Retirement Can Be Murder (A Jake Russo Mystery)

by Phil Edwards

“Yes. He saw the same posting in the paper. Apparently he’s had experience with this sort of thing.”

  “And you just stood there?”

  “I didn’t have a choice. You’ve seen how dangerous they are.”

  “I’ve felt how dangerous they are.”

  “I know.”

  She turned to him and leaned into his body. She kicked out her legs, barefoot as always.

  “Can you forgive me?”

  He laughed out loud for the first time in a while.

  “Oh no. You’ve told me what happened. Now you have to tell us what you know.”

  CHAPTER 41:

  He got a glass of water from the kitchen. He was going to give it to Kaylie, but he ended up drinking it first to wash down the chocolate. It was still thick in his throat, coating it completely. He got ice and put half in the water glass and half in a bag to soothe his fresh wounds. He went back in the room.

  Gary was standing guard at the door while Kaylie sat on the bed. Jake gave her the water and Gary started jerking his leg.

  “My foot was falling asleep.”

  He shook his leg out. Jake sat down and looked at him until he finished shaking.

  “How did you know that I’d been kidnapped?”

  “Because you had duct tape on your eyes and mouth.”

  “No, I mean when you were outside. You knocked a couple of times. Then you said you were the police. How did you know to say that?”

  “I saw your car outside when I arrived. And you’ve never been late before. I knew that something was wrong.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  “I could sense it, Jacob. I could smell the fear, like a sinister bacon.”

  “OK. Don’t ruin it.”

  They stopped and looked at Kaylie. She sulked like she felt forgotten. Jake sat beside her again.

  “We need to know more. Do you know who attacked me on the beach? I don’t think it was the bearded man. It felt…different.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “I told you.” She breathed in. Calmed down. “They didn’t tell me they were going to do anything. They just did it. I didn’t know that any of this was going to happen.”

  “But you know that someone else was involved, right?”

  “Yes.” She adjusted her body on the bed and sat up straighter. “There was someone who I never met. Normally I worked with Roderick. But whenever I made a phone call, it was another person. That’s who I interviewed with, too.”

  “Male or female?”

  “It was a man. He was always very formal. He just gave me directions.”

  “What did he sound like?”

  “I don’t remember. His voice wasn’t distinctive. Deep, I guess.”

  “Nothing?”

  “No.” She bit her lip. “I just remembered. When I called to tell them you were going to the beach, I spoke with him.”

  “So it was him?”

  “I don’t know. But he was always the person I talked to.”

  He turned the page in his notebook. He’d already filled a few pages recording what she said. As he started writing again, Gary rapped his cane on the floor.

  “I don’t understand this. It doesn’t make sense, what you are saying. Why would this group want Jacob to write about them and then do all these terrible things to him? Why would they threaten him?”

  She looked up at him.

  “I don’t know. They wanted publicity?”

  “But why would they want that kind of publicity?”

  She shook her head and Jake turned to Gary.

  “You’re right. It just doesn’t make sense that they would do this. Why would they draw attention to themselves and to their practices?”

  “Do you think they knew you discovered what happened to Charlotte?”

  Kaylie tilted her head.

  “Who’s Charlotte?”

  Jake ignored her.

  “But they killed Charlotte. Why did they just threaten me? Kidnap me? If they wanted me to stop writing about them, they could have handled it better.”

  “Maybe they didn’t get a chance. They tried to kill you, but you got away.”

  “But I didn’t get away. I was trapped right here. It doesn’t make sense.”

  Kaylie’s face had changed from brown to red. They could see the duct tape ripple slightly because her hands were shaking.

  “What are you guys talking about? Who is Charlotte?”

  “You didn’t know?”

  “No, who is she? What is this? What happened?”

  Jake put his hand on her shoulder.

  “I believe the Saving Tomorrow Initiative took her life. She was a resident at Sunset Cove.”

  Gary stared at Jake.

  “Should you be telling her about this?”

  “She didn’t know.”

  She plunged her head into Jake’s shoulder. He let her. Her hair was soft and he put his arm around her. Slowly, he started to smell chocolate rising from her face. She stopped shaking after a while and lifted her face from his chest. She whispered to him.

  “You smell terrible.”

  “I never got to take a shower.”

  “I can tell.”

  She sat back up. She couldn’t wipe the tears with her hands, so she waited for them all to fall off of her face.

  “That’s really all I know. I told you everything. And I didn’t know they killed somebody.”

  Gary coughed.

  “Jacob, we can’t let her go. She’ll tell the group.”

  “And then what? They’ll want me to write another story? They aren’t going to kill me. They just want publicity.”

  “But it will be bad publicity!”

  “Maybe they want people to know they’re serious. It makes sense—look at their commercials. All bluster. They want to scare people into voting for them, and they don’t realize it does more harm than good.”

  Kaylie sniffled.

  “I promise you, I will never talk to them again.”

  “Where will you go?”

  “I’m staying with a friend. They kicked me out of my apartment.”

  “Do you have money?”

  “Enough.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Sure enough.”

