Return of the Nomad

by Beatrix Banner

  Archie looked at me and spread his hands. “And, just to be clear, this the same dealer whose name you don’t know, and can’t give us any information about, except that he is into some dark shit?”

  I snorted, still struggling to get past how all of this was, apparently, on Pam. “I’m sorry, it was ‘not your fault’ she got addicted to the drugs you were giving her?” I turned to Archie for backup, but he ignored me.

  Carter scowled like a five-year-old who’d been denied an ice cream. “I didn’t force her to take nothin’.”

  “When did she quit?”

  Carter laughed. “Quit? Man, she never quit. Why you think my kid died? I was the one who got clean.”

  “Now it’s your kid?” Archie asked as he finished up a note and closed his pad, tucking it into the breast pocket of his jacket.

  “Shit, you know what I mean.”

  “I think what you mean is whatever you think is gonna get you out of whatever hole you just dug for yourself. You’re coming downtown, Carter.” Archie pulled his handcuffs out from his belt as he stood up and crossed the room. Carter sputtered unintelligibly and went to move, but I shoved him back down in the chair. I pushed his shoulders forward so he was doubled over and yanked his arms behind his back. Archie leaned in and closed the cuffs around his wrists with a satisfying snap.

  “C’mon, sunshine. Time for a field trip.”

  Chapter Four

  Archie dropped me off a couple of blocks from his apartment in Palms and continued on to the station to finish his interrogation of Carter. It was spitting drizzle and the sidewalks were a shiny wet, reflecting the gray sky back off the gray concrete. I’d ask Archie for the details of the interrogation later. Right now, I wanted to do some more digging of my own.

  Pam and Jimmy had basically taken me in. They were family. Every time the image of Pam lying dead on the floor of her apartment flashed through my mind I felt a hot pit of fire in my stomach. It didn’t sit well with me when bad things happened to good, honest people. I needed to right this wrong. I needed to find out who did this to my friend.

  I decided to walk down to Jimmy’s bar. I had a couple more questions I wanted to ask him about Pam. Like who these shady guys were that she was supposed to be hanging around with; the dark dealer and the spiritual sensei. Carter’s story had me intrigued. Not necessarily because I believed him—the jury was still out on that one—but because those two guys must have figured in Pam’s life in some way for Carter to have been able to throw them out there like that, straight off the top of his head. I didn’t figure him smart enough to come up with that kind of a story so easily.

  I arrived at around five that afternoon. It had finally stopped raining and the sun appeared from behind a cloud, reflecting off the puddles in the parking lot out front. I stopped for a second to enjoy the rays on my face, looking up at the menacing, dark mounds that still encircled the patches of blue. It wouldn’t last. This was California.

  I pushed in through the door, went straight to the bar and climbed on a stool. It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the gloom. Cindy appeared from around back a few moments later, wiping her hands on her apron.

  “Hey sug, what’re you doing here so early and alone?”

  I made an effort to smile. “Lookin’ for Jimmy. He here?”

  “He just stepped out, should be back in a few minutes though. Anything I can do for you? You want a beer?”

  “Yeah, I’ll take a beer, thank you.”

  She nodded.

  I leaned my shoulders back on the bar and sucked my teeth, then spun around and asked her: “Say, you and Pam got on okay, right?”

  Cindy half-smiled as she reached up and grabbed a glass from the rack above her. “Sure did.” I watched as she pulled on the tap to pour the drink. She frowned in concentration as it slowly filled, then placed the glass in front of me and leaned forwards to rest her forearms on the bar. She sighed. “Jimmy told me what happened. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around all that. Poor little darlin’, she was such a sweet girl.”

  “That she was,” I replied. “Did she ever come in here with anyone she was seeing?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Not really.” She took a second, her forehead furrowed. “I do recall one fella, now that you mention it, though. Real tall guy, kinda handsome, good lookin’, seemed nice at the time. Friendly. They had some food and a couple drinks and I don’t know that I ever saw them together again.”

  “You find out anything about him?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. He was real muscular, built, I think he was into some kind of martial arts type thing. Kept talkin’ about his dojo and all that kinda stuff.”

