The Last Private Eye

by John Birkett

  The Last Private Eye

  Michael Rhineheart, P.I.

  John Birkett

  DEDICATION

  This book is for Betty

  And for Julie, Ellen, and Lynn

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Addendum

  An Excerpt from The Queen’s Mare

  About the Author

  Also by John Birkett

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  CHAPTER ONE

  It was opening day of the spring meet at Churchill Downs. A clear bright Saturday in late April. Rhineheart wasn’t out at the track though. He was sitting in his office with his feet up on the desk, listening to the radio. Willie Nelson was singing about how the nightlife wasn’t the good life.

  When the telephone on his desk started to ring, he reached for it. Then, for some reason, he hesitated a moment, letting his hand hover over the receiver. It was just a second or two, a brief, meaningless gesture, but later, weeks later, when everything—the whole, sad, sorry mess that began that afternoon with that telephone call—was over, Rhineheart would remember that moment of hesitation.

  He picked up the phone and a woman’s voice—sonorous, somehow familiar—caught at his ear.

  “I’d like to speak to Mr. Rhineheart, please.”

  “This is Rhineheart.”

  “Mickey?”

  Rhineheart’s first name was Michael. No one called him Mickey. Not anymore. Not since he was a kid anyway. Not since Saint Joseph’s Elementary School on Market Street in the West End of Louisville. Even then, the nuns and all the other kids had called him Michael or just Rhineheart. Except for . . .

  “Kate?” he said.

  “Hi, Mickey.”

  Kate was Kathleen Sullivan. Red-haired. Pigtailed. Freckled. She had deep blue eyes and wore thick horn-rimmed glasses. She was Rhineheart’s first girl friend. They had grown up together. Alphabetically, she had sat behind him in school from the second grade through the eighth. Rhineheart had not seen her since high school.

  “Kate,” he said. “It’s been a long time.”

  “It’s been almost twenty years, Mickey.”

  Twenty years. Twenty years ago Rhineheart had dropped out of high school and joined the army. He had heard, from someone, that Kate had gone on to college, had majored in broadcast journalism, and had gone to work as a reporter for a television station in Cincinnati.

  “I heard you were up north,” Rhineheart said.

  “Not anymore,” she said. “I’ve come back home. I’ve taken a job here. With Channel Six. I’ve been back almost a month.”

  Channel Six was a local TV station. An independent with a good reputation. It had won some awards for its regional news coverage.

  “Are you married, Kate?”

  “For the last ten years,” she said. “I’ve got two kids, a boy and a girl. What about you, Mickey? Who’s the lucky woman?”

  Rhineheart had been married once. To a tall, slim woman with long brown hair and fine delicate features. Her name was Catherine. One afternoon, in the summer of 1976, she went for a ride on the expressway. A semi, travelling the opposite way, had jumped the divider. They had to use machinery to pull her body out of the tangle of metal. It had been a long time ago. Rhineheart never thought about it. Not when he could help it. He never talked about Catherine to anyone. Not ever.

  “I’m not married,” he said.

  “I’m surprised. I thought you’d’ve been married three or four times by now. The way you used to go through women.”

  “I’ve been keeping myself for you, babe,” Rhineheart said.

  “Yeah, I’ll bet.”

  “Tell me about yourself,” Rhineheart said. “What have you been doing?”

  Kate Sullivan told Rhineheart about the different stations she had worked for, in Cincinnati and Dayton and Cleveland, and the different jobs she had held, feature reporter, consumer correspondent, sports and weather person. She told Rhineheart about her husband, whose name was Jack, and who was in computers. She talked about her children, Megan, who was seven, and Kevin, the six-year-old. She’d come back to Louisville, she said, because Channel Six had made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. She was going to be an investigative reporter, something she’d always wanted to do. The salary was great, and she had carte blanche to pursue whatever stories she wanted. And speaking of that . . . she wanted to see him.

  “I may need your help in something,” she said. “It’s kind of important.” Rhineheart caught a change in her tone, a new businesslike no-nonsense note in her voice. Her TV voice, he thought.

  “What’s the problem, babe?”

  “Can we see each other?”

  “Sure,” Rhineheart said.

  “When?”

  “What about now?”

  “Can we meet somewhere?”

  He thought for a moment. “You know Baskerville’s?” It was a restaurant-bar on South Third Street near the University of Louisville.

  “Yes.”

  “Be in the bar,” Rhineheart said. “I’ll meet you there in half an hour.”

  The bar at Baskerville’s was a dim cavernous room filled with high-backed armchairs and leather-covered booths. It was crowded, Rhineheart noted. A week from now, on Derby day, it would be empty. Everyone in town would be out at the Downs.

  Kate Sullivan was seated in the corner. She stood up when she spotted Rhineheart and waved.

  The freckles had disappeared, but the hair was as red as ever. A stylish shag, instead of pigtails, and the horn-rims were gone, replaced by oversized designer frames. Otherwise, she looked as if she hadn’t gained a pound since the eighth grade. The same small-boned frame and bright, pretty face. She was wearing a beige blazer and a dark skirt and high heels and she looked very much, Rhineheart thought, like what they used to call a career woman.

