Bodies in Winter Read Online Free Page A

Murrano’s wavy brown hair was thick enough to be fur. ‘Anyway, I appreciate the heads-up. If there is something I can do . . .’
    â€˜As a matter of fact,’ I quickly responded, ‘you could lend us Officer Aveda over there to start a canvas of the neighborhood. Sarney asked us to get back to him as soon as possible and it would definitely speed things up. Of course, I could always phone the lieutenant and ask for help. If you can’t spare anyone.’
    Murrano’s narrow lips expanded into a wry smile. He should never have opened his big mouth and he knew it. ‘Anything else?’ he foolishly asked.
    â€˜Yeah,’ I said. ‘The way it looks right now, the shooters were waiting for the victim. That means they had to be within sight of Lodge’s house. Two men sitting in car? On a block like this? The locals would most likely notice, especially if the shooters were Black or Hispanic.’
    â€˜Fine.’ Murrano waved us away before we could voice another request. ‘I’ll make sure the question is asked.’
    The witnesses lived on the second floor of the two-family home Lodge had been crawling toward when the coup de grace was administered. They were Otto and Eva Hinckle, in their early seventies and retired from the work force. The story they told was simple. They’d been watching television in their living room when they heard a series of small explosions. Eva described these sounds as similar to popcorn in a microwave. Oscar suspected kids setting off fire crackers.
    Foolishly, as both admitted, they went to the front window and looked out just in time to see a man wearing a ski mask and gloves fire a single shot into David Lodge’s skull.
    â€˜The guy, the one who got shot, was trying to turn his head away,’ Oscar explained, ‘and the other guy was leaning way over with his gun turned around like this.’
    Oscar twisted his wrist to the right, exactly as Adele had done twenty minutes before. I glanced at her and she flashed me a quick smile. Adele loved to be right.
    â€˜The gun was gigantic,’ Oscar continued. ‘It looked like a machine gun, only without the . . .’ He tapped his shoulder several times, then said, ‘The wood part.’
    â€˜The stock?’
    â€˜That’s right. And the other thing, the thing that holds the bullets?’
    â€˜The magazine?’
    â€˜Yeah, it was a foot long and it was in front of the trigger. And believe me, it caught my full attention. I was concentrating so hard on the guy with the gun that I didn’t even notice the other guy who was with him until the first guy ran back to the car. The second guy was also wearing a mask and gloves. And he had the same kind of gun.’
    â€˜Describe the men,’ I said. ‘Were they short, tall, slim, heavy . . . ?’
    Although the initial image the Hinckles carried, of cold-blooded murder, was indelibly imprinted in their memories, they disagreed on most of the smaller details. Height, weight, who got into the car first, who was driving, what the men wore besides gloves and masks. They didn’t remember any of these things clearly and their hesitant answers reflected their confusion. But they did agree on the dark-red color of the getaway vehicle, which was why Murrano had put out an alert.
    â€˜Did you notice anything else about the car?’ Adele asked. ‘Maybe a logo?’
    Oscar shook his head. ‘When I was a kid, I could tell you the year, make and model of any car drivin’ down the street. Now they all look alike.’
    â€˜How about damage to the exterior. Dents or rust?’
    Oscar and Eva stared at Adele for a moment, then shrugged. They just didn’t remember. Myself, I would have let it go at that point. In my experience, when you push friendly witnesses, they fill the blank spaces in their memory with false details simply because they want to please. Better to leave a business card, or