Out Jumps Jack Death: A Clancy Evans Mystery (Clancy Evans PI Book 8)

by M. Glenn Graves

  “And that Renoir fellow?”

  “I’m partial to Little Irene also called Irene Cahen D’Anvers.”

  “No date?”

  “I forget.”

  “Proves you’re not so talented.”

  “Beats the stuff produced by Grandma Moses.”

  “She’s reputable,” Diamond said without feeling.

  “Name one of her pieces,” I said.

  “Okay, if I must … how about All is still. You familiar with that one?”

  “No, but let’s see if we can find it.”

  “Can’t wait,” she said as we entered the museum for an afternoon of pleasurable viewing.

  That was my position on the afternoon for sure. Diamond never quite got into the walking and staring routine. She passed most of her time casing the rooms for thugs and hooligans. At least that is what I suspected her to be casing the rooms for. Maybe this was her normal way of staying alive.

  I was standing in the Impressionist section when Diamond passed by on yet another reconnaissance mission. She stopped in front of one of Renoir’s works.

  “I like the Two Sisters, 1881” she said. “However, my favorite Renoir is the Girl with a Watering Can, 1876.”

  Before I could answer, she was gone again. Neither of those two paintings by Renoir was the one I was looking at when she stopped. Imagine that. My female assassin friend continued to surprise me. And to educate me as well.

  Every hour or so I returned to the truck to let Sam roam around the Mall and relieve himself. He gladly slept in the truck while we meandered through the artwork. He wasn’t much into art although he did seem to enjoy the comics in the newspaper on Sundays. Sometimes I read his favorites to him.

  We took a break around three and walked across the Mall to the hotdog vendor. Diamond bought our lunch. She handed me three hotdogs, two bottles of water, and smiled faintly.

  “Two are for Sam.”

  “He thanks you,” I said as I allowed two hotdogs to slip from the paper wrappers to the ground near Sam.

  “I’m sure he does. How is he anyway?”

  “Sleep never hurts him. He seems content with his lot. Better here with us than in the mountains, or so I assume from his demeanor.”

  “How can you tell?” she said as we sat down on a bench next to the graveled trail that circumvented the entire Mall. “His facial expressions never change.”

  “Like yours, he’s hard to read. You have to know him like I do.”

  “Same with me, Sweetie Pie.”

  “Yeah, I’m working on that.”

  We ate our hot dogs and drank our water. A meal fit for queens.

  I took all of the leftover hotdog wrappers, stacked them on top of each other, and placed them in the top of a paper cup Diamond had thought to procure for Sam so he could drink water as well. My wrapper dressing on top simply made it easier for his tongue to retrieve the water. The only trick was that he had to drink quickly. He accomplished that easily.

  “You ready for another level of artwork gazing?”

  “I think I’ll stay out here with Sam.”

  “Sam will love you.”

  “No doubt. I assure you that it is purely self-interest and not my love of dogs.”

  “He knows that.”

  “Intuitive?”

  “You have no idea. But in this case, he’s a keen listener. My suggestion is that you be careful what you actually say to him. He has a good memory and sometimes shares with me what he knows.”

  “I’ll bear that in mind. Enjoy yourself inside,” she said as I walked toward to the museum.

  22

  My phone rang at 4:41 while I was staring at a captivating Renoir. It was a print of the Two Sisters that Diamond had mentioned earlier. I was in the basement shop where they sell prints of one’s favorite artist.

  I was immersing myself in the colors of Renoir’s passion. That sounds a little snobbish, I admit. Nevertheless, I was enthralled, to say the least. At the time I was interrupted, I was wondering why he appealed to me. Philosophical inquiry. And why he appealed to Diamond. Insatiable curiosity regarding my unique acquaintance. It was especially this painting. Why would she focus upon this one? Is there some existential connection between her and the image of the two sisters depicted on the canvas?

