Dark Blonde by David H. Fears Read Free Book Online Page A

friends.”
    “So give me the Reader’s Digest version of this tale, professor Sherlock.”
    “Antigone was one of his three character tragedies. She was a reckless and defiant girl, sister to the proper Athenian woman Ismene, both daughters to King Creon.”
    “Gail was reckless and defiant alright, from what I’ve found out, but I’m not quite sure just how proper Julia is. There’s plenty of lava beneath her icecap. I suppose this Greek babe was beheaded too?”
    “No, she hanged herself over a slight disagreement with Creon about burying a traitor. I think her big sister was too much to handle, too good looking, too socially perfect. Athenian perfection was like Fifth Avenue and Central Park West, with a dollop of Emily Post thrown in. Sound familiar? Lots of social pressures, nuances in the play. An actor’s group put on the play in one of my seminars. Antigone was stunningly endowed as I recall. Of course, that was literary license.”
    “You would remember that part — or those parts. Your license should be revoked. I always thought your ex spoon-fed you that classical junk.”
    “Hardly. She ran off with an insurance man. You were about 12.”
    “There’s more here than a cheap triangle, but Antigone was a big point to the killer. Maybe he was just name-calling and didn’t want the cops to understand Shakespeare.”
    “Sophocles. But you’re right about the killer being a man. A female could hardly have hanged her, cut her head off, then moved her into the guesthouse by herself. The killing might have taken place somewhere on the grounds. I won’t be able to look it over good before we have visitors.”
    “I’ll have to keep Greek parallels in mind. You got this play I can borrow?”
    “I can dig it up for you, but you won’t care for it. There’s no hot sex, no headstrong PI’s, and most of all no wizened retired NYPD lieutenants playing Sherlock Holmes.”
    “Thanks. I’ve missed your pithy comments slightly less than insomnia. Wrap your logical mind around this murder scene while I hear what Julia has to say. Bird Legs said Julia found the body this morning and she’s pretty broken up over it. When you’re used to hating your sister for a few decades, her death tilts all the angles.”
    “I caught a brief glimpse of the lovely Mrs. Gateswood when I arrived. She hurried upstairs to change. Not bad. You really know how to pick clients, I’ll give you that, Mikey.”
    Rick was the only guy who could call me that without winning a fat lip. He’d been my dad’s partner for years, seen me grow up, and when I did a short stint on the force at the 23rd precinct, hauled my ass out of a few insubordination scrapes. Since Dad’s death, Rick’d been a big brother and father to me. When he approached me about a partnership, I wasn’t sure, but a case fell in our laps and it was de facto tag-team before I knew it. I bulldozed, he analyzed. All in all it worked, though I don’t know why.

    “Lipstick on the forehead’s a strange way to leave a murder message, reminds me of those Bronx psycho cases you and Dad worked on together. I have a pretty good file on Gail the sister that Miss Bird Legs compiled. Julia’s the oldest, wife to the good Congressman Gateswood, and former beauty queen. She hired me to locate her missing sister a couple of days ago, a wild number who ran with hoodlums for thrills. She was the one in that grand jury finger pointing last year about the prostitution ring that led into corruption of Mayor Daley’s special thug force. Looks like she lost her head over it. No King Creon though, unless you give that role to Henry. The real father deserted the family and was later killed at Iwo Jima. Mother abandoned her when she was two.”
    “Still, Antigone’s a pretty apt reference, especially if you say Gail was wild. Too obvious. DePaul’s right down the road, any connection? Was she a student there?”
    “She didn’t seem the type. I’ll ask Julia before the cops swarm