Camouflage nd-36

by Bill Pronzini

  5

  It didn’t take Tamara long to locate Roxanne Lorraine McManus. Just two billable hours, in fact. That kind of speed is good for client relations and PR purposes, but it doesn’t do much for the agency’s bank account. We weren’t going to make much out of the extra document delivery charge, either.

  Surprise: Ms. McManus was alive and well and living in San Francisco.

  I was in my office where I wasn’t supposed to be, doing what I wasn’t supposed to be doing, when Tamara brought in the data printout. When I decided to semiretire a few years ago and made her a full partner and essentially turned the agency over to her, the plan was for me to come in a couple of days a week, do a little office work here and there, and pretty much stay out of the field. Yeah, right. Tamara’s head for business practices was far superior to mine; in short order she found ways to double our business, which necessitated hiring a second field operative, Alex Chavez, with me taking up the rest of the slack in lieu of hiring a third. Two days a week became three, three became four and sometimes five, and pretty soon I was doing almost as much work as before, office and field both. Some semiretirement. Not that I minded too much, though, most of the time. I’ve never been any good at sitting around trying to think of something to do with myself, and with Kerry now a vice president at Bates and Carpenter and Emily away at school or off with her friends, the condo was a pretty lonely place on weekdays.

  “I’d’ve found her even sooner,” Tamara said, “except that now she’s using initials instead of her first and middle names.”

  “R. L. McManus. Don’t find women doing that much.”

  “Only one I can think of is k d lang.”

  “I wonder why she made the switch.”

  “Probably never liked her given names. I wouldn’t be too happy with ‘Roxanne Lorraine’ myself.”

  “I don’t know, I’ve always thought Roxanne was a pretty name.”

  “Uh-huh,” Tamara said.

  I scanned the printout. Computers are fine-I quit being a Luddite where technology is concerned a while ago-but I don’t like reading reports, files, or anything else of any length on a monitor screen. Bad for my old eyes, for one thing. But the main reason is that I’m an incurably old-fashioned paper guy. I like the look, feel, and smell of paper in all its many forms. Tamara understands and tolerates this, though she’d be happier if I took up full residence in her techno world and ruined what was left of my eyesight and developed carpal tunnel in the modern fashion.

  “Dog-boarding business in Dogpatch,” I said. “Woman’s consistent in her interests anyway. And she picked the right neighborhood.”

  “Should’ve called the business Dogpatch Dog Boarding. If I had a mutt, I wouldn’t take him to a place called Canine Customers.”

  It wasn’t quite as cute as The Warm and Fuzzy Shop but in the same league. Consistent in that respect, too. “Neither would I.”

  “Doing pretty well, though,” Tamara said, “for that kind of business. She’s got an A-one credit rating and no outstanding debts. Address is also her residence. Been there nearly seven years on a long-term lease.”

  “So I see. Must’ve moved here right after she left Blodgett the second time.”

  “I can call Alex and have him deliver the stuff from the Catholic Diocese. Or I could drop it off myself after work. Dogpatch isn’t far from my new crib.”

  “No, I’ll do it,” I said. “I’m out of here when I finish the Bennett report. I’ll swing over there on my way home and then notify the client.”

  Dogpatch is one of the city’s smallest and oldest neighborhoods-nine square blocks on the flats east of Potrero Hill (where Tamara’s new “crib” was located), one part of it bordering the once-thriving shipyards and mills on the Embarcadero at Pier 70, another part adjacent to recently upscaled Mission Hill. It has a long, rich history dating back to the 1860s, when it was home to thousands of immigrant workingmen and their families. It survived the ’06 earthquake and fire pretty much intact, one of the few neighborhoods that weren’t devastated, so it’s packed with workers’ cottages, warehouses, factories, and public buildings a century or more old.

