by J. A. Jance
Peters clicked his tongue thoughtfully. “I see where you’re going. You think the same person may have killed all three of them.”
“Having Carstogi here makes it too simple, too easy.”
“Maybe so,” Peters agreed.
We hurried to my place. I wondered if Anne would be there, but she wasn’t. Peters dragged the recorder out of the drawer and turned it on. Personal considerations were forgotten in the charged tension between us. We were ready to listen to the tape from a different point of view.
It was the third time through when it hit me. “Stop,” I said. “Run it back just a few turns.”
Peters did. For a few moments we heard Suzanne Barstogi’s voice raised in solitary prayer, then her abrupt “What do you want?”
“That’s it! It can’t be Carstogi. She spoke to him.”
Peters looked at me, puzzled.
“Remember Monday?” I asked. “She didn’t speak to Carstogi, not since he was Disavowed. I don’t think she would have broken that rule even if he was holding a gun to her head. She’d be a lot more likely to speak to Benjamin.”
“I’ll be damned. You could be right, Beau. We’d better take this thing downtown and show it to Watty.”
“He’s not going to like it. Illegal listening devices are frowned on by the brass.”
“We’d better tell him just the same.”
A key turned in the lock. Anne Corley hurried into the apartment just as we were getting up to leave. Peters guiltily shoved the recorder into his pocket like a kid caught stealing candy.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I left my watch in the bedroom. I forgot to put it on this morning.”
She went into the bedroom and came out fastening the watch. “What about lunch later?” she asked. “We’ve got lots to talk over.”
“We’re on our way back to the department right now. Maybe about one-thirty or two.”
“Great,” she said enthusiastically. “I’ll stop by about then.”
Anne walked out the lobby door with us. The red Porsche was parked on the street. “Do you need a ride?” she asked, opening the door.
I waved her away. “No thanks.”
Peters whistled as the Porsche rounded the corner onto Blanchard. “That’s her car?”
“Nice, isn’t it.”
“Beau, who the hell is she?” I gave him a warning look, just one, and he let it drop.
We took the recording to Sergeant Watkins. As predicted, he was not pleased. He listened to the tape in stolid silence and heard our analysis without comment. “Play it again,” he ordered. We went over Monday’s confrontation in great detail and heard the tape yet again.
“Taking everything into consideration, you might be right,” he allowed reluctantly. “But you’re drawing conclusions. None of this has any basis as evidence. It’s a damn shame this state can’t even spring for voiceprint equipment. So what are you going to do now?”
“Go looking for someone else.”
“So look,” he said. “Nobody’s stopping you. We’ve got Carstogi locked up until Monday afternoon with what we’ve got so far. What have you got to lose?”
Peters and I went back to the drawing board. We went over the previous Thursday in minute detail, listening to the initial recorded report of Angela’s disappearance, as well as the statements taken later. We learned nothing new.
We tried Sophie’s house. We wanted to know if she had seen a van, the one Jeremiah had told us about. Nobody was home but Henry Aldrich, the cat, and he wasn’t talking.
At one-twenty Anne showed up for lunch. We invited Peters, but he claimed to be busy. We left him at his desk and ate in a little Mexican dive at the foot of Cherry. Anne was brimming over with infectious happiness. She had found a minister to marry us and had made arrangements for the ceremony to be held at six a.m. in Myrtle Edwards Park.
“Why there?” I asked. “And why so early?”
She shrugged. “I like it there,” she replied, “especially in the morning when it’s quiet.”
Anne walked me back to the Public Safety Building and kissed me good-bye on the sidewalk, much to the enjoyment of a group of street people gathered around the hot bagel stand outside the front door. “I’ll see you when you get off work,” she said. “I’ll be at your place.”
I went up to the fifth floor to find Peters pacing impatiently beside my desk. “Come on,” he snapped. “We just hit the jackpot. A grit-truck driver from the Westside Treatment Center saw a black van parked near where Angela was found. He saw it about nine-thirty the morning she died.”
“No shit!” We were already on our way to the elevator. “So where has he been all this time?”
“He just got back in town from a fishing trip. He hadn’t seen anything about the murder on the news, but someone was talking about it when he went out to pick up a load this afternoon. He called about ten minutes after you left for lunch.”
As usual, we had to wait for an elevator, and as usual too, it would have been faster to take the stairs.
Dick Aubrey, the grit-truck driver, turned out to be a wiry, tough little man with a fiery temper and an ever-present cigarette. He had been fishing in Idaho since the previous Friday afternoon.
“I came down the hill around nine-thirty or so, and here’s this big black van parked almost in the middle of the friggin’ road. I blew my horn at him a couple of times to get his attention.”
