Four Walls

19

CANNOLI WERE A SICILIAN delicacy: a creamy filling inside a hard shell. The filling was a mixture of ricotta cheese and sugar, and the shell was dough that was rolled into a hollow tube and deep-fried; the filling was inserted just before serving to keep the shell from getting soggy.

Many places mixed chocolate chips into the filling, which Stella had never objected to but never much saw the point of, either. It always felt like gilding the lily, trying to improve on perfection.

Belluso's Bakery did not put chocolate chips in their cannoli. It was the first place Stella had been to in New York that refrained from that particular excess, and it was enough to make Stella forgive Sal Belluso for his pola comment.

When she first came in, she noticed that there was a sign in the window that said NOW HIRING. Stella saw that Jeanie Rodriguez and one other young woman she did not recognize were working behind the counter. There were a few people at the tables downstairs, and a quick glance up showed at least two people upstairs as well. One of the people downstairs was working on a laptop; another table had two women and a stroller, in which a blond-haired infant was dozing; an older woman was finishing up a large cup of tea at another table and got up to leave as Stella stepped up to the counter.

As soon as Stella approached, Jeanie said, "You need to take more DNA or something, Detective?"

Shaking her head, Stella said, "No, no. I'm actually off the clock now. But this looked like such a nice place. I wanted to take in the atmosphere-as a cafй, not a crime scene."

"Oh, okay." Jeanie lowered her voice to a whisper. "But you guys're still gonna solve Maria's murder, right?"

Stella nodded and matched Jeanie's tone. "Don't worry-Detective Angell and the crime lab are on it. We'll find out the truth, I promise you."

"Good."

"Can I have a cannoli, and also a large iced coffee?"

"Sure. What size cannoli?"

Blinking, Stella asked, "What are my choices?"

Jeanie walked around to the secondary counter and pointed at the miniature cannoli, which were only a couple of inches long, and then the large ones, which were just short of half a foot.

"Oh, the large," Stella said with a big grin.

"Not the chocolate-covered ones?"

Stella made a face. "Uh, no." In Stella's opinion that was even worse than putting in chocolate chips.

While Jeanie rang her up, Stella said, "I see you're hiring. Guess that's inevitable."

"Yeah, we lost two people. Sal fired Dina when he found out she stole Maria's necklace. Can you believe that? I didn't think Dina could do something that crazy, y'know?"

Stella winced at that, feeling a bit responsible for Dina losing her job, but after a moment, the feeling passed. The fact was Dina lost her job because she chose to steal jewelry from a corpse. It was likely that she'd lose her freedom as well-Angell was probably going to bust her on obstruction, as her actions had confused the investigation.

After devouring her first cannoli in record time, Stella went back for a second that she could properly savor, then made sure to pay closer attention to the people who came in and out of Belluso's. She took up position at a table only a few feet from the main counter, which enabled her to overhear everything that was said, even with the light-music station being pumped out over the bakery's speakers.

About half of the customers just came in, ordered, paid, and left. Others had their order to stay. If people did converse beyond the confines of their order, it was on a subject other than Maria Campagna: the hot weather, the doings of the customer's job, the current state of affairs of either the Yankees or the Mets or both, whether or not the Jets and/or the Giants got hosed in the draft, how the customer's children were doing, how the customer's parents were doing, who was getting married, whether or not the customer's wife had given birth yet, what the customer's plans were for the upcoming school year, and so on. It reaffirmed Stella's belief that this wasn't just a corner Starbucks where people walked in, got their venti skim latte or grande iced mocha, and left; it was an organic part of a residential neighborhood. It was like the saloon in Old West towns, or the neighborhood pub in a small British town-this was where many of the area's residents came to refresh themselves and chat about their lives.

But some of those who came in talked about Maria, which was when Stella pricked up her ears, tuned out whatever soft-rock classic was playing, and listened.

"Is it true that one of the girls here died?" one asked. Jeanie provided as noncommittal an answer as she could. No doubt she was under orders from Belluso to minimize the perception of the bakery as the scene of a crime.

"Hey, Jeanie. Geez, sucks about Maria, huh? Can't believe that. Who'd do something like that?"

"I heard somebody got shot here. Is that true?"

