Finally, they saw the form of Aber. He walked down the sidewalk looking for where they agreed to meet him. The man looked a little bit different in his street clothes, but there was no questioning he was The Spinner. He was a dark man of African ancestry who wore an expensive leather jacket and matching hat. They got out of the SUV as he approached and greeted him.
“Good evening, Mr. Aber,” Williams said to him. “Are you ready to show us the places your late friends claimed they wanted to patrol?
“Yes,” he told them, “but I want you to meet a few friends of mine who might be able to help you first. They should be here in a moment.” Williams and Yuan exchanged a knowing look. This wasn’t discussed earlier and could prove to be a problem. Best to let it play out and see where it went.
Ten minutes later two young white guys materialized at the corner of the block and made their way to the SUV. Aber introduced them as part of his “crew”. He told the detectives they wanted to help any way they could if it meant bringing the killers of Wiesel and Marksman to justice.
“You guys mean well,” Williams told them, “and we’ll keep you informed, but we need to have Mr. Aber show us around tonight. We’ll give you a call later and let you know how you can help.” He handed them his and Yuan’s card and thanked them again. They seemed satisfied and walked away.
“I’m sorry we had to do that,” Yuan told him as they continued down the street, “But its department rules.”
Aber shrugged and took them around the area, showing him signs of recent gang activity. He showed them where certain gangs from further south had moved into the area and “tagged” buildings with their sign. They took notes, but didn’t notice anyone suspicious. A few people came out of their houses to look at them as they walked down the street.
“Where are the gangs?” Yuan asked him. “I don’t see anyone wearing gang signs around here.”
“They’re out there,” Aber told them. “Just not today. They show up every now and then and try to tell the kids they can’t wear certain colors. Then they go back where they came from.”
After an hour of his tour, they parted ways and returned to the SUV.
“What did you think about him?” Yuan asked Williams. “Real gangs or something he planted?
“Hard to say,” Williams responded. “His crew had me worried because we didn’t expect them. I was worried he was setting us up for something else.”
“Yes, I worried about it myself. He didn’t seem to be planning anything. I think it’s part of the superhero game he plays. The gang signs look real. I’ll phone someone in the Street Crimes Unit tomorrow and make sure it’s known. If they’re real and not copycats, he may have given us some useful information.”
They headed back to the station house. The weather turned foul a few minutes later and a hard rain washed the filth off the streets into the storm drains. They drove a bit further until Yuan noticed a familiar car following them. As he pulled up to a light, Yuan tapped his partner on the leg.
“Do you have your piece on you?” he asked.
“Always,” he told him, “I keep it holstered under my left arm pit. What about you?”
“I’ve got it strapped just below my sock. I think our friend The Spinner is following us.”
A second later, Yuan’s phone went off. He picked it up as Williams pulled his service revolver out from the holster and sat it down on his lap.
“I need to talk to you,” Aber told them. “Can you pull over?”
“Something you can’t say over the phone?” Yuan asked. He kept one eye on the car behind him and one on the traffic light.
“I just found out about something and I need to tell you about it.”
“Why are you following us?”
“I wanted to get your attention without using the phone.”
“We’re going to pull over at the next parking space. I want you to pull up directly in front of us and get out. You will walk up to our car and tell us what you want to tell. You will have your hands out where we can see them.”
“Okay.”
The two detectives pulled the car over to the curb and waited. As planned, Aber pulled his car up in front of them and killed the engine. While they waited for him to get out of the car, Yuan pulled his automatic out of his leg holster and put it in his lap.
The door slowly opened on the car in front of them and Aber came out with his hands exposed. They saw no movement from inside the car and waited for him to walk up to the SUV. When he’d reached the window, Yuan rolled it down. The rain had stopped, but the car was still wet.
“So what is so important you had to follow two detectives from the PPD?” Yuan asked him.
“I just had a phone call,” he explained. “One of my crew learned something the moment you left, I needed to tell you.”
“Go ahead.”
“Lershman Jewelers down in the diamond district,” Aber began. “Are you familiar with it?”
They both knew the place. It was right across the street from the Nersh Building in one of the most secure areas in Philly. Lershman’s was a famous jewelry store the rich and famous used in Philly. Famous musicians would take their expensive Swiss watches to have diamonds set into them. The company was over a hundred years old and still owned by the same family. It was frequently the target of thieves, but the security was so tight that a successful robbery was almost impossible to pull off. In the past fifty years, it was hit five times and none of them successfully.
“I know the place,” Yuan told him. “What of it?”
“Wiesel gave a bunch of Jamaican jewel thieves the pass codes to all their alarm systems. I found out he did it while his company worked on the security system.”
“Why would he do something like that if he was such a renowned crime fighter?” Williams asked him from the other side of the SUV. The sarcasm was thick in the air.
“I think he wanted to wait until they were in the building and catch them. It would make good publicity. Nothing stolen and Marksman get the credit for preventing a major robbery. The crooks might claim they got the security codes from them, but who would believe them?”
