New Hope for the Dead

by Charles Willeford

  Sanchez watched him and sipped her coffee.

  Hoke took off his jacket and draped it over the back of the folding chair. He had been wearing the same short-sleeved flowered sports shirt for three days, and there were three concentric white rings of dried sweat under the armpits. He wouldn’t have a clean shirt until Saturday evening. The windowless room was cool enough, with plenty of cold air coming through the ducts, but he realized that if he could smell the dried perspiration on his shirt, Ellita could, too. So what? He could smell her overdose of Shalimar perfume, with an extra overlay of added musk. Like most Cuban women, she used too much perfume.

  “Just take a stack,” Hoke said, “and read them all. When I get through my stack we’ll exchange. After we’ve read all the cases, we’ll each vote on the three most likely cases to work on. Then we’ll see what we’ve got. Take your time, Ellita. My idea’s to discover the ten most likely cases. If we all come up with the same ten, we’ll have a consensus. But we won’t look at each other’s choices till we’ve each gone through all fifty of them. I don’t want to prejudice you or Bill by telling you my choices as we go along.”

  “You won’t. But we won’t get through all these cases today.”

  Hoke shrugged. “We’ve got two months. But the ones we do agree on, even if it takes us a week, will save us a lot of useless running around later.”

  They went to work, not speaking, and taking occasional notes. Bill Henderson joined them at nine-thirty. Hoke briefed him on the plan, and Henderson moved his stack down to the far end of the table.

  “That extra cup of coffee’s yours, Bill,” Hoke said.

  “Thanks, Ellita,” Henderson said, removing the plastic lid. He sipped the coffee and made a face. “Christ, it’s stone cold. I’ll go down for some more. Anybody else ready for more coffee?”

  “I’ll get it,” Ellita said, getting up. “I didn’t think you’d be out there so long with Slater and Gonzalez.”

  When she was gone, Henderson got up and sat on the table next to Hoke. “I was already late this morning in the first place, and then I had to argue with Slater. He wanted me to go over tomorrow afternoon to Miami Beach and guard wedding gifts at a reception. There’s fifty bucks in it, less Slater’s ten percent for giving you the job, but you have to wear your uniform. That isn’t bad, Hoke, fifty bucks for drinking champagne for three hours while you just stand around. But I couldn’t take it because I promised Marie I’d take her and the kids to the Metrozoo. Now if you can use fifty bucks, Hoke, you could get the job if you asked Slater.”

  “My uniform’s too loose on me now, Bill. But I wouldn’t take it anyway. When I made sergeant, I promised myself I wouldn’t do any more moonlighting. I’m not uptight about it, and I could use the dough, but I resent Slater’s ten percent rake-off. I’ve told him so, and that’s why he never asks me to take any moonlighting jobs. So if I asked him for this one, he’d think I’d changed my mind.”

  “I know what you mean. I was just passing along the suggestion. The other reason I’m late, I had to talk to my son this morning. I had a note from his P.E. coach that Jimmy won’t take a shower after P.E.”

  “How old is Jimmy now?”

  “Fourteen. I asked him about it, and he said he doesn’t want the other boys looking at his thing.”

  “Is it too big or too small?”

  “I don’t know. He won’t show it to me either. But he was stubborn about it, so I gave him a note to take to the coach, telling him that Jimmy has scabies. I said he couldn’t take showers until he got through using sulfur ointment to get rid of it.”

  “He’ll have to take a shower sooner or later.”

  “I know. But Jimmy’s sensitive, Hoke. Daphne’s a year younger, and she’s tougher than he is. If they’d let her, she’d take a shower with the boys in Jimmy’s place.”

  “That’s because your wife’s in NOW. Does Marie let Daphne read her Ms. magazines?”

  “Daphne doesn’t read anything. And she hasn’t learned a fucking thing in school. Last week, she asked me when we were going to have the next Bicentennial celebration. She still reads at the third-grade level. But she isn’t dumb. She can watch a mystery on the tube, and tell you who the guilty person is before the first commercial. I thought she might have dyslexia, but I had her tested and her eyes are okay. She just doesn’t like to read. But Jimmy’s read my entire Doc Savage collection already, and most of my Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books.”

  “I don’t know whether my daughters can read or not.”