"You guys should seriously consider getting a gate. Stuff like that don't happen when you got a gate."

"Hey, somebody told me that Karen got killed here. That true?" When Jeanie explained that it was actually Maria: "Oh. Okay. I didn't really like her all that much."

"Can I see where that girl got killed? C'mon, I've never seen where a dead body was before. Please?"

"Heard you guys got robbed. That's gotta suck." Jeanie didn't change that person's misapprehension.

"Oh, God, I'm so sorry, Jeanie, I heard about Maria. Are you guys holding up okay? God, that's so terrible! Is there anything I can do?"

"You know, someone told me that someone died here, can you believe that? What a silly notion."

"Hey, Jeanie. Heard about Maria. You guys doin' okay?"

"Look, I can't stay, but I had to stop in to give my condolences. Maria was such a nice girl. Please, if you know the family, tell them I'm praying for them."

"Why would anybody kill Maria? I mean, she was such a sweet girl. Whole world's goin' to hell, I swear to Christ."

By the time Stella finished her second cannoli-and third iced coffee-she was about ready to give up. It had been a long shot, in truth.

Just as she was preparing to call it a day, she saw a large man wearing blue scrubs walk across the street and entered. Since one of the storefronts across Riverdale Avenue sported a big sign that read FELDSTEIN'S VETERINARY SERVICE, Stella assumed he came from there. He entered and walked right up to the counter, giving Stella a good view of the purple-and-yellow bruise on his cheek.

"What's up, Jeanie?"

"Hey, Marty how's life in the animal kingdom?"

So he did work at the vet's. Stella also seemed to recall something from Angell's notes about someone named Marty who worked at the vet and was friends with Maria.

"Not bad. Dr. Wentworth's out sick today, so it's kind of a mess. Can I get a half dozen of the cherry cookies?"

"Sure. And a coffee?"

"Yeah. Black, two sugars."

"I know," Jeanie said with a smile.

While Jeanie bent over to retrieve six of the shortbread cookies, which had a glazed maraschino cherry on top, Marty said, "Sucks about Maria, huh? Getting strangled like that-that really shocked the hell out of me."

"All of us, yeah," Jeanie said absently, only half-listening as she gathered Marty's order.

Stella, though, found herself on full alert. A second ago, she'd been swallowing the last of her cannoli, contemplating what traffic would be like going back to Manhattan. But as soon as this Marty person mentioned Maria Campagna's COD, she abandoned all thoughts of going home anytime soon.

Neither she nor Lindsay nor Angell had ever mentioned the exact cause of Maria Campagna's death out loud outside of the lab. Angell had spoken to some press but said nothing about how Maria was killed, either.

While it was possible that either Jeanie or Dina could have mentioned it-they found the body, and enough people watched cop shows on TV to possibly recognize a case of strangulation when they saw it-that didn't strike Stella as likely. Certainly not Jeanie, who'd been going out of her way to avoid talking about Maria's death in any but the most perfunctory of details.

Marty had a large enough build to have been the one to strangle Maria, and the bruise he sported on his cheek was approximately the right size to have been made by Maria's fist.

Stella got up and went to the counter. "Can I have another iced coffee?" she asked the young woman who wasn't Jeanie. Then Stella turned to Marty. "That's some bruise you got there."

Lowering his head and smiling sheepishly, Marty said, "Yeah, I got into it with a Great Dane. I'm a tech at Feldstein's across the street." He jerked a thumb behind him, indicating the door-and the veterinarian beyond it.

Stella glanced back, though she already knew where he worked. Deciding to go for broke, she pulled her shield out of her back pocket. "I'm Detective Bonasera, with the New York Crime Lab. Mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Yeah, I do mind. I just came in here for some cookies and coffee, okay?"

"It's just that I'm looking into Maria Campagna's death, and I was wondering-"

"That has nothing to do with me, okay?" He took the bag with the cookies and the small coffee cup from Jeanie, then threw a five down on the counter. "Keep it." To Stella, he all but snarled, "See you later, Detective."

Jeanie was giving Stella an odd look. "You don't think he had anything to do with Maria, do you?" she asked in another low whisper.

Leaning over the counter to minimize eavesdropping, Stella asked, "What do you know about him?"

"Who, Marty? He works across the street. He and Maria went to the same high school, so they talked about that a lot. But that was it, really."

