by Rick Polad
She looked lost. “Yes. He… I knew it was wrong, but he… I just couldn’t say no.”
“It’s okay, Halley. What happened?”
She looked down. “I got hooked… on heroin.” She pushed some fries around with her fork. “It got so bad. I was arrested one night in Winnetka. I don’t know how I got there. I was supposed to meet him at the apartment, but he didn’t come. I started without him and then left. I ended up in Winnetka with some heroin in my purse.”
Her eyes welled up again. “I was so stupid.”
“He took advantage of you. It wasn’t your fault.”
She looked forlorn. “That’s nice of you to say, but sure it was. I should never have started any of that.”
“So what happened with the arrest?”
“I called his office the next morning. He bailed me out. I told him I had enough and that I was going to rehab and that he was paying for it… or else I’d tell everything to the cops.”
Ben looked at me, and I knew he was thinking she was lucky to be alive.
“Looks like rehab worked,” I said.
“It did. I’m trying to get on with my life.”
“But what went wrong?”
“His wife found out. Somehow she saw the checks to the center. She told him she wasn’t financing a drug addict. I’m sure she didn’t know the whole story.”
“I’m not so sure. Did you consider going to the police?”
“A friend told me I should, so I went to his office and told him I would do that if he didn’t pay.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me if I ever came to his office or threatened him again I’d be arrested. He told me no one was going to take the word of a druggie over him.”
“Arrested for what?”
“He didn’t say. But he knew people… I figured he could make things happen.”
“Did he use the heroin too?”
She shook her head. “No. He did do the marijuana, but he never touched the heroin.”
I took a long pull on the beer. “I’m so sorry all that happened, Halley. And I’d love to be able to make him pay. But I don’t see anything here that is going to help me.”
She stared out the window for a good minute. There was a decision she was trying to make.
“I have something.” She was still staring out the window. “I know where he got his drugs.”
That got my attention. The bottle was halfway to my lips. I put it down. Since the beginning of this case the list of suspects had kept growing, including a nun. And I figured suspecting a nun didn’t improve my chances of getting into heaven. But none of those suspects had led me to anything that helped… until now… until Halley uttered that short sentence.
I watched my hand turning the bottle in a circle and then glanced at Ben. He was looking at me with full attention. He could have asked the question just as well as I, but it was my ball and my game. And I knew he was thinking the same thing. When someone wants revenge they are willing to make things up to get it. Ben had been in the courtroom for twenty-some years, and his take on this would be something I’d listen to. I was glad he was there.
“How do you know, Halley?”
“Because one night I followed him. We met at the apartment, and he wanted sex. I needed… something else before that was going to happen. He said he was all out but could get some in an hour. He left, and I followed.”
“You didn’t think he might see you?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I didn’t care. I just wanted a hit.”
“Why did you follow him?”
She paused long enough for me to pretend I was casually taking a drink of beer. There was nothing casual about it. I was fully aware.
“He knew I needed the stuff, and knew he’d get sex every time. We met often enough that those times took care of me. But I hated him and wanted to stop the sex. I thought if I could find out where to get it, I could say no.”
The waitress came and asked if Halley was through. She had only eaten half her burger, but she was done. The waitress asked if she wanted a box. She didn’t. The waitress stacked the plates and asked if there’d be anything else. I told her no, and as she walked away, I turned back to Halley.
“And where did he lead you?”
“An apartment above a Chinese restaurant in Highwood. There was a door with stairs next to the restaurant. He went up the stairs.”
“Was there more than one apartment?”
“I don’t think so. I parked and opened the door. The stairs led up to a landing at the top, and then there was a turn to the right.”
“Do you remember the address?”
Her hands were clenched on the table in front of her. She was staring at them. “Yes… 211 Park. There was a mailbox just inside the door, but there was no name on it.”
“Then what did you do?”
She shrugged. “I left and was at the apartment when he got back with the stuff.”
“You didn’t say anything?”
“No. I needed it.”
“And he didn’t know you followed him?”
She shook her head. “If he did, he didn’t say anything.”
We were all quiet until Ben asked, “Why are you telling us this, Halley?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Because he wasn’t very nice to me.”
I would have put it a bit stronger. “No he wasn’t. I know it wasn’t easy telling us. Thanks.”
She shrugged again. “What are you going to do? Can you get him?”
“We need to talk about it, Halley. It gets pretty cloudy where the law is concerned. And if it comes to it, you may need to file a complaint. And that may be something you may not want to do. But we’ll talk about it. I’d sure like to pin something on him.”
She just stared at me with a blank look and no hope.
I reached across the table and covered her hands with mine. “I’m sorry you had to go through all that. But I’m glad you are okay now. That wasn’t an easy thing to do.”
I started to take my hand away, but she looked up at me with moist eyes and held onto it.
