by Mike Faricy
“Oh God, do you think he could screw this up? It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“Don’t you worry about it. I’ll check it out. I’m sure we’ll be okay. I just want to have all the ’t’s’ crossed and ‘i’s’ dotted so that, in the event he does try something, we can shut it down.”
She nodded and said, “That makes a lot of sense.”
“Of course it does. It’s my idea. I’d better hurry home. I have to let Morton out.”
“Once I get this afternoon nailed down, I’ll let you know.”
“Okay, thank you again for dinner and for helping Taylor.”
“It’s my pleasure, Dev. Thank you. Now go on, off with you before Morton has a surprise waiting for you.”
Chapter 37
Morton wasn’t at the front window when I pulled into my driveway. I hurried out of the car and into the house. I headed back to the kitchen, but Morton wasn’t in there. I thought about heading upstairs and decided against it. Letting Morton wake up under his own power was a much better idea.
I put on a pot of coffee, turned on my laptop, and sent Louie an email. ‘Louie, can you save me some time today? I have a question about legal guardian rights regarding Taylor. Thanks, Dev’
Louie replied five minutes later, ‘No problemo.’
It was another half-hour before Morton wandered down to the kitchen. He did his normal morning stretch in the doorway and headed over to me for his head scratch. He seemed to be looking around the room, no doubt searching for Taylor. I let him out into the backyard, filled his food and water dish, and poured myself a coffee. We headed down to the office a half-hour later. Louie wasn’t in yet, so I made enough coffee for two mugs.
Louie pulled in across the street just as the coffee was ready. I poured a mug for him and set it on his picnic table. I poured myself a mug and settled into my desk chair just as the staircase began to creak. Red-faced Louie stepped in a moment later, stopped, and stared at me.
“What in the hell happened to you?” he asked.
“It looks worse than it is.”
“Mmm-mmm,” he said and gave me a thumbs-up. He set his briefcase on the picnic table and settled into his desk chair. After maybe a half-dozen sips of coffee, he said, “Tell me about the nose.”
“Against my better judgement, I paid Tubby Gustafson a visit yesterday morning.” I went on to give him the details about a woman half my size assaulting me.
He shook his head and said, “So who’s having trouble with their legal guardian rights?”
“Sorry if my text message was misleading. No one is having any trouble. I just wanted to be prepared in case a problem arose.” I went on to explain Taylor’s potential opportunity at the Art Academy and my fear of Eli’s involvement.
Louie shook his head. “That’s not going to be a problem. No employment, running out on his rent, missing for days if not weeks at a time. You can testify to Taylor having to live rough. You and Taylor have got a pretty strong case that things have worked out much better for the boy with his Uncle Eli out of the picture. You might want to get a statement from his landlord regarding the failure to pay rent.”
“Is there anyway we could get a ruling in advance?”
Louie seemed to think about that for a brief moment and then shook his head. “I don’t think so. My sense would be just to leave this alone. Did you tell me the other day that Tubby Gustafson was after Eli?”
“Yeah, something to do with painting forgeries,” I said and then wondered if, after what we learned last night, that might extend to Taylor as well. The last thing the kid needed was involvement with someone like Tubby.
“Gustafson just might eliminate the problem for you,” Louie said and chuckled. “So, if you’re asking this, I’m guessing Taylor has turned up.”
“Yeah, everything’s good. Annette worked with him on some artwork, and she’s come up with this Art Academy idea. She thinks he’d qualify for a scholarship and already has a couple of women lined up to write letters of recommendation. Hopefully, Taylor’s meeting with them at Annette’s this afternoon.”
“Good. He deserves a break.”
I went on to tell Louie about Taylor doing all the mockups for Dennis at Inkredible. “Dennis wrote him a check for nine hundred bucks. As a matter of fact, if there’s time after meeting these women at Annette’s, I want to get him to the bank and open an account. Otherwise, he’s going to end up running around with the check still in his pocket and either lose it or cash the thing somewhere and blow all the cash.”
My phone rang. “Annette, everything all right?”
“Oh, yes, just heard from my friends. They’ll be over here this afternoon to meet Taylor.”
“That’s great. Do you want me there?”
“Actually, Dev. Don’t take this the wrong way, but no. One look at those black eyes and that nose, and why take the chance they’ll think you’re somehow tied up with Mr. Gustafson?”
The more I thought about that, it made perfect sense. “That’s probably the wise decision. Let me know how it goes and if there’s anything I can do. Give me a call when you’re finished, and I’ll come out and pick up Taylor.”
“I will, Dev. Keep your fingers crossed,” she said and hung up.
“Everything all right?” Louie asked.
“Yeah, they’re all meeting at Annette’s this afternoon. She seemed to think my showing up looking the way I do wouldn’t be the best idea.”
Louie nodded and said, “I’m afraid I have to agree with her.”
The file Tubby had tossed out of his SUV the other night at The Spot still sat on the far corner of my desk. I slid it over, opened it, and stared at the image of Eli Cummings for a moment. Thankfully, other than dark hair, I couldn’t see any physical similarities between Eli and his nephew Taylor. I raised the photo and read through the list of addresses. The dingy unit I’d been to over on the east side was on the list, but there was another address after it.