When the other woman came by, Stella said, "I'll take that to go."

Once she paid for the coffee, she left the cafй and went across the street to Feldstein's.

It might well be a dead end-but so was Jack Morgenstern at this point, and Marty's bruise and knowledge of the COD were enough to make him worth pursuing. Probably wasn't enough for a warrant just yet, but it was enough for her to question the other people at Feldstein's.

She pulled open the glass door to find a large reception desk in front of a big waiting area that included several long wooden benches along the walls and an open center floor, which provided plenty of room for dogs to gad about. At present, only two people were in the waiting area, both with cat carriers. One cat was lying quietly in its carrier, but the other was yowling in protest.

There were two women behind the desk, one of whom was on the phone. The other, a short, round woman with spiky white hair, asked, "Can I help you?"

Again, Stella flashed her shield. "I'm Detective Bonasera, with the New York Crime Lab. I'm investigating the death of Maria Campagna, and I was wondering if you could answer a few questions."

Even as she spoke, she couldn't help but notice that behind the desk was an HP laser-jet printer-the exact same model that was used to print the anonymous love letters to Maria.

The woman behind the desk formed an O with her mouth. "Oh, you mean the girl across the street? Yeah, I heard about that-it's awful."

"Did you know her?"

"Yeah, I saw her when I went for tea and pastries a couple of times." She leaned forward and said in an almost conspiratorial tone, "They have the best cannoli."

Stella smiled. "I know, believe me." Then she grew serious and took out a notepad and pen. "What's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Jaya-Jaya Nissen."

"Who else from here goes to Belluso's regularly?"

"God, everybody. I don't think Dr. Feldstein does, but he usually just brings food from home. He keeps kosher-I know that they say their food is all kosher, too, but I don't think Dr. Feldstein trusts that. But most of the rest of us do, yeah."

"How late were you open the night before last?"

"Until ten. That was our late night, to accommodate people who work late, you know?"

"I understand." Stella wrote that all down, then asked, "Does anybody stay later than that?"

Jaya nodded. "We board a lot of animals here, and someone always stays until about eleven or so to make sure they've got enough food and water and, for the cats, enough litter. Plus, some of the animals have medical needs, and the dogs have to be walked."

"Who was it who stayed late two nights ago?"

Blinking, Jaya said, "I don't remember." Her companion, who had long red hair that was tied back in a ponytail, was just getting off the phone, and Nissen turned to her. "Moira, do you remember who had the late shift two nights ago?"

"Sure. It was Marty," the woman said.

Stella managed to hide a smile. "What's Marty's full name?"

"Marty Johannsen," Moira said. "I remember because he came in yesterday with this big-ass bruise. He said Rex did it."

"And Rex is?" Stella asked.

"A Great Dane we got boarded-again." She rolled her eyes. "I swear, those people are on vacation more than they're home. Don't know why they even keep the dog, he spends more time here than there. And they got a yard, too. Don't know why they can't just leave him home and have someone come in to walk and feed him-I even told Mr. Franklin that, but he doesn't listen."

Trying to get the conversation back on track, Stella asked, "So Marty was here alone until eleven?"

"Yeah," Moira said. "Oh, wait-Chris was here for a while, too. Not sure if he stayed the whole time, though."

"Chris is?"

Jaya took this one. "Chris Schanke. He's our head tech-he orders all the food and meds and stuff."

Stella noted his name, grateful that she now had two people to ask about. Her money was still on Marty, but it eased the blow if you asked to talk about two people to the police. Ask about one person and he's a suspect-ask about two, and you're just collecting data. "Can either of you recall what both Chris and Marty were wearing? We want to be able to eliminate them as suspects." That second sentence was only half true.

"Chris was wearing scrubs all day," Moira said. "He always does. I don't think I've ever seen him in civvies, except at the Christmas party."

"Marty was wearing a black sweatshirt that said SAN DIEGO on it," Jaya said. "I remember 'cause Dr. Feldstein wanted to know if he'd ever been there. Dr. Feldstein's son was in the Navy and was stationed there."

Not that she cared, but Stella asked anyhow: "Had he?"