  “Do you ever miss ’em, Hoke? The girls?”

  “No. I mean, I do once in a while … but I don’t. They were real little when they left, and I didn’t know them that well. I’m just not a family man.”

  The three of them worked until eleven-thirty, and then Hoke checked his in-box in the office. There were two phone messages to call Harold Hickey, in addition to the regular distribution. The second telephone message from Hickey said he would be at home all day. There were no lab reports, and nothing pressing to answer in the mail.

  Hoke told Henderson and Ellita that he was going out for a few hours, and suggested that the two of them break for lunch.

  “I should be back before four o’clock, but I’ve got some house-hunting to do.”

  “Don’t rush into anything, Hoke,” Henderson said. “If push comes to shove, I can always put you up on a cot in my Florida room for a few days.”

  “Thanks, Bill, but I don’t get along too well with Marie, as you know. She’s always accusing me of making a sexist remark, and I never know what she’s talking about.”

  “I didn’t mean on a permanent basis. But it would be better to sleep in my Florida room for a few days than to get a suspension without pay.”

  “Thanks, Bill. If I have to take you up on it, I will. Anyway, if I’m not back by four-thirty, lock the files up in my office and we’ll start on ’em again Monday. Until we start work on an actual case or two, we’ll just put in a normal eight-hour day.”

  “I might come in tomorrow for a couple of hours,” Ellita said.

  “That’s up to you. But you don’t have to—anyway, I should be back before four.”

  Hoke left the office and drove to Hallandale, but he took U.S. 1 instead of the 1-95 Expressway. About once a month, when Hoke had to be in the north part of town, he stopped at Sam’s Sandwich Shoppe for a tongue on rye. Hoke didn’t abuse the privilege (once a month was just about right), but he liked to stop at Sam’s because Sam always tore up his lunch check. Not only was the sandwich free, but except for Wolfie’s in Miami Beach, Sam made the best tongue sandwiches in Dade County.

  7

  The guard at the sentry box outside the Hallandale Mercury Club wore a powder-blue uniform, a gold cap with a black bill, and a shiny black-patent-leather Sam Browne belt, complete with holster. There was no weapon in the holster. The man held a Lucite clipboard in his left hand and a one-ounce paper cup of Cuban coffee in his right. Droplets of coffee from the guard’s thick mustache had dribbled onto the light-blue jacket.

  Hoke stopped at the lowered black-and-yellow-striped semaphore arm. The guard looked at his clipboard, and at his coffee, then put the cup down, realizing that he would need his right hand to write on the pad in the clipboard.

  “Ramon Novarro,” Hoke said, “to see Mr. Harold Hickey.”

  The guard looked at his mimeographed sheet, found Hickey’s name and apartment number, and wrote “R. Novarro” opposite Hickey’s name. He checked Hoke’s auto tag number, added that to the clipboard, and pushed a button that raised the arm.

  “Apartment 406,” the guard said.

  Hoke drove through the gate, parked on the grassy verge, and walked back to the gatehouse. The compact complex of clubhouse and three separate low-rise apartment buildings was enclosed by a buff-colored ten-foot wall. The wall was topped with three strands of barbed wire. Two locked gates on the ocean side, opening to the marina and the beach, were marked “Members.” Hoke assumed that members hel
d keys to both gates.

  “How do you know,” Hoke asked the guard, “that my name’s Ramon Novarro?”

  “What?”

  “I said, ‘How do you know my name’s Ramon Novarro?’ You didn’t ask me for any ID. You didn’t look very hard to see if I was armed, either.” Hoke took his .38 out of the belt holster, showed it to the guard, and returned it.

  “In fact,” Hoke continued, “you don’t know who I am, or who I’m going to see. All you know is that Harold Hickey has an apartment here, and you knew that much before I drove up to the gate. Why didn’t you call Mr. Hickey and tell him that a Mr. Ramon Novarro was here to see him? He might’ve told you that Novarro is dead, and has been dead, for several years.”

  Hoke showed the guard his shield and ID folder. “I’m a police officer. How much they pay you, three sixty-five an hour?”

  “No, sir. Four dollars.”

  “For what you aren’t doing, that’s a good sum.”

