The Killing Green

by David Deutsch

  "Wait. He's writing another."

  "How can you tell?" she asked.

  "Another file has just been created. See," I said, pointing to the screen.

  From L. Endicott: But I can get rid of her. Same time plus 2?

  "Other has to be Tori," I said.

  "Where are they?"

  "I can't tell," I said.

  "Maybe he's checking his email on his phone?"

  "Or at the office?"

  From DirtyGirl: Bring your jammies ;)

  "Wherever he is, he's not sleeping there tonight," I said.

  "What a cheeky bird," Imogen said.

  I smiled.

  "We need to find out who this DirtyGirl is and what she's doing with Lee," I said.

  "We don't know where or when they're meeting," Imogen said.

  "I've got an idea," I said.

  We needed to figure out DirtyGirl's identity. Perhaps there was some link between her, Carl, and this whole mess. Maybe this DirtyGirl had some relevant information for us about Endicott Financial.

  After all, five years is a long time to be with someone. You usually have a pretty good idea what's going on in the other person's life.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  I was going to call Lee Endicott and put him on the spot. We knew he was with Tori, perhaps at the office, perhaps at home, maybe even out and about. We also knew that he was going to ditch Tori and meet DirtyGirl shortly. My plan was to try to get Lee to meet with me before his rendezvous with his girlfriend. Then follow him to see where that might lead. Hopefully right to DirtyGirl.

  "I'm calling Lee now," I said.

  "What the hell are you going to tell him? We just saw him," Imogen said.

  "Trust me, he'll meet with us. He'll do anything if he thinks it will help him get us to fork over the cash he needs," I said.

  I dialed Lee's cell.

  Ring. Ring. Ring.

  "Jesus, he's not picking up," I said.

  Ring. Ring.

  "Hello," Lee said.

  "Lee? Max. Hope I'm not catching you at a bad time," I said.

  There was silence for a second. It sounded like Lee was collecting his thoughts. Then came the cheery, car-salesman voice.

  "Max. Max. Hello. Good to hear your voice. Already inviting me back to Delmar so you can take more of my money?"

  I forced a laugh.

  "No, no. I wouldn't do that to you so soon. I'd have waited another couple of days before I called," I said.

  He genuinely laughed.

  "Listen, I was thinking about what we discussed, and I had a few questions," I said.

  "Shoot," he said.

  "Could we do it in person?" I asked.

  "I'm a little tied up at the moment, Max," he said.

  "Oh, well then, I'm sure we can discuss it another time," I said.

  You could almost hear Lee thinking on the other end of the line. He was humming a monotone buzz while his mind must have been moving a mile a minute.

  "Um, let me see what I can do here," he said. "If you've got some questions I certainly want to make myself available to answer them for you. Let me call you back in a couple of minutes."

  "Sure. No rush," I said.

  "I'll call you back in five," he said.

  Then he disconnected.

  "He told me he'll call me back in five minutes. He's trying to figure out a way to meet with us," I said to Ginny.

  "Brilliant."

  As soon as I disconnected I saw a new file created under Lee's email address.

  From Lee: Make it T+3

  He had emailed DirtyGirl asking to push the meeting back another hour. He figured he would squeeze me in and try to squeeze me out of my hard-earned two mil.

  "He just emailed DirtyGirl," I said.

  "Sneaking around seems like a lot of work," she said. "Cheating would never work for me."

  "I should hope not!" I said.

  Imogen shook her head at me.

  "I would never, I mean, I'm just saying," she said.

  I smiled at her. "I know, my love. I'm just joking around."

  From DirtyGirl: Boo hoo :( How about we skip dinner and move right to dessert?

  "Look at this," I said, pointing to the screen.

  "Glad to see it's still spicy after all this time," she said.

  "Something is keeping that romance alive," I said.

  "Viagra," she said.

  From Lee: Yum

  "Eww," I said.

  "No comment," Imogen said. Her face puckered.

