Winter of frozen dreams Read Online Free PDF Page B

the bathroom tiles. Maybe the crime lab technicians would have better luck.
    Lulling leaned back in his chair and puffed a cherrywood pipe. His hands were folded on the rise of his belly.
    Ken Couture, the detective assigned to work with him on the case, summarized the search of Barbara Hoffman's apartment. No promising leads were discovered. The identity of the dead man remained unknown. The body had been too frozen to autopsy; thus cause of death was also unknown. It seemed there was little more they could accomplish that afternoon, and Couture was anxious to conclude for the day. Christmas Day might have been ruined, but Couture hoped to salvage the evening with his family. Lulling grumbled.
    Couture had been a detective for all of three weeks, and he had been warned about Chuck Lulling. The department preferred to view criminal apprehension, arrest, and conviction as a team game, with the various elements of the law enforcement community operating in unison. Lieutenant Detective Lulling was feisty, obstinate, individualistic. According to those who worked with him, he rarely shared information. He seldom wrote police reports,

    and when he did he said as little as possible. Many believed that he didn't operate according to standard procedure; he'd been around before the book on standard procedure was written. He went on his way, conducting his own inquiries in his own manner. One didn't work with Lulling on a case; one worked for him, Couture had been cautioned.
    "You eaten dinner yet?" Lulling asked.
    "Not had a chance."
    "We'll grab a bite on the way," said the older detective. "You and me are going to Park Ridge, Illinois, and visit Miss Hoffman for ourselves—see just what this lady is made of."
    Couture was puzzled. To confront a murder suspect without knowing the identity of the victim, with no evidence, with no conception of what had happened, seemed unsound strategy. He voiced his concern. Lulling was unfazed.
    "Maybe we should wait till she returns," Couture suggested, "watch her patterns, see if this is connected to anyone more than these two. Right now she doesn't know we've found the body. We can detain Davies. And what happens if she doesn't cooperate? She can fight arrest with extradition proceedings because she's in Illinois, and it would give her time to construct a defense. Going down tonight is risky."
    "Hell, yes, it's risky. But Davies could barely sit in the chair to spill his guts, what guts he didn't spill in the wastebasket or the bathroom. How tough can she be? We go to Illinois and I squeeze that girl's balls, and I'll have a confession by midnight."
    Lulling paused for a draw of tobacco.
    "Nobody interrogates like me. We go to Illinois tonight, Ken, and you can celebrate Christmas tomorrow."
    Since Couture had been a detective for twenty days, and Lulling for more than twenty years, the rookie didn't pursue his objections. From material found in the apartment he got Hoffman's parents' address. He phoned the Park Ridge police, enlisted their cooperation, and com-

    pleted the appropriate paperwork. Faced with icy roads and a three-hour ride, they decided to use Lullings Buick rather than one of the department Dodges. The sky had faded gray to black when the Buick fishtailed out of the basement garage and headed for the interstate south to Chicago.
    Park Ridge was an exit on Chicago's northwest corridor, a suburb of single-family homes replete with two-car garages, sidewalks that were shoveled, front lawns with lopsided snowmen, and blinking strings of Christmas lights. There were shopping centers and drive-in banks. The police station was cinder block and inconspicuous, the type of one-story structure that could house a hardware store or dental offices.
    Good news greeted the Madison detectives at the station sometime after 9:00 p.m. A message from the MPD stated that the body dug out of the snowbank had a name.
    On Lullings suggestion, missing-person reports had been checked. A woman had called