  The neighborhood had gotten pretty run-down by the late seventies, when artists, graphic designers, and other urban professionals discovered it and began the same process of gentrification that was going on in the SoMa district farther north-buying up and renovating its Victorian cottages and Edwardian flats and turning some of the old warehouses into live-work lofts and condos. Nowadays Dogpatch is a diverse mix of historical residences, restaurants and saloons, marine repair outfits, a film company called Dogpatch Studios, the two-block-long American Industrial Center, and the headquarters of the San Francisco chapter of the Hell’s Angels.

  R. L. McManus’s business and residence was on 20th Street, a couple of blocks off Third, the area’s main business artery. The house was a renovated and enlarged version of one of the tall, squarish workers’ cottages, in good repair and sporting what appeared to be a recent purple and yellow paint job. It sat on a large corner lot, set farther back from the street than its neighbors and bordered by a wrought-iron fence. There were two signs on the fence in front, one on either side of an entrance gate. The larger, professionally lettered one said: Canine Customers-“A Dog’s Home Away from Home.” The smaller, homemade, was more straightforward: Room for Rent. A bulky Ford Explorer with tinted windows was parked inside a pair of closed gates; beyond it, at the end of the driveway, I had a partial glimpse of an outbuilding that would be the boarding kennels.

  I pushed through the gate, went up onto the porch. Loud barking started up inside as soon as I rang the bell-a pretty large dog, judging from the deep-throated noise. After about five seconds a woman’s sharp, commanding voice said, “Quiet, Thor!” and the yammering cut off instantly in mid-bark. Well-trained animal, the best kind.

  The door opened and I was looking at a diminutive woman in her mid- to late thirties with shag-cut blond hair, bright blue eyes, and an even brighter smile. Right age, but not the right woman.

  The dog was sitting about a foot behind and to one side of her. A thick-chested, black and brown Rottweiler mix with yellow eyes-hot yellow eyes, like globular flames. The eyes were fastened on me, not exactly as if I were a raw hunk of chateaubriand but not friendly, either.

  “Hello,” the woman said, making the word seem like a chirp. The bright blue eyes moved over my face in a way that made me think of a supermarket shopper feeling up a piece of fruit to determine its ripeness. “Are you here about the room?”

  “No, ma’am. I’m looking for R. L. McManus.”

  “I’m Jane Carson. If you have an animal you’d like boarded, perhaps I-”

  “I’m not a canine customer, either. Is Ms. McManus home?”

  The smile lost about half of its candlepower. “What did you want to see her about?”

  “Personal business.”

  “What sort of personal business?”

  “I have something for her.” I waggled Virden’s envelope. “To be delivered personally. It won’t take long.”

  “Your name, please.”

  I handed her one of my business cards. The woman looked at it, blinked, blinked again, and the smile flattened out into a straight line. She said, “Come in,” in a reluctant voice that no longer chirped, and stood aside.

  I hesitated, eyeing the Rottweiler.

  “Don’t worry about Thor,” she said. “He’s gentle as a lamb.”

  Sure he was. A were-lamb, maybe. Thor. Some name for a dog. Some dog. But I went in anyway, sidling past him. He didn’t move, but his hot yellow gaze tracked me as I trailed Jane Carson across a hallway and into a room that had probably once been a parlor and was now a combination Canine Customers reception office and waiting room. Behind me I heard nails clicking on the hardwood floor as Thor came in after us.

  “Wait here, please.”

  She went away through a door behind a short counter. The Rottweiler sat in a watchful pose, about twelve inche
s of tongue lolling out of one side of his mouth. I quit looking at him and pretended interest in some of the batch of dog paintings and photographs that covered the walls. I was eyeing a bad watercolor rendering of a mastiff about the size of a small pony when the same door opened and a different woman came in, alone.

  R. L. McManus, this time. Not as slender or attractive as she’d been nine years ago, the brunette hair styled differently, cut shorter and waved, her cheeks less rounded and tinted with the kind of waxy shine that comes from more than one facelift done by a plastic surgeon not half as good as the one Kerry had gone to; but the generous mouth and luminous brown eyes hadn’t changed much. She was carrying my business card between a blunt thumb and forefinger as if it was something not quite clean. The brown eyes were wary, the cords in her too-smooth neck drawn tight.