  My cell rang. It was Lee Endicott.

  "Max," he said.

  "Lee, hi. That was fast."

  "Listen, I can meet tonight if you like," he said.

  "Sure, we can be in the city in a couple of hours," I said. "What time works for you?"

  "I'll be in Manors around seven. Anywhere good to meet? Somewhere private?"

  "How about my place?" I asked.

  "Great," he said.

  I gave him the address and told him that we were looking forward to seeing him later tonight. Then I disconnected.

  "He's coming here," I said.

  "To the office?"

  "No, to our place," I said.

  "Really?"

  "Whoever DirtyGirl is, she lives in Manors."

  "Bloody hell," she said.

  "You can say that again."

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  Later that night, at our house, Ginny and I were relaxing with a drink when the doorbell rang. It was Lee Endicott. And he was a little late. We invited him in and spent the better part of an hour discussing an investment opportunity that would never come to fruition. I asked about the average return on our money should we invest it, how liquid Endicott Financial was, and what percent of the investors ended up cashing out. To all of these questions, Lee lied. The return was staggering. The cash position of Endicott Financial was strong. In fact strong wasn't even the right word, it was phenomenal. Having that much cash on hand allowed Lee to make investments ahead of his competition, he argued. And of course, to neither my nor Imogen's surprise, very few people took their money out of the kitty.

  Lee was foaming at the mouth by the time we all drained our collective glasses. He had certainly thought that this was a done deal and that we would be handing over our check shortly.

  "Lee, before you go," I said.

  This was my polite way of kicking him out of our house.

  "I wanted to thank you for coming by on short notice. You certainly helped Imogen and me make up our minds."

  "I'm glad I could help," he said. "Did you want to write a check, or do you need till morning to contact the bank?" Then he flashed me his artificial smile.

  There's the car salesman I know. Going in for the kill.

  That was how it was done. It usually worked, I'm sure, with most of his investors. Feed them a bunch of lies, and then take the money and run. Buy yourself a new set of teeth and a fancy watch. But it was different with Ginny and me. We knew what kind of person we were dealing with. A thief. A liar. And possibly a murderer.

  "We need a couple of days to see what we can do. I'm not as liquid as Endicott Financial," I said.

  I was going to keep him hanging as long as he would allow me to. Why rush the situation when I had him on call any time that we wanted to speak with him? Once we told him we weren't interested, he would never talk to us again.

  "I understand," he said, as his face cringed with disappointment.

  "Let's chat in a couple of days," I said, standing up.

  We all shook hands, Ginny received the obligatory double air kiss, and we escorted Lee to the door. We said good-bye, and then Lee got into his car and headed down the driveway.

  "Let's go," I said.

  We watched Lee turn right out of the driveway, and then we hopped in my car. I left the lights off as we crept down the driveway and turned right. I saw Lee's car off in the distance, turned on my lights, and started following him.

  "Stay back, Max," Imogen said.
r />   "This isn't our first tail," I said.

  "Look at you. Using real PI terms."

  "We're private investigators, my love. What do you expect me to say?"

  "Just make sure you stay back. I don't want him making us," she said.

  "That's the spirit," I said.

  "Two can play that game, Max."

  We hung back, as per Ginny's suggestion, and followed Lee as he crept out of our neighborhood. He drove like he was on his way to an early bird special down in Florida. Slow and distracted. It was as if he had nowhere to be at any particular time. Maybe he was lost. Maybe he was fumbling with his phone. Texting, make that emailing, and driving. Maybe communicating with DirtyGirl.

  There was another car on the road in front of us so it made our job a little easier, but I was sure that Lee hadn't suspected that he had two highly trained private investigators following him. Ginny and I kept our eyes peeled as he wound his way through neighborhood side streets. Wherever he was heading, he was taking the long way there.

  As the car in front of us pulled into a driveway, leaving us directly behind Lee, he turned and headed onto Main Street. It lead through downtown, past our office, and, if he continued on, past Detective John Carrington and the Manors Police Department. I dropped back a bit and let Lee lead the way.

