Dancing with Murder

by Robert T. Jeschonek

  Whoever was back there, I couldn't see them yet. I guessed they were still in the hallway on the other side of the door in the back wall. Meaning I still had a moment to get ready.

  Keeping my ears peeled for the next telltale sound, I scanned the wreckage for a weapon. The best I could find was the brass pedestal of an upright lamp. It was five feet long from tip to base, and I scooped it up with both hands as quietly as I could.

  Then, I slowly wove my way through the mess toward the front door. Better to have the way out close behind if I didn't like whoever popped out of that hallway.

  Unfortunately, before I made it to the exit, I slipped on one of the loose CDs and stumbled backward. The base of the pedestal lamp pitched around and crashed into an overturned end table, shattering its glass surface.

  At which point, the hallway door swung open.

  Heart pounding, I whipped the lamp around in front of me like a lance. My knuckles were white as I gripped the brass pole, bracing myself to lunge it at an attacker.

  Unfortunately, the lamp stand wouldn't do much good against the big .45 handgun that was pointing around the edge of the door, staring me in the face.

  *****

  Chapter 40

  My blood went suddenly cold. Time seemed to slow down. All I could see was the barrel of the .45, pointing in my direction.

  My situation did not look good. Gun versus pole wasn't much of a contest.

  I thought about taking a shot with the pole, anyway. This could be the last chance I'd get to fight back. Maybe I still had enough surprise on my side to knock the .45 out of the picture.

  I tensed, gathering my courage, getting ready to swing. No way was I going to make it easy for them; I'd give them a fight to remember, in honor of Polish Lou and Eddie Kubiak, Sr.

  Sucking in a deep breath, I prepared to leap into action. Then, just as I was ready to go, a face bobbed out from behind the door. And back.

  Then out again. And I froze.

  "Lottie?" It was Peg. She was staring at me as if I'd grown a second head.

  Now the question was, would she put down the gun?

  "Oh my God." The answer was yes. She lowered it instantly and walked out in full view. "I thought you were...not you."

  "Same here." I lowered the lamp stand, but was still suspicious. The situation wasn't anywhere near clear to me yet. "So what's up?"

  Peg shrugged. "Good question."

  "What's with all this?" I gestured to indicate the mess around me. "Earthquake?"

  "We're looking for something." Peg adjusted her polka dot glasses with her gun hand. "Something important."

  "We?" I frowned.

  Peg looked outside and waved for someone to come in. Footsteps crossed the front porch, the latch on the screen door snapped open...

  And Eddie Jr. walked in, grinning. "Hey there, Lot." Also carrying a silver aluminum baseball bat.

  The two of them had had me cornered all along. Peg had had me covered from inside the house, and Eddie Jr. had boxed me in from outside. Good thing I hadn't needed to make a run for it.

  "We searched the place all night." Peg looked around at the wreckage. "Every nook and cranny."

  "As you can see." Eddie Jr. nodded at the mess like he was proud of it.

  My heart broke a little to see him smiling like that.

  How could I tell him about his father? "What were you searching for?"

  "Eddie knew more than he let on about Lou and Eddie Sr.'s reunion." Peg aimed a disapproving stare in Eddie Jr.'s direction. "They did more than talk about playing together."

  "They recorded together." Eddie Jr. thumped the baseball bat on the floor. "The Polish Princes cut a new song."

  "And kept it secret even from me." Peg scowled.

  "They wanted it to be a huge surprise," said Eddie Jr. "Lou hid the master disk and swore he wouldn't make any copies till right before Polkapourri."

  "Typical Lou, always the showman." Peg sighed. "But he died without telling anyone where the master disk is."

  "Not even Dad." Eddie Jr. thumped the bat on the floor again. "Which I guess is one reason why he's been so messed up."

  "Eddie..." The mention of his father spurred me to break the bad news. "I need to tell you..."

  But Peg cut me off. "So guess who I found tearing the place apart when I came home early last night?" She hiked a thumb at Eddie Jr.

  He shrugged. "She scared the crap out of me. I didn't expect her back so soon."