  My wheels were turning and my suspicions were aroused. Before I was completely lost in thought, I was interrupted.

  “Yes?” I said.

  “Time to leave,” Diamond said.

  “Yippie. Let’s go meet Marvin and do some B&E work.”

  “And not get caught.”

  We left Sam guarding the truck with the windows down further than what one might normally leave car windows in D.C. with the high crime rate. Sam was rather protective of his space no matter where his space happened to be at the time. The truck and all of its contents were safe as far as I was concerned. If you could get past my friend Sam, then you deserve all of the contents inside the truck. He would guard his current domain with his life. Hard to dissuade an intelligent, intuitive black Lab named Sam Spade. My money would always be on the dog.

  Our adventure led us into the jaws of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, but this time with more hope for success. Marvin was seated at his desk as Mary Lou Rafferty escorted us right to the man himself.

  “You’re back from the forced leave,” I said.

  “Not officially. I offered a lame excuse about needing some papers I had forgotten.”

  “You flew back to Washington for some papers. They bought that?”

  “This is a bureaucracy, Miss Evans. We thrive on paperwork. It’s the life-blood of the establishment. No one would ever question the extent to which one might go for said paperwork.”

  Wow. A candid bureaucrat. Novel. Would wonders never cease?

  “This office nicer than your other office?” I said.

  “Mostly the same, maybe this one is a little smaller. Nothing fancy, no frills as they say. It’s just an office,” he said without any passion or excitement in his voice.

  “So, can you help us get inside –”

  He held up his hand to stop me from finishing. Then he put his right index finger to his lips giving me the universal sign to be silent. He took a piece of scrap paper from his trash can and scribbled a word on it – bugs.

  I looked at Diamond and she shrugged. Usual fare for us by this point.

  “Have a seat and I’ll be with you in a moment,” he said. “We’ll check into your situation momentarily.”

  He handled that rather nicely I thought.

  We sat down and waited.

  Mary Lou Rafferty came in to say she was leaving and that it was good to see him again. She looked old enough to have been his daughter. She smiled broadly for him. Almost flirtatious.

  “Goodnight,” he said to her officially. He didn’t return the smile. No flirting from the boss in this office.

  Pierson stuck his head in the door, scanned the room quickly, noticed us, and turned pale.

  “Take care, Marvin,” he said and hurried away without waiting for Marvin to respond.

  “You scare my office people,” Marvin said to us.

  “We often scare people. Personality disorders no doubt,” I said.

  “You or the people you frighten?”

  I smiled without answering.

  At ten minutes after five the whole floor outside of Marvin’s office was deathly quiet. I assumed it was now empty of personnel. There were no sounds coming from any of the work stations or offices. No buzzing, no chattering, no pecking on keyboards. Nothing. It seemed that overtime was not on the agenda in this business, in this city. Or on this particular day of the week.

  Marvin picked up the receiver and punched in a number. I could hear it ringing through his receiver despite the distance between our positions. He allowed it to ring multiple times before he finally hung up.

  “We’re clear,” he said. “Follow me. I figure that if anyone sees you with me, there won’t be too many
questions asked.”

  “And if there are questions asked?” I said.

  “Let me answer,” he said firmly.

  We obeyed and trailed Marvin down the hallway to the elevator bank. We stepped into the first one whose doors opened. He turned toward us once more with the signal for quiet. Index finger to his lips. Classic.

  We rode up with Marvin in absolute silence except for the humming sound of the elevator’s motor unit. Suspense might have been mounting. I was much too amused with Marvin’s need for silence and extreme caution to take our little escapade as anything but a quick trip to canvass an office. Sometimes the seriousness of a situation escapes me. I should be more resolute in my actions of stealth. I should also be more resolute in situations which could be dangerous. But then again, I try never to take myself too seriously. Maybe it’s a character flaw.

  When we exited, he pointed to some uncomfortable looking chairs next to an office space.