  Gary nodded and Jake got the scissors. He cut loose her ankles and pulled the tape off for her. He started slow but then decided it would be better to go fast. She breathed in quickly when he did it, but she didn’t scream. He wrapped his hands around her wrists and cut away the tape. Then he grabbed her legs and cut her knees free. She curled up as soon as he drew the scissors away.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You should go.”

  “No.” She stood up. “I want to help you. I don’t know much, but I can help. I want to. Please, just trust me.”

  Gary crossed his arms and shrugged. Jake didn’t know what to do. She still had red eyes and was rubbing her wrists with her hands. She touched his arm.

  “Will you trust me?”

  She touched a bruised spot near his ear, from when he’d been attacked. He grabbed her hand and pulled it away.

  “There are two things you can do.”

  “What? Just let me know and I’ll do them.”

  “Don’t tell anyone what you told me. Don’t tell this guy Roderick, don’t tell the woman, and don’t tell the man who you spoke to. Whoever he is.”

  She nodded her head eagerly. He hadn’t seen her excited before. It wasn’t like her.

  “What’s the other thing I can do? How else can I help?”

  He got up off the bed and looked at her.

  “You packed all your stuff?”

  “It’s already moved to my friend’s place.”

  “Then you can do one thing.”

  “What?”

  He backed away and stood next to Gary.

  “You can leave.”

  She put her hands on her hips and yelled back at him.

  “You can’t do that. I
know that you liked me. And I really liked you.”

  “When you were getting paid.”

  She lowered her voice.

  “No, not just then. I liked you because you cared. Because you weren’t like other guys.”

  “How?”

  She pushed her hair behind her ears and whispered.

  “You respected me.”

  “How?”

  “You didn’t just come on to me or take advantage of me. You respected me.”

  She walked closer to him, but he looked at the floor as she came forward. Gary grabbed the back of Jake’s shirt.

  “I don’t want to interfere.”

  “What is it?”

  “But you need somebody who respects you. Anyone who would let this happen to you is somebody you can’t trust.”

  She walked closer to him and grabbed his belt by the buckle.

  “I mean it. I can stay here, with you. We’ll work together.”

  Gary coughed and tugged at Jake’s shirt again.

  “Jacob, I know somebody who’s always worked with you. Who took risks before she got fired, not after.”

  She pressed her body close to his. He put his hands around her waist and touched the skin between her t-shirt and her shorts. He looked at that pixie haircut and then in her eyes again.

  “I believe you. But that’s going to have to be enough for you. If we had anything, at all, then there’s only one thing you can do.”

  “Leave,” she said and tilted her head. “I guessed it. Didn’t I?”

  He nodded. She backed away from him and stepped to his side. He watched her go by one last time as she walked to the door. She still swung her hips like she was testing to see if they worked.

  They did.

  Just not well enough.

  CHAPTER 42:

  When he was alone, he called the number. What he didn’t expect was an answer.

  Gary left a few minutes after Kaylie did. Then Jake got out the duck. He unscrewed the neck from the base and unrolled all the papers, including the phone log of Charlotte’s calls to the Saving Tomorrow Initiative. Calling again was worth a try, even if he got a machine. He still had work to do.

  His story should have been wrapped up. He had a note, plans, and a veritable confession. He didn’t know how much of it he could print without risking libel. He could at least tell the story truthfully. But he knew it wasn’t finished. He dialed the seven numbers and waited to hear the answering machine. Except he didn’t.

  “Hello, friend. It’s a surprise to hear from you again.”

  The voice laughed. It was unnaturally deep—it sounded like someone had placed a filter on the receiver. Jake pressed the tip of his pen hard against the paper.

  “Who are you? What’s your agenda?”

  “Do you want my Social Security number too?”

  The voice laughed.

  “Who are you?”

  “I am a representative of the Saving Tomorrow Initiative.”

  “I’m looking at the closet where I was tied up, and I’m not happy. Why did you answer?”

  “Because I wanted to.” The voice laughed again. For being anonymous, it was confident. “You can’t scare us away. You can write whatever story you want. But we will still let the voters know that if they choose to strike at nature, they will suffer the consequences.”

  “Who are you? I asked you once.”

  “You know who we are and what we have done. Even a reporter like you can figure that out.”

  It laughed again. Jake bit his pen and decided to say it. He had to. The voice was still laughing when he spoke.

  “If you think you’ll get away with what you did to Charlotte Ward, you’re wrong.”

  The laughter stopped.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Beating up a reporter may not get you in trouble. But I’m telling the police what happened to Charlotte.”

  Silence.

  “What do you know?”

  This time Jake didn’t talk. He realized that he’d said too much. They thought that he only knew about their scare tactics. Not that Charlotte had been murdered.

  “What do you know?” the voice repeated.

  “Nothing.”

  It was too late.

  “Let’s meet,” the voice said. “We can discuss this. You said you were at your apartment? Stay right where you are.”

  “Why?”

  “Just stay there.”