After a few seconds I pulled it away and handed her my card. “If you can think of anything else, call me.”
She glanced at the card and then nodded.
The waitress came back with the bill, and I left a twenty and a ten on the table. Probably her best tip of the day.
After a wave to the boss, Ben held the door for both of us, and we walked to our cars. Her Chevy was parked two spots away from my Mustang. I leaned on the door frame after she opened it and thanked her again.
She turned and looked up at me with parted lips and said, “You’re tall, Spencer.”
I nodded with a smile. “My parents planned it that way.”
Her lips parted a bit more. “You could kiss me.”
There wasn’t anything natural about the way she said it. It sounded like she was reading from a script. I nodded and said, “Yes, I could. But I’m not going to.”
She looked defeated, and I wondered how many times she had been turned down before.
“You don’t think I’m pretty.”
I pursed my lips and breathed in and out through my nose. “You are attractive. But I have someone who has all my attention, and I’d like to keep it that way. You’ll find someone too.”
She turned slowly and got in the car. I walked to mine, where Ben was leaning on the roof watching me. The sun was bright, but I felt like the world was pretty grey.
Chapter 25
I started the car and asked Ben if he had another hour. He didn’t have to ask why.
“Sure. It’ll only take us twenty minutes to get up to Highwood.”
I headed back toward Green Bay Road.
“Do you think she’s credible?” I asked.
“If she was on the stan
d I think the jury would believe her.”
“Do you believe her?”
“Ah, different question. And I’m not sure I have an answer. It never mattered what I believed… just what the jury believed. If I could make them believe the sun rose in the west I had done my job, and all was well with the world. The fact that I knew it rose in the east didn’t matter. I got used to not having an opinion.”
“Well, that’s a pretty lame answer.”
“It’s all I got. But if you want a gut opinion, I’d say I believe her.”
“There’s money involved. Bills weren’t paid.”
“Yeah, that does tend to make black look white. But I don’t think she’s looking for money. I think she just wants to see him get what’s coming to him.”
“And what is that?” I asked as I turned north onto Green Bay.
“Another good question. There’s lots of things, but nothing that stands out with probable cause for an arrest. You’d like to get him, wouldn’t you?”
“Yup.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s a bastard and a pompous ass.”
He laughed. “If you try to take care of all the pompous asses in the world you won’t have time to eat. You have any idea how many pompous asses I’ve had to deal with? Hundreds. Some of them I put behind bars, and some of them I worked for. Most of them made me wonder how they managed to get their shoes tied in the morning.”
“So if he is beyond the long arm of the law, we get him the round-about way.”
“Aren’t you a little busy with something else at the moment?”
“Isn’t going too well. And I’ve thought from the beginning that there are several loose threads that could be tied together here. It all started with drugs. And now the first lead I get is about drugs.”
“Cause and effect don’t always go together.”
“No, but I’ve never believed in coincidences.”
“How about Clausewitz?” Ben asked.
“Pardon?”
“There’s just as good a chance that Nadem has nothing to do with Margot. And there’s a good chance you’re charging in on your white steed again rescuing the damsel in distress.”
“So what does that have to do with Clausewitz?”
“You know what Clausewitz said.”
“Yeah, war is an extension of politics.”
“That too. But don’t fight a war on more than one front is what I had in mind.”
“What if the fronts merge?”
“Then charge ahead. But don’t see things that aren’t there just because you want that to happen.”
“I should have brought my boots with me… getting pretty deep in here.”
“Just saying.”
The windows were down, and we were both quiet, listening to the wind.
As we passed the sign for Highwood, Ben asked if I knew where I was going.
“Not exactly, but we’ll find it. There’s a pretty small downtown strip along Greenbay Road. The restaurant must be on a side street. I don’t remember seeing it on Greenbay. But I’ve been to the bowling alley, Minstrel’s Alley.”
“Odd name for a bowling alley.”
I stopped at a red light as we pulled into town. “It was the first bowling alley in Lake County, but the reason I went was that local musicians would just show up and play. There was great music every night.”
The light turned. “Look for Park.”
It was the second street to the right. There was a drugstore on the corner. The Chinese restaurant was down half a block on the south side. I passed it, turned around in an alley, and parallel parked two doors down from the restaurant on the north side of Park in front of an Italian restaurant called Mama’s.
“I’m gonna go take a look,” I said. “Stay here and keep your eyes open. Honk if there’s company.”
An elderly couple walked past the restaurant as I got out. Other than them the street was empty. A sign in the restaurant window said they opened at four. Adjacent to the restaurant door was a wooden door with a small pane of glass at the top and the numbers 211 above it. I opened the door slowly.