“I’ve got some things to check out. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. You around all day?” I asked.
“I’ll be here until happy hour over at The Spot,” Louie said without looking up.
“Okay, catch you later.” I clipped the leash onto Morton’s collar, and we headed out the door. We did a quick walk around the block, and I put Morton in the backseat. My first stop was the hardware store. I purchased a can of high-gloss black spray paint. I went out to the parking lot and covered up the red ‘OINK’ some idiot had sprayed on my car yesterday afternoon.
It didn’t completely eliminate it, but you pretty much had to know it was there to see it. I tossed the empty can in the dumpster, waved at the two hardware store guys watching me, and drove off.
The first address was a two-story gray stucco structure down on Daly street. It appeared to have originally had wooden siding and was probably covered with stucco back in the 1950’s. There were three doorbells next to the door. I rang the first one and waited. After a long minute, I rang the second doorbell. No one answered. I rang the third and was about to head back to my car when a redheaded woman answered the door. She looked to be in her fifties. I guessed her weight at maybe ninety pounds.
“Yeah? If you’re selling something, I ain’t buying.”
“I’m not selling anything. I’m looking for a guy who lived here. I opened the file and showed her the image of Eli Cummings.”
She shook her head and said, “Is he the guy that did that to you?”
“No, this is from a little fender bender.”
“Yeah, sure it is,” she said and closed the door. I heard the lock snap a moment later.
I climbed back in my car, hoping things would improve. They didn’t. I went through the next five places on the list rather quickly but only because no one was home in the first four.
At the fifth place, what I thought was the most recent address, another woman answered the door. “Are you my eleven-thirty?” she asked then seemed to stagger a step or two to regain he
r footing.
“No, sorry, wondering if you may have seen this man,” I said, showing her Eli’s photo. “Old pal of mine, I’m trying to find him.”
She shook her head. “No, I ain’t seen him. But you look kinda familiar. You the guy left without paying me the other night?”
“No, that wasn’t me.”
“You sure?”
“Thanks for your time,” I said and hurried back to my car. I glanced at her as I drove off. She was still talking, apparently to herself. I drove over to the Minneapolis Art Institute on a whim and showed Eli’s photo to the two people at the front desk, a woman and a man. Both of them looked from the photo to my nose and then back to the photo.
“He kind of looks familiar, but on any given day, we maybe get a hundred folks coming in here. More on the weekends. What’s his name?”
“Cummings, Eli Cummings,” I said.
The guy got a strange look on his face and pulled a file from a rack on their desk. Hang on just a moment,” he said, opening the file. He began to run through a list, moving his index finger down the list as he read. He stopped about two-thirds of the way down.
“You said, Eli Cummings?”
I nodded and said, “Yes.”
“He’s on our list,” he said and passed the list over to the woman. “We’re supposed to call security if he attempts to enter. Did he do that to you?” he asked, nodding at my nose.
“No, had a bit of a car accident. You haven’t seen him here?”
They both shook their head.
“Why do they want you to call security?”
“They never tell us. It could be anything from doing damage to an object to purse snatching. I’ve been here for over two years, and I’ve only had to call once. As soon as I called, the guy hurried out of the building.”
“Well, thanks for your help. Hopefully, things will remain quiet for you,” I said and headed back to my car.
Chapter 38
My phone rang just as I was about to start the car. Barbara Wright calling.
“Hi Barbara, I’m sorry. I was so busy yesterday afternoon I forgot to call you. Taylor is back, and all is well.”
“Oh, thank God. Now, I can move on to worrying about something else. Where did he go?”
“Well, I searched all over town until about three in the morning. After maybe four hours of fitful sleep, I resumed my search. It turns out he was up in a treehouse in the yard right behind me, not more than fifty feet from my place.”
“But he’s back, and everything is all right?”
“Yes, everything is fine, thankfully.”
“Oh, that’s good news. You can fill me in on all the details tonight at detention.”
With everything going on, I’d completely forgotten about detention. “Yeah, about that. I think I’d better take a pass on it tonight.”
“Why? What happened? Is Taylor—”
“Everything is fine. I was doing some work around the house, working on a new beam in the basement, and thought I had it in place. It slipped and more or less landed on my nose.”
“Eeew, are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, but my nose is swollen and black and blue, and I’ve got two black eyes. I’m afraid it may send the wrong message to the kids if they see me looking like this.”
“Mmm-mmm, you’re probably right. Well, the important thing is that you’re okay. Sounds like you’re lucky you didn’t break your neck.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. I’m sorry to miss out on tonight. I really enjoyed it last week.”
“Plenty of time for more of that. You just get better. Please give me a call tomorrow on Taylor. I want to be sure he’s okay. If there’s another problem with him, don’t hesitate to call.”
“Thanks, Barbara. I’ll keep you posted.”
