Even the Wicked

by Lawrence Block

Page 27

 

  "How quickly we forget. "

  "Roswell Berry. Will got him right in his hotel room, didnt he? I forget which hotel, but why is it something tells me it was the Hilton?"

  "Why indeed?"

  "You have reason to think our boy Wills a guy named Johnson?"

  "Its a name he may have been using. "

  "No wonder the Hilton wouldnt tell you anything. You wouldnt have been the first caller trying to get something out of them. All the tabloids, guarding the publics right to know. The Omaha PD must have slammed the lid shut. "

  "That would be my guess. "

  "You know how many detectives are working on Will? I cant tell you the number, but what I do know is Im not one of them. How do I justify sticking my nose in?"

  "Maybe this doesnt have anything to do with Will," I said. "Maybe its a simple investigation of a robbery suspect who pulled a series of holdups in this precinct and may have fled to Omaha. "

  "Where hes got relatives. But instead of staying with them we think he holed up at the Hilton. We know the dates, and the name he used. Thats some story, Matt. "

  "You probably wont have to tell it," I said.

  "Youre a New York police detective with a question thats easy to answer. Why should they give you a hard time?"

  "People have never needed a reason in the past. " He picked up the phone. "Heres a question thats not easy to answer. Why the hell am I doing this?"

  * * *

  "Allen W. Johnson," he said. "Thats Allen with two Ls and an E. I dont know what the W stands for. I dont suppose it stands for Will. "

  "Im not sure it stands for anything. "

  "Stayed two nights and paid cash. As a matter of fact, the Omaha cops checked on everybody staying at the hotel as part of their investigation of Berrys murder. Anybody paid cash, that was a red flag. So Mr. Allen Johnson definitely had their attention. "

  "Did they have a chance to talk to him?"

  "Hed already checked out. Never used the phone or charged anything to his room. "

  "I dont suppose theyve got a description of him. "

  "Yeah, they got a real useful one. He was a man and he was wearing a suit. "

  "Narrows it down. "

  "He checked out after Will got Berry with the coat hanger, but before the body was discovered. So why take a second look at him?"

  "He paid cash. "

  He shook his head. "Not when he checked in. He gave them a credit card and they ran a slip. Then when he checked out he gave them cash. Apparently thats common. The card simplifies checking in, but youve got reasons for settling up in cash. Maybe the cards maxed out, or maybe you dont want the bill showing up at your house because you dont want your wife to know you were over at the Hilton humping your secretary. "

  "And when you pay in cash-"

  "They tear up the slip they took an imprint on. So nobody ever knows if the cards a phony, because they dont run it by the credit card company until you check out. "

  "So we know he had a credit card," I said, "whether or not it was a good one. And he had a piece of photo ID in the same name. "

  "Did I miss something? How do we know that?"

  "He had to show it to get on the plane. "

  "If he had the credit card for backup," he said, "the other could be any damn thing long as it had his picture on it. One of those pieces of shit they print for you on Forty-second Street, says youre a student at the School of Hard Knox. "

  "Like I said," TJ murmured.

  "Tell me about this guy," Joe said. "Since you got my attention. Howd you get on to him?"

  "From the airline records. "

  "New York to Omaha?"

  "Philadelphia to Omaha. "

  "Where did Philadelphia come from?"

  "I think the Quakers settled it. "

  "I mean-"

  "Its too complicated to go into," I said, "but I was looking for someone who flew Philly to Omaha and back again. He fit the time frame. "

  "You mean he went out before Berry got killed and came back afterward. "

  "It was a little tighter fit than that. "

  "Uh-huh. Who is he, you want to tell me that?"

  "Just a name," I said. "And a face, if he showed photo ID, but I havent seen the face. "

  "Hes just a man in a suit, like the girl at the hotel remembered. "

  "Right. "

  "Help me out here, Matt. What have you got that I should be passing on to somebody?"

  "I havent got anything. "

  "If Wills out there running around, looking for fresh names for his list-"

  "Wills retired," I said.

  "Oh, right. We got his word for that, dont we?"

  "And nobodys heard a peep out of him since. "

  "Which makes the department look pretty stupid, wasting manpower and resources chasing a perpetrator who no longer represents a danger to the community. Hows this your business, anyway? Whos your client?"

  "Thats confidential. "

  "Oh, come on. Dont give me that shit. "

  "As a matter of fact, its privileged. Im working for an attorney. "

  "Jesus, Im impressed. Wait a minute, it comes back to me. Werent you working for the last vic? Whitfield?"

  "Thats right. I wasnt doing much, I advised him on security and steered him to Wally Donn at Reliable. "

  "Which did him a whole lot of good. "

  "I think they did what they could. "

  "I suppose so. "

  "Whitfield hired me as an investigator," I said. "Not that there was much for me to investigate. "

  "And youre still at it? Thats the attorney youre working for? What are you, billing the estate?"

