by Bill Crider
Luckily for Rhodes, the volunteer traffic director saw his difficulty and stopped traffic so he could pull out onto the road. She saluted him when he drove past, and he saw that she was one of the graduates of the Citizens’ Sheriff’s Academy. Maybe the academy had been a good idea, after all.
About the time Rhodes got clear of the traffic, Hack came on the radio.
“He’s back,” Hack said. Rhodes was about to ask who was back, but before he could, Hack said, “This time he has on a cowboy hat.”
“And panty hose?” Rhodes said.
“Tighty whities,” Hack said. “I think he’s in real trouble now. You ever heard about that guy in New York City, the Naked Cowboy?”
“I’ve heard of him.”
“Well, he sued M&M’s for copyright infringement, and they didn’t look near as much like him as this guy prob’ly does. Not that I’ve seen him.”
“I’m on my way,” Rhodes said.
“So’s Buddy, but you’re both too late.”
“Why’s that?”
“I just got another call. He’s disappeared.”
17
WHEN RHODES ARRIVED AT THE LAWJ MAHAL, BUDDY WAS ALready there, standing in front of the building by his parked cruiser. When Rhodes drove into the parking lot, Buddy walked over to the sheriff’s car.
“I don’t know where he goes, Sheriff,” Buddy said, resting his arms on the roof of the car and looking down at Rhodes. Rhodes didn’t have to ask who he was. “I don’t get it. He can’t just vanish in the air, but I’ve looked all around here for a car, and I can’t find one. No sign of anybody wearing panty hose, either.”
Buddy was so thin he was almost scrawny, with a prominent Adam’s apple that made it hard for him to shave. Rhodes saw a little stubble on his neck.
“You check on Happy Franklin lately?” Rhodes said.
“I did. I let him know I was coming around regularly, too. But what’s that got to do with a man wearing panty hose?”
“Nothing. I just wanted to make sure you were looking in on Happy. Any witnesses to the panty hose guy?”
“Just one. This time it was somebody from in the law offices that called. She said she saw a man out here in his Jockey shorts with a cowboy hat on. Then he ran off.”
“Which way did he go?”
“She couldn’t say. I guess he took off while she was on the phone.”
“Did he leave anything here?”
“Yeah, he did. This is the first time he’s done that.”
“What is it?”
Buddy pushed himself away from the car and walked to the front entrance of the Lawj Mahal, a wide wooden double door with a heavy coat of clear varnish on it. Rhodes saw something lying in the doorway. It was a piece of cardboard. Buddy picked it up by one corner and held it so that Rhodes could read the hand-lettered sign:
RANDY LAWLESS
STRIPPED ME NAKED!
Rhodes got out of the car. “I’d say that was a clue.”
“I say you’re right. You think Lawless is involved in some kind of sex ring?”
Buddy’s eyes lit up at the thought. Rhodes knew the deputy would like nothing better than to break up a local sex ring, especially if a lawyer was involved. The trouble with that was that as far as Rhodes knew there had never been a sex ring in the county. He wasn’t even sure what a sex ring was, but Buddy obviously had a more vivid imagination.
“I don’t think the sign means what you think it does,” Rhodes said.
“ ‘Randy Lawless stripped me naked,’ ” Buddy read. “Says so right there. Couldn’t be much plainer than that.”
Buddy’s imagination didn’t extend much beyond the literal, Rhodes decided.
“I have a feeling it’s referring to finances and not clothes,” Rhodes said.
“You think?”
“Yes, but we can worry about that later. Right now, let’s figure out where the guy went.”
“Like I said, I’ve looked everywhere for a car. Nobody sees him drive off, and nobody knows where he goes. It’s like he’s here one minute, and then, poof!” Buddy made a gesture as if he were throwing dust to the wind. “He’s gone.”
Since that wasn’t possible unless they were looking for David Copperfield, Rhodes figured their man was still around somewhere. There was no hiding place near the parking lot, but right across the street was a line of old buildings, a couple of them deserted. To get into one, however, the man would have to go right through the front door. Somebody was likely to see him if he did that.