  Peg shook the barrel of the gun at him. "You were supposed to be out looking for your father, who was supposed to be missing."

  "I fibbed." Eddie Jr. smirked. "I wanted to find that disk. It's worth a small fortune."

  Peg met my gaze. "It might even be worth killing over."

  So that was why she'd been looking so hard for it. She thought it might be a clue to Lou's murder. At least, that was what she'd implied.

  "So I decided to join forces with Eddie." Peg's afro wobbled as she nodded. "Two people can search faster than one."

  "But not necessarily with twice the luck." Eddie let out a deep sigh. "We've got nothing. That disk isn't here."

  "That's too bad." I took a deep breath and let it out with a shiver. I'd waited long enough to deliver the news; the guilt of holding it back from him was making me sick to my stomach. "Eddie, listen."

  "You want to help?" he asked me. "Three people can search even better than two. Maybe you know some secret hiding places from when you used to live here."

  "What about the shed out back?" said Peg. "We were just getting started on that."

  "I still say the cellar could use another check." Eddie Jr. bumped the bat on the floor three times. "Some of those cinder blocks looked a little..."

  "Eddie." As I said it, I walked toward him through the debris. "Listen to me." I put my hand on his shoulder and gazed into his eyes.

  He looked a little startled. "About what, Lot?"

  I hesitated on the verge of crossing the line. Once I told him, his life would never be the same. And he would always remember that I was the one who'd brought him the news. He would always associate me with this moment.

  I knew exactly how it felt to be in his shoes.

  "Lot?" He blinked expectantly.

  "I have something to tell you." I squeezed his shoulder. "It's about your father."

  *****

  Chapter 41

  Peg and I both offered to drive Eddie Jr. to the police station, but he insisted on driving himself. He certainly seemed to be fit for the road, in spite of the fact that he'd just found out his father was dead. He didn't exactly look upbeat, but he wasn't shaking or crying, either. From what we could see, he was totally keeping it together.

  On the outside, that is. I was sure the view from inside was more like the inside of Dad's house--nothing but wreckage. Everything overturned and torn apart as if by a combination earthquake and windstorm. Fields of devastation kicked up in a fruitless hunt for one irreplaceable thing. Only, in this case, the thing was not a recording.

  It was a man.

  But we couldn't stop him from leaving, so we let him go. We moved our cars, and he pulled out carefully...but we heard his tires squeal down the block, when he'd driven the pickup out of sight. I prayed he wouldn't wrap it around a utility pole.

  When he was gone, Peg and I sat on the front porch glider and stared into space. We didn't say anything for a while; it took that long for me to settle down after everything that had happened.

  "So." Finally, Peg broke the silence. "Eddie Sr. wasn't the killer after all."

  I slumped down into the foam cushions and folded my hands on top of my head, leaving my elbows sticking out. "Poor Eddie Jr. He and his dad didn't get along, but still..."

  "Geez." Peg crossed her legs and stared up at the porch roof. "Who is the killer, if not Eddie Sr.?"

  I was still focused on Eddie Jr.'s woes. After all, he was my ex-boyfriend. "I should go meet him at the police station. Help him get through this."

  "Did
they find anything at the crime scene?" said Peg. "Any clues?"

  I gave up trying to talk about Eddie Jr. with her. "They think he was shot somewhere else and dumped at Polka Central. There were no shell casings."

  "What else?"

  "Not much. Otto threw me out." I grunted disgustedly. "But I did find a phone in the bushes first."

  "Eddie Sr.'s phone?"

  "I guess so." I shrugged. "It was ringing. Someone named Adrianna was calling. Otto took it away before I could answer."

  "It figures." Peg shook her head and sighed. "I guess you're on his crap list too, now. Guilt by association."

  "However, I did get the number before Adrianna hung up." Reaching into my pants pocket, I pulled out my phone. "It's in my contacts list."

  "Adrianna." She frowned as she said the name. "I never heard Lou mention any Adrianna."

  "Maybe she only knew Eddie. Or maybe it was a wrong number."

