Paranoia (Michael Bennett #17)

CHAPTER 97

I HADN’T GOTTEN more than three steps from the front door when Walter Jackson rushed out to meet us.

I’ll admit Walter’s health was starting to concern me. Hurrying to catch us had left him seriously winded. He leaned down with both hands on his knees while he caught his breath. I was worried he might fall to the ground. I even looked over my shoulder at Trilling to make sure I had help if needed. My spry partner was ready to jump in, I could tell.

Finally, Walter gulped in enough air to say, “Here are Roger Dzoriack’s prints. Just trying to save you a trip to the medical examiner’s. The prints were already in the system.”

I took the sheet of paper and thanked Walter.

He said, “I talked to a buddy at the Department of Defense. He’ll run any prints the moment I send them to him electronically. If you find a usable print, theoretically we could have a hit by this evening.”

“You did all that in the time it took me to get downstairs?”

Walter gave me a big smile. “All it cost me was a decent pun.”

I didn’t want to ask him what the pun was, but he had been so helpful, I felt I had to.

He gave me another smile and said, “A young woman fell in love with a tennis player. But love meant nothing to him.” Walter stood there staring at me like I needed to respond.

Somehow I mustered, “Well worth the cost.”

Trilling laughed out loud, then told Walter, “I have one you can use to buy more favors.”

I had to step in at that point. “We need to get going. You guys can exchange your puns and dad jokes later.” I started to cross the street to my car. A garbage truck slowed as it came past me. I waited as a sanitation worker jumped off the back and grabbed one of the public trash cans under the elevated tracks.

Walter stepped in front of us, “This case has me a little shaken. You guys need to be on alert even if you’re just going to look at an empty apartment.”

The garbage truck started to move on. I said to Walter, “I promise we’ll make it back here safely. What could happen between here and Staten Island?”

It didn’t look like that satisfied Walter’s anxiety in any way.