Chapter 39
I didn’t make it back to the office until the middle of the afternoon. Louie was at his picnic table, wolfing down the remnants of a BBQ sandwich. Based on the two Styrofoam trays, he was finishing up the second sandwich. As I walked in he nodded hello, picked up the last bits of meat from the second tray, tilted his head back, and dropped the meat into his mouth. Once he swallowed, he proceeded to lick his fingertips.
“Must have been pretty good,” I said and settled in at my desk.
“Delicious. How’d things go for you?”
“My time would have been better spent napping at my desk. What a waste. I got more responses regarding my nose than anybody having seen Eli Cummings.”
“At least the guy seems to be keeping a low profile.”
“It would be better if he’d fled the city with the idea of never coming back.”
“You going to tell Gustafson?”
“I hadn’t planned to, but now that you mention it, that’s not a bad idea.”
I pulled out my phone and dialed Tubby’s number. “Haskell,” a voice answered. “You calling to try and get a rematch with that ninety-two-pound little girl who kicked your ass?”
“I’m calling to talk to Mr. Gustafson.”
“Let me just check and see if he can’t come up with something better to do,” the voice said and put me on hold.
“Haskell?” Tubby shouted into the phone a moment later.
“Just checking in, sir. I was out and about searching for Eli Cummings.”
“You sound dreadful. Do you have a cold? Is it contagious?” Tubby said, waited a moment, and then laughed until it morphed into a barking cough.
“I went through the entire list of addresses you provided the other night. No one recognized Cummings’ photo. There was no indication he’d been at any of the places.”
“Damn it. He has to be somewhere. He can’t just disappear.”
“You mentioned he ran off with Lyle’s car last week.”
“What difference does that make. I don’t give a damn about Lyle’s car.”
“If you could get me a description of the vehicle and a license number, I might be able to get a BOLO, Be On The Lookout, on the vehicle and—”
“I know what the hell a BOLO is, Haskell.”
“Well, if you could get me that information or have Lyle call me, it might be just the thing that would help me find him.”
“Haskell, so help me. All right, I’ll have him get in touch.”
“The sooner, the better, because—” Click. Tubby had disconnected.
“A conversation with your favorite pal?” Louie asked, not looking up from his computer.
“Not even close to a pal, my favorite, or a conversation. I’m just trying to find this idiot Eli Cummings. I want to warn him that Tubby is looking to kill him, so he gets the hell out of town. Then, hopefully, I can get Tubby off my back.”
Louie looked up and shook his head. “You’re a more patient man than I am.”
“What would you do?”
“Oh, probably the same thing you’re trying to do. But fortunately, I don’t have to do it.”
“You know I’ve been thinking—” My phone rang, Annette.
“Hi, Annette, everything okay?”
“More than okay. The girls just left. They’re going to submit letters of recommendation for Taylor. One of the things he’ll have to do is submit a painting as an example of his work.”
“Are you thinking one of those landscapes or the three portraits of that woman?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, that was my idea, but he said no.”
“Does he have a plan?”
“He does. Why don’t you join us for dinner tonight, and we can go over it?”
“I can do that. What would you like me to bring?”
“Just yourself. If you feel you have to bring something, bring a bottle of wine.”
“Red or white?” I asked.
“You choose, no pressure. Any time after five will work and feel free to bring Morton.”
“Morton? Are you sure?”
Morton raised his head at the sound of his name.
“Very sure. We c
an take him for a walk.”
“Looking forward to it. I’ll see you then,” I said and disconnected.
I chatted with Louie for a bit, put Morton in the car, and we drove home. As soon as we stepped into the house, I headed into the kitchen and let Morton out the backdoor. I headed up the street on foot to Solo Vino, got two bottles of a California sauvignon blanc, and headed home. I set the wine in the freezer, hurried upstairs, and climbed into the shower. I put on a wrinkled shirt and jeans, pulled the wine out of the freezer, and drove over to Annette’s. It was rush hour, and the drive took a good thirty-five minutes.
We rang the doorbell, and Annette answered a few seconds later.
“Oh, good, you brought Morton. Taylor mentioned him a couple of times, and I thought he could maybe use a break. He’s in the den going over all sorts of Art Academy scholarship information.”
“Did everything go okay?” I asked, handing her the wine bottles.
She smiled and said, “Could not have gone better. He knocked their socks off, to use an idiom.”
“Don’t get too technical with me before I have a glass of wine.”
“Let me take care of that. You remember where the den is.”
“Right around the corner?”
“Yes. I’ll join you in a bit.”
Morton followed me into the den. Taylor was stretched out in the middle of the floor with all sorts of papers scattered around him along with his laptop. He was typing away and appeared to be filling out an application. As he looked up, Morton bounded toward him and began licking his face.
“Hey, Morton. How’s it going? Did you miss me? I missed you, boy. Good to see you. Good to see you,” Taylor said, sitting up and scratching Morton behind the ears. Morton’s tail waved back and forth as he took in all the attention.
“So, Annette said things went pretty well this afternoon.”
“Yeah, I think so. Two nice ladies. They asked a lot of questions, and I was able to show them the pieces I’d done out in the studio plus the one I started last night.”