  She was a hugger and a kisser, Rhineheart remembered, as she got up on her tiptoes in order to plant one on his face and then wrapped her little arms around as much of him as she could.

  “It’s good to see you, babe.”

  She nodded, looking up at him. “You’re as handsome as ever, Mickey.”

  Rhineheart said, “And you’re a lot prettier than you were in the eighth grade.”

  She laughed. They sat down and a waitress materialized out of the gloom. Kate asked for a vodka-on-the-rocks, Rhineheart ordered Maker’s Mark and water. The waitress smiled at him as if bourbon drinkers were her favorite kind of people and departed in the general direction of the bar.

  “Now I want to know about you, Mickey,” Kate said. “What have you been up to all these years?”

  What had he bee
n up to? Not very much, that was for sure. Certainly not the same things that everyone else had been up to—pursuing a career, raising a family. Catherine had been his only family, and after she died, his life had lost meaning and momentum. Everything suddenly seemed to require too much effort. He’d tried a couple of different occupations, then had more or less drifted into the investigation business. The years, it seemed, had gone by like a snap of the fingers. He’d somehow managed to survive. No small feat—but neither did it seem like any big deal.

  Rhineheart shrugged. “I been staying busy,” he said. The truth was that since Catherine the whole thing, except for a moment here and there, was a matter of just going through the motions. He stayed with it because what else was there? Most of the time he had trouble keeping his eyes open.

  “You still shrug,” Kate said with a smile. “It was always your favorite gesture. Whenever Sister Mary Hope would ask you what you were going to do with your life, you’d give her a shrug.”

  “Some things never change,” Rhineheart said.

  “You’re a private detective now. What’s that like?”

  “It’s a job,” Rhineheart said. “It’s all right.”

  “Do you like it?”

  “It beats a lot of other jobs,” Rhineheart said. “You don’t have to sell anybody anything.”

  She laughed. “What’s the best thing about it?”

  Rhineheart shrugged. “The freedom. You’re your own boss. You don’t have to take a lot of . . . crap off people.”

  “You do what your clients ask of you, don’t you?”

  “If I feel like it.”

  “It must be nice to have that kind of independence.”

  “Yeah,” Rhineheart said, “it is.”

  “Someone told me you were working for the government for a while.”

  Rhineheart nodded. “I used to be with the Commonwealth Attorney’s office. As an investigator.”

  “That sounds kind of interesting.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “It was, sort of. But I got fired. I couldn’t handle the procedure.”

  “The procedure?”

  “Following orders. Typing up reports. Stuff like that.”

  “Yes,” she said, “you always had a tough time following orders.”

  The waitress returned with the drinks.

  Rhineheart held up his glass for a toast. “Here’s to the first girl I ever gave a valentine to.”

  “What a nice toast.” Kate raised her glass to his. They clinked glasses and drank.

  “Tell me about your work, Mickey. About some of the things you do.”

  “Such as?”

  “Do you ever—” She hesitated. “Search for someone who’s missing?”

  “Sure,” Rhineheart said. “I do divorce work too.” He didn’t add that he was broke right now and would do just about anything. If the money was right. And it was legal. And if he felt like doing it.

  Kate reached into her purse and took out a snapshot and handed it to Rhineheart.

  It was a color photograph of a blond-haired outdoorsy-looking guy. In his mid-thirties. Tall and thin, with a long, sharp face. He was wearing faded jeans and a T-shirt and was leaning on a whitewashed paddock fence. In the background were horse barns and rolling countryside.

  “His name is Carl Walsh,” she said. “He’s been missing since Wednesday evening.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Rhineheart lit a cigarette. “This Walsh a friend?”

  Kate Sullivan shook her head. “No. I taped an interview with him last spring when I was working for a Cincinnati station. A ‘life on the racetrack’ piece. Carl Walsh is a hot-walker, a stable hand. He works for Cresthill Farms. Are you familiar with Cresthill?”

  Rhineheart nodded. Who wasn’t familiar with Cresthill Farms? It was one of the largest horse farms in Kentucky, a big name in thoroughbred racing and breeding, Cresthill was owned by Duke and Jessica Kingston, two of the more colorful figures in Kentucky social circles. The Kingstons, who bred and raced their own horses, were rich and famous and flamboyant. They were renowned, among other things, for the big party they threw every year during Derby week. It was held in a tent on the grounds at Cresthill and was considered the social event of the racing season.

  “Carl called me up this past Wednesday,” she said. “He said he’d read in the paper that I was working in Louisville now, and he asked me if I remembered him from the interview. He said he had a story for me, one that would—his exact words were ‘blow this town wide open.’ I tried to get him to tell me more, but all he would say was that if certain things didn’t work out he would tell me some news that involved the Derby and some very famous people.”

