by Sue Grafton
He stood up and I followed suit. When he reached across the desk to shake my hand, he managed to convey a sense of finality. “I don’t want you to feel bad for turning me down. I shouldn’t have put you in this position.”
“I hope you figure it out.”
“Me too. Meanwhile, I appreciate your time. You take care now. I can let myself out.”
“Will you keep in touch?”
“If possible,” he said.
We exchanged awkward good-byes and then he left my inner office, moving toward the outside door. I truly wondered if I’d ever see him again. I returned to the office window and looked out. It took a few seconds before he appeared in my field of vision. I should have known he was up to something, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I leaned my head against the glass, watching as he disappeared down the street. I half expected to hear gunfire or the squeal of tires as a license-plate-free vehicle accelerated and ran over him.
I sank into my swivel chair and experienced the full weight of my remorse. Next time he asked for anything—if he lived long enough—I’d say yes no matter what. This was one of those “little did I know” moments, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time. I don’t know how long I might have sat there berating myself, but I had another visitor.
I heard a tap on the outside door, which then opened and closed. I got up and crossed to the door, peering around the frame to find out who’d come in. Marvin’s bar buddy, Earldeen, was in the process of taking off her coat. It crossed my mind he might have sent her to apologize, being too cowardly and too embarrassed to do so himself.
I said, “Hey, Earldeen. I didn’t expect to see you.”
She held up one of the business cards I’d left at the Hatch. “Lucky Ollie had this or I wouldn’t have known where you were.”
“Come on in,” I said. “You want me to hang that up?”
“This is fine,” she said. She laid her coat over the back of one of the guest chairs while she took a seat in the other. She was easily a head taller than me and she’d probably fallen into the habit of bad posture as a teen in hopes of looking the same height as everyone else. The scent of bourbon hovered in the air around her, though she was sober as far as I could tell.
I returned to my desk and sat down. “Is there some way I can be of help?”
“More like I’m here to help you. Something came up I thought you ought to know about.”
“I can hardly wait.”
“Well, after you left the Hatch yesterday, this fellow came in. I hadn’t seen him for a while, but he knew Audrey pretty well, because the two of them used to have these long heart-to-heart talks. This was a year ago, before she and Marvin started stepping out together. I haven’t seen him since. I thought he must be an ex-husband or an old boyfriend, someone she didn’t want Marvin to know about.”
“And was that the case?”
“At the time, I wasn’t sure, but I’ll admit I was curious. He’s a good-looking guy. Midfifties, tall, with curly gray hair, and these big old brown eyes. He and Audrey always had their heads together and when I asked who he was, she brushed the question aside. They were a bad match in my opinion. She was a good ten years older than him and, no disrespect intended, he was much too handsome for the likes of her. I know that sounds terrible, but it’s the truth.”
“Did he come in looking for her yesterday?”
Earldeen shook her head. “He was meeting someone else. This was a woman who didn’t have any business in a place like the Hatch. She was more the country-club type, if you know what I mean.”
“Close enough,” I said. “What happened?”
“Nothing much. They chatted for a minute or two and then he ushered her out the side door and that was the last I saw of them.”
“Why tell me?”
“Well, that’s just it. Back when this was going on, I asked Ollie who he was and he told me his name is Lorenzo Dante. Have you heard of him?”
“I don’t think so.”
“He goes by the name Dante so nobody gets him mixed up with his dad, Lorenzo Dante Senior. Ollie says he’s a gangster.”
“The father or the son?”
“Both. I guess the father’s retired. Of course, I don’t travel in those circles, but I hear this fellow has a hand in a number of shady dealings.”
“Such as what?”
“Well, he’s a loan shark for one thing. He also owns an import-export warehouse out in Colgate called Allied Distributors. I have a hunch Audrey worked for him.”
My heart had started to thump because I’d seen that same warehouse the day before. “Why didn’t you tell me this a week ago? I’ve been busting my butt trying to figure out what she was up to. This would have been a big help.”
“I got sidetracked, I guess. I was so upset thinking she killed herself, it didn’t occur to me her death might be connected to her boss. It wasn’t until I saw him yesterday, the penny dropped.”
“Does Marvin know?”
“Let’s put it this way. I told him straight out, but that doesn’t mean he got the message. He doesn’t want to hear Audrey was working for a crook. He thinks she’s a saint and he won’t listen to anything else.”
“That’s the same charge he leveled at me.”
“Oh, I know. It’s called projection. I see it all the time at the Hatch. You accuse someone else of having traits you refuse to acknowledge in yourself,” she said. “Don’t look so shocked. I got a college education back in the day. I majored in psychology with a minor in fine arts.”
“Sorry. I’m just trying to take this in. You’d think Marvin would be thrilled. He’s convinced she was murdered and this supports the claim, don’t you think?”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” Earldeen said. “Audrey and this Dante fellow were thick as thieves, if you’ll pardon the pun. She worked hard. She was always on the road and she made a ton of money. To me, that’s the mark of success. Why would he kill her when she was so good at what she did?”
