by P. T. Reade
I then remembered that this was a woman who was obviously filled with remorse and fear. After all, she’d tried to visit me three different times only to change her mind in the end. With a heavy sigh, I leaned against her door and started speaking in a loud and non-threatening voice. I felt silly doing it, but it was necessary given the situation.
“Mrs. Ellington, my name is Thomas Blume. I believe you have been trying to get up the nerve to speak to me. And I think I might also know why.” My voice bounced around the large porch, coming back to me like the echoes of a ghost. “I just want you to know that I am aware of what happened, and I think I might be of some use to you if you are indeed seeking answers. I am safe and reliable and…well, I just want to help if I can.”
I stepped away from the door and nearly headed to my car. To hell with it, I thought and instead took a seat on the first step of her porch just under the shelter. I stared out at the lush grass through the moist haze, while a steady trickle of water sounded somewhere to my right as a broken gutter cascaded rainfall down onto the driveway. I sat for a few minutes lost in my thoughts.
As it turned out, I didn’t have to wait long. I heard the door open behind me. I turned and saw the pallid face of a woman peering out, the edges of her face framed by curled blonde hair.
“Mr. Blume?” she asked. Her voice was strained and uncertain. It was evident that she didn’t speak to many people.
“Yes,” I said, not yet standing because I didn’t want to frighten her.
“You’re right,” she said. “I did want to speak with you. I saw an ad for your services in the paper, and I thought perhaps you could help somehow.”
The paper? I hadn’t posted any such ad. It only took a few seconds to realize who had: Amir. He must have secretly placed the ad in the hopes that I might find some work that didn’t involve investigating my family’s murder. I made a mental note to scold him about it later. Even though it had worked like a charm.
Elizabeth then stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind her. She obviously did not want to invite me inside. She squinted at the wan sky and came over to me. She kept her distance, though. It was clear that she had not yet decided to trust me. Hell, I didn’t blame her. I was a muscular guy who, according to Sarah, always looked like I was suspicious about something. I wouldn’t have trusted me either.
“You know about my son’s disappearance?” she asked.
“I do. I spoke quietly. “I recently did some digging when I knew that you were looking for me.”
“And how did you know I was looking for you?”
I smiled and said, “I’d be a terrible ex-cop if I hadn’t noticed you at my apartment. Especially when you were so bold as to knock on my door.”
She blushed, and it was that blush that helped me to see how Elizabeth Ellington had been incredibly beautiful one day — likely one day in the very recent past. Now, however, she looked deflated and tired like the faded glamour of a grand old hotel, shadows of the glory days clinging to its facade.
“Do you have any suspects?” she asked.
“I do.”
She hesitated here and gave me a tired-looking grin. “I suppose I need to hire you, don’t I?”
“That would be nice.”
“What do you charge?”
I shrugged. There was no way I could tell her that researching her son’s case had managed to make me want to drink less. It had cleared my mind more than it had been cleared in the last six months. So I simply answered: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. “I feel pretty strongly that Stephen Harlowe was let off the hot seat far too early. I’m not saying he’s responsible for it, but all signs point to him. At the very least, I think he knows more than he’s saying.”
“I always felt that way,” she said, “but I was too distraught. Near the end of it all, I almost didn’t care that they never arrested anyone. I just wanted the ordeal over. I wanted my son’s name out of the papers and for the fucking reporters to leave me alone.” She took a slight breath, as if she surprised herself with the expletive.
“I’ll be discreet,” I said. “You won’t see the press crawling over this again. It stays very quiet. You have my word.”
“Thank you,” she said. She then looked to the front door and then back to me. “Would you like to come in for some tea? I’ll tell you all of my thoughts on the case and you can let me know what you’ve learned.”
“Coffee would be great,” I said.
With that, she escorted me into her house, and I felt myself walking deeper into a case that was already beginning to tug at my mind in a way I hadn’t felt in months.
***
The visit was helpful enough. I stayed at Elizabeth’s house for about two hours. We compared notes, and I had to watch her cry several times as she spoke about her son. In listening to her, I discovered that we were connected in a very morbid way. I knew what loss was like, especially when it came to losing a child.
Somewhere on my second cup of coffee, I decided that I was going to get to the bottom of this. I would crack this case if for no other reason than to give Elizabeth Ellington her life back.
Weirdly enough, it was this thought that was on my mind the following morning. I woke up in the office, well-rested for the first time in a very long time. I had gotten a solid seven hours of sleep, and I hit the day wide open.
I’d need that jolt of energy and enthusiasm today of all days. I had decided that I would go direct to the source and visit Stephen Harlowe.