  Hoke got back into his car, drove to the guest parking area in front of the clubhouse, and made a guess. If the three buildings were each three stories, and they were, Apartment 406 should be in Building Two on the first floor. He was right. He lifted and dropped the brass knocker on Hickey’s front door three times. The door was opened by a Filipino houseboy, actually a wizened man of about sixty wearing pink linen trousers, a gray silk house jacket and a white shirt with a black bow tie. He led Hoke down the hallway, past the living room, and into Hickey’s den-office. The living room and the den were furnished with black leather and chrome armchairs and glass-topped tables. Hickey was seated in a black leather, deeply cushioned armchair. As Hoke came in, he got to his feet and switched off the television. Hickey wore a purple velour running suit and a pair of white rabbit-fur slippers. The air conditioning hissed quietly, and Hoke figured it was well below 65 degrees.

  Hickey smiled, revealing expensively capped teeth, and the smile made him almost handsome. His black hair was worn long, in a modified Prince Valiant cut, but the youthful effect was spoiled by a baseball-size bald spot at the crown. Hickey was tall and lean. His nails had been buffed and polished, and there was a gold University of Miami ring on his left hand.

  “I just got a strange call from the gate guard.” Hickey smiled. “Words to the effect that a dead policeman was on the way to see me.”

  “Did he tell you his name?”

  “Ramon Novarro. Wasn’t he the actor who was killed by a hustler a few years ago?”

  “He’s dead, but I don’t remember the circumstances. I remember seeing some of his films, from when I was a kid, but none of the titles. He was always running someone through with a sword.”

  “No matter. Sit down, Mr. Moseley. Would you like a drink?”

  “A Tab.”

  “Two Tabs,” Hickey said to the doorway. “You are Mr. Moseley, aren’t you?”

  Hoke nodded. “I was testing your gate guard. You people pay for security, but you don’t get very much.”

  “I know. But a gate guard is a deterrent, if nothing else. We used to pay more for armed guards, and then one night a Nicaraguan guard at the gate shot a hole in the manager’s car. The manager thought all the guards knew him, but he didn’t take the turnover into account. So when he drove through the gate without stopping, a new guard took a shot at him. After that, we decided it would be best to have unarmed guards.”

  Hoke sat in a leather chair that faced the sliding glass doors to a bare travertine marble patio. There were two potted spider palms on the patio, but no chairs. Hoke pointed toward the patio with his chin.

  Hickey smiled. “I never use my patio. If I feel the need of some sun, I go over to the pool by the clubhouse. That’s why there’s no furniture out there.”

  “No. I was just thinking you don’t have much of a view from here, with the wall only twenty feet away.”

  “I didn’t buy this place for the view. I bought it because I could finally afford to live in a place like this. I tried to call you last night, twice, but I didn’t get an answer. You said on the phone that—”

  “I’m sorry about that. There’s only one desk man at the Eldorado, and when he’s not at the desk there’s no one on the switchboard. I’m sorry you couldn’t get through. It’s been inconvenient for me, too, at times. At any rate, when I called you from Mrs. Hickey’s house, I didn’t know at the time who you were. Later on, I remembered that you were one of the drug lawyers profiled in the paper a few months back.”

  “An inaccurate portrait. I handle drug cases once in a while, just like any other lawyer, but I specialize in taxes. Lately, I’ve been turning down drug cases. The dealers can afford my fees, but they think they can get off simply because they’ve paid a large fee. I always tell them in advance that I can get a few delays, or get them out on bond, but if they’re guilty, they’re going to do a little time. Things have changed a lot down here, you know, with the Vice President’s task force on drugs.”

  The houseboy brought in two cans of Tab; each can was wrapped neatly in a brown paper towel, with the towel secured by a rubber band. The houseboy left, and Hoke removed the straw. He noticed a crude black-and-white drawing on the wall above Hickey’s computer table.

  “Is that an original Matisse?” Hoke asked, lifting his Tab.

  “James Thurber. It’s a woman. That thing in her hand is either a martini glass or a dog collar, I’ve never been able to decide which.”

  “Looks more like a bracelet to me.”

  “Yes, it could very well be a bracelet.”

  Hoke sipped from the Tab. “I suppose you phoned Mrs. Hickey last night?”

  “When I couldn’t get you, yes.”

  “You know that Jerry died from an overdose of heroin?”