“Thanks for letting us know,” Yuan told him. “You’ve prevented a serious crime. Now we need to get back down to the station house. We’ll be in touch.”
They waited until Aber had his car back out on the road and was gone Yuan pulled his SUV back out into the street. In a few minutes, they were on their way back to the ninth district. Yuan kept checking to make sure no one was following them. After fifteen minutes he concluded no one was.
“What did you make of that?” Yuan said to Williams as they neared the station house. “Is this murder case the strangest one you’ve ever ran into?”
“Close,” Williams responded. “I worry a lot of these superhero fans are playing out their own little dramas and it will get them killed. Two are dead already and its two too many.”
They drove on for another five minutes and Yuan spoke again. “What is the craziest murder you’ve ever investigated?”
“The house on Donner Street murder. It was fifteen years ago, but seems like today.”
“You’ll have to tell me about it sometime. Here’s the station house.”
The next morning they met at the diner before checking in and reviewed notes.
“You ever try any of their sweet potato pie?” Yuan asked Williams as he looked at the menu. Today he wore a blazer with matching slacks. Williams had the same rumpled raincoat on he always wore. Yuan wondered if the raincoat would stand up on its own.
“I tried it once or twice,” Williams told it. “It’s okay, nothing to brag about. You want real good sweet potato pie you need to go down to South Philly. I’ll take you to one of the diners down there sometime.”
“So how deep do you think The Spinner is into this?” Yuan asked him.
“I don’t know. We need to talk to the captain about what we found out.”
The capta
in felt it was something they should look into. They met with him after roll call and told him what they’d found out in the past few days.
“I’ve got gang bangers shooting themselves over territory. I need this nerd murder solved and wrapped up this week,” he told them. “You get out there and get me someone I can convict. Jesus H. Christ, how hard can this be? We’re not dealing with skilled professional killers here. I think it was a random murder. Now go find me a killer!”
The two detectives went directly to The Spinner’s place of business in Old Town. He ran a computer repair and networking center for aspiring software developers. Since the place was open, they surprised him by walking in the door. Williams was impressed with the place, it was decorated and the walls were bared brick. Plenty of old businesses near the Landing were converting into boutique companies.
Aber was talking with two young guys when he saw them walk up to him.
“Hello, Spinner,” Williams said to him. “Can we have a moment of your time? Just wanted to ask you a few things.”
Aber turned to his employees and sent them away.
“You know I have the right to have a lawyer present if you want to interview me,” he said. Williams smiled.
“Listen to him,” he said to his partner. “He wants a lawyer now. Didn’t want one the other night. Sure, we can do it that way, but you’d be better off just talking to us now and then we can be on our way.”
“Okay, come into my office,” he told them. They went in and sat down.”
“So how did you come by all this information about the jewelry store?” Yuan asked him.
“I was talking to my crew,” he explained from his desk chair. “They told me about a conversation one of the gang had with him after Clark was killed. They’re concerned the murder had to do with the Jamaicans. One of them stopped by a place where they hang out and overheard them talk.
“How convenient,” Williams told him. “One of your boys just happens to walk into a place where Jamaican criminals hang out and just happens to overhear a robbery in progress. And your real last name in Grimm and the first is Brothers.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
They talked with him for a few more minutes, and then thanked Aber for his time. Once again, they left cards in case he heard anymore.
“Oh what a deceitful web we weave,” Yuan said as they left the office.
“When first we practice to deceive,” Williams finished the poem for him.
The drove off and headed back to the station house. They decided it was time to dig through some of the old case files and see if there was anything similar in the near past, which would link it all together.
They stopped at a coffee shop near South Street on the way. Yuan was a little bit tired from being out all night. Parking was, as always, a challenge for him. The city had changed the parking zones in the past few months and now you couldn’t park for more than two hours on any block in downtown Philly unless you had a residential permit. This was a great boon for the people who paid five hundred thousand dollars for a retrofitted row house, but a problem for someone who worked downtown and didn’t feel like paying the inflated parking lot fees, such as Williams. However, they didn’t expect to stay very long in the coffee shop, so Yuan pulled his SUV into a spot two blocks from the location.
They stopped briefly at an interesting clothing store on their way to get some coffee. “Do you mind if we stop in here a minute?” Yuan asked his partner as they stood outside the glass window of the store on South Street.
“Sure,” Williams told him, “so long as it’s just a few minutes.” Yuan pushed the door to it open and they went inside.
The first indication this store might be a little bit different from your typical women’s clothing store was the sign on the window that warned against disrespectful and rude behavior to the store’s sales staff. The second indicator was the elderly man at the back of the store who was admiring himself in a latex dress. The third and final clue was the mannequin, which wore a corset with a five hundred dollar price tag on it.
“Hello, Mr. Yuan,” the young lady behind the counter said to him. “I see you brought a friend.”