“Maybe she got too big for her britches and threatened to take over.”
“I guess it’s possible. You heard what Marvin said. Somebody talked him into the notion she was tossed off the bridge because she knew too much. The question is what?”
“Beats me,” I said. I considered the implications. Based on the sketchy facts I had in my possession, I had no clue what she might have discovered.
Earldeen fidgeted. “What do you think I should do?”
“Well, if I were you, I’d go to the police.”
“I tried that. Before I came here, I went down to the police department and asked to speak to someone about Audrey’s death. The fellow at the desk made a call and said Sergeant Priddy would be right out. I said never mind and hightailed it out of there as fast as I could. I don’t like how his name keeps coming up. Anyway, I just hope Marvin doesn’t find out I was here or he’ll chew me a new one.”
24
After Earldeen left, I went over my notes again. I’d never felt quite so enamored of my index cards. They were like the pieces of a puzzle that would fall into place once I understood what I was looking at. I shuffled the cards and laid them out on my desk. I could arrange the facts in any order I liked, but the bits and pieces would come together only when I perceived their true relationships. The process kept my thinking loose, so I didn’t get too invested in having the narrative line up the way I thought it should. For the moment, I was without direction, but instead of being discouraged, I saw this as an opportunity to stop and take note. It was like standing in a slow-moving stream with information flowing over and around me. I could turn in any direction and survey my surroundings while I debated where to cast my line.
I turned up the card on which I’d noted the name of the real estate office offering the ramshackle cottages for sale, a company called Providential Properties. It would be interesting, thought I, to find out who the tenant had been and for what period of time. I pulled out the phone book and looked up the real estate off
ice in the yellow pages. There was only one address listed, that being in Colgate, California, which suggested this wasn’t a multinational company with branches in London, Paris, and Hong Kong. A chat with the realtor would be nice, and better in person than by phone.
I stopped for gas and a trip to the ladies’ room before I got on the 101, which gave me time to think about a cover story. Why would I be inquiring about run-down real estate? In my jeans and turtleneck, I looked shabby enough. I’d never bought property, even in pretense, and I had no idea how one went about it. What if I were asked for my home address, occupation, and my place of employment? I decided to make that part up if and when it came to it. For all I knew, Providential Properties, like Helping Hearts, Healing Hands, was a figment of someone’s imagination.
I found the office in a line of businesses on the main street that ran through Colgate. I passed the place, did a quick scan, and then parked down the block. Outside the office, I paused to look at the window display showing photographs of the properties available. Most appeared to be commercial, and I noticed then that the small print on the company sign said OFFICE, INDUSTRIAL, RETAIL, AND INVESTMENT PROPERTIES. It wasn’t until I’d put my hand on the knob that I spotted a paper clock and a note dangling from a suction cup affixed to the inside of the glass. BACK IN TEN MINUTES. The clock hands had been set to 11:00. My watch said 11:45. I turned and checked for pedestrians up and down the sidewalk, thinking the returning agent might be in sight. While there were any number of people out and about, none was heading in my direction. I wasn’t sure whether to wait or give it up altogether.
I went into the shoe-repair shop next door, which smelled divinely of leather, glue, paste shoe polish, and machinery. The fellow working behind the counter was restitching the strap on a knapsack. He was in his seventies and looked up at me over the half rims of his bifocals, his curly white hair brushing his shoulders.
I said, “Do you have any idea when the realtor next door might return? The sign on the door says ten minutes, but that was forty-five minutes ago.”
“She went home. She does that sometimes when business is slow.”
“Really. I wonder why she didn’t just close up shop and be done with it?”
“She hates to turn away a client. Lot of people come in here looking for her. I’ll give you her business card. If you leave a message on her answering machine, she’ll call you back.”
This would mean a second trip out, which annoyed me no end, but I couldn’t see an alternative. “I guess that’ll have to do.”
He got up and crossed to the counter where he opened a drawer and fumbled among the contents before handing me a card decorated with smudged fingerprints.
As I thanked him, my gaze dropped to the agent’s name. Felicia Stringfield. I said, “Felicia?”
“Do you know her?”
“I believe I’ve heard the name,” I said. “Does she handle residential properties?”
“If she’s given the opportunity. She’s not one to refuse a request.”
“Well, that’s good,” I said. “I’ll give her a call and maybe stop by again if she’s going to be in.”
“You want to leave your name and phone number?”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll get back to her. Thanks.”
I returned to my car and dug out my index cards. I removed the rubber band and rifled through them rapidly until I came to the notes I’d taken after my first meeting with Marvin. Felicia was the first name of the agent who was set to show Marvin and Audrey houses for sale on the day she disappeared. There could be a whole subset of agents named Felicia, but I doubted it. I would have loved confirmation, but I really didn’t want to talk to Marvin at this point. If the agent was the same, it couldn’t be a coincidence that she was offering cottages for sale or rent at an address that was tied to the consignment shop.