  "But the name sounds Polish." Peg uncrossed her legs, then crossed them again with the opposite leg on top. "Let me see the number."

  I accessed the entry in my contacts list and showed her the screen. She squinted at it for a long moment. "I think it's an international number. Maybe the call did come from Poland." She held out her hand to me, palm up. "Give me the phone, Lottie. We need to get in touch with this woman."

  "Maybe you should go see Otto, first. He said he wanted to talk to you about Eddie Sr." I cleared my throat and looked to one side. "I, uh, mentioned you'd gotten a death threat."

  "He probably wants to pin the murder on me." Peg rolled her eyes. "But I've got an alibi. I was here with Eddie Jr. all night."

  I felt relieved just hearing her say it. When she'd gone missing and Eddie Sr.'s body had turned up, she'd looked like a pretty good murder suspect. "He'll still want to talk to you about it."

  "Phone." Peg waggled her fingers. "I need to talk to this woman."

  I hesitated, then gave her my cell. Immediately, she dialed the number from the note.

  We waited while the phone rang twice, then three times. On the sixth ring, we heard a woman's voice from the little speaker. The same first name as before appeared on the screen: Adrianna.

  And she was speaking a foreign language.

  Peg and I looked at each other, then stared at the phone. The woman's voice stopped, then said something else, then stopped again. I leaned in closer, almost certain I recognized the language; an occasional word sounded familiar, and the accent rang a bell. If only I could pin it down...

  "Polish." Peg whispered it to me as the woman kept talking. "That's Polish."

  I whispered back. "What's she saying?"

  Peg shrugged. The voice stopped suddenly, and the phone's screen went dark.

  This time, I didn't whisper. "Why didn't you say something? Why'd you just let her hang up?"

  Peg pursed her lips. A blush crept into her cheeks. "I don't speak the language."

  I couldn't believe my ears. "Seriously?" I gaped at her. "But you speak it on Kocham Taniec."

  "Lou taught me a few words." Peg shook her head. "Just a handful. Not enough to carry on a conversation."

  "So what now?" I reached for the phone.

  She handed it to me and sighed heavily. "Now, I go see Otto before he hunts me down and shoots me for being a fugitive murder suspect."

  *****

  Chapter 42

  Down at the police station, Peg and I had to wait our turn. Sitting on a bench in the outer office, we drank coffee and watched quietly as Otto finished with Eddie Jr.

  Though we couldn't hear a word they said, we could see their body language clearly through the windows of Otto's office. Otto sat behind his desk, watching expectantly, jotting down notes. Eddie sat stiffly across from him, stone-faced and stoic, putting on a good front.

  As they talked, I let my mind roam, trying to process all that had happened. I dug deep for some clue to whoever had killed Eddie Sr. and Dad. Also rifled my memory for the possible whereabouts of the missing recording they'd made.

  In between all that, for the first time since the night before, I thought about losing the club and being dumped by Luke. So much had happened since, it felt strange to consider it again...surprising, unreal. I'd forgotten it a little in the midst of all the madness.

  But there it was again. All real, all true. My life in L.A. was ruined.

  All the things that had given it meaning were gone. I no longer had a boyfriend, a business, or a place to live. My possessions were in storage, my finances in bankruptcy. My future, which had once seemed so clear, was immersed in swirling fog.

  Only my past offered any kind of clarity. The home town and family I'd taken for granted for so many years had turned out to be my only safe harbor.

  "Safe" in a manner of speaking. Not counting the murderer who was striking down people around me.

  "What's wrong, hon?" Peg was staring. My inner turmoil must've been churning a little too close to the surface.

  I shrugged. "If someone had told me a year ago that things would turn out like this, I never would've believed them."

  "Me, either." She smiled sadly. "But it's not all bad, is it?"

  I laughed nervously. "Pretty much, yeah."

  "Oh, I don't know about that." Peg put her arm around my shoulders and squeezed. "I can think of one good thing to come out of all this."

  She was right, though part of me still couldn't admit it. I'd badmouthed her for so long, I couldn't switch over to singing her praises overnight. "I just keep wondering what's next. How much worse can things get?"

