"Can't you find a few things you missed?" Parker suggested. "Like, for example, you didn't paint the typewriters, or the bottle on the water cooler, or our guns. How come you missed our guns? You got green all over everything else in the goddamn place."
"You should be grateful," the first painter said. "Some people won't work on Saturday
So both painters left in high dudgeon, and Parker went back to sleep in the swivel chair behind his desk.
"I don't know what kind of a squad I'm running here," Lieutenant Byrnes said, "when two experienced detectives can blow a surveillance, one by getting made first crack out of the box, and the other by losing his man; that's a pretty good batting average for two experienced detectives."
"I was told the suspect didn't have a car," Meyer said. "I was told he had taken a train the night before."
"That's right, he did," Kling said.
"I had no way of knowing a woman would be waiting for him in a car," Meyer said.
"So you lost him," Byrnes said, "which might have been all right if
the man had gone home last night. But O'Brien was stationed outside the La Bresca house in Riverhead, and the man never showed, which means we don't know where he is today, now do we? We don't know where a prime suspect is on the day the deputy mayor is supposed to get killed."
"No, sir," Meyer said, "we don't know where La Bresca is."
"Because
"I guess so, sir."
"Well, how would you revise that statement, Meyer?"
"I wouldn't, sir. I lost him."
"Yes, very good, I'll put you in for a commendation."
"Thank you, sir."
"Don't get flip, Meyer."
"I'm sorry, sir."
"This isn't a goddamn joke here, I don't want Scanlon to wind up with two holes in his head the way Cowper did."
"No, sir, neither do I."
"Okay, then learn for Christ's sake how to tail a person, will you?"
"Yes, sir."
"Now what about this other man you say La Bresca spent time with in conversation, what was his name?"
"Calucci, sir. Peter Calucci."
"Did you check him out?"
"Yes, sir, last night before I went home. Here's the stuff we got from the B.C.I."
Meyer placed a manila envelope on Byrnes' desk, and then stepped back to join the other detectives ranged in a military line before the desk. None of the men was smiling. The lieutenant was in a lousy mood, and somebody was supposed to come up with fifty thousand dollars before noon, and the possibility existed that the deputy mayor would soon be dispatched to that big City Hall in the sky, so nobody was smiling. The lieutenant reached into the envelope and pulled out a photocopy of a fingerprint card, glanced at it cursorily, and then pulled out a photocopy of Calucci's police record.
Byrnes read the sheet, and then said, "When did he get out?"
"He was a bad apple. He applied for parole after serving a third of the sentence, was denied, and applied every year after that. He finally made it in seven."
Byrnes looked at the sheet again.
IDENTIFICATION BUREAU
NAME Peter Vincent Calucci
IDENTIFICATION JACKET NUMBER P 421904
ALIAS "Calooch" "Cooch" "Kook"
COLOR White
RESIDENCE 336 South 91st Street, Isola
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1938 AGE 22
BIRTHPLACE Isola
HEIGHT 5'9" WEIGHT 156 HAIR Brown EYES Brown
COMPLEXION Swarthy OCCUPATION Construction worker
SCARS AND TATTOOS Appendectomy scar, no tattoos.
ARRESTED BY: Patrolman Henry Butler
DETECTIVE DIVISION NUMBER: 63-R1-1605-1960
DATE OF ARREST 3/14/60 PLACE 812 North 65 St., Isola
CHARGE Robbery
BRIEF DETAILS OF CRIME Calucci entered gasoline station
at 812 North 65 Street at or about midnight, threatened to shoot
attendant if he did not open safe. Attendant said he did not know
combination, Calucci cocked revolver and was about to fire when
patrolman Butler of 63rd Precinct came upon scene and apprehended
him.
PREVIOUS RECORD None
INDICTED Criminal Courts, March 15, 1960.
FINAL CHARGE Robbery in first degree, Penal Law 2125
DISPOSITION Pleaded guilty 7/8/60, sentenced to ten years at Castleview Prison.
"What's he been doing?" Byrnes asked.
"Construction work."
"That how he met La Bresca?"
"Calucci's parole officer reports that his last job was with Abco Construction, and a call to the company listed La Bresca as having worked there at the same time."
"I forget, does this La Bresca have a record?"
"No, sir."
"Has Calucci been clean since he got out?"
"According to his parole officer, yes, sir."
"Now who's this person 'Dom' who called La Bresca Thursday night?"
"We have no idea, sir."
"Because La Bresca tipped to your tailing him, isn't that right, Kling?"
"Yes, sir, that's right, sir."
"Is Brown still on that phone tap?"
"Yes, sir."
"Have you tried any of our stoolies?"
"No, sir, not yet."
"Well, when the hell do you propose to get moving? We're supposed to deliver fifty thousand dollars by twelve o'clock. It's now a quarter after ten, when the hell …"
"Sir, we've been trying to get a line on Calucci. His parole officer gave us an address, and we sent a man over, but his landlady says he hasn't been there since early yesterday morning."
