put two more donuts on a paper plate, Brown said, “Could we see that second note, please?”
    Carella passed it around:
    A WET CORPUS?
CORN, ETC?
    â€œHe’s telling us we’ve got a bleeding corpse here,” Brown said.
    â€œJust what I thought,” Meyer said.
    â€œThen why the question marks?” Genero asked.
    â€œHe’s saying ‘Get it?’ ” Kling said. “Wake up here! I’m spelling it all out for you, dummies.”
    â€œPay attention here!”
    â€œ Listen to me.”
    â€œ Hark !”
    They all turned to look at Willis.
    â€œIs actually what he’s saying,” Willis said, and shrugged. Dark-haired and dark-eyed, he was the shortest man on the squad, but he was a black belt in karate, and he was ready to knock any one of his colleagues flat on his ass in ten seconds flat if they questioned his use of a perfectly legitimate synonym for “listen carefully.”
    â€œThe third note is where he begins to lose it,” Meyer said. “In my opinion, anyway.”
    â€œCould we see it again?” Kling asked.
    Carella placed it on Byrnes’s desk. They crowded around it, munching donuts.
    BRASS HUNT?
CELLAR?
    â€œWas there any top brass at the scene?” Byrnes asked.
    â€œNot a big enough case to draw their attention,” Carella said.
    â€œSo what’s this about a ‘brass hunt?’ ”
    â€œI figured he might be referring to spent cartridge cases.”
    â€œDid Mobile find any?”
    â€œNo, but…”
    â€œWhat’d Ballistics say the weapon was?”
    â€œA forty-five automatic.”
    â€œSo there wouldn’t have been any.”
    â€œSo what does ‘brass hunt’ mean?”
    â€œAnd why’s he sending us to the cellar?”
    â€œWhich, by the way,” Meyer said, “Mobile went down there this afternoon and found zilch.”
    â€œDown where?” Genero asked.
    â€œThe basement of the building,” Carella said. “Where the girl was killed.”
    â€œShe was killed in the basement?”
    â€œNo, in her bedroom. I meant the building where she was killed.”
    Genero looked bewildered.
    â€œThe last note is where he loses it entirely,”