Across the street in front of the parking lot was a bank, and on down the block more old buildings, some occupied, some not. A man running down the alley behind the buildings might slip into the back of one of them without being seen. He might even have a change of clothes in there, so that he could get dressed, come back out, and not appear to have been scampering around nearly nude only a few minutes before.
Rhodes told Buddy what he thought.
“Could be,” Buddy said. “You think he’s still inside one of the buildings?”
“Could be. You take the two across the street, and I’ll have a look at the ones down the block. If you don’t find anybody, you can come help me. If you do find somebody, let me know.”
Buddy looked as if he’d prefer the buildings Rhodes had chosen, but he said, “All right,” and crossed the street. He looked both ways, even though there wasn’t any need. Rhodes seldom saw a car downtown these days, though he could remember a time when the streets had been crowded with shoppers.
He strolled past the back of the bank and a big metal trash container and came to the back of a building that held a jewelry shop and watch repair business owned by a man named Mize. Rhodes didn’t think anybody bothered to have watches repaired now. They just threw them away and bought a new one. Maybe Mize just sold a lot of batteries.
Next door was a building that had once been home to a grocery store so long ago that Rhodes didn’t remember whether it had been part of a chain or had been locally owned. After the grocery went out of business, someone had put in a furniture and appliance store, but that hadn’t lasted long. The place had been vacant ever since.
A small wooden platform with one step sat in front of the back door. A wider metal loading door was to the right. It was spattered all over with rust.
Rhodes looked at the step and wondered if it would hold him or break when he stood on it. He gave it a try, and it seemed sound enough. He put a hand on the doorknob and turned. It moved smoothly, and the door swung open.
Not much light got into the old store, but Rhodes could see all the way to the front windows, which were dusty and cracked. The cracks were taped, and so far the windows hadn’t fallen apart, but it was just a matter of time.
Rhodes stepped inside the building, believing that he had reason to suspect that someone he was pursuing was hiding there. He left the door open behind him.
The place smelled of dust and mold. Several of the town’s older buildings hadn’t entirely collapsed, but the roofs had fallen in. Rhodes hoped that if the roof on this building was going to fall, it would wait until he’d left.
He looked at the dust on the floor. He wasn’t a tracker, but he could tell that someone had been there. That didn’t necessarily mean that their culprit was the one, but it seemed like a good possibility. Was he still there? And if he was, where was he?
Rhodes looked around the ground floor. It was mostly one big open space, with no place to hide. A couple of cardboard boxes were big enough for a man to stand in, or would’ve been if they hadn’t caved in on themselves. The boxes had held refrigerators years ago. Rhodes wondered where the refrigerators were now.
On one side of the building was a stairway leading up to a loft about half the size of the ground floor. Rhodes didn’t much want to go up the stairs, but he couldn’t see what was in the loft, and he figured he ought to take a look.
The stairs were on the dark side of the big room, but Rhodes could see well enough to tell that the thick dust o
n them was gone in most places. Someone had climbed the stairs recently, more than once.
Rhodes had just put his right foot on the bottom step when he heard something at the back door. He swung around, but it was only Buddy.
“Nobody at those other places,” Buddy said. “Both locked up tight.”
He didn’t bother to keep his voice down, so if anyone was upstairs he’d have plenty of warning that someone was in the building. Rhodes waited until Buddy got near him to speak.
“I think somebody might be up there.” Rhodes pointed up the stairway. “I’m going up. You stay here in case he gets past me.”
“Right.” Buddy drew his .38. “If he gets by you, he won’t get by me.”
“Don’t shoot him,” Rhodes said. “Judging from the way he was dressed, I’d say he’s unarmed.”
“I won’t shoot him. Just put a little scare in him.”
“Put the gun away, Buddy.”
Buddy sighed and holstered the pistol.
Rhodes hated to see a man look so disappointed. “If he tries to get past you, you can tackle him.”
