Dark Maze

tragic death. Hospital security officers are cooperating with the police department in a thorough investigation of this matter.” Others on the Bellevue staff, who asked to remain anonymous, said Dr. Reiser was a “selfless humanitarian” who had been treating Picasso unofficially for several years—up until eight months ago when Picasso physically attacked him, for reasons Reiser did not discuss. Picasso was at that time restrained by orderlies and then evicted from the hospital, according to these sources. It is believed that Picasso had not recently seen Dr. Reiser for his usual treatments, described by the sources as “psychiatric counseling in connection with habitual and potentially violent hallucinogenic episodes.”
    • Benito Molevo Reyes, 40, of Manhattan, owner of the B&C Superette, Tenth Avenue near West Forty-fifth Street. Knifed in the throat last night as he tended his store alone, between the hours of 11:00 and 11:30. The killer, unnoticed by neighborhood residents upon entry or exit from Reyes’ bodega, left behind a blood-soaked box-cutter knife. Police said there were no signs of struggle and that Reyes’ widow, Carolena, discovered the body after failing to get an answer from her husband when she called him from a back room of the shop. About an hour prior to the murder, Picasso allegedly used white paint to draw the figure of a man dying from a knife wound in the neck on the window of Reyes’ bodega. According to Luis Riestra, 16, who lives with his mother in an apartment directly over the bodega, Picasso was informally employed by Reyes to paint advertisements on the shop window. But Riestra told the Post last night, “It was strange, because Picasso usually painted in the daytime. Last night I was on the corner with my friends and I saw Picasso come by and go into Benito’s place, then Benito came outside and they talked and Benito went back inside.” The two men did not argue, Riestra said. “Then I noticed Picasso was painting the window real fast, then he took off. I didn’t notice anybody else go in the store after that, but somebody sure did.”
    Riestra added that a police officer of his acquaintance who lives in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood— Detective Neil Hockaday of the Street Crimes Unit, Manhattan—had arrived at the bodega in a large black car minutes before Reyes’ body was discovered. He said Detective Hockaday, whom he referred to as Hock, got out from the back of the car and spoke to someone else in the backseat for a while before the car drove off.
    “Then when the black car left, Benito’s wife started screaming,” Riestra said. “Me and my friends ran to the store and Hock was at the door with a gun and he said to call 911, which my mother did and also one of my friends. Then there were cops all over the place.” Riestra also said that Detective Hockaday questioned him about Picasso. “I didn’t bring up Picasso, Hock did,” Riestra said. “He asked me a whole lot of questions about Picasso, like where he lived and how long he’s been around the neighborhood. But nobody knows about Picasso, except he’s a very strange dude.”
    Detective Hockaday was seen by reporters at the scene of last night’s bodega murder, but he declined to speak about the case. He did, however, present Riestra to reporters by saying, “This young man has your story.”
    Other officers on scene at the Tenth Avenue slaying, including commanders from the Midtown North station house, were also unusually reluctant to answer questions. At Post press time, the only official statement came from the Public Information Office of police headquarters: “The department has taken special steps to ensure the expeditious apprehension of a perpetrator in what may be a series of related homicides. Inspector Tomassino Neglio has temporarily reassigned Detective Neil Hockaday of Street Crimes Unit, Manhattan to lead a team from the Central Homicide Squad in the investigation of the deaths of Celia Furman, Dr. Ronald Reiser and Benito Molevo Reyes.”
    Meanwhile, a number of New York political leaders joined the mayor in issuing a statement from City Hall expressing their anger....

    There was not much more to Slattery’s story, but I stopped there because I could see that breakfast was coming and there is no sense in spoiling good food with mealy quotations from New York political leaders. Wanda was carrying our plates in her ample arms and Pete trotted after her in his white