by TJ O'Connor
Sarah spooned some mushed food into Annie’s eager lips. “What you want? You didn’t come here to say you’re sorry.”
“No,” Angel began, “I came to ask about Ray and his friend Iggi.”
“What about them? I thought you was gonna ask me about Tuck?”
“Yes, but it may be connected.”
“Huh?”
Angel used a warm, trusting smile to ease Sarah’s angst. Annie liked her smile, too. She cooed and wiggled, and reached out her arms. Angel looked to Sarah, got a nod, and took Annie in her arms.
“Sarah, I think whoever killed Ray may have been involved with Tuck’s murder, too. That’s why I’m here.”
“I dunno.” Sarah watched Annie atop Angel’s knee. “The cops don’t seem to know nothin’ about Ray’s killin’. Your husband told me that much. I ain’t seen his partner for a couple weeks, either. I guess nobody cares about Ray no more—not after your husband got killed.”
Angel tensed before her eyes softened, and a painful, almost teary glistening filled them. “I am sorry, and I’m sure that’s not true. Bear is trying hard to find Ray’s killer. I know he is.”
Sarah shook her head. “Don’t matter. Ray’s dead.”
I said, “Ask about his moonlighting job, Angela.”
With a reluctant bite of her lip, she did.
“I’m not real sure.” Sarah didn’t hesitate. “He went out most nights after the warehouse shift. Whenever I asked, he said he got somethin’ part-time. Said he had to get us outta this place. He got mad at me a couple times, so I stopped asking. He was like that. But, he brought in good money.”
“Good money?” Angel asked. “Doing what?”
“Not what you think. No drugs or nothin’. We were trying to get Annie outta this damn place—outta this neighborhood. He worked odd jobs everywhere he could find ’em. Sometimes he painted houses. Sometimes he mowed grass or somethin’. I dunno where this last one was. His friend got him a few hours a week—you know, just here and there.”
Angel asked, “Was that Iggi?”
“Yeah.” Sarah retrieved Annie. “Is he in trouble, too?”
“No, no trouble. I think Iggi can help me figure this all out. And if I can, maybe that’ll help find Ray’s killer, too. Where can I find Iggi?”
Sarah looked at her and sat quiet. If there was something I’d learned about life, it was that a hard one made you distrust everyone. Sarah had a hard life.
“Don’t know,” she said. “What’s the difference how Ray got jobs? What’s Iggi got to do with this? Does he know somethin’ about the murders, too?”
Too? I said to Angel, “That’s what Bobby was doing here, Angel. Finding out what she and Iggi know.”
“Is that what Bobby was doing here, Sarah?” Angel asked, touching Annie’s hand and made her smile. “Please, I need to know what you told Bobby.”
Sarah bit her lip. “Look, I got nothin’ to tell you. Poor Nic is being good to us—Annie and me. I don’t want to piss him off.”
“He came to see me, too, Sarah. He said he wanted to help me. But, he scares me. He scares me a lot.” Angel watched Sarah closely, looking for a crack in her armor. “If Iggi knows something and Poor Nic’s men find him first, he might not help me.”
Sarah looked away and stayed silent.
“Angel, she knows something.”
Angel leaned forward. “Sarah, please. Iggi could be in danger. Since Ray’s murder, Tuck’s been killed, someone’s tried to kill me, and a friend of mine was almost killed, too. Please. Help me.”
“Okay, okay.” Sarah stood up and shifted Annie in her arms. “Ya want some coffee? I wanna help, I do. But I don’t know nothin.’ ”
Angel took over the task of making coffee while Sarah fed Annie. Small talk began and I took the break in tension to snoop around. In a small, rear bedroom, I found what I was looking for on her nightstand—an envelope stuffed with cash. The money was half-out of the envelope and fanned open as if Sarah had been counting it. I counted five thousand dollars. But, it wasn’t the cash that had my attention, it was the three old gold coins in the ashtray nearby.
