Death of Riley by Rhys Bowen Page B

toes.”
    “I wish you would,” I said. I pulled out the chair and was about to sit on it when I remembered the blood and hastily stood up again. “Sergeant Wolski seems to think that Paddy deserved to be killed because he worked with both the police and the gangs. He thinks it was a revenge killing.”
    “He confided all this to you? You've become
his
righthand woman too?”
    “I happened to be here when he arrived. I was the one who found Paddy.”
    “You found him dead?”
    “Dying. The killer was still here, hidden in the back room, just like I was just now.”
    “Holy Mother,” Daniel muttered. “He could have killed you too.”
    “Easily. I thought Paddy was asleep, you see. I heard a noise and went to investigate. He knocked me over, like you did, only a little more violently, as you can see from the bruise on my face, and made his getaway through that window.”
    He reacted as if he had only just noticed the bruises. He took my chin in his hand and turned the discolored side toward him, wincing as he touched the swollen area around my lip. “I seem to make a habit of meeting you after men have beaten you up. You live a charmed life, my dear.”
    I moved hastily out of reach of his touch. “I must have been a cat in a former existence,” I said breezily. “Don't they say cats have nine lives?”
    “You've already used up several of yours,” he said. “Be careful.”
    He was looking at me tenderly again, which I found distinctly unnerving. “Don't worry. I plan to be.” I brushed a last speck from my skirt and straightened my blouse. “So what is it you were looking for?”
    “I don't know, really. I just wanted to take a look for myself, to see if Paddy had left any notes on—” He broke off.
    “On what?”
    “On the little matter I'd asked him to check into.”
    “His cases are all in that file cabinet. The police didn't bother to try to open it.”
    He looked at the open cabinet, the files on the floor and then at me. “Oh, no,” he said. “You weren't getting any stupid ideas about investigating this yourself, were you?”
    “I just thought I'd see if there was anything the police had overlooked and they should know about. That's all.”
    He took a step closer and loomed over me. “Stay out of this, Molly. This is not child's play. Paddy was a cunning old man who knew how to take care of himself. If someone managed to kill him—”
    “Wolski thinks it was a hired assassin,” I said.
    Daniel nodded. “Could be.”
    I looked around the room, remembering the chaos, the file cabinet on its side. “But not a revenge killing. If you were hired to kill someone in revenge, you'd stab them and go. The killer was still here, remember. He was still looking for something.”
    “And you were having your own little snoop to find out what?”
    “And what if I was? Someone has to use their brains around here. That pale, arrogant Wolski wasn't making much effort to get to the truth. Couldn't you get someone else assigned to the case?”
    “Ah, well, that wouldn't be easy. Take an officer off a case and you're saying essentially that he's not up to the job. One day you may need that officer to cover your back. And I don't think I could drum up much enthusiasm for a full-scale investigation anyway. Everyone at Mulberry Street HQ expected to find Paddy's body floating in the Hudson one day, given the life he led.”
    “But you—you must think it's worth investigating, or you wouldn't be here.”
    “As I said, Paddy was doing a little business for me. If he had managed to come up with the facts I wanted— they might be around here somewhere and I'd sure like to have them.”
    “What kind of facts?”
    “I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything at all. More than my job's worth. It was strictly hush-hush, between Paddy and me.” He glanced around the room.
    I remembered something I had forgotten until now. “The day before he was killed he told me he'd like to speak to you.”
    “And you didn't