Inherit the Dead

area, he thought. In summer when the trees are out, it’s really pretty. And the building has an elevator. Sure wish mine did. Those five flights of stairs are a killer.
    He found a parking spot, a very small one. Back in my squad days the guys used to say that I could park an elephant in a teacup, heremembered with a sigh. He tried to find something to feel cheerful about but could only come up with the fact that it had stopped raining.
    He got out of the car, locked it, and walked down the block to Noreen’s building. As he got close to it, he looked up and could see Nicky watching for him from the window. He waved, but she didn’t wave back. Harry, the superintendent, greeted him with the same cliché, “How you doing, Mr. Christo? Been solving any crimes lately?”
    “Yeah. I just found the Maltese Falcon. It’s in the trunk of my car.” Perry forced a smile. He was tired of trying to figure out a comeback that Harry would get. Bracing himself for the recriminations he knew would be coming his way, he headed for the elevator and pushed the button. Thankfully, the elevator was already there. At least twenty seconds saved, he thought.
    When he got to the sixth floor, Nicky was already in the hall waiting for him. “Daddy, you’re always late,” she said accusingly as she threw herself at him.
    Perry wrapped his arms around her and felt the familiar rush of love that engulfed him when he held his daughter. God, she’s gotten even taller in just a couple of weeks, he thought. She’s going to be sixteen. I’ve missed so much of her life. “Oh, baby, you don’t know how glad I am to see you,” he said. He tilted up her face. “I didn’t think it was possible, but you’re even prettier than last time.”
    “You said that last time.”
    “And the time before that because it’s true.”
    She’s the image of Noreen , he thought, not for the first time. But with a sense of humor, thank God . His arm wrapped around her and they walked down the hallway to the apartment. The door was ajar, and as they crossed the foyer he could see that Cornelius Barker, Noreen’s boyfriend, was stretched out in the reclining chair with his feet on the hassock. Perry knew that was his way of showing that he was the man of the house.
    “Hi, Corny,” Perry said with mock cheer. “Been setting the world on fire lately?”
    “Daddy!” Nicky said reproachfully, even as he knew she was trying not to laugh.
    “Well, you certainly haven’t been since we laid eyes on each other.” The crisp voice came from Noreen as she emerged from the kitchen. “And his name is Cornelius, or Neil, if that’s too long a word for you.”
    Noreen’s auburn hair was twisted in a bun. Her superb figure was enhanced by a clingy white top and flowing black pants. Her slender high-arched feet were in shoes that consisted of a few scraps of velvet and silver heels.
    Noreen was always around when he came to pick up Nicky. And even though she always needled him about something, she always made it her business to look terrific. And she always made it a point to play chef for Corny Barker, so the aroma of something good in the oven was drifting through the apartment.
    Perry always felt that, on some unconscious level, Noreen was showing him what he was missing. A nicely decorated comfortable apartment, a good meal, and her . All of which is true, he thought. Not that he hadn’t met some interesting ladies along the way, including one who loved to golf almost as much as he did. Noreen thought that chasing a ball through the grass was, as she put it, “a trivial way to spend the day.”
    The trouble with the golfer was that she was a nonstop talker, even when he was about to swing a club. She hadn’t lasted long with him.
    Now Nicky was giving him the look that said, Please, Daddy, don’t get into an argument with Mom.
    “Hello, Noreen,” he said. “May I say you look lovely? And I think I can detect the delectable scent of a pot roast simmering in the Crock-Pot. Am I right?”
    “You know perfectly well that’s a roast chicken,” Noreen snapped. “Unless you’ve taken leave of all of your senses, which of course is possible. And it really is terrible that you kept Nicky waiting so long, and you do it every time. Every single time.”
    “Not every single time, and I never do it deliberately. I’m sure when I tell her about the case I’m on, she’ll more than understand.” Perry resisted his desire to kick the hassock out from