Loitering with Intent sb-16

by Woods, Stuart

  “At a bar on Duval Street. I didn’t recognize him at fi rst, because he had grown a beard.”

  “Did you go into the drug business with Charley Boggs?”

  “No, I did not. I realized early on that Charley was using cocaine, because he offered me some, which I declined, but I didn’t suspect he was dealing until I saw him hiding something on his boat that appeared to be packets of drugs.”

  “How did you come to kill Charley Boggs?”

  Stone interrupted. “Are you aware that Evan has received a guarantee of immunity from the county attorney which covers that incident?”

  “I am,” Myers replied.

  “Will you guarantee that you will not prosecute Evan for anything associated with the death of Charley Boggs?”

  “Yes, since he has already told me that he was not dealing drugs. If he tells me anything to contradict that, I may reconsider.”

  Stone nodded to Evan.

  “Gigi and I, perhaps foolishly, removed drugs hidden on Charley’s houseboat and on his motorcycle and disposed of them in the sea off Key West. I had hoped to reason with him, to stop him from dealing. As you might imagine, Charley was upset with us, and an argument ensued. He seemed convinced that Gigi had persuaded me to get rid of the drugs, which wasn’t so, and he produced a gun and pointed it at her. He racked the slide, and I could see that the safety was off.

  “I picked up another gun of Charley’s that was lying on a kitchen counter and pointed it at him. He fired a shot at Gigi, which missed, and I shot him before he could fire again. We disposed of both guns in the sea, off Key West.”

  “And you never, at any time, bought or sold any drugs?”

  “We did not, at any time.”

  “Evan,” Stone said, “did Charley Boggs earlier infl ict a knife wound on you?”

  “Yes, he did,” Evan replied, patting his ribs on his left side. “I’ll show you the wound, if you like.”

  Stone interrupted. “So you see, Evan had good reason to fear violence from Charley Boggs.”

  “Charley wasn’t really a violent guy,” Evan said. “It was the drugs. He was using a lot of cocaine, and it was making him crazy.”

  “Evan,” Myers said, “do you have any idea why anyone would put drugs on your boat?”

  “No, I do not.”

  Stone spoke up. “I have already posited to Agent Corelli that someone might have wished to use a boat familiar to the Key West authorities to move drugs into the harbor.”

  “Yes, I know,” Myers said.

  “Is there anything else, gentlemen?” Stone asked. Myers looked at Corelli, who shook his head. “Not at this time,” Myers said.

  “Will you release Evan’s boat?” Stone asked. “He lives aboard it, and he’s being put to the expense of staying in a hotel.”

  “I’ll direct the Coast Guard to do so,” Myers said, “but I must tell you that if evidence surfaces that indicates the involvement of Mr. Keating in drug dealing, his boat will be subject to impounding again.”

  “I understand,” Evan said.

  Stone and Evan rose, everybody shook hands, and they left the building and went to Stone’s car.

  “That seemed to go well,” Evan said.

  “Yes, it did. I’m greatly relieved,” Stone replied.

  “I have your fee back at the Marquesa,” Evan said.

  “Thank you,” Stone said. “If you see any other sort of trouble coming down the pike, I’d appreciate it if you’d tell me now.”

  “What sort of trouble?”

  “Do you expect to be stabbed, shot at or charged with any crime?”

  Evan laughed. “No, I don’t. I hope to lead a more peaceful life from here on.”

  “Good,” Stone replied.

  48

  LATE IN THE afternoon, Stone and Dino were having a drink on their front porch when Evan Keating came down the walkway and stopped.

  “Good afternoon,” he said, offering Stone an envelope. “There’s your fee for your day’s work.”

  “Thank you,” Stone replied, tucking it into a pocket.

  “I wonder if I could ask a favor of the two of you?” Evan asked.

  “What can we do for you?” Stone asked.

  “Gigi and I are being married tomorrow morning, and since we don’t know anybody in Key West, we need a couple of witnesses. Would you stand up for us?”

  Stone looked at Dino, who shrugged. “Sure,” Stone said.

