Bread (87th Precinct) Read Online Free Page B

house, and he wouldn’t bark all night long. God, I hate dogs!”
    “Did you, ah, hear anything besides dogs barking last night?”
    “Who can hear anything with all those mutts howling?” Aronowitz asked. He was becoming very agitated.
    Hawes thought he had best change the subject before Aronowitz began frothing at the mouth. “Let’s try to work out a timetable, okay? Maybe that’ll help us.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, for example, what time did you get home last night?”
    “Six-thirty,” Aronowitz said.
    “Did you pass the Grimm house?”
    “Sure. He’s right next door, I pass the house every day.”
    “Everything seem all right at that time?”
    “Everything seemed fine.”
    “Nobody lurking around or anything?”
    “Nobody. Well, wait a minute, the gardener was watering the lawn at the Franklin house across the way. But he’s their regular gardener, he’s there maybe three, four times a week. I wouldn’t consider that lurking, would you? You should see the dog they’ve got, a big Great Dane who comes bounding out of the driveway like a lion, he could tear out your throat in one gulp. God, what a monster!”
    “What’d you do then? After you got home?”
    “I changed my clothes, and I had a couple of martinis before dinner.”
    “Are you married, Mr. Aronowitz?”
    “Fourteen years to the same woman. She hates dogs, too.”
    “Did she hear anything unusual last night?”
    “No. At least, she didn’t mention anything.”
    “Okay, you had dinner at…what time?”
    “About seven-thirty, eight o’clock.”
    “Then what?”
    “We went outside and sat on the terrace, and had some brandy and listened to some music.”
    “Until what time?”
    “Ten o’clock.”
    “No strange sounds outside?”
    “None.”
    “What’d you do then?”
    “Well,” Aronowitz said, and shrugged.
    “Yes?”
    “Well…this is sort of personal.” He hesitated, looked down at his folded hands, and shyly said, “We made love.”
    “Okay,” Hawes said.
    “We didn’t hear anything while we were making love,” Aronowitz said.
    “Okay,” Hawes said.
    “Afterwards, we went upstairs. I was getting ready for bed when I happened to look out the window. Grimm’s lights were still on, and the place was in flames.”
    “In other words, between the time you got home and the time you went upstairs to bed, nothing unusual happened.”
    “Well, yes,” Aronowitz said.
    “What?” Hawes said, leaning forward.
    “We made love on the terrace. That’s unusual. We usually do it upstairs in the bedroom.”
    “Yes, but aside from that…”
    “Nothing.”
    “Mr. Aronowitz, did you happen to glance over at the Grimm house any time before you noticed the fire?”
    “I guess so. We were on the terrace, and the terrace faces Grimm’s house, so I guess we looked at it occasionally. Why?”
    “This was after dinner, am I correct? You were on the terrace until about ten o’clock…”
    “Well, even later,” Aronowitz said. “We were listening to music until ten o’clock, but after that…”
    “Yes, I understand. What I’m trying to find out is whether there were any lights showing in the Grimm house?”
    “Lights? You mean…”
    “At any time during the night, did you notice lights in the Grimm house?”
    “Well…no. I guess not. I think the house was dark.”
    “But the lights were on when you noticed the fire.”
    “Yes,” Aronowitz said, and frowned.
    “Thank you,” Hawes said.
    “I don’t get it,” Aronowitz said. “Why would anybody turn on the lights if he was about to set a fire?”

 
    Except in cases of pyromania, where the perpetrator acts without conscious motive, there are very real reasons for arson, and every cop in the world knows them by heart.
    Parker had checked out Grimm’s competitors in the brisk wooden-goods trade, and expressed the opinion that none of them had sufficient motive for committing a crime as heavy as arson. Well, even if Carella respected Parker’s