The Interrogation by Thomas H. Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

child’s body lay. “At this time we can’t be sure who she is. But just after seven this evening we received a call from a woman who lives on the other side of the park. She brought her daughter to a birthday party that was supposed to be over at seven. The daughter was supposed to wait for her in the lobby of the building, but when she got there, her daughter was nowhere to beseen. The woman went to the apartment where the birthday party was held. The parents there told her that her daughter left the apartment at around six forty-five and had not come back. The mother went back downstairs and talked to the super. The super told her that he’d seen a little girl standing in the lobby at around six-forty Then he left the lobby and returned to his own apartment. When he came back to the lobby at around seven, the little girl was gone. The mother says her daughter was wearing a red dress. So is the dead girl.”
    “Any other way to identify her?” Pierce asked.
    “The girl in the park has a bandage on her right hand.”
    “The mother put that in her description?” Cohen asked.
    “No,” Burke answered. “So this little girl may not be hers.” Again he glanced at his notes. “The mother’s name is Anna Lake. She lives at 545 Obermeyer. She said she sometimes brings her daughter, Cathy, to the playground, so when Cathy wasn’t waiting at the building, she looked for her there. After that Mrs. Lake circled the block, then went home and called us.” He closed the notebook and tucked it into his jacket pocket. “So far we have no suspects.” Burke nodded toward the bearded man in the distance. “Unless you count him.”

Do you think it’s real?
    7:42 P.M. , September 12, Interrogation Room 3
    “How long have you lived in that pipe, Smalls?” Pierce asked. “Weeks? Months?”
    “A long time.”
    “And before that?”
    “Just places. All around.”
    “So, you’ve moved around a lot?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why is that? Is it because you’re on the run?”
    Smalls lowered his head, as if offering it to the hangman.
    “If you’re not on the run, then why won’t you tell us about other places you’ve lived?”
    “Maybe it’s because he’s embarrassed, Jack,” Cohen said. “Is that it, Jay? Are you embarrassed about beingarrested? Don’t want the people back home to know about it?”
    Smalls gave no answer, but his head lifted slightly so that Cohen suspected he might actually have hit upon something.
    “Your dad, maybe?” Cohen asked.
    “I don’t have a dad.”
    “Your mother, then,” Cohen said. “You don’t want your mother to know about you being arrested, right?”
    Smalls offered no response.
    “That’s natural, Jay,” Cohen said easily. “A guy never wants to embarrass his mother. You know what I remember most about my mother? Going to the movies. Every Sunday she took me to the movies.”
    Smalls smiled tentatively. “My mother took me to the Ferris wheel.”
    Cohen glanced at Pierce, then back to Smalls. “When did she do that?”
    “Every day.”
    Pierce shook his head, and drew Cohen back to the rear of the room. “You’re not getting anywhere with this, Norm.”
    Cohen walked to the door, opened it, and ushered Pierce outside. “Listen, Jack—”
    “We have ten hours left,” Pierce interrupted. He yanked a handkerchief from his pocket and swabbed his neck. “We don’t have time to chat about his fucking mother.” He returned the handkerchief to his pocket. “We’re in a box here. A tight fucking box.”
    “Yeah, we are, but maybe we’re doing better than you think.”
    “How you figure that?”
    “Because Smalls may actually have given us a little something to work with.”
    Pierce stared at Cohen.
    “The Ferris wheel,” Cohen explained. “Smalls says he rode a Ferris wheel every day.”
    “So?”
    “So it had to be permanent, right, this Ferris wheel? Not just coming and going with a carnival or something, but always there.”
    “Yeah, so what?”
    “I’m