Manhattan Is My Beat (Rune 1)

"Right."

"And you think Father saw it happen?"

Rune walked farther into the apartment. She sat down on a cheap dining room chair. She glanced around the place. It was very different from Mr. Kelly's. She couldn't figure out why at first. Then she realized. This was like a hotel room, furnished by one phone call to a store that sold everything: pictures, furniture, carpet. A lot of light wood and metallic colors and laminate. Coordinated. Suburban tack.

What did it remind her of? Ohmygod, Richard's place ...

Emily lit another cigarette.

Rune glanced in

to the kitchen. She saw enough food to last through a siege. Like her mother's pantry, she thought. With its provisions of flour, yellowing boxes of raisins and oatmeal and cornstarch. The colored cans. Green, Del Monte. Red, Campbell's. Only here, the difference was that everything was new. Just like the furniture.

Emily's voice was softer as she said, "I didn't mean to suggest anything. What I said before. Ever since our mother died, Father's been, well, a little unstable. He's had a series of young friends. At least he waited until she died to turn adolescent again." She shook her head. "But a murder ... So maybe he's in danger." The cigarette paused halfway to her mouth, then lowered.

Rune told her, "I guess he's okay. I mean, I don't know that he isn't. He sure didn't hang around for very long after the man downstairs was killed."

"What happened?"

Rune told her about Robert Kelly's death.

"Why do you think my father saw it happen?"

"What it was, I came back here to pick up something after Mr. Kelly was killed. And I was in the apartment downstairs--"

"How did you know him, this Mr. Kelly?"

"He was a customer at the store where I work. We were sorta friends. Anyway, I saw your father. And he saw me in the apartment. He was terrified. That was weird--me scaring anybody." She laughed. "But the way I figure it, the day Mr. Kelly was killed your father was hanging out on his fire escape. He saw the killer come out of the apartment after he killed Mr. Kelly. I think your father got a look at the killer."

Emily shook her head. "But why would he run, just seeing you?"

"I don't know. Maybe he couldn't see me too clearly and thought I was the killer who'd come back to destroy some evidence or something."

Emily was looking down at the fake Oriental carpet. "But the police haven't called me"--she nodded again-- "which must mean you haven't told them about him."

"No."

"Why not?"

Rune's eyes drifted away. "The thing is, I don't like police."

Emily watched her carefully for a moment more. Then said probingly, "But that's not exactly the thing, is it? There's something else."

Rune looked away. Trying to be cool and poised. It wasn't taking.

"Well, all I know is that I'm worried about my father," Emily said. "He can be exasperating at times but I still love him. I want to find him. And it sounds like you do too. Why won't you tell me?"

Then, from somewhere, Rune managed to find an adult gaze. She slapped it on her face and gave Emily a woman-to-woman smile. "I have this feeling you're not telling me everything either."

The woman hesitated. She inhaled and blew a fat stream of smoke away from them. "Maybe I'm not."

"I'll show you mine if you ..."

Emily didn't want to smile. But she did. "Okay, the truth?" She looked around the apartment. "I've never been here before. This is the first time. I haven't been in any of his apartments for the past year.... Isn't that an awful thing to say?"

Rune said nothing. Emily sighed. She was looking much less adult than she had. "We had a fight. Last summer. A bad one."

There was silence.