Buddy nodded, though he didn’t look satisfied, and Rhodes went up the stairs. He didn’t see any need to be quiet, not after the conversation he and Buddy had just had. Anybody in the loft would have heard them.
The loft was as bare as the ground floor, but there was a section of it partitioned off from the rest. A couple of offices had been there at one time, and windows had been cut in the walls, though they didn’t hold any glass. Rhodes saw a man through one of the windows.
“This is Sheriff Dan Rhodes,” he said. “You can come on out now.”
The man moved around, but he didn’t come out or make any reply.
“I have a few questions for you,” Rhodes said. “You’re trespassing in a vacant building.”
The man came out of the office. He wore jeans and a sweatshirt, cowboy boots, and a western hat. His hands were empty, and Rhodes saw no sign of a weapon.
Rhodes recognized him as Neal Carr, who owned the Burger Barn, a little fast food place on the edge of town, or he had owned it. Rhodes wasn’t sure he still did. Carr had recently gone through a divorce that had been the talk of Clearview for a while. His wife had received a more than generous settlement, possibly including the Burger Barn, thanks to the work of Randy Lawless on her behalf.
“Hey, there, Sheriff Rhodes,” Carr said. “I’m not trespassing. I own this place.”
Rhodes hadn’t known that.
“I own a couple of these old buildings,” Carr continued. “Not just this one. Bought ’em as an investment. One of these days, I’m going to renovate them and get some businesses started, get downtown perked up a little bit.” He paused, and his tone changed. “Or that was my plan when I bought ’em. I can’t afford it now.”
“No need to blame Randy Lawless,” Rhodes said, though he knew Carr would never blame himself, even though Lawless had produced copious evidence of Carr’s numerous infidelities. It was the infidelities that had led to the divorce, of course. “You still have your buildings.”
“Yeah, but only because my wife didn’t want any part of ’em. She wouldn’t admit they were worthless, though. Got something else as compensation.”
“Like I said, you can’t blame Lawless for that.”
“Who says I blame him?” Carr asked.
“That sign you were carrying, for one thing,” Rhodes told him. “You know, you really ought not to be running around undressed. You could catch cold.”
“That’s an old wives’ tale,” Carr said. “Viruses give you a cold. You can go around without clothes all day and not catch a cold if you don’t give in to the viruses.”
Rhodes had seen the Naked Cowboy on TV a couple of times, and going around without clothes didn’t appear to have hurt him. He looked healthy as a horse.
“All the same,” Rhodes said, “you need to wear clothes when you’re downtown. It’s the thing to do, and there are better ways to let Lawless know you’re unhappy with him.”
“I don’t think so, Sheriff. I think I got plenty of attention with the way I handled it. Lawless wouldn’t even let me in his office to complain. Now I have the sheriff and a deputy after me.”
Rhodes heard Buddy coming up the stairs. “Lawless might not even care what you did, but you upset some people in town. My deputy is one of them. He wants to shoot you.”
Rhodes turned slightly to be sure that it was indeed Buddy who was climbing the stairs, and also to be sure that Buddy didn’t have his pistol drawn.
As soon as Rhodes turned, Carr ran back inside the office he’d come from. Rhodes didn’t know if Carr was going for a weapon or trying to hide. He didn’t know whether to drop to the floor or to go for his pistol. So he just stood there.
Rhodes couldn’t see Carr through the office window, and Carr didn’t come back out. Rhodes heard noises, but he didn’t know what they were.
“What’s he doing?” Buddy said at Rhodes’s back.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. You stay here.”
“So he won’t get by me if he gets by you.”
“You got it.”
“What about my sidearm?”
“You’d better be ready to use it.”
“You can bet on it,” Buddy said, sounding pleased.
“Don’t get carried away,” Rhodes said.
He moved so he could look through the window from a different angle. He thought he saw Carr climbing up the wall.
Rhodes ran into the office. A plank ladder was attached to the wall, and Carr was at the top of it. He pushed up a trapdoor in the roof and went through.
