“Robbie was pretty upset.”

“Never mind that stuff. Get the kit. Reynolds, start calling from the bottom of the roster. Get four men. Leave the Captain alone. If he checks in, give him what we have. Unless I tell you otherwise, we’re on top of it. Get a medical examiner over to Forty-seven Forster. As we need men, start with Tanner and Maule. You stay on the phone no matter what happens.”

Downstairs, they picked up a uniformed officer to drive. In the car, Schoenstein reported that Robbie Loughran had said that he had never seen anything like it. Loughran was not a very emotional man but he had been doing his best to control himself. He had touched nothing and he had called from the landlady’s apartment. The landlady had discovered the body. Leland took it in, trying to clear his mind for all the jobs he had to do. After a while Danny Curran suggested that they pin their shields on their lapels. It was a little thing, but it showed that he was getting ready, too.

There were two prowl cars nosed in at the curb on Forster Street, and a crowd stood buffing on the sidewalk. The red flashers on the cars swept the first-floor windows on both sides of the block. Inside the red brick building, the landlady’s apartment door was open and she could be heard crying within. Loughran was waiting for them.

“Hiya, Robbie,” Leland said. “Making work for us?”

“Finding it, Joe. You’re not going to like this. Carl is up at the apartment door. I’m the only one who’s seen it—and the landlady. She didn’t touch the body. She says she needs a cup of tea, and she does, too.”

“Have someone give it to her, Robbie, and you come up with us. Dave, tell the guys outside not to let anybody without a badge in or out. They’re to be held. The man who flubs this one can kiss his career goodbye, and that’s no kidding.”

Schoenstein nodded and went up the hall. Leland and Danny Curran waited for him and then for Loughran. The four went up the stairs. Loughran said, “The landlady is Mrs. Agnes McFee, a widow. She says that the body is her tenant, Theodore Leikman, L,e,i,k,m,a,n. She thinks it is, anyway. Lived alone. The body is mutilated, Joe. She found him twenty minutes ago, after she heard some noise. I was around the corner when I heard her screaming.”

“You did a good job, Robbie. Thanks.” Carl Schultzer stepped aside for them and they went into the apartment.

There was a little foyer, six-by-six, and the main room spread off to the left. The kitchen was at the back. The bedrooms would be off at the right. The place was not a cold-water flat; it seemed, in fact, to be a place most people would find desirable.