Tick Tock (Michael Bennett 4)

“Thanks, David,” I said, frustrated as I stood and nodded at the guard outside. “I appreciate your time.”

“Good luck and God bless you, Detective Bennett. I hope you catch the poor soul who’s out there hurting people,” Berkowitz said as the guard led him away.

Poor soul? I thought, rolling my eyes as Gaffney came in. Yeah, I couldn’t wait to catch the poor, tragic, homicidal wayward lamb myself.

“Does he get a lot of mail?” I asked Gaffney.

“It’s amazing,” Gaffney nodded. “From all over the world.”

“I know you guys read the mail, but you wouldn’t happen to have a record of Berkowitz’s correspondence, would you?”

“That we do. For Diamond Dave, we read and make a copy of everything coming and going. Even the stuff we won’t let him have.”

Maybe my trip wasn’t such a bust after all.

“Do you think I could see it?”

“Confidentially?” Gaffney asked with a wink.

“But of course,” I said.

“We actually scan everything now. I’ll e-mail you the whole ball of wax. Hope you have a big hard drive. Anything else?”

“Just one thing,” I said, hurrying behind him toward the block’s electric gate and the free world. “Where do I get my gun back?”

Chapter 39

TO THE CLACK OF KITCHEN PLATES, the pale, elegant brunette weaved her way around the dim room’s empty linen-covered tables and climbed the little corner stage to reach the ebony Steinway Concert Grand. After a moment, a slow and pretty impressionistic piece began to drift out over the room, Debussy or maybe Ravel.

At the opposite end of the wood-paneled room, Berger nodded with approval. Then he carefully tucked his damask napkin into his shirt, closed his eyes, and inhaled.

Invisible ribbons of hunger-inflaming scents from the vicinity of the swinging kitchen door behind him invaded his quivering nostrils. He detected nutty sizzling butters, meat smoke, soups redolent of mushrooms and leeks, decanted vintage wine. His palate was so sensitive, he felt he could actually distinguish the separate odors dissolving against the postage stamp–size tissue called the olfactory epithelium, high in his nasal cavity.

“Now, sir?” whispered the bug-eyed tuxedo-clad maître d’ at his back.

The arrangement was that only the maître d’ could serve or speak to him. Berger never spoke back, but rather indicated his wishes with a series of predetermined head and facial gestures. He had even asked that the shades be drawn to keep the dining space as dark as possible.

Berger waited a moment longer, holding in the glorious aromas, a junkie with a hit of crack smoke. Then he gave a subtle nod.

The maître d’s finger snap was like a starter pistol, and in came the white-jacketed waiters with the plates. They were actually more like platters. There were mounds of brioche, caviar, quiche, a roast duck, a crème brûlée, oysters, a gravy boat filled with a saffron-colored sauce, and more. It was hard to tell which meal was being served.

It was actually all of them, a montage of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Berger immediate

ly tucked in. The first thing within his grasp was a still-warm baguette. He ripped off a hunk in a detonation of flaky crumbs, stabbed it into a tub of white truffle butter, and slammed it into his waiting mouth. More crumbs went flying as he chewed with his mouth open. He loudly slurped at a glass of Cabernet, spilling much of it. Arterial-red rivulets dripped unnoticed off his chin as he reached for the plate of oysters.

He was well aware that he was breaking every rule of table etiquette. No doubt about it, he had a soft spot for food. When it came to meals, he literally became overwhelmed, almost drugged, with all the smells and tastes and, lately, even textures. He was so unabashedly gluttonous, he didn’t even use silverware anymore but went at it with his bare hands like a savage in order to heighten his obsessive pleasure. The consumption of food had become something shameless, almost horrifying, and yet in a very real sense, somehow divine.

Like the famous killers Berger so admired, he possessed an intensity of desire for certain things that other people either couldn’t understand or were afraid to even consider.

The maître d’ cleared his throat.

“More wine, sir?” he whispered beside his ear.

Berger nodded as he ripped into the duck with his bare hands, fingernails tearing deliciously at the crispy, greasy skin.

More, Berger thought, filling his mouth until his cheeks bulged. My favorite word.