Dan Sharp Mysteries 4-Book Bundle

by Jeffrey Round

  hallucinogenic state, but one that’s completely lucid. You know what’s going on, but you’re out of it at the same time. Add an orgasm to that, and you’ve got a pure high. Total cool. Exquisite pleasure. And, might I add, highly addictive in its way.”

  “Who the hell would come up with something like that?”

  “Hangings,” Jags replied.

  Dan turned to him. “What?”

  “Think about it. What happens to men when they’re hanged? They get erections. It’s not a myth. It’s like they get off one last time as they’re heading out permanently. I guess someone got the idea that if you could induce that state temporarily, it might be a rush. And it is.” Jags watched him intently. “You should try it sometime.”

  Dan shook his head. “Not for me.”

  Jags shrugged. “You don’t have an adventurous personality?”

  “Not in that sense, I don’t.”

  “Of course, it can be dangerous when done alone. But then so can swimming. Deaths are not uncommon. At least, if you don’t know what you’re doing. Better to share the fun.” He looked around. “As long as you can trust the other person, of course. They say Michael Hutchence was one.”

  Dan looked blankly at him.

  “The singer from INXS?”

  Dan shrugged. “I thought he was a suicide.”

  “The verdict’s still out on that one. I think they made him a suicide to clean him up a bit. Funny when suicide’s a better alternative to dying from your sexual highs.”

  “Right.”

  “One of the most famous cases was from Japan in the 1930s. Another of my songs: Sada.” He hummed a tune Dan recognized. “Sada Abe was the lover of a man named Kichizo …”

  “That song’s true?”

  “Oh, yeah. She worked for Kichizo in his eel restaurant. Kichizo wasn’t attracted to his wife, but Sada turned his crank. The story goes that the first time he jumped her in the kitchen, she stabbed him with a cutting knife. Apparently he enjoyed it. So did she. Eventually they went on to mutual strangulation sessions that could go on for hours. That was the little death I wrote about in the chorus.”

  He hummed another phrase, his voice as hypnotic as a snake charmer’s.

  “Eventually, Sada strangled Kichizo while he was unconscious from sleeping pills. She put her scarf around his neck and tightened it till he died. She testified later in court that he asked her to do it.”

  “But no one believed her.”

  “Not really. You see, after he died she cut off his penis and testicles and carried them around in her purse.”

  “Stop, you’re making me sick.”

  Jags stared like a wolf eyeing a rabbit. “There’s a curious photo of her just after her arrest. She’s smiling. But not only that, so are the officers who arrested her. It’s like they’re all sharing this very private joke together.”

  Dan put up a hand. “Spare me. If you want my opinion …”

  “I don’t.”

  “Nevertheless, you should know that what you’re doing …”

  “… is illegal?”

  Dan made a face. “Just shut up and listen for once.”

  Jags made an exasperated sound.

  “My teenage son listens better than you do.”

  “Glad to hear it. What was the sermon you were about to deliver?”

  Dan held up a menacing finger. “No sermon. I was simply going to say that if you wanted an easier, less dangerous version of this, try poppers.”

  “What?”

  “Amyl nitrate. It’s the gay man’s version of auto-asphyxiation. Cheaper, non-life threatening, but I’d bet my right ball it works just as well.”

  Jags appeared to be considering this. “Any side effects?”

  “Yeah, it rots your brain cells with continued use —

  or so I’m told — but that’s still better than dying and letting your loved ones find you like that.”

  “There’d be no one to find me.”

  “Is that self-pity?”

  “No.” Jags drew the string tighter on his dressing gown and threw Dan a sharp look. “Anyway, what the fuck are you doing here? I thought I fired you.”

  “Whatever. Anyway, I thought I’d give you one more chance to redeem yourself. The offer’s on the table for this moment only. If you want me to work with you — not for you, but with you — if you want me to help save your degenerate carcass then now’s the time to say so.” He stopped and looked at Jags. “Besides, it wouldn’t sit well with my conscience if you ended up dead because I refused to help out.”