“Hello, Tonya,” she said to the tall white girl whose top barely concealed the enormous cleavage spilling out of her top. “This is my friend Mr. Williams. Is the collar finished?”
“Let me check for you,” Tonya said as she picked up a phone behind the counter and pushed the button. “Goddess, Mr. Yuan is down here and wants to know if the collar is ready.” She listened for a few seconds and put the phone down.
“Goddess tells me the collar is ready for inspection but Sergio wanted you to approve the basic form before he puts the lettering on it.”
Tonya went to the cabinets behind the counter and withdrew a black wooden case. She brought it around and sat the case, which was no bigger than one used to hold cigars, down in front of Yuan. He opened it and took out a metal collar made of some dull metal. Williams noted the shape of the collar was not the same that would be used for a dog or cat, but appeared fashioned for a different kind of neck. It bowed slightly in the back and front. There was a D ring attached to the front. Yuan popped the collar open to inspect the hidden hinge in the back. The collar was made to aerospace specifications, as the hinge could not be seen when it closed.
Yuan held it up to the light and looked at it closely. He examined the way it opened and closed. Satisfied, he produced a small hexagonal wrench and tightened a flush screw near the D ring. He tried to pull the two halves apart and found it impossible to do so. Yuan loosened the screw and tried the halves again. Now they separated without making a sound or showing any sign of drag. He closed the halves of the collar, but did not lock it and returned it to the box.
“Excellent work,” he told her. “You may inform Sergio that he’s outdone himself once again. The collar works better than I dreamed. Tell him to proceed with the monogram.”
As they walked down the street, Williams turned to him and asked the question on his mind when he first saw the collar. “What kind of metal is that made out of?”
“A titanium alloy,” Yuan responded. “Won’t set off metal detectors and is very light. Harder than steel, but doesn’t have the pretty shine. They use it on aircraft.”
After having coffee, they went back to the office and poured over the old cold files, but couldn’t find anything that remotely resembled the comic book murders, as they were calling the case. No one involved had a prior arrest record. They checked the files for the past ten years. There were some drunk and disorderly convictions, which resulted from the convention, but nothing approaching a serious violation of the law.
“We really need to go back and talk to The Spinner,” Williams concluded as they sent the last file back to the clerical staff. “I think he knows more than he’s saying.”
“Agreed,” Yuan replied as he put on his coat. It was the end of the day and time to go home. “Let’s head over to his place the first thing tomorrow morning.
The next morning, Williams was on his way to work when his cell phone went off. He was at a traffic light, so it was no problem to pick it up. He looked at the caller I.D. and saw Yuan’s name appear.
“What the hell?” he said to himself. “That guy never calls me.” Williams hit the speaker button and moved forward with traffic as the light turned green.”
“Williams here,” he spoke aloud with the phone on the seat next to him. “What’s up? Your latest toy jam closed?”
“Funny,” Yuan told him. “It works just fine and she’s wearing it now. I just heard from the captain. Someone found The Spinner in his office this morning. He’s dead.”
“Dead. As in lifeless, not breathing, left this mortal coil. I’ll meet you over there. The captain wants us on the scene right away. The technicians are just about done collecting evidence and Doc Stanford is finished with his part. They want us to see the body before it’s moved.”
&
nbsp; “Alright. I’ll see you in a few minutes.” He cut the connection and rerouted his car to take him to the office Aber kept in Old Town.
Yuan put down his phone and looked down at the collared woman who was in his lap. He wished he had more time to play, but duty summoned him. She didn’t have to work today and could remain in the apartment in collar and heels until he returned. He already had a list of tasks she needed to have done by the time he returned home. There was a price for the permanent collar he was going to give her. Right now, she had a red leather collar on, but it was only temporary.
He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the lips. “Daddy has to go, Baby Doll, you know what to have done by the time I return home.”
“Yes, Daddy,” she told him with a pouty look on her lips. She rubbed up against him and leaned back.
Damn, she’s making it hard to leave, Yuan thought.
Doc Stanford was ready to leave by the time they arrived at the office of the late Spinner. The police still had the crime scene barricades up. They were packing away their evidence collection equipment.
“Took you two long enough to get here,” he said to them. “We’re almost finished, but you need to see the body.”
The former Spinner was face down in a pool of congealed blood. His head was split open, just as the other two victims. He wore a pair of designer jeans and a muscle shirt, not the same outfit at all when they met him there the other day. Yuan and Williams bent over him, careful not to touch a thing.
“What’s the verdict?” Williams asked Doc Stanford.
Stanford pulled out his computer tablet and looked at it. “One powerful strike with the same rattan stick to the back of the head. We think the stick was three inches in circumference from the fracture lines. The victim died instantly and we believe the perpetrator came up behind him. His keen spider sense failed him, I am sorry to say. We found some more chips of plant matter in the head of the victim which we feel will match the other ones we found on the two costumed victims.”
The Untimely Death Box Set Page 26
