Something Green

by Drew Zachary

  Under Joe's voice there was the sound of ringing phones and a lot of voices talking. "I've got some of that background you were looking for," Joe said, sounding easy and relaxed. "Want to grab some supper and talk it over?"

  "I could meet you somewhere."

  "Cool. Are you downtown? There's that pub on Seventh, down by Lancaster. Nice place, good food, we can talk without having four-year olds at the next table."

  "Sure, that sounds great." He hadn't had a meal that wasn't take-out in a hundred years, or beer on tap instead of out of a bottle. "I can be there in a half hour." Unless Jesse spent a long time working on Lockhart. DB didn't really see that being an issue.

  "Good enough. Bye, DB." Joe sounded pleased as he hung up and the sounds of the police station were cut off.

  Yanya was staring at him. "A break? Or a date?"

  "Date? I'm not dating -- you know I'm taken."

  "True." Yanya nodded emphatically. "I know that better than most. Where is he, anyway? You didn't lose him, did you?"

  "He's trying to pump your ghost for more information." DB glanced at his watch. They'd have to leave in about ten minutes to get there without being late.

  "Good luck to him." Yanya snorted and got up. "I'm going to close up. People have been coming in all day, taking a look at me, and leaving again. Maybe I'll sleep better tonight and stop scaring off my own customers."

  "Jesse and I'll figure out how to get rid of him. We're doing it as quickly as we can, okay?"

  "I know, child." She sighed and nodded. "I never would've thought I'd be stuck like this. Me, of all people." She went to the door and flipped the sign to closed. "He's lucky I called you two in and didn't just lose my temper at him. Jesse should tell him that."

  "Jesse should tell who what?" Jesse asked, popping into the middle of the conversation.

  DB rolled his eyes. "It's rude to jump into a conversation like that. Any luck with Lockhart?"

  Jesse tilted his head to the side and appeared to consider the question. "He's a bit of a jerk."

  "Ya think?" Yanya was getting cranky.

  "Sorry." Jesse grinned. "He did know his little girl grew up to take after him, but he only found out recently, say a couple of months ago at the most. He's a bit in awe of the stuff she's offloading, I think. And he said that the basement was full of secrets, back in the day, then he clammed up."

  DB sighed and nodded. "Yep. We'll have to come back tomorrow and tackle the basement. I was kind of hoping to avoid that." He put his notebook away and stood up, going over to shake Yanya's hand. "We'll see you tomorrow. I need to pick up supplies first, so it'll probably be around ten."

  "I'll be here." Yanya waved a tired hand and let them out, looking more and more like she was wishing she could go with them.

  "Home?" Jesse asked as they walked to the car.

  "Nope. Joe's got some info for us. We're meeting him at the Hart and Crown."

  "Oh, fun." Jesse sounded a little sour. "Still, I can listen and think while you two eat good food and drink beer. Maybe I'll solve the case while you digest!" He put himself in the car, leaving DB on the sidewalk and unable to growl at him. Jesse was getting faster.

  He climbed into the car. "That would be great, you know? If you solved this case before I have to go down into that gross basement." He started up the car and began heading into traffic.

  There was a longish silence, and then Jesse said, "You're expecting me to go down there with you, aren't you?"

  "Of course I am. Why wouldn't you?" It wasn't like anything down there could hurt Jesse. There was no reason he should have to do it alone.

  "It's icky. This is going to cost you."

  "Excuse me? You don't have to do anything but keep me company."

  "In a yucky place while you bitch and moan and complain and point out that it would be easier if I could actually help. You don't think you're going to be like that?"

  "Well... probably. You still won't have to actually do anything."

  "I won't even point out how cranky you are about it if I get a proper amount of incentive this evening. And tomorrow morning." Jesse made eyes at him, probably not even guessing how silly he looked.

  "Do you ever think of anything else?"

  "Not usually, no."

  DB laughed. "Yeah, well, let's see what Joe can tell us."

  "Does that mean I can pencil you in for later?" Jesse kept grinning at him as they drove, keeping up the banter right until they were parked at the pub.

  "Hush, now. I know Joe knows about you, but nobody else does, and I don't want to do my crazy impression, okay?"

  "Impression, he says." Jesse laughed and laid a tingling hand on the small of DB's back. "Okay, I'll be good." Somehow, DB wasn't sure Jesse meant it.

  Inside the pub things were getting crowded, but Joe had apparently been watching the door. He was standing, one arm lifted in a wave when DB saw him. The table was about halfway down, and backed onto a booth so they had a bit of privacy.

  DB made his way over, shaking Joe's hand before sitting. "I'm glad you got here early enough for us to get a seat!"

  "It fills up fast, yeah." Joe looked a little uncertain. "How alone are we?"

  Jesse cleared his throat and pushed a hand through a chair that was too close to the table.

  DB sat and casually kicked the chair out a little so Jesse could sit without being half in the table, which would have freaked him out way more than Jesse. "That answer your question?"

  Joe nodded and eyed the table, then nodded again. The second was more of an inclining of his chin, a greeting. "Yeah, okay. That's good." He sat down and added, "The steak and eggs here are amazing, if you like breakfast for dinner."