I sat on the bed and when my fingers touched the coins, they ignited the explosion.
thirty-one
It was dark and a steady wind blew, rustling trees and tall grass all around me. I didn’t recognize the stand of trees either. There were no landmarks to give me the slightest hint. Night sounds surrounded me and the thick canopy of trees blocked much of the moonlight. Then there were voices—two curt, harsh tones ahead in the darkness. They were getting louder and angrier, though the words escaped me. I moved toward them, conscious of the sudden heaviness of the air around me. As I moved closer, my steps became harder and harder, like trudging through ever-deepening water.
I emerged between several tall, bushy apple trees. Ahead of me were two animated figures—silhouettes of flailing arms and harsh voices. The moonlight broke through the trees and bathed them. The smaller figure was a girl in a long dress that billowed in the breeze. The moonlight suggested she was young and blonde; her movements told me she was frantic. She held her shoes in one hand and the other chopped the air—vigorous and angry. The other person was a tall, broad-shouldered man. His fists were clenching and threatening with every angry word. His appearance didn’t match hers—he wore dungarees and a dark shirt, but the darkness hid their details. I was straining to move closer when he lunged forward and grabbed the girl’s arm. He shook her with mounting violence. Angry words. Rage. He shook her again and again—her body flailed like a marionette.
She screamed.
Dread seized me, but my body couldn’t move to intercede. Just as I had been impotent to stop Carmen’s abduction, so was I to stop this violence. “No … oh, no.”
Something startled the man and he spun around. Another girl, young and brunette, erupted out of the darkness. She lunged and clawed at him. He swung wildly, striking her in the face, stopping her advance and knocking her down. The blonde kicked him and fought back, trying without success to break free. He swung her around and downed her with a vicious punch. Her attack ended in a sickening, dull crack of bone on rock.
He froze and looked down. He yelled out, but the words never formed in my head.
The brunette crawled to her companion and grasped her. She shook her but her body bobbled lifeless and doll-like. She shook her again and began screaming, thrashing at the ground as life escaped her.
“Leave them alone,” I shouted, but they would not hear me—I wasn’t there, I wasn’t with them. “Damn you, leave them alone.”
The end came.
Sorrowful wails lifted the brunette to her feet. She whirled on the man and unleashed a flurry of punches and screams. Arms and feet thrashed in a ravenous foray. The man deflected the assault with mere bats of his hands. Then, in a sudden, silent assault, he grabbed her, first by the hair, and then the throat. His strength overwhelmed her, twisting and bending her backward until she writhed on the ground. He followed.
A cry. Arms flailed. Broken words; gasps—silence.
He stood, looking down at the result of his rage. His hands crushed to his face as a he gagged back words I couldn’t understand. At that moment, he knew what I did.
He was a murderer.
thirty-two
Reeling, I shook myself free and backed into the darkness from which I’d emerged. After two steps, I returned to Sarah’s bedroom. I looked around, thankful for the unmade bed and disheveled baby clothes. It took me minutes to shake off the ugly vision before returning to her kitchen.
Angel was warming to Sarah. “I know things are hard, Sarah, but there’s a killer out there. He might kill again. No one is safe. No one.”
“Yeah?” Sarah was wide-eyed and I believed her fear. “Ma’am, I …”
“Call me Angela.”
“Angela, I’m real so
rry. I don’t know anything. Bobby gave me some money. He said it was life insurance from the company. I know it wasn’t, but I need it bad. And Poor Nic wants to know everythin’ I do about Ray’s death.”
Poor Nic was doing his own investigation into Ray Salazar’s murder. Either he was hunting down all the witnesses and evidence against him—or he was innocent and trying to prove it. If it was the first reason, more people would die. If the latter, well, maybe he’d lead us to the real killer. After all, gangsters don’t use search warrants and “good cop-bad cop” games.
Angel asked, “What did you tell Bobby? It’s important.”
“Nothin’, honest.”
“Sarah, please?”