  Jags smiled and made a small bow. “Welcome back, brother. I accept your offer. The book launch is this Saturday at seven.”

  Dan nodded. “I’ll be there.”

  Jags slipped an envelope out of his pocket. He proffered it to Dan. “Here, take this.”

  Dan looked at it.

  “It’s the photograph of the ear.”

  Dan held out his hand and accepted the envelope. “Why?”

  “In case anything happens to me, I want you to have it.” Jags looked pleased with himself. “With any luck it’ll remind you that you don’t want another dead client on your hands.”

  Sixteen

  Crime Busters

  The city skyline approached as the ferry pushed its way homeward. Dan stood alone near the back of the boat while the other passengers huddled at the bow and pointed out landmarks made less familiar by perspective and distance. He pulled out his cellphone and dialled. Germ picked up on the first ring.

  “Dan my man.”

  “Hi, Germ. Glad you’re answering.”

  “Truth to tell, you’re getting to be a habit with me. Thought my life was interesting till I met you. Kicks, you know?”

  Dan laughed. Kicks. Right. Smoking dope seemed so passé at that moment. “As long as they’re the healthy kind, I guess.”

  Now it was Germ’s turn to laugh. “What can I do for you today?”

  “How would you like to help one of your all-time heroes?”

  Curiosity crept into his voice. “Who’s that?”

  “You tell me.”

  A snort. “Huh?”

  “Who did you say was one of your all-time heroes?”

  “Jags Rohmer?”

  “You got it, baby.”

  “What’s he got to do with the price of milk?”

  “He’s now my client.”

  “No way!”

  “Way, dude.”

  There was a palpable silence.

  “Okay. So what can I possibly do for a guy like Jags Rohmer? He need artwork for a new CD or something? That would be way cool.”

  “Not exactly.”

  “So spill.”

  “Okay,” Dan said slowly. “But everything I tell you here is off the record, probably for all time. You good with that?”

  “Sure. I trust you, man.”

  “All right. That issue I brought up recently …”

  “The missing kid who garrots his victims?”

  Dan looked over as a sailboat breezed past with three blonde women lounging in the sun. Dan disliked being on the water. Why be stuck on a boat when you could be on solid land? He hated the torpor, hated the confinement. You can keep the water. Give me a mountain and I’ll climb it any day, he thought. Same with tanning. What was wrong with being your natural colour, whatever it was?

  “That’s the one.”

  “Waaaaaaait a minute. Are you telling me that Jags has something to do with the shit we talked about the other day?”

  “Germ, I am not at liberty to say much. All I will tell you is that Jags Rohmer is my client and any information you give me would be going to help him out of a tight spot.”

  “I’d have to think about it. What’s he need the help for?”

  “He’s being threatened. I can’t go into it in any more detail than that.”

  “No shit!”

  “Shit. Are you in?”

  A heavy exhalation. “Okay. I’m in. I’d do anything to help th
at guy.”

  “Cool. We’ll talk about fees and what I need from you when I have a chance to assess the situation a little better.”

  “Sure. Just one thing …”

  “Yes?”

  “Gonna need an autograph from the dude. Just to be sure this is on the level.”

  Dan smiled. “I’m sure that can be arranged. In the meantime, I’ve got some artwork to show you. I can be there in half an hour.”

  “Come on over.”

  Dan hung up. The ferry was just pulling into the dock. His car was five minutes away.

  The curly head of hair was bent down over the photo. Dan waited. Germ said nothing for a while then looked up with a grim expression.

  “Why would someone send him this? Who would cut off a guy’s ear? I mean, van Gogh cut off an ear, but it was his ear, you know?” He thought this over. “Jags Rohmer can’t be a child molester. I mean, I’ve heard some weird things, but that one’s hard for me to believe.”

  “If you help me find Gaetan Bélanger, we’ll know for sure.”

  “Ah, I had a feeling you were working your way around to that.”

  Germ sat back with his arms splayed over the back of the couch. His mouth was making little twitching movements. “If I help you find this kid, you’ve got to guarantee me that he won’t be hurt.”