  Jake hung up the phone. This time they wouldn’t let him live to write a story. He turned off his laptop and put it in a bag. Then he got out his phone to call Gary. He didn’t wait to say hello.

  “Listen. I have to come and stay with you. The Saving Tomorrow Initiative is coming for me. They didn’t realize I knew about Charlotte’s murder.”

  “What do you think will happen?”

  “Now the publicity is too bad. I think they want to do to me what they did to her.”

  “Hurry, Jacob!”

  His phone rang again. It was the number of the group. He answered and the voice spoke.

  “If you want your story, stay there Mr. Russo. We just want to talk.”

  He hung up. He grabbed his bag and ran outside to the parking lot, bounding down the stairs as quickly as he could. He jumped the last three. Then he reached his car and started driving. He was halfway down the block when he looked over to the empty passenger seat.

  He’d forgotten Charlotte’s duck.

  He had to go back. He parked the car and got out. It was starting to get darker, and he could hardly see his apartment building in the dusk. He walked quickly and reached the stairs, ran up, and unlocked his door. He shut and locked it quickly. The duck was still on his desk. He picked it up and stepped forward.

  Then he heard the lock on his door start to click. The handle began to turn.

  He gasped and ducked behind the door. He was breathing deep. He could feel himself sweating again as the door opened. He grabbed the duck close to his body and felt the wood splinter against his hands.

  “Mr. Russo…”

  A higher voice than the phone, but still deep enough to chill him. He couldn’t place it. The door opened further and started to press against him. He watched a hulking shadow flatten out onto the bed. Jake’s arm shook. Wedged in the spot between the door and the wall, he wouldn’t stay hidden long.

  The body walked toward the bathroom. A man wearing a ski mask and dark knit cap came into view. And he wore a trench coat, just like at the beach. Tall and slow moving, he lumbered forward and extended his neck in the direction of the bathroom and kitchen. Any moment he’d look back and see Jake. He had to make a break for it before it was too late.

  He jumped out from behind the door and tripped before he could run outside. He got up and heard the man shout at him. Then he felt a hand grabbing on the back of his shirt. But he could run fast enough. He kept going and pulled the door handle behind him. He slammed the door and heard a scream and the sound of fingers crunching. He opened the door and slammed it shut. Then he tried to move forward. He couldn’t. The back of his t-shirt was stuck inside the door.

  He jiggled the knob and heard a click. Locked. He couldn’t reopen the door. He was trapped with the duck in his hands. He just had to wait.

  Unless he didn’t. He dropped the duck and pulled his arms inside the sleeves. He got the right one in and then fit the left, his arms pressing against the sides of the shirt. He shrank down and began to slip out of the shirt as the man in the apartment yelled. He pulled his arms out and let the shirt drop as he picked up the duck and started running.

  When he reached the bottom of the stairs, the door opened and the shirt fell down. Jake stopped looking back and ran forward, sprinting as fast as he could to the car. He held the duck close to his body and pulled his keys from his shorts pocket. He fumbled to fit them into the door lock and then he looked back. The black shape was running toward him. He heard the trench coat flapping in the wind.

  He threw the duck in the passenger sea
t and felt the splinters scrape off of his bare chest. He slammed the door and turned the key in the ignition. The man grabbed the side mirror with gloved hands and tried to stop him. Jake accelerated and the mirror ripped off with a crack. He looked back. The man was left there holding it in his hand, shaking his head. He tied the trench coat around his waist as the car pulled away. Jake had time to breathe again. He ran a red light and drove up the on-ramp to the highway.

  Ahead of him, the road was long and dark. He’d gotten everything out. He stopped shaking and started focusing on the road. That was it. His apartment was gone. He’d made it out. The only problem was that he couldn’t go back.

  CHAPTER 43:

  “Jacob, when you said you wanted to stay here—”

  “You assumed I’d be wearing a shirt?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were wrong.”

  He was standing in front of Gary Novak’s door, shirtless, with a wooden duck clutched to his chest. The scent of Febreeze and garlic wafted out the doorway and onto his body. He let it soak in. He was glad Sarasota was warm. It might have been the first time. He started to explain why he was shirtless, but Gary waved him off.

  “Hurry—Meryl can’t find out that you’re here.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ll get in trouble.”

  “Did you tell her I was staying here?”

  Gary shrugged and pointed his cane at the garage.

  “I’m staying in your photo lab?”

  “She never comes in there. I set up one of our nicest cots.”

  He went into the garage and set the duck down on the floor. It would be good enough. He stared at the cameras hanging on the wall and all the brightly colored prints. At least he was safe. He explained to Gary what had happened—the man, the pursuit, how he had barely escaped capture. Gary shook his head.

  “They didn’t realize you’d discovered about Charlotte’s murder?”

  “No. Like an idiot, I tipped them off.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “We just try to get the story out as quickly as possible. Then something will change. After that, I’ll call the cops and we’ll be done.”

  “You can work here as long as you want.”

  He set up his laptop on a metal desk. Gary closed the door and Jake spread everything out. It was just like at home. Except for the disinfectant and development fluid.