  “I am Ms. McManus,” she said in crisp tones.

  “Roxanne Lorraine McManus?”

  “I prefer to use my initials. What could a private investigator possibly want with me?”

  “It’s nothing for you to be alarmed about,” I said. “Your ex-husband hired my agency to locate you.”

  “My ex-husband?”

  “David Virden.”

  There were about five seconds of dead air before she said, “I don’t understand. What does he want after all these years?”

  “A favor.” I extended the envelope. “It’s all in here, Ms. McManus. Easier for you to look over the contents than for me to try to explain.”

  Frowning, she opened the envelope. The frown deepened as she scanned through the Church material; her mouth got tight, loosened and bent a little, then tightened again. “Is this some kind of joke?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “The Catholic Church can really do this kind of thing?”

  “If all the paperwork is in order and the Marriage Tribunal votes in favor.”

  “And enough money changes hands, I suppose.”

  I had nothing to say to that.

  “Why does he want an annulment now?”

  I told her why.

  “Well, I think it’s ridiculous,” she said. “I’d never be a party to anything like this. I want nothing to do with him or the Catholic Church.”

  “That’s your prerogative.”

  “And don’t try to talk me into it.”

  “Not my job.”

  “All right, then. Take this back to him and tell him to leave me alone. Don’t you bother me again, either.”

  Her voice had risen slightly, no more than a couple of octaves, but it put the Rottweiler on alert. His ears pricked up and he popped up onto all fours and made a low rumbling sound in his throat, his hot-eyed gaze still fixed on me. The muscles in my shoulders and back bunched. I’ve had run-ins with dogs before; I don’t care how well-trained they are, they can still be unpredictable.

  But nothing happened. The woman said, “Quiet, Thor,” not as loudly or as sharply as Jane Carson had but with the same effect. The dog subsided immediately, squatting again with that long tongue hanging out.

  When she handed me the envelope, I said, “You won’t see me again, Ms. McManus. Thanks for your time.” And after another detour around Thor, I was out of there.

  The day was gray and chilly, but that wasn’t the reason for the prickly cold feeling on the back of my neck. Chalk it up to those damn yellow eyes.

  In the car I called David Virden’s cell number. The call went to his voice mail; I left a brief message, saying that we’d found his ex-wife and asking for an ASAP callback.

  It came sooner than I expected, just as I was turning off Third Street onto Army. Never fails. I’m in the car driving and that’s when my cell rings. I could let it go to my voice mail, but I’m one of the people who can ignore a ringing phone only in extreme circumstances. Kerry keeps telling me I ought to get one of those Bluetooth things that let you talk on the phone while keeping both hands on the wheel, but I’ve seen enough drivers who appear to be having animated conversations with themselves and the image is always one of a mental case babbling to a carload of imaginary friends. Better a hands-free device than breaking the law by talking with a phone glued to your ear, as too many people still do despite the recent state law. Or sending text messages or e-mails on laptop computers while driving, two of the crazier techno-surfing, machine-juggling addictions people have been known to indulge in these days.

  I’m law-abiding, so I did what I always do, and hardly anybody else seems to, when my cellular goes off: I found a place to pull over and stop and took the call on the fourth ring.

  “Fast work finding Roxie,” Virden said. “Alive or dead?”

  “Alive. Living right here in San Francisco.”

  “No kidding. Well, that simplifies things, doesn’t it.”

  “No,” I said, “it doesn’t.”

  “… What do you mean? Did you see her, deliver the envelope?”

  “I just came from talking to her. She wouldn’t take it.”

  “What? Why the hell not?”

  I told him why not.

  Long pause this time. Then, hard and angry, “Well, shit! How can she still hate me that much? It’s been eight goddamn years.”

  I had nothing to say to that. Not my area of expertise.

  Virden said, “Too bad you didn’t find her in a cemetery instead.”

  Or to that, because it wasn’t worth a civil comment.

  “She’s got to sign that document,” he said. “It’s all that’s standing in my way. Nothing else you can do?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “Then it’s up to me. I don’t like the idea of seeing the bitch again, but I’ll just have to bite the bullet.”