  Dan said nothing.

  “I don’t want this shit on my karma, dude. Guy gets hurt and it’ll be my fault for leading you to him. Well?”

  Dan shrugged. “I won’t be the one arresting him, Germ. I can’t say anything for sure.”

  Germ started to protest, but Dan cut him off.

  “Let’s just say this is a very high-profile case and the police are not going to risk a public assassination when they catch him. I can guarantee that much.”

  Germ smirked. “Ever hear of Lee Harvey Oswald?”

  “That was the U.S. In fact, it was Texas, which is a whole different universe.”

  “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”

  Germ looked away. He seemed to be mulling this over.

  “Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” he said after a while. He shook his head again. “The fuck could Jags Rohmer have to do with this shit?”

  “I honestly have no idea, but he swore to me he never molested any children. I believe him, for what it’s worth …”

  “Yeah, but he’s a rock star, right?”

  “Exactly. Who knows what he got up to with some groupie way back when he was barely in his twenties. He could have diddled some fifteen-year-old without knowing her real age. That’s likely, of course. But I don’t think it counts as child molestation. Strictly speaking it would be statutory rape, which is illegal, but I think you and I are on the same side of the fence on that one. A teenager’s right to do with her body what she pleases, etc.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I hear you. Don’t start feeding me my own lingo.”

  His eyes flashed around the room. They stopped at the console.

  “Okay, so what I gotta do is get a few cameras set up in the likeliest places.” His mind was kicking into gear. “Velvet Blue will help. We’ve already had a few sightings of a possible match for the kid I saw at the slaughterhouse. Can’t say for sure it’s Bélanger yet, but if it is then that newspaper article is going to drive him further underground. If I were him, I’d stay so far underground even the rats couldn’t find me.”

  “He still has to come out to eat now and then,” Dan ventured.

  Germ shook his head. “Not necessarily. Maybe he’s got a friend bringing him food.”

  Dan nodded. “Yeah, there’s that, but let’s not get lost in maybes. We need to concentrate on the best possible scenario, deal?”

  “I’m cool with that.”

  Germ looked down at the photo again, an expression of disgust on his face. “But if some fucker is capable of doing shit like this then our involvement’s got to be at a distance. I can’t have him finding me and Velvet Blue. He’d be worse than the cops for retribution.” He grinned. “Besides, she might kill him if he tries anything.”

  He took Dan over to the console and pointed to a screen in the lower right-hand corner. Dan saw a perimeter fence with a gravel road leading off to the right.

  “This is the old dairy in the west end, just off Dundas West. You know it?”

  Dan shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

  “It’s not far from the slaughterhouse where your last guy was done.” Germ tapped the screen. “I’ve got a couple kids there who said they might have seen your guy. Emphasis on might.”

  “What were they doing there?”

  Germ looked up. “They live there. Same as you live at your address.”

  “And that’s where they saw him?”

  “No. They saw him at an abandoned storage site not far from there. They could tell he was a newbie. Everyone living underground knows when someone else comes on the scene. The network is small and tight. Even if you avoid the others, someone’s bound to notice you before too long.”

  Dan thought a moment. “Okay, so what do we do? I don’t want anyone getting too close to him in case he tries anything.”

  “Velvet Blue and I can take care of ourselves. I think Mohawk’s got a black belt.”

  “Mohawk?”

  “First Nations. Real good guy. One of the kids who lives at the dairy. He can take a look around — from a distance, of course. Is there a reward on the guy’s head?”

  “Besides what I pay? So far just the usual Crime Busters fee.”

  “Oh, yeah. That snitch line thing. Well, better than nothing, I suppose.”

  Dan took stock of this. “I thought you said your guys wouldn’t touch money from the System.”

  “Well, sometimes you gotta take what’s out there. Me, I’m a bit choosier. In this case, I feel I’m helping Mr. Jags Rohmer. It’s not about the money; it’s about love.”

  “He’s that important to you?”