  "Where the hell is he going?" I said.

  "He's not stopping at our office. That's for sure," Imogen said.

  After passing our office he made a right and headed off into another neighborhood. I slowed down, let him exit, and then stayed a number of car lengths behind him allowing him to drive without suspicion of being followed.

  Eventually he hung a left into a very nice development. This was one of the really ritzy parts of town. Beautiful houses, magnificently manicured properties, all housing some very wealthy people. Lee made his way through the desolate streets, slowing down and then speeding up at regular intervals. He was looking for a house.

  I fell even farther back. I still saw his car. The red lights flashed as Lee rode the brake. Then the red lights stayed on, and the car stopped. We could see the silhouette of a man walking down the driveway, moving toward the parked car. He bent his head in the window and the two of them spoke.

  "Who is that?" Imogen said.

  "I can't really see," I said. "A guy."

  "I can see that," Imogen said.

  The man spoke to Lee for a few moments, and then the car rolled a few more houses down and parked on the street. I pulled over to the side of the road and parked my car. We watched Lee exit his car and walk directly toward us.

  "Can he see us?"

  "It's pitch black," I said. "I don't think he's even looking."

  I was right. He headed in the direction of our car and then walked up the driveway where he had been stopped moments ago. We could see the front door from where we were parked. We watched the man, and Lee walk to the door, open it, and a woman greeted both of them. She wrapped her arms behind Lee's neck as he walked in and then the door shut. The two men and a woman inside.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  What was Lee doing at that house? Was the woman DirtyGirl? We needed to find out the answers to those questions. And it looked like the only way we were going to do that was to exit the car and start peeping in the windows.

  "We need to figure out who that guy is," I said.

  "And who that woman is," she said. "How are we going to do that?"

  "We've got to go out there and look," I said.

  "You want to walk over to the house?"

  "Yes, and start looking through the windows," I said.

  "We can't do that."

  "Why not?"

  "I'm not peeping through this person's windows," she said.

  "Do you have a better idea?"

  She thought for a moment. Silent.

  "Huh?" I asked.

  "No."

  "OK then. Let's get a move on."

  I opened the door and started to get out when the silhouette of the man appeared again, walking down his driveway.

  "Hold on," I said, shutting the door quietly. "I don't think he saw us."

  "We were lit up like a Christmas tree with that door open."

  "I know. I pulled it shut as soon as I saw him."

  The man was walking a dog. Lee was not with him. Neither was the woman. He turned when he got to the end of his driveway and then started walking toward my car.

  "Shit," I said. "Get down."

  I told Imogen to duck. We both slumped down in our seats as far as we could. On the way down I got a glimpse of the man walking the dog. It was Eric.

  "What the hell is Lee doing at Eric's house?" I asked, almost in my wheel well.

  "I have no idea," Ginny said.

  I looked up at my window from my crouched position and watched Eric walk by, oblivious to the fact that Imogen and I were watching him.

  "That has to be DirtyGirl inside the house," I said.

  "It certainly isn't his wife, Shannon," she said.

  "Oh Lord, I hope not. That would be twisted," I said.

  "Not to mention extremely gross," she said.

  "Let's go," I said.

  Eric would be walking that dog for a while. Lee was using his house as some sort of brothel in order to entertain his illicit affair with DirtyGirl. Had he been driving here every couple of weeks for years in order to sleep with her? That seemed like a lot of work and would be pretty obvious after a while. But, then again, no one said Lee was a master of deception. A con artist? Yes.

  "Where?" she said.

  "C'mon," I said, opening the door.

  "Max," she said.

  I opened the door, and Imogen followed. I ran for the house. Imogen was hot on my trail. I turned my head quickly behind me, looking for Eric. He was long gone.

  We got to the side of the house by the garage.

  "C'mon, let's go around back," I said.

  "Max, I don't like this."