  "He paid me a retainer. "

  "And it covers what youre doing now?"

  "Itll have to. "

  "What have you got, Matt?"

  "All Ive got is Allen Johnson, and I told you how I got him. "

  "Whyd you check those flights?"

  "A hunch. "

  "Yeah, right. You know what I do when I get a hunch?"

  "You bet a bunch?"

  He shook his head. "I buy a lottery ticket," he said, "and Ive never won yet, which shows how good my hunches are. Youd think Id learn. "

  "All it takes is a dollar and a dream. "

  "Thats catchy," he said. "Ill have to remember that. Now, if theres nothing else-"

  "Actually…"

  "This better be good. "

  "I was just thinking," I said, "that it would be interesting to know if Allen W. Johnson ever bought cyanide. "

  He was silent for a long moment, thinking. Then he said, "Somebody must have checked the records when Whitfield got killed. Especially after the autopsy showed he was terminal and there was all that speculation that he killed himself. But Wills last letter scotched that line of thought. "

  "It proved he killed Whitfield. "

  "Uh-huh. It even mentioned cyanide, if I remember correctly. The cyanide had to come from somewhere, didnt it? It smells like almonds, but you cant make it out of almonds, can you?"

  "I think you can extract minute quantities from peach pits," I said, "but somehow I dont think thats how Will got it. "

  "And if he bought it where you had to sign for it, and had to show ID-"

  "Maybe he signed in as Allen Johnson. "

  He thought it over, straightened up in his seat. He said, "You know what? I think you should find out whos in charge of the investigation into Will and his wacky ways and ask him to look it up for you. Youre a nice fellow, make a good first impression, and a hundred years ago you used to be on the job yourself. Im sure theyll be happy to cooperate with you. "

  "Id just hate to keep you from getting the credit. "

  "Credit," he said heavily. "Is that how you remember it from your days on the force? Is that what you used to get for butting into somebody elses case? Credit?"

  "Its a little different when the case is stalled. "

  "This one? It can be stalled six different ways, i
t can have a dead battery and four flat tires, and its still high-profile and high-priority. You see Marty McGraw this morning?"

  "The last time I saw him was around the time of Wills last letter. "

  "I dont mean him, I mean his column. You read it today?" I hadnt. "He had a hair up his ass about something, and I cant even remember what it was. Last line of the column- Wheres Will now that we need him? "

  "He didnt write that. "

  "The hell he didnt. Hang on a minute, there must be a copy of the News around here somewhere. " He returned with a paper. "I didnt have it word for word, but thats how it adds up. Here, read it yourself. "

  I looked where he was pointing and read the final paragraph aloud. " You find yourself thinking of a certain anonymous letter writer of recent memory, and saying of him what some unfunny folks used to say of Lee Harvey Oswald. Where is he now that we need him? "

  "What did I tell you?"

  "I cant believe he wrote that. "

  "Why not? He wrote the first one, saying Richie Vollmer wasnt fit to live. Which, I have to say, was a hard position to find fault with. But it sure got Wills motor running. "

  14

  By the time we got out of there TJ was hungry again, and I realized I hadnt had anything but coffee since breakfast. We found a pizza place with tables and I got us a couple of Sicilian slices.

  "I was at this one place," he said, "they had pizza with fruit on it. You ever hear of that?"

  "Ive heard of it. "

  "Never tried it, though?"

  "It never sounded like a good idea to me. "

  "Me either," he said. "Had pineapple on it, an somethin else, but I disremember what. Wasnt peaches, though. Was that straight what you was sayin before? Peach pits really got cyanide in them?"

  Traces of it. "

  "How many of em you have to eat before you kill yourself?"

  "You dont have to eat any of them before you kill yourself. You just put a gun in your mouth and-"

  "You know what I mean, Dean. You couldnt poison somebody with peach pits cause hed take one bite an make a face an spit it out. But could somebody lookin to commit suicide choke down enough of them to do the job?"

  "I have no idea," I said. "Of course if we had a computer Im sure you could find out in no time. "

  "You right, you know. All you gotta do is post the question on the Internet and some fool E-mail you the answer. How we gonna find out if Johnson bought the cyanide?"

  "Well wait. "

  "For what?"

  "For Joe Durkin to make a phone call. "

  "Which he just said he aint about to do. "

  "Thats what he said. "

  "Said it like he meant it, too. "

  I nodded. "But itll stick in his mind," I said. "And tomorrow or the next day hell pick up the phone. "

  "An if he dont?"

  "Im not sure it matters. I know what happened. Id need to fit a couple more things together in order to prove it, but I dont even know if I want to do that. "