“Really, I dunno anything to tell you. Bobby asked about Iggi and I dunno where he is. He also asked about some guy Lucca. I never heard of no Lucca.”
I knew that name. “Lucca? What about him?” Angel repeated my words.
Sarah pushed away from the table. “Nothin, Angela. I don’t know no Lucca. That’s what I told him.”
“All right, Sarah,” Angel said with slow, drawn words. Even Sarah had to know Angel didn’t believe her. “But if you’re lying and someone else gets hurt, you could be in bigger trouble than anything Nic will do.”
“I doubt that,” she grumbled. “But I ain’t lying.”
“Good.” Angel stood and gently stroked Annie’s thin hair. “Do you have a job?”
“No, can’t with a kid this young. I’m getting’ public assistance— it helps some.”
Angel reached into her purse and withdrew a business card, laying it on the kitchen table in front of her. “Go out to the university. See our Human Resources people. Ask for Janice and show her my card. We have a daycare program for staff and students. Volunteers run it. I think we can find something to help you out.”
“You kiddin’?” Sarah picked up the card and looked over the top of it at Angel. She tried to hide a smile but her crooked teeth broke free. “Why? Why do you want to help me? I don’t know anything.”
“Because I know how it feels to lose a husband. Maybe I can make it easier—for both of you.”
Sarah clutched Annie and tears replaced her distrust. “Thank you, Angela. I liked your husband, I really did.”
“Let’s go, Angel.”
We were out the door and getting in the car when Sarah emerged through her front door and called for Angel. We returned to her stoop.
“Angela, I dunno if it’s important, but …”
“What is it?”
She looked into the darkness, up and down the rows of cars. Perhaps she feared Bobby was looming, waiting for us to leave. Her voice was nervous. “Ray was always worried ’bout money. Then, a few days before he was … killed, he was talkin’ about us getting outta here real soon. He said in a week he’d quit all his jobs.”
“He was going to quit?”
“He said we’d be okay for a while ’cause the money would last a long time.”
“The money?”
“Yeah. But, Angela,” Sarah whispered, half-closing the screen door, “we don’t have any money.”
thirty-three
As soon as Angel’s car door closed, I told her about the murders I’d seen take place in Sarah’s bedroom. Well, not in her bedroom, but the murders that I witnessed while in her bedroom. It’s a good thing Sarah didn’t have a foyer.
“Two young girls?” Angel pulled the car onto the street and headed toward home. “What am I doing? I can’t do this anymore. I cannot be responsible for more of this.”
“Relax—just listen. I think they’ve been dead a long time.”
“What? How do you know that?”
I told her about the two beautiful young wraiths who visited me the night someone shot the house up. At first, she didn’t believe me, but the fact that she was arguing with a dead man played my way.
“And you think they’re the same girls?”
“Who else could they be? I mean, how many ghosts are gonna haunt me?”
“Do you know who killed them? Or when?”
“No. It could be last year or a hundred years ago. But they’re trying to tell me something. I just don’t know what.”
“I’m calling Bear.” When she started to dial, I asked her to put it on speaker. “No, Tuck. I’ll tell you after—please.”
“Why can’t I listen for myself?”
Angel’s forehead wrinkled as she said, “I just need a little privacy sometimes.”
From me?
When Bear answered, Angel filled him in on what little we got from Sarah Salazar. She left out the part about the murders in her bedroom. He might not understand that part. The look on Angel’s face said he was not happy.
She said, “I decided to go without you. She never liked you. You know that.”
Silence, then she said, “Believe me, I’m not planning on doing any more of this. And going there was not my idea, either.” Bear’s grunting and more silence. “Never mind, you wouldn’t believe me.”
Bear was ranting something that made her scowl. It was probably best I didn’t hear. She flipped on the speaker button and held the phone out for me to hear. Bear was saying, “Okay, Sarah said Iggi got Salazar a moonlighting job—maybe legit, maybe not. Maybe they were planning a big score because money is suddenly no problem for Salazar. Then, he’s killed.”