Jaya shook her head. "Nah, it was a present from his parents when they went on vacation there. Kind of a 'My parents went to San Diego and all I got was this lousy sweatshirt' thing."

Stella continued taking notes, but now she was sure she had enough for a warrant.

"You don't have enough for a warrant."

Stella sat with Angell in the chambers of Judge Lou Montagnino. This judge was always a risk. On the one hand, he had a thing about murdered girls. Before being elevated to the bench in 1972, Montagnino had been in the district attorney's office in Queens and prosecuted a man who'd killed four teenage girls. He was usually willing to give a certain amount of leeway for such cases.

The flip side, though, was that Montagnino was also a chauvinist pig who had very little time for detectives of the female persuasion. "Secretaries with guns," he called them once in Stella's hearing, and it had taken all of her willpower (and Mac's iron grip on her arm) to keep from kneeing him in the balls when she'd heard it.

Stella leaned forward in her chair. "Our PC is solid, Judge."

"What solid?" Montagnino peered at Stella over his thin spectacles and aquiline nose. "All I see is vague nonsense. Did Taylor sign off on this?"

After a brief hesitation, Stella said, "No." She'd been tempted to lie, but Mac was still on Staten Island when she got back to the lab. Angell had typed up the warrant request, and they'd both gone to Montagnino's chambers. It was another long shot, but Stella had been doing well with long shots today.

"Judge," Angell said, "he knew the COD. We didn't tell anyone that."

"Over thirty people walked into that bakery," Stella added, "and everyone was just talking about the girl who died. Then in comes this one guy with a bruise of the right size, and he happens to know that the victim was strangled. I think that's sufficient cause to search, especially since he was so belligerent."

"Define belligerent, if you don't mind," Montagnino said witheringly.

"He wouldn't let me question him or take pictures of his bruise or take a DNA reference sample." Of course, she'd never gotten as far as asking for pictures or a DNA sample; he walked out before Stella could even ask. But Montagnino didn't need to know that.

"And if I walked into a bakery to get some dessert, I wouldn't want to spit on a Q-tip for some lady detective, either." He shook his head. "I thought you had a suspect in this case already."

"We thought we did," Angell said, "but we don't have any evidence to support it, and he's got a very good lawyer."

"Ah, I see, you're afraid of this guy's lawyer, so you go after someone else? And you want me to sign off on it? You're making me laugh, Detectives. Who's this lawyer, anyhow?"

"Courtney Bracey," Stella said. "Why?"

Montagnino removed his glasses. "Bracey? Christ on a stick, that bitch? Swear to God, I lost all respect for the New York Bar Association when they let her in." He actually made the sign of the cross. "I wouldn't wish her on my worst enemy, much less you two."

"Gee, thanks," Angell muttered.

He put his glasses back on and read over the warrant request again. "You say he knew the young lady was strangled?"

Stella pressed the point. "He couldn't possibly have known that unless he was the killer, Judge."

Angell shot Stella a look, which Stella hoped Montagnino didn't notice. Stella was bluffing big-time now, but she just knew that Marty Johannsen was their guy, and the longer it was before they could investigate properly, the less of a chance they had of finding any evidence to nail him.

"This girl who died," Montagnino said. "How old was she?"

"Nineteen."

"And you really think this Johannsen jamoke did it?"

Amazed that anyone still used the word jamoke in this day and age-though if anyone did, it'd be Montagnino-Stella said, "I have enough reason to think so that I want to investigate further."

Montagnino smiled at that, though on his wrinkled face and with his too-shiny dentures, it looked more like a rictus. "Good answer, Bonasera. If you just said yes, I would've said no, because that's not a real cop's answer. But you gave me a real cop's answer, so you get the warrant." He reached for a pen, then stopped. "I still think it's nuts to give you eggheads badges and guns, but nobody asked me."

Angell said, "I'm not an egghead, Judge, and I think that this guy's worth taking a look at. A nineteen-year-old girl's dead-shouldn't we do everything we can to find her killer?"

Grabbing the pen and wagging it at Angell, Montagnino said, "Don't try to play me for a sap, little girl. I was signing warrants when you were in diapers." He pronounced the word "die-uh-pers," which Stella found amusing for some odd reason. Then he pushed the button atop the pen to release the point. "You've got your warrant, ladies. Make the best of it."