  “Yeah, in a way. Guy turned my life around when I was a fucked-up, suicidal teenager. His music, man? It’s got more soul and more meaning than all the crap out there today. Fucking JT and Beyoncé, man. Useless little prats. What do they know?”

  Dan smiled. “I hear you.”

  “So, I’m doing it for him.”

  “Well, I’m sure he thanks you.”

  “But I still want that autograph.”

  Germ assured him the cameras would be up and operational within two days. Dan left him to his work. Pulling the elevator doors open on the ground floor, he looked around to make sure he wasn’t being watched. Outside the warehouse, the street was empty.

  Seventeen

  When Children Kill

  The house looked deserted when Dan arrived. The lights were off. No Trevor. No Ked. And strangest of all, no Ralph. In the kitchen he found the remnants of a meal in the sink. At least they’d been there. Then he heard the scream from the basement.

  A woman’s scream. The paint-peeling, blood curdling type.

  It wasn’t just supper he’d missed. He’d forgotten their Fright Night movie date. Forgot even what day it was. He trouped downstairs to find Trevor and Ked glued to the TV. Ralph’s tail wagged at his arrival, but he stayed put, unwilling to abandon his seat to greet the latecomer. Or else he found the movie that absorbing.

  Ked pressed pause on the remote. Onscreen, a boat careened over a waterfall, stopped and held.

  Trevor and Ked turned and stared at him.

  “What?” Dan asked.

  “That’s what we’d like to know,” Trevor said.

  “You forgot our movie,” Ked said.

  “Sorry.”

  “And supper,” Trevor added, “but we’ll forgive you for that.”

  “You’ve been acting awfully strange, Dad,” Ked added.

  “More than normal, you mean?”

  Ked nodded. “Oh, yeah. Way more.”

  Dan sat on the couch and looked at the TV. “Okay. I’ll try to act normal. If I can remember what that is.”

  Ked p
ressed the play button and sent the boat into freefall. As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.

  “Dad, you’re missing a great movie. It’s awesome! This giant anaconda takes over the Amazon and attacks a boat full of filmmakers.”

  “So far,” Trevor said, “they’ve broken just about every rule for surviving in a horror film we could think of and then some. But the monkey’s cute as hell.”

  Dan settled in for the adventure. When the movie finally ended, they waited while the credits flickered and died. Ked said goodnight and went up to bed with Ralph trailing behind.

  Dan turned to Trevor. “Sorry for missing supper.”

  “You’ve got a lot going on.”

  Dan nodded. The week had passed in a blur.

  “Donny called earlier.…”

  Dan clapped his forehead with his palm. “Shit!

  I forgot I was supposed to meet him this afternoon.”

  “He’ll forgive you.”

  Dan reached for his cell phone.

  “Don’t bother. I told him you were pressed for time and just forgot. He said he’d talk to you tomorrow.”

  Dan looked over. “Is it about Lester?”

  Trevor nodded. “Yes. He called again.”

  “How is he?”

  “Physically okay, I guess. But all is not well.”

  “The parents are still at it?”

  “More than ever. Donny’s afraid he’s going to do something rash. Worse, I’m afraid Donny is going to do something rash. Lester gave him the family address in Oshawa.”

  “Oh, no.”

  Trevor eyed him. “Oh, yes. Don’t be surprised to hear he has some cockamamie scheme to get the kid back to Toronto.”

  “I don’t like it,” Dan said.

  “Nor I. I told him to talk to you before he does anything.”

  “Thanks.”

  Dan leaned in and they kissed tentatively. Not having Trevor near these past few days, he’d felt as though he were missing a part of himself.

  “Let’s go upstairs,” Dan said, reaching for Trevor’s hand.

  Dan undressed and lay watching Trevor. He loved the lean silkiness of him, as though he were both boy and man. His face was one Michelangelo might have sculpted, like a model whose beauty would be celebrated for centuries. But he was not only beautiful. He was also kind, Dan knew. It didn’t matter if they’d known one another less than a year. You couldn’t fake goodness or decency.