“Go on! Get out of here.”
They ran up the alley.
Elrick looked at the dead man and shook his head.
“I wonder why he came back,” he said. “He got away at the right time. He should have known better than to have come back.”
“Maybe he needed money,” Herbie said.
With a grimace, Elrick pointed at the body.
“When a man can wear clothes like that, he ain’t exactly starving,” he said. “Even a dumb newsboy ought to be able to see that.”
Herbie shrugged.
Elrick placed fists on hips and looked down at the body.
“It won’t take long to figure out who did this. I got the case patterned already.” He jabbed a forefinger into Herbie’s ribs. “A situation like this comes up once every fifty or so years. When an ordinary cop solves a murder, he ain’t no ordinary cop any longer. Get the drift?”