Harlowe lived only a few blocks away from my apartment, in a very nice set-up that was reserved for the more well-to-do people of my neighborhood. The narrow townhouses in this part of Hackney stretched to the end of the street, all sporting muted hanging baskets that would blossom come summer. Low doorways and tight alleyways suggested the buildings were hundreds of years old and had been regenerated as part of some expensive residential project. All in all it was a pricey and trendy place to live.
I was fortunate to catch Harlowe just before he was heading out to set up a round of auditions for a new play he was directing.
I spotted him easily enough. He looked almost identical to the newspaper photographs I had seen. He had aged a bit, but not much. He was a handsome man in a prim sort of way who looked very surprised to have to interact with someone that was interested in Jack Ellington’s disappearance.
When I intercepted Harlowe on the sidewalk he had a messenger bag slung over his shoulder and was dressed to impress with a pair of designer eyeglasses that looked pretentious. He also seemed to be one of those snobby types who liked to look down on those who didn’t read Yeats or Faulkner. I was suspicious from the first moment I spoke to him.
“I appreciate your enthusiasm,” he said, staring incredulously at me as he tried to get around me and to his car. “But my story has not changed. Nor will it ever. I have said all I needed to say about that unfortunate day.”
“Let’s say I’m new to the case,” I said. “Give me the condensed version.”
“Who are you, anyway?” he asked.
I gave him the spiel I had been giving everyone since picking this up. I almost started believing it myself.
He rolled his eyes with irritation.
“Look,” he said, taking on a tone that I’m sure might have startled some of the kids he used to teach. I had a headache developing so it did nothing more to me than make me want to punch him in the mouth.
“Henry Atkinson tried pinning this on me when the whole sordid affair originally occurred. And yes, I was cleared of all charges but it didn’t matter. As a result of getting mixed up in it, I lost my job, my name was dragged through the newspapers, and my life was effectively ruined. I don’t know what the hell you people are looking for — maybe some new clue buried under a rock you bulldozed in the first investigation — but you won’t find it here! Jack Ellington left my classroom in a decent mood that day. I remember because he
was giggling with his friends as he left. Laughing. He left my room without a scratch on his head.”
Yes, he was pissing me off. But the hell of it was that as I watched his face, I became sure of something. Something only a cop could be sure of: he hadn’t been involved. It was more than just a gut reaction. I could see it in his face, in his expressions.
Stephen Harlowe was innocent. I was back to square one without a primary suspect. Just like the cops who took on the case before me. My mind wandered toward thoughts of a drink, and I had to snap it back into focus. I needed a different angle on all this and one man was going to provide it.
EIGHT
We all have our demons.
After some checking and double-checking, I was able to find the name of the bus driver. Billy Bennett, now out of work and taking up a lot of time and real estate in the seedier pubs of Whitechapel.
I found him easily enough, as he had something of a reputation for staking his claim at one pub in particular on Thursday afternoons after he collected his disability money. When I stepped into the place through the low doorway, it felt like I was returning home. I’d been in several places like this over the last few months, and they started to feel familiar. Cheap drinks, sticky floors, and darkened shadows that made you feel lost and safe at the same time.
My target was big. No other way to describe him. He sat hunched at the bar, stabbing at a mobile phone and mumbling in frustration. His large frame, squashed face, and bald head giving him a hostile air. He looked like you’d expect a bus driver to look after a few too many road accidents. He was overweight, fidgety, and always looked at people as if he was wondering how much cash they had in their pockets or what they might look like naked.
“Billy Bennett?” I asked, slowly taking up the seat next to him. As I did, I signaled the bartender down, indicating that I wanted a drink. It was a slip-up, plain and simple. It was like muscle reflex. I was in a bar. I should drink. It was basic.
“I am,” Billy said, not bothering to turn all the way around. He looked at me from the corner of his eye. “Who wants to know?” His voice was slow and stumbling. I wondered if it was from the booze or some prior head trauma. Looking at the guy, I decided both were likely.
“A concerned citizen,” I said sarcastically. The bartender sat my drink down in front of me, and I sipped from it automatically. God, it tasted great.
“Concerned about what?” Billy asked, finally looking away from his phone and turning his attention to me. As he faced me, a sense of familiarity struck me hard. Suddenly I was sure that I had met this man before. I knew him from somewhere…
His eyes seemed distant and unfocused though; if we had met before, he certainly didn’t remember, so I decided to keep my mouth shut. I continued talking to him as I tried to place where I knew him from. “You once drove a bus for the city schools, is that correct?” I asked.
Billy cut his eyes at me and took a gulp of his beer. I did the same. It went down smooth. The smoke inside was both desperate and yearning all at once as I tried to ignore the familiar buzz.
