"I was in the alley. This green car tried to run us down."
"Us?" Manelli repeated. "You and the woman from next door?"
"Right."
"What kind of car was it?"
"I don't know."
"Dark green or light?"
"Dark."
"Tags?"
"What?" Rune asked.
"The license plate number. You notice it?"
"He was trying to run me down, the driver."
"You didn't see the number, you mean?"
"That's what I mean. I didn't see it."
"How 'bout the state?" the detective asked.
"No."
He sighed. "You see the driver?"
"No. There was too much glare."
Another man in a suit came up to them. He smelled of bitter cigarettes. "Whatta we got?"
Manelli said to him, "Here's what it looks like, Captain. This lady comes to pick up a videotape. She calls on the intercom and we think the perp answers. Probably after he does the vic."
Does the vic. Rune stared at the detective, furious at the callousness.
"Pops him three in the chest. No defensive wounds, so it happened fast. He never even tried to dodge. And one in the TV."
"The TV?"
Rune followed their eyes. The killer had shot out the TV set. A spidery fracture surrounded a small black hole in the upper right. It was, she noticed, a very old, cheap set.
Manelli continued. "Then this neighbor up the hall--" He looked at his notebook. "Amanda LeClerc. She comes upstairs and finds him dead."
"Nobody hears anything?" the captain asked.
"No. Not even the shots ... Okay, then the killer or his backup's in a car in the alley. He bolts and takes out one witness."
And nearly me too, Rune thought. As if they care.
Manelli consulted his notebook again. "Name's Susan Edelman. Lives next door." He nodded toward the building where Rune had seen the jogger stretching.
"Ice her?" the captain asked.
Ice ... do ... These people had no respect for human beings.