Full Frontal Murder by Barbara Paul Read Free Book Online Page B

thing. He offered her the house and god knows what else if she’d give the boy up. But if he was going to heave a Molotov cocktail through the window, he’d do it at a time Bobby wasn’t there.”
    Murtaugh nodded. “Sounds reasonable. What about the wife? Could she have done it?”
    Marian shifted in her chair. “I don’t think so. And for just about the same reasons. Even if she is the coldhearted liar Hugh claims she is, Bobby provides the only leverage she has over her husband. She wouldn’t risk losing that.”
    â€œYou’ve seen them together, Rita and Bobby. Anything there?”
    She shook her head. “Looked like a normal mother-child relationship to me. Bobby’s a sweet kid. He doesn’t know what’s going on between his parents—Rita has shielded him from that.”
    â€œIf we rule out both of them,” the captain said, sitting up straight, “then it looks as if old Walter Galloway was right. Kidnapping for ransom.”
    Marian agreed. “And it’s somebody who’s new at the game. An amateur. The man who grabbed Bobby on the street … an experienced criminal would have dropped the kid and run the minute he heard the police siren. But this guy not only held on, he even struggled with the bluesuit over possession of the boy. A pro would never have run that risk.”
    â€œWhy set the house on fire?”
    She shrugged. “Planning to grab Bobby when he and his mother came running out of the burning house? But he didn’t figure on the alarm system being so noisy. It woke up the entire neighborhood … witnesses all over the place. Another amateur mistake.”
    â€œYeah,” Murtaugh mused, “it could have happened just like that.”
    â€œThere’s only one piece that doesn’t fit,” Marian said. “There are lots of little rich boys in New York. After the first attempt failed, why didn’t the kidnapper just move on to an easier target? Why did he come back a second time for this particular little rich boy?”
    â€œI think you’d better find out,” the captain said.

6
    â€œMrs. Galloway wasn’t sure of the exact date her brother caught the cleaning woman going through her checkbook,” O’Toole said. “But she’s sure it was a Tuesday either two or three weeks ago.”
    â€œWhy Tuesday?” Marian asked.
    â€œBecause Bobby wasn’t home when it happened. The cleaning service comes twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays. And Bobby doesn’t go to preschool on Fridays.”
    She nodded. “Go on.”
    â€œThe cleaning woman was Puerto Rican, first name Consuela. About five five, hundred-fifty pounds, in her forties. Mrs. Galloway doesn’t remember ever seeing her before. Mrs. Galloway didn’t report the incident to the cleaning service herself—she said her brother took care of it.”
    â€œWhat about the cleaning service?”
    â€œMaids-in-a-Row, on Lex,” O’Toole said. “They’ve just been bought by Galloway Industries, and they’re gonna be merged with two other cleaning services. The owner, name of Gordon Egrorian, says he don’t know nuttin’ about no complaint, his words. Could be lying, but he cooperated in checking the payroll.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œAnd Tuesday three weeks ago he had a new employee on the crew that went to Mrs. Galloway’s house, a Consuela Palmero with a home address on West 177th Street. I haven’t had time to check it out yet, I’ll get to that next. Egrorian said one of his regular crew quit without notice, and the Palmero woman showed up looking for work that same day. He put her on the Galloway crew without checking her references.”
    â€œWhoa. Aren’t those cleaning services all bonded?”
    â€œHe said she already was—she had the papers. That was good enough for him, in a pinch. He’d planned on adding her to his own