A Handy Death

“It seems there were lots of points nobody made a big point of,” Ross said sourly. “Go on.”

“Neeley said he was passing the Mountain Top Bar when young Dupaul came staggering out and collared him the way drunks do, telling him what a miserable, lousy place New York City was, they wouldn’t sell a man a drink, and so on and so on. Neeley said he could see it was just a big kid in his teens and he felt sorry for him, so he told him to come up to his place and have some coffee and sober up.

“He said they walked — no taxi — on to the apartment on West Sixtieth Street, and when they got there, he went into the kitchen and put up some coffee — incidentally, there was fresh coffee on the stove when the police got there, whatever that proves — and when he came back the boy had wandered into the bedroom, taken off his jacket, tie, and shoes, and was stretched out on the bed, sound asleep.

“He says he woke the boy up and the kid wanted a drink, and when Neeley told him there wasn’t any liquor in the house — Neeley said there was, of course, but not for the kid — the boy didn’t believe him and started to get abusive.

“And when Neeley threatened to call the cops and throw him out, the boy got real nasty and started to tear the place apart, starting with the bed. Neeley grabbed him to try and shove him out of the apartment, at which — according to Neeley — the boy pulled a gun and said something to the effect of, ‘Do I get a drink or do you get shot?’ Neeley says he insisted there was no liquor in the place, at which the boy said something like, ‘I’ll find it easier without you,’ and shot him down in cold blood.”

Ross scribbled a note on the pad before him. Sharon looked at him, surprised he had not asked her to include it in her notes. Ross smiled at her.

“Just something that strikes me as being a bit odd,” he said, and turned to Steve. “By the way, what was the exact nature of Neeley’s wound?”

“The bullet struck him in the corner of the mouth on the right side, catching a bit of the lower lip. It apparently shattered on his jawbone and the fragments were pretty well scattered. The doctors managed to get most of them out, but it seems the one that eventually killed him was either missed by the operating physicians or was inoperable.”

“Was any testimony given at the time to indicate there was still a fragment remaining that was inoperable?”

“No, sir,” Steve said. “Still, Neeley was lucky at that. If it had been a thirty-eight instead of a twenty-two, he wouldn’t have had those extra eight years of life.”

“I’m not so sure,” Ross said thoughtfully. “A thirty-eight probably wouldn’t have shattered in the first place. It would probably have smashed the jawbone and gone out the side of the cheek, taking out a lot of teeth but not necessarily killing him. There are a lot of records of cases where the damage done by a small caliber bullet is far greater than would have been done by a larger caliber, mainly because of shattering.”

He thought a moment, his fingers drumming on the desk blotter, and then went back to Steve’s exposition.

“You referred to Dupaul saying he was hazy because of drink. When he was booked at the precinct, did they do a blood alcohol on him?”

Steve rustled among his papers, coming up with the proper one.

“Yes, sir. It was high — very high. Zero-point-three-five percent. That’s the equivalent of 3.2 milligrams. Rated as ‘almost incapable’ in the police tables.”

“How about Neeley? Had he been drinking? Did they run a blood-alcohol test on him as well?”

Steve shook his head with a faint smile. It wasn’t very often he had a chance to catch the boss off base.

“It wouldn’t have indicated a great deal, when they had to transfuse him with six pints of blood.”

“They still could have done a urine analysis,” Ross said shortly. “They didn’t transfuse him with that, did they?” He shook his head. “Well, I’ve seen some poorly handled cases in the years I’ve practiced law, but this strikes me as one of the worst. No one attempted to check witnesses, in the bar or on the street. For instance, was there any attempt to verify if anyone saw Neeley, with or without Dupaul, on the street that night? Were any advertisements placed in newspapers asking witnesses to come forth?”

“No, sir.”

“Did anyone bother to check the apartment-house tenants to see if anyone there saw anyone in the lobby or the elevator? Or the hallway?”

“The tenants were checked, but only desultorily as far as I could see by reading the transcript. None of their testimony was on record, just the testimony of the investigating detectives who checked.”

“Hogan must have been drunker than usual,” Ross said, and added, “rest his soul!” He checked his watch and looked at Steve. “All right — one last question and we’ll break for lunch. But I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my meal if I didn’t ask it—”

“Right,” Steve said, smiling, anticipating the question.