  “Thank you. We’re in the cottage at the end of the walk, and the hotel arranged for a justice of the peace at noon.”

  “We’ll be there,” Stone said.

  “There’ll be lunch in the restaurant after that, and I hope you can join us.”

  “Sure, we’d like that,” Stone said.

  “We’ll look forward to seeing you at noon, then,” Evan said, and with a wave, he walked back toward his cottage.

  “You mind staying another night?” Stone said.

  “Not at all,” Dino replied. “It’s funny, but usually, when I go on vacation, I’m antsy to get home. Something about this place, though— I hate to leave.”

  “Why don’t you buy a house, and I’ll come to visit,” Stone said.

  “Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing.”

  They were just about to order their second drink when Tommy Sculley ambled up to their cottage and accepted a rocking chair and a drink.

  “I thought you’d like to know that your client is clear with the feds,” Tommy said. “And the Coast Guard has released his boat. It’s being towed to the yacht club. They’ll put it in my berth, since my boat is out of the water for some work.”

  “That’s good to hear,” Stone replied, “and I’ll pass the news about the boat on to Evan.”

  “And the ballistics report the Connecticut cops sent me matches the bullet that was recovered from Evan’s boat, so the same assassin was after both Evan and his father.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Stone said. “The only person with any kind of motive to kill both of them is Evan’s grandfather, and his motive would be purely financial. Since he’s a wealthy man anyway, and since he’s in his eighties, he doesn’t seem a likely candidate. The Connecticut state cops have already looked at him and eliminated him as a suspect.”

  “What can I tell you?” Tommy said, accepting a drink from the room service waitress. He raised his glass. “Here’s to unsolved murders; what would cops do without them?”

  “Maybe you’re underestimating old Eli Keating,” Dino said to Stone. “Just because he’s old doesn’t mean he can’t hate, and God knows, he must have hated Warren for stashing him in that nursing home.”

  “I’ll give you that,” Stone said, “but remember, Evan was shot at first, and even your Connecticut cop commented on how warm the relationship was between Evan and his grandfather.”

  “Okay, but there’s one other solution to this, although it may seem improbable,” Dino said.

  “I’ll take improbable, if it works,” Tommy replied.

  “First, Warren hires the hit man to kill Evan. The guy takes his shot but doesn’t get the job done. Then either Evan or Eli, or both in collusion, hire the hit man to kill Warren, and that one takes. And both Eli and Evan had motive to kill Warren, you’ll admit.”

  “And they hired the same hit man?” Tommy asked.

  “That’s the improbable part,” Dino said.

  “But how would two of them, or all three, know about the same hit man?”

  “The answer has to be, they both, or all three, knew Manny White, in Miami, or knew about him.”

  “How’s that?” Tommy asked.

  Stone spoke up. “The law firm I work with, which was representing Warren, got in touch with Manny for a skip trace on Evan. Warren needed Evan’s signature on the contract to do the deal on selling the family business. Dino and I paid a visit to Manny, and we think he’s the middleman, the connection to the hit man.”

  “Okay, so Warren, after he uses Manny for a skip trace
, also uses him to find the hit man,” Tommy said. “I’ll buy that.”

  “Manny was the one who warned us—well, sort of—that Evan was a candidate for a hit,” Dino said. “He said somebody had called him about some dirty work, but that he had hung up on him.”

  “But he didn’t hang up,” Tommy said. “He arranged for the guy to come to Key West and plug Evan. I buy that. What I don’t quite buy is how Evan or his grandfather managed to hire the same hit man to go after Warren. Did either of them have a connection through the law firm, Stone?”

  “No,” Stone replied. “Evan doesn’t know anybody at the law fi rm, and there’s no reason for him to know Manny White. His grandfather knows the managing partner at the law firm, Bill Eggers, but Bill would never help Eli find a hit man. He wouldn’t even put Eli in touch with Manny; if he needed Manny for something, Bill would deal with him himself.”

  “Are you saying that this Eggers guy is involved?”

