Terror Below by Larry Kent

Author:Larry Kent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: new york city, crime fiction, hard boiled crime, private eyes, private detectives, crime ebooks, larry kent, golden age detectives, pipccadilly publishing
Publisher: Piccadilly

Chapter 6 ... a piece falls into place ...

I picked up a late copy of the Daily News on 42nd Street and didn’t even look at the headline until I was in my apartment. It went:

CUBAN COMMANDO CHIEF SUICIDE

The story was on page 2. There wasn’t much. Felipe Ortega, one of Fidel Castro’s finest, an expert on the ambush kill who’d gone from place to place passing on his expertise to others during the past five or six years, was found dead in a furnished apartment on 56th Street on the West Side. He’d mixed himself a potent drink: rum, orange juice and strychnine. The police, according to the News, had no reason to suspect murder. There was a photo of Ortega lying on his back with his mouth wide open and that was it.

I had a friend who worked at Central Headquarters, Sergeant Jim Hogan. His job was to keep track of all homicides in the metropolitan area. Suicide is considered a homicide. I punched out his home number. The phone at the other end buzzed six times and then Hogan’s sleepy and annoyed voice was in my ear:

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Jim? Kent here.”

“Larry Kent?”

“Right.”

“Do you know what time it is?”

“It’s late. Look, I need some information.”

Hogan swore. “Hell, you just woke up my wife.” There was some mumbling. Sleepy, cranky complaints came from a woman, then I heard a few words from Jim: ‘business’ and ‘commissioner’. Suddenly his words were in the clear again. “What can I do for you, sir?”

“A Cuban named Felipe Ortega killed himself today,” I said. “Who’s investigating the case?”

“That’d be Lieutenant Dan Foley, sir. Twenty-Fourth Precinct.”

I started to thank him but he broke the connection. Poor Jim. It was a well-known fact that his wife was a dragon.

I took a strong sleeping pill, peeled off my clothes, set the alarm clock for seven in the morning and went to sleep.

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