  Jesse sat as well, and pretended to move his cutlery around.

  DB studiously ignored his partner. It was easier that way. "Steak and eggs sounds good. Along with a tall glass of whatever's on tap."

  Joe passed the order along by yelling it out to a passing waitress, calling her by name. "I come here a lot," he said with a shrug. "So, how was your day?"

  "Frustrating -- I didn't get too many good leads in the case. It's looking up now, though." If Joe had something for him, that would rock.

  "I got ahold of Lockhart's jacket -- which wasn't easy, actually. He's been dead a long time, so things went into storage and any actual physical evidence was destroyed long ago. But he was arrested after computers took over, so the bare bones were still there." Joe sat back and pulled out his notebook. "He was a fence, connected to a few names, most of whom are long gone. There wasn't anything suspicious about his death, and a lot of property found on the site was eventually returned to its proper owners."

  "Hmm... that's not much." He'd been hoping for more. Way more. "He ever get ahold of anything that would still be worth someone trying to find ten years later?"

  "Man, you're not going to let me hold anything back for dessert, are you?" Joe's smile grew wider. "I started poking around and my phone started ringing."

  "Someone found out you were looking into Lockhart and they called you about him?" Now that was interesting.

  Joe looked very pleased with himself as he flipped a page in his notebook. "I got a call from one of the guys who used to go in and routinely search the place, was a beat cop back then, and he'd go and look to see what was on the shelves. For your basic hot stereos and stuff, right? Of course, the real fencing was going on out of sight, but Lenny was in and out of there all the time. He's working out of Vice now, but he got a note that I'd pulled the files."

  Jesse rolled his eyes. "Can you tell him that one of us is already dead here, and if he takes much longer with this, the other two are going to be old?"

  DB took the time to shoot Jesse a glare and mouth "shut up" while Joe was still looking through his notebook. "That's great, Joe. What did he have to say?"

  "'That's great, Joe,'" Jesse mimicked. "God, it took me a year to get a 'That's great,' and then it was followed up with 'Just great. Go away.' Jeez."

  Joe was t
alking, though, right over Jesse's whining. "Well, Lenny wanted to know what was going on, naturally enough, and he said that he always thought Lockhart had some good stuff they never found. He was looking for information, but I didn't have any, not really, so he finally let it alone -- but he gave me the names of a couple of insurance fraud guys who might want to help out."

  "Was he eager to help in a strange way, or just in a good cop wanting to get the one that got away way?"

  "Oh, he definitely wanted to know that all the old business was being taken care of. The files might be closed, but you know what it's like. Unanswered questions eat at the gut." Joe leaned over the table a bit, still smiling. "The cases that are closed but not done have a way of coming back. Like this one. The fraud guys have long memories, and they keep passing names around, watching for scams."

  DB pulled out his own notebook. "Cool. Oh, and I might have some information of my own for you." Tit for tat, after all. And maybe, if things were going down with the daughter, Lockhart would back off of Madame Yanya's.

  Joe nodded and copied out a couple of names and numbers from his notebook onto a fresh sheet. "Don't be surprised if they don't really tell you much; more in the way of getting information from you than sharing it out with non-cops, you know?"

  DB nodded; he knew what it was like. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try if nothing came from cleaning out the basement. All information was good information.

  "I talked to one of these guys, the first one," Joe continued. "He said that there's some stuff from years ago that never turned up on the market at all, so it might really be gone -- but he doesn't think so. Eventually things turn up in private collections or for sale in other places." He tore out the paper and passed it over. "What do you have for me?"

  "Lockhart's daughter is a way better fence than her father ever was." DB dropped that little bomb, sitting back to enjoy the reaction.

  "Which I found out!" Jesse pointed out. "Tell him that."

  Joe's eyes widened a little, and his friendly smile grew into something else. A little impressed, a lot smug. "Is she now? Well, well. No one said anything about that. At all. Very nice bit of information."

  "She's got a room full of stuff -- classy stuff -- in her not-quite-flashy home. She's smarter than her old man. She'd have to be to have flown beneath the radar for so long." He grinned at Joe, feeling pleased at having been able to give the cops something they had no idea about. "Here, I'll give you this one for free, since you're being so helpful and all." He grabbed one of the paper napkins on the table and wrote out Charity's street address and handed it over.

  "Thanks." Joe seemed genuinely pleased and lifted his beer in a toast as he pocketed the address.

  Their food had come along with the beer, and DB's stomach growled loudly. It had been a while since he'd had anything that wasn't fast food.

  "Hello?" Jesse waved at him. "Can you at least pretend that I was helpful in all this? What with being the one who found out about her and all?"

  Joe lifted his beer glass. "Well done." He smiled again, his gaze meeting DB's directly. "Eat up and we'll see what other wonderful things you have to share."

  Jesse snorted.

  "I hate to disappoint, but that's all we've got on the case so far." DB took a long drink of his own beer. "Oh, man, that's nice. I start in on the basement tomorrow." He grabbed his utensils and dug right in.