  “Let me go first and make sure the floor is empty.”

  He moved away as we sat down since that was the interpretation we both garnered from his pointing to the chairs.

  “Think it’s safe to talk here?” Diamond said.

  I shook my head.

  Both of us searched the area for cameras. They were abundant.

  “Are we being videoed?” I asked.

  “I hope not,” she said. “This is not my good side.”

  “Your sides are perfectly balanced. You don’t have a good side and a bad side. Besides that, the cameras are filming you from all sides.”

  “Proves you’re not much of an observer,” she quipped.

  “Or a critic of your sides?” I answered.

  Marvin returned after a few minutes.

  “The area appears to be empty of personnel. Follow me.”

  We followed. He led us to Thaddeus Wilkerson’s office door.

  “It’s locked and I do not have a key.”

  “I would have been surprised had you had a key, Marvin,” I said.

  Diamond removed a small set of B&E tools from her jacket’s pocket and began working on the locking mechanism.

  “Where did you get those?” I asked.

  “It wasn’t from Ace Hardware,” she said.

  “When did you get those?” I asked.

  “Not sure. Maybe ten years back, maybe more.”

  “So you had those the other time we had to do our B&E thing?”

  “That would be correct,” she said as she finished her tinkering.

  One minute later, she turned the knob and opened the door. Diamond entered first and I held back.

  “So you were perfectly willing to shoot that closet door to shreds before using your own set of tools to gain entry,” I said as we moved inside of Wilkerson’s office.

  “I was in a hurry.”

  I stopped and faced Marvin.

  “Probably better if you do not enter, Marvin. It’s one thing to lead us here. Quite another to share in our B&E experience. This being a vital governmental office space and all, it might be considered an incident with national security ramifications.”

  Marvin froze at the doorway. He nodded and stepped back. He obviously thought I was serious. Well, I was serious about him going inside the office.

  “Should I leave?”

  “Go back to Barnardsville, NC. I’ll call you if I need you,” I said. “Oh, before you scamper away, how do we get out of this facility after hours?”

  “Take the elevator to the basement. Exit the elevator, turn left and go to the door in front of you. I will have the alarm there disarmed until 6:15.”

  “What happens after 6:15?”

  “You’ll be arrested when the security men arrive and I will disavow any knowledge of either of you.”

  “Cue the music,” I said.

  “What music?”

  My humor was lost on him once more.

  “Thanks, Marvin. We shall exit prior to the bewitching hour of six-ish.”

  He turned away without hesitation or another word. If he had comments, he could hold them until another time. Close chewer and a tight spitter. Or maybe vice versa. So to speak.

  “Smile for the camera,” Diamond said as she pointed to the device in a corner by the window as I moved next to her in Thad’s space.

  I waved and smiled. This time we wanted Thad to know that we were here and that we had his interest at heart. After we had left his house in our unsuccessful adventure there, we had decided that to get Thad to react and do something stupid, he needed to know who it was provoking him. Sometimes it is better to remove all guesswork from those we want to upset and irritate. Close the gap, so to speak.

  I called Rogers while Diamond physically searched for the flash drive or whatever she could find that seemed interesting.

  “Your wish is my command,” Rogers said.

  “We’re in Wilkerson’s office. Can you help me with the location of either a file or the notable flash drive?”

  “There’s a hidden, encrypted file on his computer. He has his hard drive petitioned into several sections. Look in the drive marked K as in Kremlin.”

  “You jest.”

  “I do not. Evidently Mr. Wilkerson placed the file where few might search.”

  “Indeed. And the file’s name?”

  “Look in the menu under tools.”

  “Clever man.”

  “Not as clever as I,” Rogers said. “Now find Work Station T.”

  “Got it.”

  “Open that section and you will then see a file named Bangkok Relations.”

  “I see it.”

  “That’s what you seek. But you know that I already have a copy of that file.”

  “I suspected as much from you. Still, I wanted to find it on his computer so I could delete it.”

