They needed flashlights by then, but DeWayne had three in his van and they took them up on the roof. He shined his at an array of orange safety cones connected together by yellow tape. “That’s where I did my patching. Building’s going to redo the whole roof, so that’ll be it until spring.”
“And any idea where the leak came from?” said Nikki.
“Oh, absolutely.” DeWayne trained his light on the wooden water tank on stilts above them. It resembled the hundreds of cedar tanks atop all the buildings Heat had been looking at from the cab when she was checking out the skyline. “Folks on the top floor called and said they were getting flooded through the ceiling. With the freeze, we figured a busted pipe or whatever. But it was from the tank.” He waggled his light beam over a fresh cedar plank. “Leak drained a few hundred gallons before we got here. By then, water level was low enough it stopped by itself.”
“Don’t know what caused it?” Rook was looking straight at Nikki when he asked it. Both were thinking the same thing.
“Nah,” said DeWayne. “Water was done leaking by then, so it didn’t matter to me. Figured that wood just split in the cold. The tank guy couldn’t come till the next day, so I never heard what made the leak happen.”
Rook leaned and whispered in Heat’s ear. “My money’s on a bullet hole from shot number two.”
* * *
On the ride back to Rook’s loft, Nikki speed-dialed Ochoa. “You’ll be sure to let me know when I’ve depleted the favor bank, won’t you?”
“Hey, no problem. The way it’s going here at the Two-oh, it’s nice to actually engage in some real police work.”
“Iron Man?”
“Has no plan.” She could hear Raley laughing in the background. Ochoa said, “Raley wants me to tell you that Captain Irons has set up eight &A.M.& tomorrow for desk inspection. For real. If we can’t clean up the streets, at least we can tidy up our work areas.”
Heat said, “It’s probably best that this isn’t sourced from me, so in about ten minutes, you’re going to get a call from a DeWayne Powell. He’s the guy who discovered Montrose’s body. He’s going to report that the more he thought about it, the water leak he got called in to clean up was from a bullet hole in the water tank on top of the building near the captain’s car.”
“Jeez,” said Ochoa as he was struck by the implications. “Cap’s bullet went straight up, so this one . . .”
“Right,” said Nikki. “Could be the orphan slug from his backup magazine. Listen, my guess is if a slug punctured that cedar and got slowed by a twelve-foot-diameter tank of water, it probably didn’t exit.”
“We are all over it, trust me.”
“Good, but wait for DeWayne’s call. I just wanted to give you the heads-up so you took him seriously and had Forensics check out that tank.”
“Will do,” he said.
“And Miguel? This is all because of the job you and Rales did today double-checking his weapon and ammo. If we prove homicide instead of suicide, you’ve done this man a great service.”
“Hey, I’ll put on a mask and flippers myself, if I have to.” And as she looked up at the CNN JumboTron above Columbus Circle and saw it was minus-three degrees, Nikki knew that was exactly what he would do if it came down to it.
* * *
Rook was hungry, but she was too amped to eat, so he zapped the scar pariello that was left over from the night before while she pulled a dining room chair up to face Murder Board South and took a seat for her contemplation. “How was it?” she said when he ate his last bite.
“Even better as a leftover,” he said. “And how did you know I was done, do you have eyes in the back of your head?”
“No, I have ears. You stopped moaning in ecstasy.”
“Ah. So that’s how you know when I’m done.”