  “Of course not. He’d have no motive to have Evan killed. He did the legal work on the sale of the family business, and he’d want it to go through.”

  “All right,” Tommy said, “we’re agreed that both old Eli and young Evan would have motives for killing Warren— Eli because he got locked away in the nursing home, and Evan because his father tried to have him killed. Are we all agreed on that?”

  “Agreed,” Stone said.

  “Yeah,” Dino chimed in.

  “But,” Stone pointed out, “how did one of them get in touch with Manny White? How did they know about him?”

  “You got me,” Dino said.

  “You got me, too,” Tommy agreed. “Why don’t we ask Manny?”

  “We sort of already did,” Dino said. “Stone and I went to see him and talked like we wanted a hit man. He didn’t throw us out at fi rst, but eventually he did. I don’t think he’d look forward to another visit from us, since he never liked us much in the first place, when we were all NYPD.”

  “Maybe he’d talk to me,” Tommy said.

  “Does he know you from New York?” Dino asked.

  “Yeah, I was around. He’d know my face, if not my name.”

  “Does he know you know us?” Stone asked.

  “That wouldn’t be hard to fi gure out,” Tommy replied.

  “Then we’re fucked,” Dino said.

  “Not if we can think of somebody else to approach Manny, somebody with a plausible story of who recommended him, and somebody with a bunch of cash to wave at him.”

  “You got somebody in mind?” Dino asked.

  “No, but I’m thinking,” Tommy replied.

  “Well, that’s a relief,” Stone said. “Let us know when you’ve figured it out.”

  49

  STONE AND ANNIKA sat up in her bed, watching a DVD of An American in Paris.

  “Isn’t Gene Kelly wonderful?” Annika said.

  “Absolutely wonderful. He’s America’s best dancer ever, in any discipline.”

  “You know about dancing?”

  “No, but I still have an opinion.”

  “You think Kelly is better than Fred Astaire?”

  “Astaire was great, but he was a ballroom and tap dancer; he didn’t have Kelly’s balletic training and sense. Kelly could do everything, often at the same time.”

  “Better than Baryshnikov?”

  “Baryshnikov is a product of Russia, although I think he’s Latvian or maybe Estonian by birth.”

  “Good point.”

  “Would you like to go to a wedding tomorrow?” Stone asked.

  “Oh, Stone, are you proposing?”

  “I’m just proposing that you accompany me to the wedding of Evan Keating and Gigi Jones.”

  “They’re getting married?”

  “That’s why I’m inviting you to their wedding. It’s at noon, at the Marquesa, in their cottage, and there’s lunch afterward in the restaurant there.”

  “I’d love to. Let me see if I can swap shifts with someone.”

  “Would you like me to put the movie on hold?”

  “Yes,” she said, reaching for him.

  “I thought you were going to make phone calls.”

  “Later.”

  Stone thought later was a good idea.

  LATER, SHE MADE the calls and swapped her shift, then she snuggled next to Stone. “When are you leaving?” she asked. Stone looked at his watch: past midnight. “Tomorrow morning,”

  he said. “We’ll get an early start.”

  “Is there room in your airplane for me?” she asked. He turned and looked at her. “Are you really thinking about moving to New York?”

  “I have an interview for a job in three days,” she said. “It sounds good. Of course, I’ll have to let my house and find an apartment in New York.”

  “You won’t have to find an apartment; you’ll be staying with me.”

  “In your apartment?”

  “In my house.”

  “You have a whole house?”

  “I do. It was left to me some years ago by my great-aunt, and I renovated it, did much of the work myself.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “It’s simpler just to show you.”

  “How much luggage can I take on your airplane?”

  “Two bags, not gigantic. Anything you need more than that, ship it.”

  “Okay,” she said. “This is exciting.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “We have had a great deal of lovemaking since you’ve been here, haven’t we?” she asked.

  “More than I’ve ever had before,” Stone said.

  “And you aren’t tired of me?”

  “Not in the least. I’m not sure how long I can keep up the pace, though. I may need a little rest now and then.”