  "Live a little, Ginny," I said.

  I walked to the back of the house. It sat on an acre, so the backyard was pretty large. There was a pool area complete with a cabana a ways off. I saw the door that must have lead to the den, but it was up on the large brick deck. This was an odd house. A colonial but with accents of brick in the front and out back. I liked it. It worked.

  We crept up the stairs to the deck and stood right in front of the sliding glass doors. The blinds were drawn, but the light was on inside.

  "I see a little crack in the blinds," I said. "There, off to the side."

  We walked over to the edge of the door. I put my face against the glass and tried to look through.

  "I don't see them. I do see the den though," I said. "It's nice."

  "Let me look."

  Ginny put her face up against the glass.

  "You're right. It's lovely."

  "They must be upstairs," I said.

  "Great."

  It made my stomach churn. What was Eric doing with Lee? Were they in cahoots too?

  Did Eric have something to do with Carl's murder? Why was he letting Lee have an affair in his house? Where was Shannon while all this was going on? I hoped she wasn't home.

  "I can get up to the roof from here," I said.

  "Are you nuts, Max? You're not climbing up to the roof," she said.

  "I have to. We need to see who that woman is," I said. "If you want to know the truth, I need to make sure it's not Shannon if I ever want to sleep again."

  She laughed.

  "OK go. But, Max, for God's sake be careful," she said. "I'll keep an eye out down here."

  I nodded my assent, and up I climbed. The brick stairs had a tall brick rail. I climbed to the top, jumped and grabbed the overhang of the roof, then pulled myself up.

  "Not bad for an old man," I called down to Ginny in a loud whisper.

  She just shook her head.

  I carefully ran across the roof until I came to a window. I peeked in. Nothing. It was the master bedroom. Again, it was decorated beau
tifully. Eric or Shannon had good taste. I continued down the line. Next window. A bathroom. Not what I was looking for. The next, another bedroom but empty. Where were they?

  I kept looking and room after room turned up nothing. Just your normal bedroom, bathroom, library. Then I hit the jackpot. It was a small media room. Big television. Comfy chairs. And Lee and the woman on the couch naked, making love. It was quite a sight to see, but the way they were positioned I couldn't make out the identity of the woman. All I knew was that she was fit and had blonde hair. It wasn't Shannon.

  Then a shot rang out that nearly took off my head.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  I panicked. I quickly turned around and headed back the way I came. I was still exposed. Up on the roof. Out in the open. A perfect target for whoever was shooting at me.

  As I scampered about in haste, someone screamed at me.

  "You. Get off my roof."

  It was Eric. Jesus. He was shooting at me. He didn't sound like he was standing in his driveway. He sounded a bit farther away. If I had hurried, I might have had time to get down before he hit his mark.

  Then another shot rang out. I didn't know where that one landed. But it didn't hit me. I leapt off the brick landing, dropped down onto the deck, and ran over to Imogen who was clearly panicked.

  "Let's go, Max!"

  We ran as fast as we could across the acre of back yard. Neither of us stopped or turned our heads to see if anyone was following us. If Eric was hunting us down. My heart was pounding, and I was gasping for air, worried that momentarily a bullet would be entering the back of my head or, even worse, Ginny's.

  When we got to the brick fence we jumped it. Right into the surrounding shrubbery. We tumbled around on the other side and looked for a way out. We made our way to a clearing and then ran through Eric's neighbor's yard toward the road.

  No more shots were fired. No more shouts from Eric. There was silence, but off in the distance I could hear the wail of a police car on its way. Whatever had happened was over.

  Under the cover of darkness we got in my car and went back to our home with more questions than answers. Eric was involved in this mess. He merely was a guy we knew from Delmar. A friend that we had shared meals with and sometimes even golfed with. But he had transformed into some sort of murderer or, at the very least, into some sort of pimp for Lee. Arranging space for his sexual encounters with some woman Lee was sleeping with behind his wife's back and shooting at anyone who climbed on his roof.