"I can't believe this," she said. "They looked so cute."
"How many were there, ma'am?" Carella asked.
Mrs. Davis liked Carella. She thought he was very handsome. The other detective was bald, she had never favored bald men. Wait'll she told her daughter in Florida that she'd witnessed a murder mdash;twomurders mdash;and had talked to detectives like on television.
"Oh, just a handful of them," she said.
"How many would you say?" Meyer asked.
"Well, they went by very fast," she said. "But I'd say there were only four or five of them. They all jumped out of the station wagon and ran into the store."
"It was a station wagon, huh? The vehicle?"
"Oh, yes. For certain."
"Would you know the year and make?"
"I'm sorry, no. A blue station wagon."
"And these kids ran out of it with guns in their hands, huh?"
"No, I didn't see any guns. Just the shopping bags."
"No guns," Carella said.
"Not until they got inside the store. The guns were in the shopping bags."
"So when they got inside the store, these little boys pulled the guns and hellip;"
"No, they were little girls."
Meyer looked at Carella.
"Girls?" he said.
"Yessir. Four or five little girls. All of them wearing these long dresses down to their ankles and little blonde wigs. They looked like little princesses."
"Princesses," Carella said.
"Yes," Mrs. Davis said. "They had on these masks that covered entire faces, with sort of Chinese eyes on them mdash;slanted, you know mdash;well, maybe Japanese, I guess. Well, likeyour eyes," she said to Carella. "Slanted, you know?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"And rosy cheeks painted on the masks, and bright red lips, and I think little beauty spots near the mouth. They were absolutely beautiful. Like little Chinese princesses. Or Japanese. Except that they were blonde."
"So they had on these Chinese-looking masks hellip;"
"Or Japanese hellip;"
"Right," Meyer said, "and they were wearing blonde wigs hellip;"
"Yes, curly blonde wigs. Like Little Orphan Annie, except she's a redhead."
"Curly blonde wigs, and long dresses."
"Yes, like gowns. They looked like darling little princesses."
"What kind of shoes, ma'am?" Carella asked.
"Oh. I don't know. I didn't notice their shoes."
"They weren't wearingsneakers , were they?"
"Well, I really couldn't see. The gowns were very long."
The ambulance attendants were coming out with the second body now. The M.E. was still inside, talking to Monroe. Mrs. Davis looked down at the body as it went past. Before tonight, she had never seen a dead body except in a funeral home. Tonight, she'd just seen two of them close up.
"So they ran into the store," Carella said.
"Yes, yelling 'Trick or treat.' "
"Uh-huh," Carella said. "And pulled the guns hellip;"
"Yes. And shot Mr. Agnello and the man who was in the store with him."
"Shot them right off?" Meyer said.
"Yes."
"Didn't say it was a stickup or anything, just started shooting."
"Yes. Mr. Agnello and the man with him."
"What happened next, ma'am? In the store. Did you keep watching?"
"Oh, yes. I was scared to death, but I kept watching."
"Did you see them clean out the cash register?"
"Yes. And one of them took a bottle of whiskey from the shelf."
"Then what?"
"They came running out. I was standing over there, to the left, over there, I'm not sure they saw me. I guess maybe they would've shot me, too, if they'd seen me."
"You were lucky," Carella said.
"Yes, I think I was."
"What'd they do then?" Meyer asked.
"They got back in the station wagon, and the woman drove them off."
"There was a woman driving the car?"