  “Maybe now and then,” she said, throwing a leg over him.

  STONE WENT BACK to the Marquesa in the morning, had breakfast and called Bill Eggers.

  “Morning, Bill.”

  “Good morning.”

  “I thought you’d like to know that Evan Keating and his girlfriend, Gigi Jones, are getting married today.”

  “Congratulate them for me,” Eggers said.

  “I’ll do that.”

  “You can tell Evan, if his grandfather hasn’t already, that the sale of Elijah Keating’s Sons closed yesterday, and that I’ve wired his share of the proceeds to his bank in Miami. And it’s more than he expected, because old Eli got another fifty million out of the buyers.”

  “So Evan’s share is four hundred and twenty-five million dollars?”

  “How’d you know that?”

  “Because Evan showed me the contract.”

  “Oh.”

  “What does a kid his age do with that much money?”

  “He’ll think of something,” Eggers said.

  50

  STONE PICKED UP Annika, who looked fetching in an actual dress, something he hadn’t seen her in, and they drove back to the Marquesa.

  “Do you go to a lot of weddings?” she asked.

  “Not if I can help it,” he replied. “I had to go to one last year that I couldn’t avoid.”

  “How about you?” he asked.

  “My only family is a sister, Greta, who lives in Washington, D.C., and she’s not married yet, so I’ve been to fewer weddings than most, I suppose. Once in a while one of the girls at the hospital gets married.”

  THEY PICKED UP Dino at the cottage and walked up the path to Evan and Gigi’s cottage, where Evan was seated on the front porch with a man in a suit. He greeted them and introduced the justice of the peace. Stone introduced Annika.

  “We’ve met,” she said.

  “Of course, in the hospital,” Evan replied.

  “I’m glad you recovered so well.”

  “Thank you. Gigi’s inside doing God-knows-what,” he said.

  “She’ll let us know when we can go in. I’d offer you some champagne, but Gigi says we have to wait until after the ceremony.”

  Stone whispered in his ear,
“I just heard that the deal for the sale of the business closed yesterday, and there’s four hundred and twenty-five million dollars in your Miami bank account.”

  Evan laughed, the first time Stone had seen him do so. “Well, that’s a nice wedding present. Oh, I forgot.” He pulled an envelope from his pocket. “I’ve made a will, and I’d like for you and Dino to witness it, if that’s all right.”

  “Of course,” Stone said, reaching for his pen. “Ask the JP to sign, as well. Three signatures is good.”

  Evan put the last page of the handwritten will on the porch table and signed it, then Stone, Dino and the JP added their signatures and addresses.

  “Be sure and initial all the pages, too,” Stone said. Evan did so, then put the will into the envelope. “I’d like you to continue as my attorney, so will you put this in your safe?”

  “Of course,” Stone said, then he handed him his card. “Here’s my New York number, if you should need me.”

  Gigi stuck her head out the door. “All right, you can come in,” she said.

  Everyone filed into the living room of the cottage, where she had placed flowers here and there. She was wearing a white lace dress, and Stone thought she looked lovely.

  The JP arranged everybody, then read the standard wedding ceremony, while Evan and Gigi made the appropriate responses. Stone noticed that Gigi didn’t have a problem with vowing to obey. The JP pronounced them man and wife, they kissed, then Evan opened a couple of bottles of Dom Perignon, while Gigi distributed champagne flutes. They toasted and drank for a few minutes, then they went off to lunch in the hotel’s restaurant.

  The JP accepted an envelope, then excused himself, leaving the five of them at a round table in a far corner of the restaurant. More champagne was drunk.

  “Where are you going to live?” Stone asked Evan.

  “Here, in the winter,” Evan replied. “We like living on the boat, but I expect I’ll buy a house pretty soon. The rest of the year we’ll just wander, until we find someplace we like for the summers.”

  “Sounds like an interesting life,” Stone said.

  “Stone,” Gigi said, “I want to apologize for hitting you when we first met. I thought you were some sort of threat to Evan, and I just reacted.”