“Why do you ask?” he said after a small belch. His breath told me that he had been drinking for at least a few hours. He wasn’t being belligerent, just cautious. I didn’t fault him for that. So I tried to ease into things as easily as I could with the next comment.
“I also understand that you retired from your job less than one year after Jack Ellington went missing. Can you —”
“Stop.” he said. And for a moment, I thought he was going to wobble right off of the stool in the rage that suddenly overcame him. He jabbed a chubby finger towards my face. “I don’t care who you are. Police. Reporter. Pope. God Almighty. I’m done hearing and talking about Jack Ellington!”
“Yes, but I —”
“Not another word. You a cop?”
“No.”
“Then leave me the fuck alone, or I’ll call the pigs on you. Not another word. Now piss off.”
His face was stone, and it hit me then and there that the last thing I needed was to get into a bar brawl with this surly bastard. Besides, if the cops found out I was digging into this, it might mean trouble. Sure, Atkinson knew, but he was retired. Even so, in the back of my mind, I wondered if he would turn me in. Either way, I couldn’t risk pushing Bennett.
“Fine,” I said. I lifted my beer and nearly chugged the remainder of it. I tossed my money on the bar and slid it to the edge. “Thanks for your time.”
I walked back outside. Surprise, surprise, the sky was darkening to a raincloud pitch that seemed to weigh down on everything. I looked up and down the street, distraught.
All my meeting with Billy Bennett had accomplished was making me want to hit the next bar. I considered going to another pub and getting wasted. I was pretty close to home and would be able to walk.
But then something clicked in the back of my head. I stood there, motionless, as an idea started to form. I liked the way the old instincts came back — how when one idea bloomed, others started growing until everything started to seem related.
I pushed my need for a drink aside for a while, knowing full well that I’d probably give in before the day was over. Evening was winding down, and the night, as far as I was concerned, was made for drinking.
But that was later. For now, I had other things I wanted to check on.
***
Amir didn’t work on Thursday nights, and he seemed both pleased and surprised to see me on his doorstep a few blocks from the restaurant. He welcomed me into his home where he and his family had just finished eating dinner. I saw that he was sipping on a glass of wine. There was some momentary tension in the air as he wondered whether or not offer me a glass. In the end, he decided not to.
His wife and three children were cleaning up from dinner. There was much hustle and bustle in the house, the family getting along with one another and having loud and boisterous conversations. It made me miss family life, especially the winding down of evening after dinner and the nights spent with loved ones. It felt like a forgotten memory.
“What can I do for you?” Amir asked as we stepped away from the kitchen.
“I sort of need your help with this Ellington case.”
“How so?”
I spent the next fifteen minutes filling him in on everything I had discovered. This included how I had been embarrassed and sidetracked by having my theory about Harlowe being dead wrong.
“So how can I help?” Amir asked. He suddenly seemed very uneasy.
“I remember you telling me that your oldest son got into a bit of trouble a few months back when he started fraternizing with one of those online groups that hack into other peoples’ websites.”
“And?” Amir asked, a hard look on his face.
“I have a hunch I want to check on, but I can’t get it from the public records. Not that I can find, anyway. I was wondering if…”
“No,” Amir said. “Absolutely not.” He wasn’t offended, but caught off guard that I would even suggest such a thing.
“It won’t be long. Just a few minutes. Come on, you’re the one that pushed me to do this in the first place. Think of it as making up for ambushing me with that newspaper ad.”
Amir’s eyes widened at the mention of the ad and I could see the comment had almost worked. Then his brow furrowed and he shook his head. “I’m sorry about that, but I can’t allow what you’re suggesting.”
I shrugged. “I thought I’d at least give it a try. Thanks, anyway.”
I started for the door and made it no more than five steps before Amir called out, “Stop. Wait.”
I turned to him, hoping his mind was going where I hadn’t dared take it myself. His sister was still alive because of me—because of something that happened in that far-off world of New York City many years ago. Amir had told me once that he owed me more than he could ever give. It’s why he’d hooked me up with the cheap apartment and all the free food. It’s why he had posted the ad. Why he was always kind to me.
&n
bsp; It’s why, I knew, he stopped me then.
“Jamal, come here, Son” he called out. He then looked to me and whispered: “You know why I’m allowing this, but there are limits, Thomas. You have ten minutes. That’s it.”
“Thanks,” I said, feeling like crap for pushing the only man I trusted.
Jamal, Amir’s seventeen-year-old son came into the room, drying his hands on a dish rag. “What’s up?” he asked. The kid had the same intense eyes as his old man. He was wiry and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt.
Amir sighed and gave a sweeping gesture with his hand, indicating that I had the floor. I clapped Amir on the back warmly and told them what I needed.