It was exactly as Halley had said, except she hadn’t mentioned the grungy part. There was a single mailbox on the right recessed into the wall with no name on it. The small window above the door let in just enough light to see the stairs. There was no carpet on the stairs. I stood and let my eyes adapt a bit to the dark and saw a switch next to the mailbox that I assumed was for a light. But I didn’t want to possibly alert someone in the apartment by turning it on. I listened for a minute and heard no sounds except for a car driving by. The stairs led straight up to a small landing. I climbed halfway up to where I could see around the corner. There was a little alcove on the right with another wooden door about five feet away. The only advantage to climbing the stairs farther would have been if the door was unlocked. I wasn’t going to break in.
There were several disadvantages. Without carpet on the stairs it would have been hard to climb all the way without making some noise. If someone was home I didn’t want to announce myself. And with only one exit, and that at the bottom of the stairs, I would be trapped if I was at the top and someone came in the front door. I didn’t even want to meet the mailman. I would have liked to put an ear to the apartment door, but I decided against it.
The street was still empty when I walked back across.
I got in the car and described the inside to Ben.
“Couldn’t ask for a better spot for an ambush,” he said.
I started the car and pulled out the phone.
“Stakeout?” asked Ben.
“Yup.”
“I’m in if you don’t get it covered.”
I nodded.
Three would be optimal, but I knew they’d all take twelve hour shifts if I asked. Double time after eight hours was enough incentive. My first call was to the pool hall where Ralph spent all of his free time. Outside the city they were called billiard parlors. Ralph was there, and I told the man who answered it was important. If I didn’t say that, Ralph would finish a game if he was in the middle of one. I had once had to wait fifteen minutes.
“Hey, Spencer,” he said with anticipation of a paycheck. “What’s up?”
“Simple surveillance up in Highwood, but I need you now.”
“How long?”
I explained the situation. “Until this guy shows. If he doesn’t, two days.”
“Who else?”
“Don’t know yet, but I’d like to get three so you can take eight hour shifts.”
“At double pay I’ll stay up all night if you strike out.”
“Okay, thanks. Stop by the office, and pick up a portable phone from Carol.”
I gave him the address and told him we were parked in front of Mama’s.
The second call was to Paul. He was in. Third call was to Rebecca. I got her answering machine and left a message for her to call me. Those three were the ones on my A list. I had others, but the quality dropped. But this was an easy job, so I read off another number.
“Before you go to the B list, I’d like to get in on this,” Ben said. He knew about my lists. I accepted. He had been involved in cases before where I needed surveillance, and he wouldn’t take money. And since this was coming out of my pocket, I didn’t mind saving a few dollars. But I was pretty sure I still owed him a few dinners.
By three fifteen Ralph and Paul had arrived and were sitting in the back seat, and we worked out the plan. Other than the mailman at a little after two, no one had shown up at 211 Park. Ralph and Paul flipped a coin. Ralph would take the first shift until midnight, and Paul would relieve him. Ben would take over at eight. They would hand off the phone and call me if anyone showed up. It would be an easy job. Mama’s opened for lunch at eleven and closed at ten at night. I had introduced myself to the m
anager and explained the situation. She was hesitant until I took out two fifties. And two doors from Mama’s was a twenty-four-hour laundromat.
I figured it was likely someone would show around dinnertime, so Ben and I stayed until seven. We got a table next to Mama’s window, and I bought dinner. Still no one across the street. At seven I walked across the street and into the Chinese restaurant. I asked for the owner and said I was trying to get ahold of the fellow next door and asked if he had seen him. He said the guy came in for take-out a couple times a week. Good customer. He gave me a description. Thin, about five and a half feet tall, long black hair sometimes in a pony tail, and a straight scar on his left cheek. I asked if he ever saw anyone else going in or out. He hadn’t, except for the mailman. Said he minded his own business.
As we pulled out of town, Ben asked, “What happens after two days?”
“I’ll climb the stairs.”
Chapter 26
I pulled into Stosh’s drive Wednesday at six for our regular gin night. Before I shut off the engine I called Ben. No one had come to 211. Even the mailman had passed it by Wednesday afternoon.
I let myself in the front door.
“Hi, Kid,” Stosh said as I walked into the kitchen. “It was a tough day, so we’re staying in. I got soup and sandwiches at the deli.”
“Fine by me.”
We took our food and beer into the living room. He took the recliner, and I sat on the couch.
“So what was so tough about your day?” I asked.
“It started last night. I didn’t get home ‘til eleven. A bunch of robberies over on Lawrence around three. Eight stores got hit at the same time. Same general description from all of them. A guy about five eight, slim, black pants and sweatshirt and full-face ski mask. One of the stores had a camera, and it showed exactly that.”
“Same guy?”
He shook his head, finished a bite, and washed it down with Schlitz. “All of the robberies were within five minutes of each other. Eight different guys all dressed alike.”
“What’d they get?”
“Anywhere between fifty and three hundred dollars. Total of seven sixty.”
“Not much of a haul for all that effort.”