“By Iggi?” Angel asked, but then shook her head already sure she was wrong.
Bear said, “I doubt it, but who knows. It bothers me that Poor Nic gave Sarah money.”
“Five thousand,” Angel said. “And she had some gold coins, too.”
“Coins? She said he gave her coins?”
Angel ignored the question.
It hit me. “Angel, the coins might be Poor Nic’s. I saw them in his den the morning Bear and I went to see him a couple weeks ago. I can’t be sure, but he has a collection of them.”
Angel told Bear, “André found an antique coin at Kelly’s Dig. This cannot all be coincidence.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Bear said. “None of it makes sense. I gotta find Iggi Suarez.”
I reminded Angel about the girls. She was reluctant and I gave her a nudge. “Ask him, Angel.”
“Bear, someone told me about two young girls being killed one night in the woods. I’m not sure when, maybe a long time ago. I’ve never heard of anything like that, so, can you …”
“Oh?” I could hear Bear’s sphincter tightening. “ ‘Someone’ told you that?”
“Yes—someone did. It could be important. If you need me, I’ll be at Ernie’s tonight.”
He groaned. “Sure, Angela. I’ll get right on it. This ‘someone’ hasn’t figured out who killed him yet, has he?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
thirty-four
“You’re a detective now?” Ernie’s tone was dry and contemptuous. He didn’t wait for Angel to answer. “However will you find time to be a professor?”
“Oh, Ernie, please understand.” Angel picked up her wineglass from his coffee table separating them. “It’s something I, well, that I had to do.”
“That’s the police’s job.”
We’d arrived a little more than an hour ago. Ernie had been ready with wine and a friendly hug, but his spots changed when Angel turned the conversation to her recent foray as a homicide investigator. Charm turned to irritation.
“My dear, you are too involved in all this. You are not a crime fighter—your first responsibility is to the university.”
Angel folded her arms. “Ernie, I have in no way let my duties at the university lapse.”
“No, I meant …”
“In fact, you insisted I take some time off. How I spend it is entirely up to me. Isn’t it?”
“Yes, of course.”
Angel swirled her wine in the glass but kept hold of Ernie’s eyes. “I need to help find Tuck’s killer, and Raymundo Salazar’s, too. It’s therapeutic.”
“Therapeutic? It’s dangerous.” The more Ernie fought her, the more willing she became to help find my killer.
“Ernie …”
He bound from his chair and went across the room to the window. “Seriously, Angela. You sound ridiculous. You didn’t even have a real funeral. What’s got into you?”
“I appreciate your concern.” Angel didn’t look sure as she gulped some wine. “But I know what I’m doing.”
Ernie took a long pull on his wine but refused to look at her. “Perhaps a better subject at the moment is the gold coins you found.”
“Yes, Sarah Salazar has several. And André found one in some clay samples he took from Kelly’s Dig that day. When I mentioned the coins to Tyler Byrd, he suggested I speak with you.”
“Oh, he did, did he?” Ernie was annoyed.
“What is he talking about, Ernie?”
He looked toward the window again but said nothing.
“Ernie, you know more than you’re telling me. Where are these coins coming from and why are they important? Poor Nic has a collection, too.”
His eyebrows rose. “How do you know Bartalotta has a collection?”
“Tuck told me—ah—before he was killed. He saw them one day when he was in Nicholas’s house.” She redirected him. “Tyler seemed upset that you have some antiques from Kelly’s Dig. What did he mean?”
“Nothing,” he snapped. He looked down and then said in a lighter voice, “No, I suppose I should tell you—confide in you I mean.”
I wanted to slug the old drama-queen for all the theatrics. Something was up Ernie’s skirt and I wanted to know what.
“Confide in me about what?”
“Angela, the truth is I purchased several items on the black market—over my computer. They came from Kelly’s Dig.” I watched Ernie’s face redden and his mouth tighten until his lips were white. “I’m afraid they were stolen from there.”
