PART 35 by John Nicholas Iannuzzi Read Free Book Online Page B

handed Soto his business card. “We need to know who these witnesses are, where they live. Like that Italian girl you mentioned.”
    â€œOkay. I’ll keep my eyes open.”
    â€œWhat’s your phone number?”
    â€œWe don’t have a phone, but you can call at work. I work at the Perfect Printing Shop. The phone number is Murray Hill 4…” He took out his wallet and studied a piece of paper. “7302.”
    Sandro wrote it down. “Fine. I’ll be in touch with you shortly. Maybe you’ll have dug up something more by then. It’s very important. Okay?”
    â€œYes, okay.” Soto smiled. Sandro extended his hand. Soto, nonplussed by such formality, gave Sandro a hand that felt like a dead fish. Sandro and Mike went downstairs, and Soto returned to his apartment.
    Sandro turned to Mike. “We’ve got to check on the superintendent’s wife. Find out what hospital the super was in that day. You take care of that, okay, Mike?”
    â€œSure. Maybe she didn’t even visit him.”
    â€œRight. Check the visitors’ lists. And we’ll have to come back and see the other witnesses. This Asunta. Alvarado told me he thought she identified him as the man leaving the building.”
    â€œOkay. We can canvass the area and check it out.”
    Sandro turned to Mike, shrugging. “Of course, if we plead guilty, we won’t have to do any of this.”

CHAPTER V
    Sandro swiveled in his chair, peering over the top of the newspaper as Elizabeth entered his office with the morning mail.
    â€œWhat time is it?” he asked.
    â€œNine thirty.”
    â€œRemind me at nine forty-five that I have to get over to the arraignment in the Alvarado case.”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    Sandro’s attention poured back into the newspaper accounts of the murder.
    The Daily News , dated July 4th, 1967, blazed the headline QUESTION ADDICT IN COP-KILLING. On the front page were pictures of Lauria and of the police hunting out the killer. The story said that a “good suspect” was nabbed about 5 P.M. as he tried to enter a green and white automobile double-parked near the murder site. He was believed to be the driver of the getaway car. The News story indicated that a police all-points alarm went out about 11 P.M. for another man wanted for the homicide. The suspected triggerman was described as a dark-skinned Negro, twenty-eight to thirty years old, about five feet ten, with a moustache, a long thin face, a wide forehead. The suspect was described as wearing a gray short-sleeved sports shirt and black trousers.
    Well, thought Sandro, Alvarado was right about the story in the papers and the Negro suspect being described as five ten. Alvarado is only about five feet six.
    Sandro picked up The New York Times for July 4th. The story was on page 36 and bore the headline SUSPECT IS HELD IN POLICE SLAYING. In its story, The Times added one important piece of information: “As Patrolman Lauria lay dying on the roof, he gasped out a description of his assailant as a thin, dark Negro, about thirty years old, five feet nine or five feet ten inches tall, wearing a gray outfit.”
    Both newspapers reported that Lauria had been shot several times in the back with his own gun. If anything could have made a cop-killing worse, thought Sandro, that was it.
    In The News for July 5th, 1967, the lead story’s headline was CAPTURE ! On page 3, Alvarado was pictured with Ramon Hernandez, the first arrested suspect, whom the newspaper had originally referred to as the driver of the double-parked car. The suspects were shown closely guarded by policemen.
    The News stated firmly, “Both men confessed to the police and the district attorney.”
    This case is impossible, Sandro thought to himself. This is open-and-shut murder in the first degree. He hoped that Sam was right about the leniency of Judge Phillips.
    The New York Post dated July 5th, 1967, was the