  “Do you want us to mail the envelope to you?”

  “No. I’ll pick it up before I go talk to Roxie. Too late to do it today, I’m meeting Judith at five, and I have a business appointment in the morning. Say one o’clock at your office?”

  “Fine. I’ll have a report ready for you with her address and the other particulars of the investigation.”

  “How much more do I owe you?”

  “There’ll be a final invoice with the other material.”

  “I’ll bring my checkbook.” Five or six seconds, and then he said, “Ex-wives. Christ, what a pain they can be.”

  “I wouldn’t know,” I said.

  “Take my word for it. Even when they’re being cooperative, they’re a pain in the ass.”

  Ex-wives weren’t the only ones.

  6

  TAMARA

  All day Tuesday, as on most days, she had the office to herself. Bill was out on an interview for an insurance fraud investigation; Jake was following up with the hit-and-run witness. And Alex Chavez was working a pro bono hate-crime case for a black family that was being victimized in Monterey Heights-one more example, as if anybody needed one, that racism was not only alive but running rampant like crap through a sewer.

  Fine with her, working alone. She liked being in charge, handling her end of the agency in her own efficient, organized way. Plenty to handle these days, too; business was booming, despite or maybe because of the tanked economy. Two other insurance-related cases, a missing-person investigation, a b.g. check for a rich dude in St. Francis Wood who believed his daughter’s brand-new fiance was after the family fortune… plus client reports on closed and in-progress cases, invoices, bookkeeping, and, as a favor to Jake, a deep backgrounder on a woman he suspected of abusing his lady’s kid.

  All that was liable to keep her here long past five o’clock closing. Had the night before and probably would the rest of the week. Was a time when she’d’ve chafed at that much overtime because it cut into what little social life she had. Now, she welcomed it. After what’d happened a couple of weeks ago, being alone in the office was a lot more comfortable than holing up alone in her flat on Potrero Hill. The flat just didn’t feel the same as it had when she moved in. Maybe never would again. But she was stuck there for another ten months, like it or not; the lease was
ironclad and she’d lose a bundle if she broke it. Besides, she was just too busy to go hunting for another place to live.

  Antoine Delman, aka Lucas Zeller. That son of a bitch. Nearly ruined her life… nearly took her life. Not enough time had passed for her to get over her outrage every time she thought about him and what he’d tried to do to her and a whole long list of other brothers and sisters. Happiest day coming up was the one she’d spend in court testifying against him and his freaky mama.

  Something else he’d done to her was sour her on men. The way she felt right now, she didn’t care if she ever had another relationship, ever even got laid again. Use it or lose it? Well, maybe it was better to lose it than risk losing everything else because of it.

  The morning went by quickly, with only one phone call to interrupt her work. Just after one o’clock the annulment client, David Virden, showed up to collect his envelope and the report she’d typed out for him. He didn’t look at the report, just asked her if his ex-wife’s current address was in it. Well, of course it was; what did he think they’d do, hide it from him? He didn’t look at the invoice, either. Demanded to know what he owed, wrote a check for the full amount, and stalked out without bothering to say thanks or good-bye. Mr. Personality. No wonder none of his first three marriages had lasted. Another of those slick dudes, like that bastard Antoine, who were all surface charm when they wanted something or somebody, but cut them open and what you’d find inside was a mess of dirty ice and a festering ego.

  Tamara had most of her priority client work caught up by two thirty. Which left reports and bookkeeping, neither of which she felt like tackling just yet. Instead she started in on the deep backgrounder for Jake. Child abuse was about as low a crime as there was; anything she could do to help put a stop to what was happening to Bryn’s son was a mandate.

  Francine Whalen. Jake had been fairly thorough in what he’d pulled up on the woman so far, but the Net was a vast storehouse of information, some of it distorted and useless, and what you had to do was get down into the nooks and crannies far below the surface and then start a careful sifting. Same principle as rummaging around in attics and sub-basements and dusty old buildings where the long-stored, valuable stuff was hidden away.