Touched By Blood

by Craig Buckhout

  “The thing is,” she said, “I just found out about it so don’t think I didn’t tell you or something.”

  “Hold it. Wait a minute. Start over. What did you just find out about?”

  “There’s one tonight.”

  Nick took a deep breath and let it out. “One what?”

  “I’m supposed to meet a fem. It’s at eight o’clock.”

  “Jeeze.”

  “Hey, it’s not that big of a deal. I get one every so often.”

  “What? …No, no, no. I don’t understand what you’re saying. What’s a fem, and what exactly is supposed to happen tonight?”

  “Oh my God, I thought everyone knew what a fem was. It’s a woman, you know a female with tits and all. Where have you been?”

  “Okay, that’s better. So Malone told you to meet a woman for sex at eight o’clock tonight. Is that it?”

  “But it’s almost tonight already. Don’t you want to wait until the next one? The next one might work out better.”

  “You didn’t answer my question. Did Malone tell you to meet this fem for sex?”

  “Well of course he did, silly. I wouldn’t be calling you otherwise.”

  “Okay, okay, thank you. And don’t get cold feet on me Edna. Everything will be all right. Now, what hotel?”

  “That’s a little different, too. It’s at the Empire Cottages in Los Gatos.”

  “Maybe he decided to move it over there because the hotels downtown might be looking for single women with debit cards. That’s what I’d do. Okay, what name will you be using?”

  “Well, my real last name but Nona as my first. I like that better for a first name, don’t you?”

  “I like them both. Okay, this is what I want you to do. Get there by six o’clock and check-in as usual, just don’t call Malone and tell him what room you’re in until I tell you to. One of us will meet you in the lobby and take you to where we can talk. You got that?”

  “One of you? So that means your friend will be there, too?”

  “Partner. And you still didn’t answer if you understood to meet us at six.”

  “Well I was kinda thinking that after, maybe you and me could, you know. “

  “Edna, before we talk about that, repeat when and where we’re supposed to meet.”

  “We’re supposed to meet at six near the lobby.”

  “Okay, good.” Finally.

  “Now how about after?” she persisted.

  “We can be friends, Edna, but we can’t have a relationship because you’re kind of like a fellow employee now.”

  “I wasn’t thinking of a relationship. I was just thinking of having sex.”

  “We’ll have coffee instead, okay? Now I’ve got to take care of some things if I’m going to meet you at six.”

  “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

  Nick hung up.

  “You got that?” He asked Al.

  “You mean the part that she wants to mash your potato after it’s over with?”

  “Mash my potato? You get that from your writing class, too?”

  “Nah, I made that one up, but maybe I’ll use it, though. Mash your potato, not bad.”

  Nick looked at his watch. “Look, I have to move Ellen to a safe place for the evening. It shouldn’t take too long. How about you getting a wire from the narcs and then hustle over to the Empire Cottages in Los Gatos and secure one of their rooms for us near the one Edna’s going to use? She’ll be using the name Nona Faulk. Better get a key to her room, too.”

  “It’d be a lot easier if it was in one of the downtown hotels. That place is all spread out and thick with trees and bushes. If I recall, lighting’s not too good either.”

  “Yeah I know, but we have no choice.”

  “I may as well go there now,” Al said. “If I get over there early enough I can check out their buffet. It’s supposed to be pretty good. You want anything?”

  “From the buffet, I don’t think so. Your idea of what’s good and my idea of what’s good are completely different.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  When Nick got there, Ellen was waiting for him with a couple of small suitcases and her laptop. He waived off the cop who was parked out front and carried her belongings to his truck.

  “I’ll just follow you in my car,” she said.

  “No way. Once you’re settled I don’t want you going anywhere until I bring you back in the morning.”

  “I don’t know if I like that. Where are you taking me anyway, or are you going to blindfold me and spin me around three times before we leave?”

  Nick ignored the question and opened the passenger door for her.

  “And who’s truck is this? Tell me this isn’t yours.”

  She got in.

  “What’s wrong with my truck?” he asked.

  “It’s a truck; an old truck. What, they don’t pay you, or do you have these huge child support payments and so can’t afford something newer?”

  She was smiling and Nick wondered if she was just making fun of him or probing.

  “I bought this used, right out of the Marines. From time to time I have to have something done to it, but since it runs fine there’s no reason to replace it. How does the saying go, ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’ I just don’t happen to believe in change for change sake. And no, I don’t have child support payments.” She was probing, he decided.

  “Okay, that answers that, kinda, now how about telling me where we’re going.”

  “You’re going to stay at my mother’s place. It’s safe, it’s free, and she’ll call me if you sneak out.”

  “Oh that one’s got to be against the rules.” She rubbed her hands together and smiled.

  “Actually, there’s no rule against it, but if my boss found out there’d be one, so keep it to yourself.”

  “Hmmm,” she said.

  “Hmmm what?”

