MURDER TAKES TIME

Epilogue

‘Detective First Class Frankie Donovan—Hero’

That’s what the headlines said two days later. No one really believed all that shit, but the FBI wrapped it up nicely. Tito Martelli had killed those people, including a lady from Ohio and an accountant years ago in Queens. They found the gun in Tito’s pocket—with ballistics matches—and the gun even had Tito’s prints on it. They also had Tito’s DNA at all of the crime scenes except for the Queens accountant and the girl in Cleveland. The papers never mentioned the other DNA. 

The FBI had wiretaps that showed Tito meeting with the people he’d supposedly killed, with the exception again of the girl and the accountant, but there were a few phone calls from Tito’s house to a hotel in Cleveland just before she died. The FBI confirmed that Tony Sannullo had been wearing a wire to get evidence on Tito, which was probably why Tony was also killed. The only mystery was who killed Tito. The media put the blame on Tony’s friend Paulie “The Suit” Perlano, who was missing. 

Frankie tried to discourage that speculation, but they ran with it. Anything for a story. The FBI wanted to know about the mysterious Nicky Fusco, who had been the main suspect right up to the end, but Frankie convinced them that it would look bad for the Bureau if people found out they had spent so much time and money chasing a suspect only to have to let him go. Frankie also let them have the glory for solving the case, taking only the residuals for himself and Lou.

As he walked down the hall from the press briefing, Mazzetti intercepted him. “Good job, Donovan. We did all right, didn’t we?”

“I gave you the credit, Lou. After our Fed friends, of course.”

“It will help my retirement.” 

“Don’t tease me with those thoughts. I need a nice female partner.” Frankie laughed, then asked if Lou wanted coffee. 

“Not for me. I’m glad this worked out for you.”

“Meaning what?”

“I mean about your friend, that Rat guy. Nice that it turned out not to be him after all.”

Frankie wondered where he was going with this. “Yeah. That had me worried.”

“Guess old Tito just went nuts, torturing and killing people.” 

“Not like he didn’t kill people, Lou.”

“I sure wish I could figure out who shot Tito. That would really tie this up.”

“Could have been Paulie. Hell, it could have been anybody. Tito had a lot of enemies.”

Lou reached down and scratched his leg as they walked. “Hey, Donovan, did I tell you I finally caught that rat at my house?”

“No, but I’m happy for you. I’d hate to have a rat in my house.”

“Same here. Couldn’t stand it. I didn’t kill it, though.”

“Didn’t kill it? What the hell did you do with it?”

Lou raised his eyebrows and calmly said, “I let it go. We came to a kind of understanding. It stopped eating my cereal, and I stopped trying to trap it.” Lou lit a smoke as he walked. 

Frankie smiled. “I think you did the right thing, Lou. See you later.”

#

Frankie nearly ran from the office. It had been a long day of wrapping up paperwork on the cases. He hated paperwork, but at least it wasn’t as bad as the shit the Feds had to go through. When he left Harding and Maddox, they still had hours until they finished. As an afterthought, Frankie tried reaching Mazzetti to see if he wanted to catch dinner, but he didn’t answer, so he called Kate. The phone rang four times, then clicked to the machine. He wasn’t used to getting her message, and it was unexpectedly short.