Shallow Graves

engaged.
    “Who else has a key to this place?“
    “What, you mean this apartment here?“
    “Right.“
    “All the family’s got one. They don’t know when they need the place, they want to be able to use it, right?“
    “Does Sinead have a key?“
    Ooch seemed taken back. “Sinead, she ain’t family. She’s a nice kid and all, but she’s just a tenant.“
    “How about Tina?“
    “Yeah. Yeah, she had one.“
    “Where?“
    “In her apartment.“
    “Where in her apartment?“
    “Kitchen. Drawer by the faucet there.“
    I looked around the second-floor unit. Modestly but functionally furnished, a notch above a suite in a good hotel.
    Ooch was back at the bedroom window, me joining him there. I leaned out, looking up to Mau Tim’s landing above, then down to the flight to Fagan’s apartment before the raised last link. I said, “You afraid of heights, Ooch?“
    “Me? No.“
    “Mind climbing out onto the fire escape and going up to the next floor, then down again?“
    Flick, sniff/sniff. “You want me to climb up, then down?“
    “Right.“
    He motioned for me to stand back a little. He moved agilely over the sill and went up to the third floor, just one hand on the railing. I could hear a clang with every step.
    Ooch said, “Okay?“
    “Fine. Now come back down again. This time, slow and light on your feet.“
    “Huh?“
    “Come toward me slowly, light on your feet.“
    Ooch shook his head, but used the bannister to ease down the escape. No clanging until he hit the landing outside my window.
    “Okay, now go down all the way to alley level.“
    “All the way?“
    “Right.“
    He shook his head again. “You want this one fast or slow?“
    “Regular speed.“
    “Light or heavy?“
    “Regular.“
    “Regular.“ Flick, sniff/sniff.
    He got to Sinead’s landing fine, but then had to finesse the bottom flight, steadying himself with both hands on the bannisters as his weight counterbalanced the last link and it descended with him toward the ground. It didn’t clang, though. More a grinding, squealing noise, and very loud.
    At the bottom, Ooch stayed on the last rung and turned up to me. “Okay?“
    Not sure it mattered anymore, I said, “You’re sure those trash cans were against the wall Friday night when you checked down there?“
    “What, these here?“
    “Yes.“
    “Sure I’m sure. That it?“
    “Yes. Come on back up.“
    Ooch stepped carefully, the last link grinding and squealing some more as it retracted into place. Coming up the flight from Sinead’s apartment to the second floor, he said, “Gotta get some oil on that thing.“
    “You ever try this before?“
    “Yeah.“ He climbed through the window and into the bedroom. “When my uncle asked me about being superintendent. I tried everything then. Been a coupla years, though.“
    A straight, simple answer. “Ooch, the door to this second-floor apartment, was it kept locked?“
    “Sure.“
    “How about this second-floor window?“
    “This here? I don’t know. I’m not in here much, tell you the truth. Just to clean up, somebody’s coming or just been.“
    “Tina’s parents were coming up the day after she was killed, right?“ —
    “Yeah.“ Flick, sniff/sniff. “They was coming up on Saturday, see her and have a birthday dinner Saturday night.“
    “So you didn’t do any cleaning up for them?“
    “No. I mean, yeah, I did.“
    “I don’t follow you.“
    “See, I didn’t know what time they was coming up on Saturday, so I was in here Friday afternoon, before I went out to the gym.“
    I inclined my head toward the window. “You aired the place out.“
    “Sure. You gotta do that, these buildings. Otherwise, they been closed up a while, they get musty like today, you know?“
    “And you locked the door to this apartment when you left?“
    A blank look. “A course I did. I’m the super, remember?“
    “When did you close the window here?“
    Flick, sniff/sniff. “Saturday.“
    “Saturday.“
    “Yeah. Saturday, it starts to rain. I remember, the windows’re open on the second floor, so I come up and shut them.“
    “And the door to this apartment was locked then, too.“
    “A course it was. What’s so hard to understand?“
    An honest face. Roughed up some, and maybe not quite everything you’d want behind it. But enough to make me rethink a lot of things I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

- 19 -

    When Ooch let me out of the second-floor apartment, I heard strident rap music from downstairs and