  Kate paused. She looked at Rhineheart as if she expected him to ask her something. When he didn’t, she said, “You do know that Cresthill Farm has a horse in this year’s Derby, don’t you?”

  Rhineheart nodded. Cresthill’s Derby entry was a lightly raced and highly publicized three-year-old named Royal Dancer. The Kingstons had bought the horse a few years back at the Keeneland yearling sales and had paid a couple million for him. If Rhineheart remembered correctly, Royal Dancer had won a big stakes race in Florida earlier in the year, but had raced only once since then, lost, and was considered something of a long shot for the Derby.

  “Did Walsh mention any names?” Rhineheart asked.

  “No. He refused to say anything else. He gave me his phone number and his address and promised to call me the next day—Thursday. But he didn’t. So I called him. His wife answered, her name is Rhonda. She said Carl had left the night before and hadn’t come back. She seemed really upset. She promised to call me when Carl returned, but she didn’t. I phoned her on Friday. There was no answer, Mickey. I went over to their apartment but no one was home. I talked to the manager of the apartment building, a girl named Karen Simpson. She said she hadn’t seen Carl Walsh or his wife for a couple of days. Carl hasn’t been to work either. I talked to his boss, the head trainer at Cresthill, an Englishman named John Hughes. He told me Carl was scheduled to come to work at six-thirty Thursday morning, but he never showed up. I hate to sound melodramatic, Mickey, but Carl Walsh seems to have . . . disappeared.”

  Rhineheart said, “And you want me to find him?”

  Kate Sullivan nodded.

  “Why me?” Rhineheart asked. “Why not some bigger agency? Some high-powered corporate security outfit with a lot of resources?”

  Kate smiled. “I’m not old friends with any big-time security outfits.”

  “You didn’t come to me because we went to grade school together, did you?”

  “Don’t worry,” she said, “I asked around about you. You come highly recommended, Mickey. The station’s legal counsel, Warren Fisher, said you were the best private investigator in Louisville.”

  Warren Fisher was an attorney Rhineheart had helped out of a jam once.

  “He also said—and I’m quoting—that you were ‘one tough dude.”’

  Rhineheart took a sip of his drink.

  “He also said—nicely, I might add—that you weren’t entirely lacking in self-confidence.”

  Three for three, Rhineheart thought. Not bad for a lawyer.

  “Will you try to find Carl Walsh for me, Mickey?”

  Rhineheart thought about it. Cresthill Farms. Jet-set thoroughbred breeders. A Derby horse. It was a whole different league from the one he usually played in, but he didn’t have any doubts he could handle it. And it sounded like the kind of case that wasn’t likely to put him to sleep.

  “I’ll give it a shot,” he said. “On one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You stop calling me Mickey. It makes me feel like I’m back in the eighth grade and about to get my knuckles rapped by one of the nuns. Call me Mike, or Rhineheart, or anything. Except Mickey.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.” She smiled at Rhineheart. “What about Michael? Is that okay?”

  “Fine.”

  “Warren Fisher
said to ask you about your fee.”

  “My fee,” Rhineheart said, “is two hundred a day, plus expenses. Plus,” he added, “I’ll need a retainer. A thousand.”

  Kate didn’t bat an eye. “No problem. The station is backing me fully in this. They’ve agreed to cover all your expenses. A check from the news department will be in the mail Monday morning.”

  “Good,” Rhineheart said. “Now tell me why you haven’t called the police in on this.”

  “I considered it,” she said. “I gave it some serious thought. Then I decided not to. For one thing I’m not sure how efficient the police are in this kind of matter. For another, I can’t rely on their keeping me informed. You see, Michael, I want Carl Walsh found, but I also want an exclusive on whatever story there might be. You understand that?”

  Rhineheart shrugged. “Sure.” Kate was ambitious. She wanted to do a good job. There was nothing wrong with that.

  She handed him a piece of paper that had MEMO FROM THE DESK OF KATHLEEN SULLIVAN written across the top. “Carl Walsh’s address. My telephone numbers at home and at work. This”—she pointed to an entry—“is John Hughes’s phone number and address.”

  “You got any strong feelings about where I ought to start on this?” Rhineheart asked. It was a standard question he put to all his clients.

  “I wouldn’t dream of suggesting how you go about your job, Michael. All I ask is that you keep me informed of your progress. I’d like daily reports, if that’s possible.”

  “Sure,” Rhineheart said. The truth was he made reports when he felt like it. Usually, as few as possible.

  He asked Kate if she had a press pass for Churchill Downs.

  “Yes.”

  He held out his hand. “Give it to me.”

  “But—”

  “If I’m going to knock around and ask questions, I’ll need access to the stable areas at the Downs.”

  “But won’t they—”

  “They never look at the names on them,” Rhineheart said. “If you need a replacement, tell your station manager you lost yours.”

  She dug the pass out of her purse and handed it to Rhineheart. “You come on awfully strong, Michael. Are you as tough as you seem to be?”

  Rhineheart smiled at her. “Tougher,” he said. He finished off his drink, laid some bills on the table, stood up.