  Ah. Sensei Handsome.

  “Right. And he didn’t say where it was?”

  “He may have, darlin’, but if he did, I never heard it.”

  “Sure. And there was nobody else she ever came in with?”

  “No, not that I can think of.”

  “Do you recall that guy’s name, by any chance?”

  She puffed her cheeks, made a face that was apologetic and blew out. “’Fraid I ain’t bein’ much help to you today, hon,” she said.

  I smiled. “It’s okay, don’t worry. When was this?”

  She bit her lip. “I’d say, something like a year ago? Don’t quote me on that, though, the days kinda blend into each other when you spend most of them behind a bar.”

  “Ain’t that the truth,” said Jimmy as he bustled through from the back, grabbed himself a stein and began to fill it from the tap.

  “Hey, Jimmy! How you doing?”

  He looked drawn, and the pouches under his eyes were faintly blue, ringed with red. I was surprised to see him there, but I guessed he was trying to find something to occupy his mind. Must have been some kind of hell in there I did not want to imagine.

  I jerked my chin at him. “Shouldn’t you be at home? I’m sure Cindy can look after this place for a couple days while you take a little time.”

  Cindy rolled her eyes. “You think I haven’t tried to tell him that? But he’s a belligerent, willful mule. He insisted. I told him, I don’t need the help! But what can I do with such a stubborn old man?”

  Jimmy cracked a slight grin, took a long sip of beer and shrugged. He turned and pretended to busy himself, slicing a lemon that didn’t need to be sliced.

  Cindy turned to him with her hands on her hips. “Jimmy, do you recall that big, tall, muscular fella came in here with Pam one time? Oh, ’bout a year ago? I think he was into some kinda kung fu or somethin’. He was a teacher or an instructor. You remember?”

  Jimmy’s back remained turned away from us, but I saw his shoulders tense slightly. He hesitated a second, then continued chopping. “Nope. Can’t say I do.”

  “Sure you do!” Cindy insisted. “Dark hair, real athletic, gosh, what was his name? Ben, Tom… somethin’ real common, anyways.” She sighed and waved her hand in the air as she turned back to me. “Oh, I don’t know, it’ll come back to me.”

  Jimmy picked up the chopping board and slid the lemon slices into an overflowing plastic container. He wiped his hands on a tea towel, then turned to face us. “You know, now that you’re talking about him, I’m thinking about it and maybe I do remember him. But it was a long time ago. Why you asking?”

  I smiled and shrugged. “Just trying to cover all the bases, Jimmy. Archie’s talking to Carter right now and he mentioned a couple other guys that might be able to shine a little more light onto what happened with Pam. What led to all this.”

  “Sure, sure...” There was an edge to his voice which I didn’t understand. He sighed and undid his apron, then threw it over his shoulder. “Well, you know, I’ll have a look at home…” He laughed, but it was a harsh noise. “But there’s probably nothing much there anyway,” He blinked a couple of times, fighting to control his breath and the tears. “Like, to do with this guy, I mean. She was always coming and going, and I never knew everything she was doin’ or, or where she was goin’..
.” He trailed off and added, “Anything that would tell you anything, well, that would probably be at her apartment.”

  I watched him a while, then nodded down at the bar. “That makes sense, Jimmy. Anything you can find, anything you can think of, it could be useful. You just call, right?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, right.” He raised a hand in goodbye and turned to leave. His beer was barely touched. Cindy and I shared a look.

  An hour later, Archie turned up. He walked up to the bar where I was still perched and gave me a pat on the shoulder, then sprang onto the bar stool next to me. The bar was empty save for a part-timer out back. I was pretty sure he was playing driving games on his phone.

  “Rough day down the mines?” I asked him.

  “You could say that.”

  “How are those poisoning cases coming?”

  “They ain’t, and that combined with interviewing Carter has me placing that final straw on the camel’s back.”

  “You need a drink.” I leaned across the bar and roared, “Hey! Can we get a drink out here?” I turned back to Archie, who was shaking his head at me. I ignored him. “How did the interview go, you get any more out of him?”

