Dino read it and stopped chewing his salad. Then he started again and swallowed. “So? Who’s ‘S’?”
Stone stared at him, unbelieving. “Come on, Dino, you read her diary; don’t you recognize the handwriting?”
“Can’t say that I do,” Dino said, concentrating on the salad. “I never had much memory for handwriting.”
“I didn’t expect this.”
“Expect what? You expect me to recommend reopening the investigation based on this?” He tossed the letter back across the table.
“I didn’t expect you to stonewall me.”
“I ain’t stonewalling you, Stone. You come up with something substantial, and I’ll go with you on it.”
“Substantial? A letter from a dead woman isn’t substantial?”
“Where was it mailed?”
“Penn Station.”
“Any prints? I know you checked.”
Stone held the plastic holder at an angle and pointed. “Three. Will you run them against what we found in her apartment?”
Dino looked skeptical, then shrugged. “Okay, I’ll do that. It may take a few days; the records have probably left the precinct.”
“As soon as you can. And will you have the handwriting analyzed?”
“Against what?”
“The diary, the other stuff in evidence.”
“The case has been cleared. I expect all that stuff has gone back to her estate, to her family, by now.”
“Dino, if I can get a good analysis done, and the prints turn out to be hers, will that be enough for you to reopen?”
“Tell you the truth, I don’t know. I’d have to go to Delgado; he’d have to go to Waldron; he might even have to go to the mayor. The thing is, even if an analyst says it’s her handwriting, even if the prints are hers, what have we got to go on? We can’t trace the letter. It looks like pretty ordinary stationery to me; it was mailed in the biggest post office in the city. What could we do?”
“We’d know she’s alive.” He pushed the letter back across the table. “That’s a start.”
Dino laughed and shook his head. “You still got a hair up your ass about that, ain’t you? All that crap about cats bouncing off concrete and walking away. You know, if I had come to you with that kind of a theory, you’d have kicked my ass.”
Stone laughed. “I don’t know, Dino, I think I’d have given your idea a hearing.”
“I gave your idea a hearing,” Dino said.
“For about fifteen seconds.”
“That was all
I needed.”
“Okay, okay, but will you have the lab look at the paper and anything else they can find?”
“All right, but I’ll have to get somebody to do it on his own time. If word got around about this, I’d be pounding a beat, pronto.”
“Thanks, Dino.”
“I’ll owe somebody a favor, too.”