“Which can be a tribute to your tenacity.” He paused; Merylo suspected Ness was wondering if he knew what the word meant. “Or your stubbornness. Which is it?”

Merylo didn’t blink. “Both.”

“I admire tenacity. But I can’t work with people who can’t take instructions. You get my drift?”

“Yup.”

“And I can’t have loose cannons bringing my department into disrepute.”

“You’re afraid I might sully your squeaky-clean image?”

“I have been told that you have a fondness for offensive language. That even when you play a critical role in an investigation, prosecutors hesitate to put you on the witness stand because they fear you will appall the jury.”

“I guess I’m a bad boy, then.”

Ness continued. “Do you consider yourself a religious man?”

“I consider myself a cop. And you don’t get where I am-as a cop- by being religious. Or by talking like a Sunday school teacher.”

“I can comprehend that. But what I’m trying to discern is how much is image and how much is the real you. I have to know who you are before I can know whether I can work with you.”

“What do you need to know? I’m the lead detective on the torso case.”

“That could change.”

Merylo drew in his breath, then slowly released it. “I’m a simple man, Mr. Ness. What you see is what I am.”

Ness rose, then opened a file on his desk. “I think not. You haven’t always wanted to be a cop, have you?”

“Well…”

“In fact, at one time, you considered the priesthood.”

Zalewski’s eyes ballooned.

“You spent a good while at a monastery and-”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Maybe. But men don’t change so much, not in my experience. You may not have become a priest-probably because you couldn’t afford the education-but I wonder if you’re still trying to save souls.”

“Look, could we talk about-”

“You’re the force’s reigning pistol champ.” Ness looked up. “I’m not too bad with a pistol, either. Know jujitsu?”

“Uh, no.”

“Maybe I could teach you. I’ve been thinking about starting a class.” He returned to his notes. “You’re fiercely protective of your family. I admire that in a man.”

“Could we talk about the case?”

“You love violin music.”

“How did you-”

“You speak several eastern European languages fluently, which makes you the perfect person to be conducting interviews with the immigrants living in the Kingsbury Run area.”

“Lots of the men on the force-”

“I know you’re well-read. You’re an autodidact.”

Merylo blinked twice. This time, he really didn’t know what the word meant, blast it all. It infuriated him.

“You’re self-educated. It shows, in your language, when you’re not playing the tough cop. It shows in your work, too. I’ve reviewed your files. You have an impressive record. Chief Matowitz tells me you’re his best detective.”

“Look, are we going to talk about me or are we going to talk about the Torso Murderer?”

“Both.” Ness walked around the desk and leaned back against it, just a few feet away from the two men. “I guess you boys know that I’ve committed to getting involved in this case.”

Zalewski jumped in. “I heard your press conference on the radio, sir. I thought you really told off that Congressman Sweeney. He was totally out of line.”

Ness shrugged. “He’s a Democrat. He wants to use the murders to attack the Republican administration.”

“But you did promise to get involved,” Merylo said. “You promised to bring the killer to justice.”

Ness frowned. “Yes, I did, didn’t I? And you know where that leaves me?”

“You’ve made an impossible promise.” Merylo waited a beat. “And you want us to deliver on it.”

Ness ignored the barb. “The problem with these newspapers is, they get people so worked up they can’t see straight. They think this killer is the only danger the city faces. And now he’s on the west side and there’s a thousand-dollar reward for information leading to an arrest. The city’s going to get even crazier. Good grief-even Happy Hitler took time out from his Four-Year Plan to declare these murders proof of Western decadence. They’ve been denounced in fascist Italy, too. You can imagine how that plays with elected officials. The political pressure to find the killer is fierce.”

“And you put yourself in the middle of it.”

“I didn’t have much choice. I never intended to get personally involved-only to take a more supervisory role. But all that’s changed now. I got the word from Mayor Burton. He wants me to take over.”

“Have you talked to Chief Matowitz about that?”

“I don’t work for Chief Matowitz,” Ness said crisply.

“Look,” Merylo said, “I don’t know anything about politics. All I know is how to be a cop. So tell me-now that you’re taking over-are you going to fire me?”

Ness grinned. “Detective Merylo-that’s what we’re currently in the process of determining.”

Ness had eyed Merylo carefully from the moment he had arrived, while he waited in the lobby, and even later, while they thought he had his head buried in paperwork. He found he could learn most about a man when he didn’t know he was being observed, just as he gained most from an interview when the subject didn’t realize he was being interviewed. Zalewski didn’t matter-as long as he wasn’t on the take, Merylo could pick his own assistant. But if Merylo was going to be the main man on the street, he mattered. Ness had read Merylo’s file and he looked good on paper. But if Ness had learned anything from his time in Chi-Town, it was that what was most important when you were assembling your team was a man’s character-and that was something you couldn’t get from a report.

“What do you know about the killer so far?” Ness asked.

Merylo apparently decided honesty was the best policy. “Not much.”

“With all due respect, Detective, that’s not good enough.”

“We know he’s good with a knife. That leads the coroner to believe he might be a butcher. Or a doctor, but Pearce thinks that’s unlikely.”

“Because doctors are too socially respectable to be killers?”

“And they aren’t usually messed up with lowlife criminals like Andrassy and Polillo.”

“What else do you know?”

“He’s strong. Strong enough to decapitate a man with one blow. Strong enough to lug a corpse out to Jackass Hill.”

“What else?”

“He may be smart. Educated. He uses a chemical preservative, at least some of the time.”

“And he’s managed to kill at least five people without getting caught.”

“Another good point.”

“What’s his motive?”

Ness eyed Merylo carefully, and for the first time the detective hesitated before answering. Ness suspected he was considering whether it would be better to say he didn’t know, and risk looking stupid, or to speculate, and risk being found wrong. “I used to think he was with the mob. But now I think it may be some kinda… sex thing.”

“Because one of the victims had his genitalia removed.”

“Yes.”

“But the others did not.”

“True, but he still might-”

“And there’s no sign that any of the corpses were sexually molested or penetrated, correct?”

“How’d you know that?”

“Because I stayed up late reading the files. Haven’t slept in more days than I care to remember. But I don’t think this is a sex crime.”

“The killer totally emasculated-”

“Some of the victims. Not all. And we have victims of both genders. So I have to ask, Detective Merylo-is this conclusion of yours really based on the evidence? Or have your many years working on the vice squad preconditioned you to find sexual perversion even where it may not exist?”

Merylo’s neck stiffened. “You asked me what I thought, sir. I told you.”

“So you did.”

Zalewski chipped in. “Doctor Pearce thinks we should talk to an alienist.”

Ness turned his head slightly. This was this first thing he’d heard in the entire conversation that he didn’t already know. “Really?”