  "The case isn't everything. What are you going to do in the basement?" Joe looked at DB curiously, still drinking his beer, but now holding his fork, too.

  DB took a bite of his steak first, licking his lips as he ate it. "That's even better than the beer." He cut another piece of meat and forked it before answering. "I'm going to clean it up -- I'm sure there's something down there, some reason why Lockhart's suddenly interested in the place again." Better that he found it and turned it over to the police than someone conked Yanya over the head to keep her out of their business as they searched for whatever it was.

  Joe finally started eating his steak, cutting it quickly and soaking up the juices as best he could. "And you'll call me right away if you actually do find something, right?" Under the table, their knees bumped as Joe leaned to avoid a passing waitress with a large tray.

  DB reached down to rub his knee, knuckles sliding against Joe's knee until Joe righted himself. "I'll call. I told you about Charity Lockhart, didn't I?"

  Jesse looked under the table, frowning, but didn't say anything. He'd gotten really quiet, for a change.

  "You did." Joe smiled at DB and drank from his beer again. "Hey, maybe I can swing by around lunch time, see how it's going."

  "Sure, especially if you come with your own mask and offer to help." DB ate enthusiastically. The food was good, yeah, but the prospect of some actual, physical help made a nice change, too.

  Joe laughed easily, his knee bumping again for a moment. "We'll see what my day's like, sure. I might be able to get away from the desk for a bit, maybe."

  "Oh, please." Jesse sounded flat-out disgusted, and his arms were folded over his chest.

  DB just ignored Jesse -- he knew he was going to get an earful about it later, not to mention how Jesse was going to go on and on about him having a great meal that Jesse couldn't indulge in at all.

  "That's be great, Joe, it really would."

  ***

  Jesse didn't want to be in the same car as DB, but there he was. If he didn't stick there like glue, who knew what would happen? Joe would probably follow DB home, that's what. Go inside, make himself at home, have a freaking beer. Put his goddamn hands on DB, and then where would Jesse be? Right there yelling his head off and being ignored, that's where.

  So it was best just to ride in the car with DB and keep an eye out. And not say anything at all, which DB didn't even notice, damn him. All the way home, in silence that was supposed to be heavy with meaning, and DB was smiling to himself, full of nice food and a beer and being utterly dumb.

  Jesse would have been very annoyed if he wasn't so mad.

  "I'll see you upstairs," he snapped as the car stopped in the parking lot behind the building. Without waiting for DB to reply, Jesse put himself in the apartment. Except his aim was always off a bit when he was emotional, and he had to regroup and try again when he actually wound up in the apartment next door.

  Not that DB would care. Or even know, really, since Jesse got himself righted in a moment or two. And if he did know, Jesse told himself, he'd probably laugh anyway and tell Joe how funny it was.

  Not that DB had told Joe anything about him tonight. Oh, no, DB had taken all the glory for himself, soaking up Joe's smiles and praises.

  DB wandered in, whistling. Whistling, for God's sake. The keys were dropped by the front door, and DB wandered to the fridge, grabbing himself a Coke instead of a beer, and then went over to the couch. The TV got flipped on and DB started to surf.

  That was it. Enough was enough. Jesse stood in front of the TV and crossed his arms in front of himself. "We need to talk."

  DB blinked at him, glared for a moment, and tried to look around him. Finally, DB just turned off the TV. "What?"

  What, he says. What. "What? You seriously don't know?" Jesse snorted and shook his head. "Okay, let's start with Joe making eyes at you all night and you letting him. How about how you didn't even mention my name or glance at me, or listen to me when I said anything? How about how you utterly failed to tell him that I found out about Charity? Oh, no, you couldn't do that. He might stop touching your knee!"

  "What?" DB looked honestly confused. "What are you talking about? You know I don't like having a conversation in public with someone no one else can see, nobody was making eyes at me, and excuse me for not telling Joe exactly who did what legwork!"

  "I will not!" Jesse waved a hand. "If you don't do that, no one will. Ever. By ignoring what I do, you invalidate my entire existence!" God, why couldn't he see that? "You are my voice, damn it! And he was so coming on to you."

  "Please. Just because a guy's nice to m
e and doesn't want to throw me in jail for knowing things I shouldn't, doesn't mean he's coming on to me!" DB tossed the remote on the couch and stomped over to the fridge. "I need a fucking beer. I had a nice buzz going on from the evening, too, until you started yelling and freaking on me."

  Jesse followed. "Knee touching. Smiling. Lunch meeting. You are so clueless. And don't think I don't notice the way you're avoiding even thinking about how you ignore me and take credit for my luck." The more he talked, the more Jesse was sure he wasn't going to stick around much longer. What was the point, really? "So you just drink your beer and watch TV. Maybe call up old Joe and talk to him, since you two are so friendly."

  "Jesus, Jesse, don't tell me you're jealous." DB shook his head. "I am allowed to have friends, you know. Joe's just a guy; you're the one I live with and work with and fuck with! You know it's not easy loving a ghost, but I do, and I think – no, I thought we were making it work. But if you're going to go off anytime I talk to another guy, then maybe we don't have all that much going on here after all!"