  “Well, I was just thinking you’re sort of a hard one to figure out. You’re the kind of guy who doesn’t like change but you work in a job where there are no regular hours or routine, and you have to constantly adapt to irrational circumstances created by irrational people. You also follow the rules, which kind of makes sense since you don’t like change and since you’re a cop who enforces rules, but sometimes you break the rules when it suits your purpose. I also think that you have a problem getting up close and personal with people, yet here you are going out of your way for me. You’re a real mystery, Mikolaj, someone I’m going to have to think about.”

  Nick didn’t say anything in response, but showed the slightest smile.

  He drove south on 17th Street, turned west on Taylor, and then north on 16th Street before pulling to the curb in mid block while checking his side-view mirror.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m checking to see if anyone is following us.”

  “And?”

  “It doesn’t look that way so far.”

  His radio was on a local jazz station and turned low. Ellen reached out and changed it to new country and turned it up a couple of notches.

  “I think this is the only car, truck, in the world without a CD player,” she said. “I’m surprised you don’t have one of those gun hanger things in the back window, and a hula-girl on the dash.”

  I don’t like country, he thought.

  Nick pulled out from the curb and continued north to Hedding, turned left, and then left on 10th St. When he reached St. James he turned left again and into a dirt parking lot where he whipped out a u-turn and stopped facing the street. After a few seconds he drove back out onto St. James and continued east.

  “How do you know I’m not some crazy woman who’ll do something bad to your mom?”

  “I checked you out.”

  “And?”

  He reached over and turned the radio off.

  “Let’s see, you ran away at age sixteen but were brought back home by the police. Other than that you have no record. You haven’t committed a traffic viola
tion …”

  “I’ve been stopped, but always talked my way out of it.”

  “Figures. You haven’t been in any accidents, and your name doesn’t appear on any reports as a suspect, victim, or witness. There also haven’t been any calls for police service to your house, other than the one we know about. You have a mortgage of about two hundred thousand on your house and have a good credit rating. The lady across the street says that you stay pretty much to yourself, don’t have a social life, and work too hard. She also says that you regularly check up on her to make sure she is all right. That one earns you a lot of points. Westin says you’re very reliable and would consider a partnership with you if he thought you’d go for it. Oh, and your medicine cabinet doesn’t have any medications in it that would indicate that you have any psychological problems.”

  “How do you know that?”

  Nick turned south on 14th Street.

  “You have one bathroom. I had the beat cop out front ask to use it, and he checked the cabinet for me.”

  “Is that legal?”

  “Remember, I break the rules when I have to.”

  “Apparently so. Well, you only think you know about me. There’s stuff that your records and my medicine cabinet can’t tell you.”

  “Such as?”

  “Like a past is what.”

  “Everyone has a past Ellen, and it usually includes things we wish we could do over. So what’s yours?”

  She didn’t answer right away.

  He crossed Santa Clara Street and then turned east on San Fernando.

  “What’s mine, huh? Well at nineteen I finally got my wish and moved out. I did some modeling to pay the rent and ended up in Europe. I didn’t have the look to make it big but enough of it to still work the shows and do some advertising. I met a guy in Spain and we moved in together for about a year. We both used drugs, him more than me, until one night he overdosed and died. The Spanish police apparently also don’t have any problem with going through people’s personal stuff because they found a small amount of cocaine in our place and arrested me. I spent three days in one of their jails before they decided to let me go. I haven’t used anything since or wanted to. That was ten years ago. I was twenty then if you’re trying to do the math. I stayed with modeling for a while longer, moving all over Europe, but was getting fewer and fewer jobs.”

  “Ah, and that’s how you came to spend time in Poland.”

  He turned south on 14th Street.

  “Yes, exactly. Eventually I took a job helping one of the fashion photographers and found I was pretty good at it. I also met another guy, an American, and he moved in with me. One day we got in an argument and he socked me in the face and, not satisfied with that, tried to strangle the life out of me. I called the police, that was in Germany, but they didn’t do anything about it except escort him away. After that he kept following me, pounding on my door in the middle of the night, ringing me up, and threatening me. That’s when I decided to pack-up and come back to the states to start my own photography business. So, do you still want me to stay at your mom’s?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s it, yes?”

  “That’s it, yes.”

  He actually felt more confident about his decision, now. She’d told her story. She’d told the truth like you tell the truth, in a string of words without pauses to think them out.

  Nick made a u-turn at William and headed back south studying the street as he went; one last test to see if he had a tail.

  “So your mom, what do I call her?”

  “Ann.”

  “Ann for what? That’s not a name you usually hear in Poland.”

  “It’s for Antonia. It wasn’t that she intentionally changed it, it’s just that people started calling her that for short, so she stuck with it.”

  He pulled into a driveway midway between San Fernando and San Salvador and drove to the back.

  “This is your mom’s house?”

  “This is it.”

  “Do you live here, too?”

  “Not since I was eighteen and ran away to the Marines.”

  The back door opened and a gray haired woman stood in the opening only to be pushed aside by a huge black dog that loped over to Nick and jumped up, putting his paws on Nick’s shoulders. He then dropped down and approached Ellen more gently.

  “Don’t mind him, it’s the men who have to watch out,” Ann said.