  Nothing was happening out back, so I vaulted over the bar and poured us a couple beers. I’d let the peaking high school graduate finish his games.

  Archie accepted his drink and his face said he was grateful. “As well as could be expected,” he said in answer to my question. “His story is all over the place, you know? So how can I try and make sense of it? It’s all possibilities right now. Either way, I get the impression Pam was hiding quite a bit, not just from Carter, but from her friends and family too.”

  That piqued my interest. I vaulted back across the bar and climbed on the stool next to Archie. “How so?”

  “Well, for a start, he can’t decide if the baby was his or not.”

  “Son of a bitch,” I muttered. It was a subject I didn’t like. That was not the Pam I had known.

  But Archie went on. “He’s not sure how many guys she was seeing. There was this martial arts instructor, then there was some dark smack dealer, couple of others he was even more vague about. It’s got me confused, because…” He looked at me and hesitated, then kind of winced. “You know, Jimmy said it was just Carter.”

  I couldn’t meet his eye. I waved a hand instead. “Have we run it by Jimmy in, you know... that context?”

  He sighed. “We have not, but either way, Ana, I don’t think he’s going to go ahead and say, ‘Oh yeah, my kid was sleeping around with a whole string of shady guys!’ You know what I mean?”

  “Yeah, I hear you, man. It’s probably worth mentioning to him, though, in a kind of tactful way, no?” I picked up my beer and killed half of it.

  “Sure, sure, you mean like, ‘Hey, Jimmy, how you doin’ dude? I heard your daughter was screwing half the dealers in town. Have you got a list of names?’ Kind of thing you had in mind?”

  “Not exactly, Archie, no. But you are going to have to get his take on it, sooner or later, aren’t you?”

  He gave the bar a scowl, which made me glad I wasn’t the bar. “Sure, of course. I plan on running it by him the next time I see him. It’s just, the guy’s my pal, you know?” He rolled his eyes. “Anyway, moving on. Carter says Pam was basically a waster. She let him crash at her apartment for a while. Then he moved out to Industry. That’s his story, but Jimmy says Carter was living at Pam’s for at least a year.”

  “I’m more inclined to trust Jimmy’s word on that. Sounds like Carter’s covering for his pride there.”

  “Agreed.” Archie nodded. “And from what we know, after the miscarriage, Pam started on a health kick. Which not only ties in with Carter and his pride, but also with the idea of this martial arts guy. Unfortunately, nobody we’ve spoken to knows anything more about him than the fact that she went to him. Does he have a name yet? Did you get any more out of Jimmy?”

  “No name. Cindy said she remembered a guy fitting his general, vague description, but couldn’t recall a name, just that it was fairly common. Jimmy was even more unsure.” I let out a frustrated sigh. “It’s just so unlike the girl I knew to hide this kinda stuff. Why would she be lying?”

  Archie shrugged and shook his head. “Beats me.”

  I tried to keep thinking on it, but it was beginning to hurt my head. I wanted to move the conversation on. I didn’t want to talk about Pam anymore.

  “What’s happening with your mob man?” I asked.

  Archie took a tentative sip of his beer and sighed happily. “So. There was another poisoning, looks like it happened in the last few days. Which raises the total to four in about as many months.”

  “God damn. This dude is prolific. Anything new with this most recent one?”

  “Mm-hmm. The guy had seven bales of shit kicked out of him before he was poisoned.”

  “Jesus. Seriously?”

  “Yup, they beat him up, bad. Then they stuck him in the neck with a syringe. Tiny little mark. The guy must have just had to lay there, with all those injuries and shit, totally unable to do anything to help himself. It’s messed up. Whoever did it must’ve really had something against him.”

  “There’s an understatement. Do you know what the poison was yet?”

  “Nope, nothing yet. Still waiting on the lab report.”

  “Wow. That’s a big ol’ plate of food you got sitting in front of you there, bud.”

  “I know. And we had to release Carter earlier, had nothing else to hold him on for any longer than we already had and he was kicking up a fuss.”

  That made me sit up. “What? You serious?”

