‘Did you roll him over?’ I said.
‘Yes. Then we rolled him back.’
‘Mind if I take a look?’
‘Be my guest.’
I stepped over next to the bed and slipped my left hand under
the dead guy’s armpit and rolled him over. He was cold and a
little stiff. Rigor was just setting in. I got him settled flat on
his back and saw four things. First, his skin had a distinctive
grey pallor. Second, shock and pain were frozen on his face.
Third, he had grabbed his left arm with his right hand, up
near the bicep. And fourth, he was wearing a condom. His
blood pressure had collapsed long ago and his erection had
disappeared and the condom was hanging off, mostly empty,
like a translucent flap of pale skin. He had died before reaching
orgasm. That was clear.
‘Heart attack,’ Stockton said, behind me.
I nodded. The grey skin was a good indicator. So was the
evidence of shock and surprise and sudden pain in his upper
left arm.
‘Massive,’! said.
‘But before or after penetration?’ Stockton said, with a smile
in his voice.
I looked at the pillow area. The bed was still completely
made. The dead guy was on top of the counterpane and the
counterpane was still tight over the pillows. But there was a
head-shaped dent, and there were rucks where elbows and
heels had scrabbled and pushed lower down.
‘She was underneath him when it happened,’ I said. ‘That’s
for sure. She had to wrestle her way out.’
‘Hell of a way for a man to go.’
I turned around. ‘I can think of worse ways.’
Stockton just smiled at me.
vVhat?’ I said.
He didn’t answer.
‘No sign of the woman?’ I said.
‘Hide nor hair,’ he said. ‘She ran for it.’
‘The desk guy see her?’
Stockton just smiled again.
18
I looked at him. Then I understood. A low-rent dive near a
highway interchange with a truck stop and a strip bar, thirty
miles north of a military base.
‘She was a hooker,’ I said. ‘That’s how he was found. The
desk guy knew her. Saw her running out way too soon. Got
curious as to why and came in here to check.’
Stockton nodded. ‘He called us right away. The lady in question
was long gone by then, of course. And he’s denying she
was ever here in the first place. He’s pretending this isn’t that
kind of an establishment.’
‘Your department had business here before?’
‘Time to time,’ he said. ‘It is that kind of an establishment,
believe me.’
Control the situation, Garber had said.
‘Heart attack, right?’ I said. ‘Nothing more.’
‘Probably,’ Stockton said. ‘But we’ll need an autopsy to know
for sure.’
The room was quiet. I could hear nothing except radio traffic
from the cop cars outside, and music from the bar across the
street. I turned back to the bed. Looked at the dead guy’s face. I
didn’t know him. I looked at his hands. He had a West Point
ring on his right and a wedding band on his left, wide, old,
probably nine carat. I looked at his chest. His dog tags were
hidden under his right arm, where he had reached across to
grab his left bicep. I lifted the arm with difficulty and pulled the
tags out. He had rubber silencers on them. I raised them until
the chain went tight against his neck. His name was Kramer
and he was a Catholic and his blood group was O.
‘We could do the autopsy for you,’ I said. ‘Up at the Walter
Reed Army Medical Center.’
‘Out of state?’
‘He’s a general.’
‘You want to hush it up.’
I nodded. ‘Sure I do. Wouldn’t you?’
‘Probably,’ he said.
I let go of the dog tags and moved away from the bed and
checked the night stands and the built-in counter. Nothing
there. There was no phone in the room. A place like this, I
figured there would be a pay phone in the office. I moved past
19
Stockton and checked the bathroom. There was a privately
purchased black leather Dopp kit next to the sink, zipped
closed. It had the initials KRK embossed on it. I opened it up