"Destroyer - 011 - Kill Or Cure" - читать интересную книгу автора (Murphy Warren)

He walked out into the foyer which was now a confusion of blue uniforms, many of them with brass insignia on the shoulders.

‘What happened, officer? What happened?’

‘Stay in your room. No one’s leaving the building.’

‘I beg your pardon.’

An officer with a broken wrist limped out of Tomalino’s room. Why a limp, Remo would never understand. Yet injured people, when they knew they were being observed, often limped.

‘We’re holding people for questioning,’ said the higher ranking officer, who looked at the injured patrolman. The patrolman shook his head, which meant to Remo that there was no identification of him as the killer.

But there was a brief interrogation nevertheless. No, Remo had not seen anything or heard anything and what right did the police have questioning him?

‘A witness was almost killed tonight and one officer was,’ the interrogating officer said. ‘Right next to you.’

‘Goodness gracious,’ said Remo and then, turning to anger, he demanded to know what right the police had to keep witnesses in hotels where ordinary citizens stayed hoping to be safe. What was wrong with the jails?

The officer couldn’t wait to end the unproductive questioning.

Remo left the hotel complaining about violence, crime in the streets and safety for the average citizen. He could not walk underneath the Tomalino window, however, for that was cordoned off by police barricades. A large mound was in the barricaded area. It was covered by a sheet.

One precaution Remo did not take. He did not bother to wipe his prints off the objects in the room he used for changing. There was no need. Police couldn’t check out his fingerprints, least of all with the FBI file. Nobody cross-referenced the prints of men who were certifiably dead.


CHAPTER THREE

In answering questions of the Washington press corps, the presidential press secretary appeared serious, yet unworried. Of course, the charges were serious and they would be looked into thoroughly by the Justice Department. No, this was not another Watergate, the press secretary said. He said that with a crisp smile. Any other questions?

‘Yeah,’ replied one reporter, rising. ‘The incumbents in Miami Beach are charging that your government has been attempting to frame them.’

‘That was not a charge nationally,’ said the press secretary.

‘It may well become one. They say they have indications that an organization called the Greater Florida Betterment League was just a front for secret and illegal government investigations, including wiretaps and bugging.’

‘The Justice Department will look into that.’

The reporter would not sit down. ‘This morning, when the local sheriff’s office broke into the League headquarters in Miami Beach, they found records leading to the National Betterment League’s offices in Kansas City, Missouri. That place turns out to be financed by a U.S. government educational grant. This educational grant doesn’t appear to educate many people, but it managed to spend over a million dollars in Miami Beach alone last year. Now what does that mean?’

‘It means that will be looked into also.’

‘Another thing. There’s the possibility that this country goes around murdering its citizens. An employee of the Greater Florida Betterment League, one James Bullingsworth, was found dead with an ice pick in his ear. According to Miami Beach officials, he had been seen previously with a notebook saying he was going to become the political kingpin of the city. What do you have to say about that?’

‘Same as to everything else. We most certainly are going to look into this. That is, the Justice Department will uncover everything.’

‘The Justice Department is involved in this thing, according to the charges of the administration in Miami Beach.’

‘The local government of a minor Florida city is not the major concern of the White House,’ the secretary said, unable to keep the edge out of his voice.