  Peg squeezed my shoulders again. "Like they say, hon, if it doesn't kill you, it just makes you..."

  "Peg? Lottie? Come on in." Otto was in the doorway of his office, waving us over.

  Eddie Jr. smiled up at us half-heartedly when we walked in. There was a blank look in his eyes, a false calm concealing what had to be some powerful turbulence.

  I touched his shoulder for a second, trying to transmit some kind of comfort his way. His smile became an odd frown, like he couldn't figure out what reason I could possibly have for being concerned.

  "Glad you could make it," Otto said as he shut the door. "This makes my life a good deal easier."

  I looked at Peg and could see the gears turning. She opened her mouth to say something--after all, he'd just set her up for a good zinger--but then she closed it. Maybe she'd decided the time wasn't right for ex-husband bashing.

  "What a day." Otto squeezed his giant girth around the desk. "A terrible day for all of us."

  No one said a word. What could we add?

  Otto bent down and shuffled papers, scanning them through his wire-framed glasses. "A real nightmare."

  Peg cleared her throat and tapped a corner of the desk with her index finger. "Any leads yet?"

  Otto stopped shuffling and looked over his glasses at her. "You're in the clear, if that's what you mean. Eddie Jr. here vouches for your whereabouts.

  "That wasn't what I meant." Her voice was low, almost a growl. "I was asking if you've come up with any leads."

  Otto went back to shuffling papers. "I'm not at liberty to say. It's an active investigation."

  Peg sighed. I could see she wanted to go after him hammer and tongs but held back...for Eddie Jr.'s sake, probably. "So why did you ask to see us? What can we do to make your life easier?"

  Otto seized a single page from the jumble on his desk and held it up. "Paperwork, actually. I need you to sign off on something."

  "What's that?"

  "An exhumation order," said Otto. "For the body of your boyfriend, Lou Kachowski."

  Peg blinked. Then blinked again. She seemed to be at a loss for words.

  So I took up the slack. "I thought you weren't interested in exhuming my father. I thought you said he died from natural causes."

  "The situation has changed." Otto shrugged. "The murder of someone in his circle, coming so soon after Lou's death, has forced me to reevaluate."

  I folded my arms over my ches
t and scowled. "So it wasn't enough for us to ask you? Back when maybe you could've found the killer before it was too late?"

  Otto lowered his bulk into the black leather chair behind his desk. "Do you know how many wild goose chases we go on around here? How many so-called leads are all up here?" He tapped the side of his head with one thick finger. "We have to be selective. We have to use our judgment."

  "Wait a minute." Eddie Jr. was up out of his chair, and he looked angry. "Do you mean to tell me you knew there was a murderer in town? And he killed Polish Lou?"

  Otto held up a hand, palm facing Eddie Jr., trying to slow him down. "Whoa now. We knew no such thing."

  Eddie Jr. stared at me. I could tell from the look in his eyes that his collected façade was starting to crumble. "But isn't that what you just said, Lot? That you requested an exhumation?"

  I wasn't sure what to say. I had an idea where this was going, and it wouldn't be good. "Yes. We did ask for one."

  "Oh my God." Eddie's eyes widened. He reached up to scratch the back of his head, then ended up scrubbing it furiously. He spun to face Otto, and by then, he wasn't holding back the rage. "You could've saved him? You could've saved my father?"

  Otto was holding up both hands now. "We can't Monday-morning quarterback this, Ed. We don't know how things might have turned out if we'd done it differently."

  Suddenly, Eddie Jr. swept his arm across Otto's desk, sending his lamp, framed photos, Rolodex, and pen set flying. "How could you?"

  I grabbed for Eddie's arm, and he swung it out of reach. Otto leaped to his feet behind the desk, one hand going automatically to the holster on his belt.

  A feeling of pure panic raced through me. I felt the situation spinning out of control, as if anything could happen.

  Then, in a heartbeat, it stopped spinning. Two arms wrapped around Eddie before he could make another move. He jerked one way, then another, but they held on tight.