Rhodes didn’t remember having seen a fire escape on the back of the building, but Carr must have had a plan. Rhodes went up the ladder after him.
The top of the building was flat, covered with a thin coating of tar on top of something else. A few pieces of newspaper blew around in the wind, and Rhodes wondered how they’d gotten up there.
A low wall edged the roof, and Carr was climbing over the barrier that separated his building from the next one in the block, another one that was vacant. For all Rhodes knew, Carr owned that one, too.
Rhodes had no idea where Carr was headed, but evidently Carr did.
Carr ran across the roof of the second building, bent down, and pulled. Another trapdoor opened up.
Rhodes went after him, giving some thought to jumping the low wall. It would look good in a movie, and it was what Sage Barton would have done. Rhodes, however, knew he was no Sage Barton. He shook his head and climbed over the wall. In the movie, there’d be a stunt man to do the jumping.
Carr disappeared and pulled the trap down behind him. Rhodes hoped he hadn’t secured it, and he hadn’t. Rhodes pulled up the door and looked down.
The interior of the building was, if anything, darker than the one Rhodes had just left. He could see the top of a ladder, but that was all. He couldn’t see Carr.
He went down the ladder anyway. When he reached the bottom he looked around. He still couldn’t see much, but he could hear Carr shuffling across the floor.
Rhodes stood still until his eyes had adjusted to the dimness and he could see Carr not far ahead of him.
This building had a broad stairway that led to the ground floor from the middle of the loft. Carr clomped down the stairs and stumbled about halfway down.
That’s what he gets for wearing boots, Rhodes thought, glad that he had on rubber-soled shoes.
Carr rolled over a couple of times, bumping and cussing until he hit the bottom of the stairs. Rhodes was careful and got down without falling. Carr lay still on the floor.
When Rhodes bent over to check on him, Carr grabbed his shirtfront and jerked him down, butting Rhodes’s forehead with the top of his own head.
Rhodes fell, stunned, and Carr rolled over on top of him. Rhodes bucked him off, put a foot in his chest, and shoved.
Carr fell backward, landing on his tailbone, but he wasn’t hurt. He jumped up
and ran for the front door.
Rhodes caught him and took hold of his sweatshirt. Carr whirled around and slammed Rhodes on the side of the head with his fist.
Rhodes reeled but didn’t let go of the sweatshirt. They spun across the dusty floor in an awkward mambo. Carr drew back his hand to swing again, but before he could land a blow, Rhodes flung him across the room and into the front window.
The windows in this building were also taped and cracked. They didn’t slow Carr down at all. He went crashing through in a jangle of breaking glass. The shards fell outward and shattered all over the sidewalk.
Carr wasn’t hurt. He jumped to his feet and found himself staring into the barrel of Buddy’s .38.
Buddy stood with his feet spread, the .38 held securely in a two-handed grip.
“Do you feel lucky, punk?” Buddy said.
Rhodes grinned. He figured Buddy had been waiting all his life to say that.
“Well, do you?” Buddy said.
Carr evidently didn’t feel lucky. His shoulders slumped.
“Thanks, Buddy,” Rhodes said. “You want to cuff him?”
“You think he’ll run?”
“I won’t run,” Carr said. “I didn’t want to cause all this trouble.”
Rhodes didn’t believe him for a second. Carr knew perfectly well that his arrest would generate a lot of publicity in Clearview. In fact, Rhodes thought that was why Carr had run. Being jailed for something like being a public nuisance would be something of a joke, but now he’d resisted arrest and assaulted an officer. Jennifer Loam might even want to do a jailhouse interview. Frontpage stuff for the Clearview Herald. Plenty of column inches for Carr to air his grievances. Rhodes was tempted not to charge him.
Buddy holstered his .38 and cuffed Carr, who was perfectly docile now.
“You want me to run him in?” Buddy said.
“Book him, Buddy-O,” Rhodes said.
Buddy looked blank. Not a fan of the classic TV crime shows, Rhodes decided.
“Run him in,” Rhodes said. “This case is closed.”