  He nodded. “Got very little out of him, as well. He was so uncooperative; honestly, he was an unhelpful asshole. Also, we can’t hold him if we’re not going to charge him with anything, you know that.”

  I drained my beer. “That’s a joke,” I told him as I banged the empty glass down on the table. I was angry; I felt the familiar prickle in my belly and my fingertips. I had to do something.

  “I know, but what could I do? I can’t just hold a guy ’cause I don’t like him. We’ve got some other leads to explore, but we had nothing else to ask him since he wasn’t giving us shit. It was a waste of everyone’s time.”

  “Yeah, no, I get it, but it’s a joke. Listen, I’ve gotta run. I’ll catch you later,” I said as I slid out of the booth.

  “Huh? Where you going? Aren’t we having another beer?”

  I turned and walked out of the bar, leaving Archie sat sitting with half a beer and a bar all his own. I was going to find Carter.

  Chapter Five

  I switched off my lights and pulled my truck up to the sidewalk. She was a 1985 dark green Ford F150 with a white stripe down her side. She came everywhere with me, and I’d been working on her—usually when I was at my Grandpa’s ranch—on and off for a few years, but she was still a little beat up. The souped up engine worked just fine, though. With five hundred bhp, she could get from 0-60 in four and a half seconds and she’ll max out at one-fifty.

  I was a couple of blocks away from where we had found Carter, out in the City of Industry. I would have been happy to never come back here again after the first time, but here I was.

  I got out of the car, locked her up and walked the couple of minutes to his house. I could hear the cars whooshing past on the freeway in the distance. They were probably heading home to their families, a warm dinner.

  I arrived at the dilapidated ‘house’ and knocked, conservatively, on his front door. While I waited, I took a second to look around and assess the surroundings. Not that there was much to see besides a few industrial warehouses.

  I heard movement from within. It crossed my mind that he might be trying to squeeze his way out of the bathroom window again, but then I heard the latch turn and the door opened a crack in front of me.

  “You again. What do you want?” the crack asked.

  I leaned forward conspiratorially, as if to answer him, then ramm
ed my hands hard into the door. It smacked back into his face and I heard a crack. His hands rose quickly to cup his now bleeding, shattered nose. I used the opportunity to open the door wider and walk in, pushing him back into the hallway.

  “Bitch!” he shouted, blood streaming down his face. “Why’d you do that?”

  I closed the door behind me. I leaned back against it and regarded Carter for a moment. “Now that I have your attention, I was hoping we could talk. And I don’t mean the type of talk you had with my friend, the detective there. I want answers, and I know you’ve got ’em.”

  “I told him everything I know, man, they let me go! What more do you want from me?” he asked, still cupping his nose and glaring at me with resentment.

  I pushed up off the door and began to walk towards him. “See, Carter, I just don’t think that’s true. I think, actually, you know a hell of a lot more than you’re telling us.” I took his arm with one hand and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck with the other and walked us into his living room. Nothing had changed since I had been in there earlier. I let go of him with a push into the middle of the room, and I went over to his armchair and sat down. I picked up his pack of Luckies, pulled my Zippo out of my pants and lit one. I took a long drag. I blew it out slowly and watched him through the smoke for a few seconds while he shifted uncomfortably. It looked like he needed to take a piss. “What I want is for you to cut the crap, Carter. So why don’t we try this again, hmm?” I gestured to the sofa opposite. “Take a seat and let’s start from the beginning. How long had you known Pam?”

  Carter sniffed and rubbed gently at his nose with the cuff of his sweatshirt before answering. He didn’t move from his spot in the middle of the room. “I knew her two years. Are you even a cop?”

  “No. Two years, and were you together, like an item, for those two years?”

  He glared at me. “Why do I gotta answer this if you ain’t even a cop? What the hell are you even doing here, man?”

  I sat forwards and rested my forearms on my knees. “I’m asking the questions here, asshole, and you gotta answer them because I goddamn said so. Are you enjoying that broken nose? ’Cause I can do a lot worse, pal. Pam was a friend of mine and I’m gonna find out what the hell happened to her if it’s the last thing I do. So I think you’d better answer the question, or this is gonna get a whole lot more painful for you.”