wave and went off to his car.
Okay, so here we have a new point of view when it comes to dead people. Dead people can be fun. I thought about it for a couple minutes but had a hard time buying into the concept. The best I could do was an admission that Soder's death made my job easier. Evelyn had no reason to flee with Annie now that Soder was out of the picture. Mabel could stay in her house. Annie could return to school. Evelyn could get her life together.
Unless Eddie Abruzzi was part of the reason Evelyn had to hide. If Evelyn left because she had something Abruzzi wanted, nothing would change.
I looked at the blue-and-white and the crime-scene truck in my parking lot. The bright spot in all this was that unlike snakes in the hall and spiders in my car, this was a major crime and the police would work hard to solve it. And how hard could it be to solve? Someone had dragged a dead man into the foyer, up a flight of stairs, down the hall, and into my apartment . . . during daylight hours.
I dialed Morelli on my cell phone.
"I have some questions," I said. "How did they get Soder into my apartment?"
"You don't want to know."
"I do!"
"I'll meet you for coffee," Morelli said. "There's a new coffee shop across from the hospital."
I GOT A coffee and a croissant, and I sat across from Morelli. "Tell me," I said.
"Soder was sawed in half."
"What?"
"Someone used a power saw to cut Soder in half. And then they reassembled him on your couch. The baggy sweater was hiding the fact that they duct-taped Soder back together."
My lips went numb, and I could feel the coffee cup sliding from my grasp.
Morelli reached forward and pushed my head down, between my legs. "Breathe," he said.
The bells stopped clanging in my brain, and the dots went away. I sat up and took a sip of coffee. "I'm better now," I said.
Morelli did a sigh. "If only I could believe that."
"Alright, so they cut him in half. Then what?"
"We think they used a couple big duffel bags to bring him in. Hockey bags, maybe. Now that you've gotten over the gruesome part, the rest of the story is actually ingenious. Two guys, dressed in costume, carrying duffel bags and balloons, were seen entering the lobby and using the elevator. There were two tenants in the lobby at the tune. They said they assumed someone was getting one of those singing birthday presents. Mr. Kleinschmidt had turned eighty the week before, and someone sent him two strippers."
"What sort of costume were these guys wearing?"
"One was a bear, and the other was a rabbit. No faces showing. About six foot tall, but hard to tell with the costume. We found the balloons in your closet. They took the bags back with them."
"Did anyone see them leave?"
"No one in your building. We're still canvassing the neighborhood. We're checking on costume rentals, too. So far we haven't come up with anything."
"It was Abruzzi. He was the one who left the snakes and the spiders. He was the one who put the cardboard cutout on my fire escape."
"Can you prove it?"
"No."
"That's the problem," Morelli said. "And probably Abruzzi didn't personally dirty his hands."
"There's a connection between Abruzzi and Soder. Abruzzi was the partner who took over the bar, right?"
"Soder lost his bar to Abruzzi because of a card game. Soder was playing some high stakes guys, and he needed money. He borrowed the money from Ziggy Zimmerli. And Zimmerli is owned by Abruzzi. Soder lost big time at the card game, couldn't repay the money he borrowed from Zimmerli, and Abruzzi took the bar."
"So what's the deal with the bar burning down, and Soder getting shot?"
"I'm not sure. Probably the bar and Soder moved from the asset column to the liability column and were liquidated."
"Did you pick up any prints in my apartment?"
"None that didn't belong there. With the exception of Ranger."
"I work with him."
"Yeah," Morelli said. "I know."
"I'm assuming Evelyn isn't a suspect," I said.
"Anyone can hire a rabbit and a bear to chop a guy up," Morelli said. "We aren't ruling anyone out yet."
I picked at my croissant. Morelli had his cop face on, and it didn't give much away. Still, I had a feeling there was more. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
"There was a detail we're not releasing to the press," Morelli said.
"A gruesome detail?"
"Yeah."
"Let me make