  Hickey nodded. “That’s what she said.”

  “What I’d like to know is the kind of relationship you had with your son, Mr. Hickey. How close you were to him, for example; whether you were the stern father, or what?”

  “Why? What’s that got to do with Jerry’s death?”

  “I don’t know. It occurred to me last night that he might’ve met some of your clients, your drug dealers. If so, he could’ve made a connection through them, or one of them. He’d been on drugs for a long time.”

  “Jerry never met any of my clients. He never came to my office because it was off limits to him. To be frank, we didn’t have any relationship, not of the sort you mean. In the first place, Jerry wasn’t my real son. I suppose you know that already.”

  “Your wife told me.”

  “Ex-wife. Did Loretta also tell you how she happened to become my ex-wife?”

  “No. But I didn’t ask.”

  “I found out she was fucking Jerry, that’s how. He was seventeen at the time. I don’t know how long it had been going on, but as soon as I found out about it I moved out. I didn’t really care. In fact, it was a good excuse to get a divorce. She couldn’t fight me about something like that in court, so we obtained a simple no-fault divorce. I made some concessions I didn’t have to make, but a man always has to do that if he doesn’t want to be distracted. I was just getting into making some big bucks, so I wasn’t hurt financially. She got the house, of course, and one of the cars.

  “Legally, you see, I got stuck with Jerry when my first wife divorced me. Jerry was her son, and I was asshole enough when we first got married to adopt him. So not only did I get rid of Loretta, I got rid of Jerry at the same time when my divorce came through. It was a good deal all the way around.”

  “Except, perhaps, for Jerry.”

  “Jerry had no complaints. He had a place to live, and no one ever hassled him. Loretta didn’t want to keep him, but she couldn’t very well get out of it. What happened between them wasn’t any love affair, or anything close to it. She’d been drinking one day, and I suppose she got a little horny. Jerry, who was seventeen, happened to be available. It happened a few more times, I suppose. You know how it is, once you get it, you can always get it again. But it was all over by t
he time I found out about it, I’m pretty sure.”

  “How’d you find out? It’s none of my business, but I’m curious.”

  “Mrs. Koontz, the next-door neighbor, told me. I didn’t believe her at first, but then when I questioned Jerry he admitted it right away. ‘I didn’t think you’d mind, Mr. Hickey,’ he said. And of course I didn’t mind, because then I had an excuse to get out of a bad marriage.”

  “Your son called you ‘Mr. Hickey’?”

  “Most of the time, yes. I didn’t want him to call me ‘Dad’ because he wasn’t my real son. I don’t see anything wrong with that. After all, I supported him, so I was entitled to a little respect.”

  “Yours wasn’t exactly a loving relationship then?”

  “He got some love from Loretta.” Hickey smiled. “He admitted it, and so did Loretta after I confronted her with his confession. I made him put it in writing, in case she wanted to fight the divorce.”

  “How’d Jerry get on the spike without you finding out about it?”

  “I did know about it. I recognized the signs right away. I advised Jerry to get off drugs at once. I also told him I’d pay for drug counseling. But he claimed he could handle it, and that was that. A lot of young people are into dope down here, you know.”

  “I know.”

  “I don’t even smoke pot. But Jerry could get drugs anywhere in the city in five minutes, so long as he had the money.”

  “But you gave him the money.”

  “I gave him a small allowance after he quit school, but I advised him to finish high school. And I told him I’d put him through college. But when he dropped out of high school, I lowered his allowance. In this state, a father’s no longer responsible for a child after he reaches eighteen. But I would’ve sent him to college. No one ever helped me.” He leaned forward in his chair. “I put myself through the University of Miami by washing trays at night in the old Holsum Bakery in South Miami. And I did maintenance work to get a free efficiency apartment. No one ever gave me a fucking penny. Miami offers a young man more opportunities than any other city in the United States. If you want to get ahead down here, you take advantage of them. Jerry fell by the wayside. It’s not society’s fault, and it’s not Reagan’s, and it’s not mine.” Hickey, sitting back, started to yawn; he put a hand to his mouth. “Excuse me. But this is a sore point with me. Every day, if you look at the women’s section of the paper, you’ll see articles blaming the parents for the way their kids turn out. It’s all bullshit.”