Dark Maze

as usual, the paper founded in 1801 by the aristocrat Alexander Hamilton had gone over the top.
    Inky block lettering and a grainy photograph packed with gore and misery covered the front page of the Post like a fat man’s body splattered face down on Thirty-fourth Street after a long tumble down the Empire State Building. “Maniac in Manhattan” was the pithy title riding over a picture of poor bloody Benito being transported by stretcher from his bodega to a morgue truck, with the sobbing Carolena huddled in a cop’s arms and wide-eyed Luis pointing to where the victim’s shop window had been weirdly defiled. The bottom of the page promised all the ghastly details inside: “Horror by Day & Night, Full Coverage and More Pix, Pages 2-3.”
    I opened the paper in a hurry.
    There was an old newswire photo of Celia Furman, and a new picture of Angelo’s Ebb Tide taken from the street. The caption under these read, “Woman Gambler from Detroit Is First Victim, Gunned Down in Hell’s Kitchen Bar.” A Bachrach portrait of Dr. Reiser appeared alongside a Post file photo of Bellevue Hospital, with an airbrushed arrow indicating the rooftop where Reiser died: “Top Psychiatrist Knifed to Death by Crazed Intruder.” An enlarged close-up section of the cover photo zeroed in on Picasso’s grotesque drawing of the throatless man, which begged the question, “Brand of a Killer?” I supposed the question mark was published on the advice and counsel of the newspaper’s lawyer. There was also a two-column cut of a now-grinning Luis—“Witness Describes Prime Police Suspect for Post Artist”—with an accompanying sketch of Picasso that I thought was an excellent likeness. I wondered what Picasso thought, and where he might be reading his press notices that morning.
    The story’s bulky headlines were a stream of black, spread over two full pages. Nobody plays crime better than the New York Post, and nobody writes about it with more comprehensive flair than my friend Slats:

    Major Manhunt Is On—Serial Killer Slays 3
    Cops Search for Street Artist Called “Picasso”

    By William T. Slattery

    The murderous rampage of a brutal serial killer began in broad daylight, with a shooting in a Ninth Avenue bar. Two days later, in the dead of night, the killer struck down two more victims, first evading Bellevue Hospital security staffers to plunge a butcher knife into the back of a prominent psychiatrist, then calmly walking into a Hell’s Kitchen bodega where he slashed open the neck of a hard-working shopkeeper with a box-cutter blade.
    Sources tell the Post that homicide detectives are engaged in a desperate manhunt for a homeless artist known only as Picasso. Officially, the police would only say that Picasso is wanted for “simple questioning.” But the Post has learned that Picasso may have a history of violence and mental illness, and that he has direct personal links with at least two of the three recent murder victims. Those victims, in order of their deaths, are:
    • Celia Furman, 59, of Detroit. Gunned down in a noisy crowd at Angelo’s Ebb Tide bar on Ninth Avenue at West 44th Street at about 5 p.m. Monday by an unknown assailant dubbed by some in the media as the “Happy Hour Shooter.” The unrecovered weapon used was a small-caliber pistol, according to police, who believe the killer fired at close range as Ms. Furman sat on a barstool, then left without notice. The owner of the bar, Angelo Cifelli, said in a brief telephone interview: “She was an old pal from Motown and I’m upset, okay? This is a friendly neighborhood-type place. Nobody saw anything, nobody heard shots, and that’s all I got to say.” A Detroit newspaper, which supplied the Post with an exclusive photo of Ms. Furman, reports that she had an extensive criminal record for gambling violations in that city.
    • Dr. Ronald I. Reiser, 48, of Manhattan, an innovative psychiatrist well respected by his Bellevue Hospital colleagues. Stabbed to death yesterday by the so-called “Bellevue Slasher” sometime during early evening hours while tending an open-air garden he maintained on the roof of the hospital’s psychiatric ward. The killer left an eight-inch household butcher knife buried in the doctor’s back. Bellevue’s public relations office would issue only this statement: “A person or persons unknown apparently gained access to Dr. Reiser’s unauthorized roof garden, then assaulted the doctor with a knife, resulting in his