  Nick carried Ellen’s bags inside the back door, gave his mother a hug, and introduced her to Ellen.

  “Sorry I can’t stay,” he said, “but I’ve got to meet Al. Don’t go anywhere or tell anyone where you are, no exceptions. Oh, and I’m sleeping on the couch tonight.”

  “You serious?” Ellen asked.

  “Of course I’m serious.”

  “You don’t have time to eat?” his mother asked.

  “Fraid not.”

  He then looked at Ellen and said, “Careful, she’ll force feed you cabbage rolls or her famous Hunter Stew.”

  Ellen glanced at him and said, “Good-bye Mikolaj, get out of here so your mom and I can get acquainted.” She then turned to Ann and asked, “My God, what kind of dog is this?”

  Nick felt dismissed at this point.

  “It’s actually a Black Russian Terrier, but since the Polish don’t like the Russians, I call him a Black Polish Terrier,” Ann said.

  Nick heard them laughing as he went down the back stairs.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  The Empire Cottages Resort rested in the afternoon shadow of the Santa Cruz Mountains, just outside the town of Los Gatos. The registration desk, restaurant, bar, and thirty-four luxury suites were located in the main building, which was designed by a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright to blend with the oak studded landscape. A banquet room, spa, and exercise facility were located in a separate, nearby building. The pool and tennis courts were between the two.

  Spread throughout the extensive grounds were forty-one cottages of similar design, each containing a large Jacuzzi tub, kitchenette, bed, sitting area, and small back porch. These cottages were strategically positioned and landscaped in such a way as to maximize guest privacy. Access to them was by foot or golf cart only.

  Nick found Al seated at a table in the dining room with a white napkin tucked in his collar, eating crème brulee — for two.

  “You want something?” Al said pointing at his food with his spoon. He then lowered his voice and out of the side of his mouth added, “It’s gratis.”

  Nick shook his head and asked, “Have you seen Edna yet?”

  “Now, how could I do that? Maybe if she was doing lap dances in the lobby I might be able to spot her, but I got no idea what she looks like, remember?”

  A white haired woman with parchment skin, sitting at the next table, looked over at Al upon hearing his statement. She stared at him for a couple of seconds, her eyes coming to rest on his white socks. She frowned and then returned her attention to her pear and candied walnut salad, muttering something low to her tablemate, a distinguished looking gentleman wearing a light blue, v-neck sweater.

  Nick scanned the room. “Hope she didn’t change her mind and snitch us off to Malone. Are the rooms taken care of?”

  “Yep, all squared away. We got a couple of the cottages. That’s all that was available. Already checked us in and the card keys are in my pocket. How about the equipment?”

  “I told you to take care of that.”

  Al let out a little laugh. “Relax, I was just yanking your chain. It’s on the way. Rene from Narcotics is bringing it.

  “Jerk. Okay, I gotta find Edna. She should be here by now. Will you call Rene and give her the room numbers so she can get the equipment set up?” He looked at his watch. It was 6:18 PM.

  Al pulled his cell phone out of his pocket with one hand without putting his spoon down with the other. “Sure no problem,” he said waving his partner off with the spoon.

  Nick looked the lobby over without spotting Edna, so approac
hed a young woman at the front desk and showed his badge.

  “Has a woman named Nona Faulk tried to check in yet?” he said.

  The woman behind the counter typed something into a computer and said, “No, sir, but another police officer has already picked-up her key.”

  At that exact moment he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. When he turned around, he faced a dark haired woman wearing a white silk blouse with a simple gold chain around her neck, diamond stud earrings, a navy skirt that stopped just above the knees, and matching high heels.

  “You looked right at me, Sergeant Nick,” she said smiling. “You thought I was one of those snotty, rich bitches, huh? You didn’t expect to see me all straight and everything, did you?”

  Nick had to admit the transformation was amazing. He stepped aside and said, “You look nice, Edna.”

  The young woman behind the counter got a confused look on her face.

  “So… you like the snotty, rich bitch look, huh? Is that how it is, Sergeant Nick? I can do that. I can do that all day if that’s what you want.” She reached out and laid the flat of her hand on Nick’s chest and took the lapel of his coat between her thumb and forefinger, rubbing it up and down.

  Nick ran his hand across his face and glanced at the woman behind the counter, who continued to stare for a second before quickly looking away.

  “Come on Edna, we have work to do.” He put his hand on the small of her back and escorted her towards the dining room.

  Edna looked back over her shoulder at the woman behind the counter, smiled and said, “It may be work to you, but it’s pure pleasure for me.”

  Nick gently propelled her forward. “Behave yourself.”

  Edna giggled.

  They stopped at the entrance to the dining room and Nick signaled Al to join them.

  “Al, this is Edna,” Nick said.

  “Eww, you’re a big one,” she said as she stepped up next to him and wrapped her two arms around Al’s one.

  By this time, several persons in the restaurant had stopped eating and were looking at them, so Nick said, “Come on, let’s get out of here. This is supposed to be a sting, not a public performance.”

  Al patted Edna’s hand and walked her towards the exit. “As you can see, I’m the fun one.”