I closed my eyes, running the facts down in my mind. I couldn’t see a junction where all the points converged. I sensed the contours of the theft ring and I knew some of the players by name. I also knew how (but not what) they moved between locations. The problem was I had no authority to act. At best, I could make a citizen’s arrest, but I’d never set much store by the concept. If I managed to collar a crook, what would prevent his simply laughing it off and walking away? The minute I laid a hand on him, he’d respond with charges of assault. I’m a small-town private investigator. Bringing down an organization like this was the job of law enforcement.
I found the nearest pay phone and called Cheney Phillips’s direct line. When he picked up, he seemed to recognize my voice but I identified myself nonetheless. “Can I talk to you?”
He said, “Sure. I’ve got time this afternoon if you want to stop by. What’s good for you?”
“Not your office,” I said.
He was silent briefly. “Okay. Then where?”
“What about the Shack at Ludlow Beach?”
“Great. We can have lunch. My treat. See you there in twenty minutes.”
I hadn’t called him looking for a lunch date, but the minute he mentioned it, I realized I was starving so why not? I’d chosen the location because it was off the beaten path, a tourist spot as opposed to a restaurant frequented by local residents. The place was bound to be somebody’s favorite, but it wasn’t popular with cops. The Shack was right on the beach, sheltered from the view of passing cars by a large parking lot. Blue-and-white-striped awnings shaded the deck where the tables were set out. Once upon a time, I’d come close to being killed in the big trash bin outside. This counts as nostalgia for someone like me.
I found a table for two in the corner on the far side and sat facing the entrance. When Cheney appeared, I lifted my hand to attract his attention. He threaded his way between the tables, and when he reached me he gave me the obligatory buss on the cheek before he pulled out a chair and sat down. He was in chinos, a white dress shirt, and a sueded silk sport coat the color of wild brown bunnies. Cheney came from money and while he’d declined to go into his father’s banking business, a trust fund allowed him to dress with impeccable taste. He favored earth tones, colors that reminded me of nature’s softer side, in sensual fabrics I wanted to reach out and touch. He also smelled better than almost any man I’ve known, some combination of soap, shampoo, aftershave, and body chemistry. There were moments I remembered from our short-lived affair and I had to resist the temptation to sexualize my contact with him.
We chatted and then ordered and then ate. As hungry as I’d been, I scarcely paid attention to the meal. I was anxious and I could feel myself stalling, not wanting to launch into my spiel. I don’t know if I was afraid he wouldn’t take me seriously or that he’d judge the facts too thin to act upon.
Cheney finally pushed the point. “What’s on your mind?”
I reached into my shoulder bag, took out my report, and placed it facedown on the table. “I’ve put together some information that should probably go to Len, but I can’t bring myself to deal with him. You know how he feels about me after what happened to Mickey. He’d dismiss anything I said, but he might pay attention if it came from you.”
“Give me the gist.”
“Organized retail theft. I wouldn’t have known anything about it if it hadn’t been for Audrey’s death …”
I’d been engrossed in the subject for days and I laid it out for him in an orderly progression. I watched his expression alter as I worked my way through events from the beginning to the current moment. Cheney’s a smart guy, and so I knew I didn’t have to spell out the broader picture when I was already providing the specifics. At the end of my summary, he held out his hand for the report. I gave it to him and watched him leaf through the pages. Once or twice he looked at me in sharp surprise, which I confess I took as a compliment.
When he finished reading, he said, “How’d you come up with the connection to the consignment shop?”
“I was chatting with someone about fencing operations. The name came out of our conversation.” I told him
about the boxes I’d picked up and the shipping labels.
He was momentarily quiet and not making eye contact, which didn’t bode well. He seemed to be filtering the information through a framework different from mine.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“Sorry. You caught me by surprise. I didn’t realize what you were up to.”
“What I was up to?”
“I didn’t know you were so interested in Audrey Vance.”
“I don’t know why not. I told you Marvin Striker hired me to look into her past. That’s what I was asking about the day I ran into you and Len having lunch. What’s going on?”
“Nothing you could have known about.”
“What, like there’s already an investigation under way?”
“All I can tell you is you’re treading on sensitive ground and I suggest you back off.”
“Well, if it’s any comfort to you, I’ve come to a dead end,” I said. “If I knew what to do at this point, I wouldn’t be here. This is your bailiwick, not mine.”
“True, and I appreciate what you’ve accomplished. Now promise me you’ll let it drop.”
I said, “Ah. So I must be on track or you wouldn’t be clamming up.”
“This is not your concern. I don’t mean to be hard-nosed, but I know how you operate. You get on the scent of something and it’s hard to pull you off. I’m not faulting you on that score or any other.”
“Imagine my relief,” I said.
He looked down at the report. “You have copies or is this it?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because I might need to confiscate the material for a period of time. I don’t want the information floating around.”
“You’re kidding.”
The look he gave me was utterly without mirth, so I thought it best to abandon my jocular tone.
I leaned toward him and lowered my voice. “Jesus, Cheney. If I was stepping in a pile of shit, why didn’t you say so at the time?”
“My fault entirely. I should have warned you.”
“Of what?”