  “Bad idea,” Rogers said. “You should have told me your scheme for this invasion.”

  “Why is that a bad idea?”

  “First, the file is protected and cannot be deleted.”

  “Oh, bother.”

  “Second, if you try to delete it, all sorts of bells and whistles will sound, and you and that woman with you will spend several nights in a local jail before they transfer you to a federal facility on the island of Cuba.”

  “Now you tell me.”

  “You should’ve asked.”

  “Any idea where the actual flash drive and its golden box might be hidden?”

  “Not a clue. My limitations include physical searches.”

  “Should we wreak havoc in his office?”

  “I wouldn’t, but that’s me.”

  I wanted to laugh. Sometimes Rogers could be very funny, but I didn’t want to encourage her laughing out loud. Hard to wreak havoc without digits.

  “I think you and Diamond should leave after a thorough search. You have done nothing more than verify what I have already discovered.”

  “Yeah. We’ll do that after a good search.”

  I put the phone back in my pocket.

  “What’s the story?” Diamond said.

  “Find the golden box, hope the flash drive is inside said box, and then leave.”

  “And if we do not find the golden box?”

  “Leave anyway. We have, ah …,” I spotted the clock on Thad’s wall and noted the time, “… less than an hour, no more.”

  “Tell me again what happens if we pass beyond that hour?” Diamond asked.

  “The silver lining of our escape turns into a pumpkin-colored jumpsuit.”

  “Another wondrous adventure with the likes of you.”

  “Ain’t it grand.”

  23

  We headed to McAdams County empty handed. No golden box and no flash drive. We had only verification of what Rogers had already discovered. I didn’t need verification. I wanted that flash drive. I wanted some physical evidence of what Wilkerson and his cohorts were planning. Besides, that flash drive was more the golden goose than the golden box which likely contained it. We did, however, discover a n
ame attached to that file on Thad’s computer. The name Michael Salzburg was on one of the documents in that Bangkok Relations file. I was guessing that he could easily be the Mich name that Rogers discovered earlier. I wondered if he was from Maine.

  “Probably shouldn’t call ahead,” Diamond said.

  “My thinking as well.”

  “You think your gang is still in their same spot?”

  “No. Starnes will keep moving so as not to put at risk any of her local friends. She’s sort of protective that way.”

  “Good to have friends to protect,” Diamond said.

  We stopped at one of those enormous truck stops on Highway 58 halfway across Virginia. It was one of those super stops that seemed to have everything. At least that was the way the billboard had advertised it. The unusual thing about this stop was that it was not close to any town or city. Nowhere, USA. Think remote with amenities.

  Sam needed a bathroom break and I needed a drink with a snack. Diamond said she was good. Darkness was descending rapidly on us when we parked at the far end of the spaces near some air pumping stations. Several diesel trucks were humming nearby. I could see some drivers smoking and chatting about the latest news on the circuit. A few cars were parked in front of the fast food quick stop.

  Diamond agreed to stay with Sam while I went inside to find sustenance. I heard the shots as I was paying for my soft drink and peanuts. The people inside the convenience store scrambled to the glass doors to look in the direction of the sounds. A few of them took cover behind the racks of food. I drew my gun and left my food items with the clerk at the cash register. She seemed frozen.

  “Where’s the back door?” I shouted.

  She pointed to her left, my right, and off I went in that direction. I pushed my way through two swinging metal doors, down the isles in the storage area, and arrived at the bolted solid door. I looked around to be sure I was at the right door. Nothing else looked promising.

  I unlocked the dead bolt, moved to the right and pulled open the door before moving to the threshold. No gunfire in my vicinity, so I scurried to the green dumpster, moving right to left. Still no gunfire in my direction.

  Pausing to gather my wits, I waited a few seconds to see if I could hear gunfire anywhere. Silence. Nothing was moving anywhere that I could see or hear.