“Him?” Peters asked. “You could tell it was a him?”
“Oh, sure. He was just starting to climb out of the van. I almost took the door off.”
“What did he look like?”
“Big. Straight yellow hair, long. Overweight.”
“Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”
“Sure. I got a pretty good look at his face. He was an ugly son-of-a-bitch.”
I brought out some glossies of both Pastor Brodie and Brother Benjamin, taken at the funeral. We had purchased them from the P.I. We also showed him Carstogi’s mug shots. “Any of these?” I asked.
Aubrey stroked his chin. “Naw. None of these guys. I’m sure of that. This guy was built like a tank. About six-five. Neck like a bull.”
“What happened next?” Peters urged.
“Well, I went down to get loaded. You haul two things out of sewage plants, sludge and grit. I do grit. I figured if he was still there when I got ready to leave, I’d call and have him towed away, but by then he was gone. It’s a pain in the ass having cars parked on that road. It’s too narrow.”
We picked Dick Aubrey’s brain. He came down to the Public Safety Building and did a composite sketch. With the Identikit sketch in hand, Peters and I went over the names of everyone we had questioned in connection with the case. We were able to put names and faces with every person but one. Angela Barstogi’s Uncle Charlie had to be the wild card in the deck.
We took the sketch and went to see Sophie. This time she was home. We walked up to her front door and could hear the television set blaring through the wood. Peters knocked, twice.
“Oh,” she said, “are you coming to arrest me?”
Peters laughed. “No, we’re here for some help.”
We went inside. The cat, inside now, was already on the couch. He took a dim view of sharing it with company.
Peters brought out the sketch Aubrey had made and handed it to Sophie. She held it close to her face, examining it first with the pointed glasses in place and then with them lowered so she could peer over them. She handed it back to Peters.
“Maybe,” she said.
“What about a van? Do you remember seeing one of those in the neighborhood?”
She furrowed her brow. “I do, now that you mention it, a black one, but not the last few days. I thought it was part of the group. I saw it a few times, usually in the morning.”
“Will you call us if you see it again?” I asked. “Try to get the license number and call us right away.”
“I most certainly will,
young man,” she said. I got the distinct impression Sophie Czirski still didn’t approve of me.
We escaped without having tea. We went back to the department and reported to Watkins. We felt like we were making progress. We sent for motor vehicle reports on a list of known sexual offenders in the state of Washington. It’s the grunt work, routine things, an expired vehicle license or an unpaid traffic ticket, that often break a case. We left the computer folks to pull together the information we needed.
“Ready to call it a day?” I asked Peters.
“How about stopping by for a drink on the way home. I’ll buy.”
I glanced surreptitiously at the clock, trying to remember exactly when I had told Anne I’d be home.
“Come on,” Peters insisted. “You’re not married yet.”
I took the bait. “All right,” I agreed. “I guess I can stop off for a while.”
Chapter 18
We went down to F. X. McRory’s on Occidental Street. Peters got off on the right foot by buying a bottle of champagne. “All right, you closemouthed bastard,” he said, raising his glass, “now that I’m a party to this little romance, you’d better tell me about her.”
I didn’t need to be asked twice. I hadn’t had a chance to tell anyone about Anne. I’m afraid I waxed eloquent. I told him how she had looked at the funeral and about our first dinner at Snoqualmie Falls afterward. I told him about the Porsche and the fur jacket and the Doghouse and the depth and the laughter and the wit and the sudden darknesses, all the things that seemed so contradictory in Anne, and all the things that made me love her.
About that time Captain Powell showed up and, uninvited, took a chair at our table. “What’s this I hear about you getting married?”
I looked to Peters for help, but he stared off into space, as innocent as the day is long. “Who is she?” Powell continued.
Taking a deep breath, I said, “her name’s Anne Corley. She’s the Lady in Red from Maxwell Cole’s column.”
“Are you shitting me? You said you met her at Angela Barstogi’s funeral, last Sunday. What is this, love at first sight? That only happens in the movies.”
“It’s a shotgun wedding,” Peters interjected snidely. I aimed a swift kick at him under the table, but I missed. He grinned at me and motioned to the waitress for what I thought would be our bill. Instead, a second bottle of champagne was delivered, Eastern Onion Style.
It consisted of a singing telegram complete with a down-and-dirty stripper. Only afterward, amid hoots of laughter, did I realize that while we’d been talking, the bar had quietly filled with people from the department. They were all there. Not only Powell, whose frown of disapproval had been replaced by a wide grin, but also the rest of the guys from homicide, Hamilton from public information, and the women from word-processing.
They had a wild assortment of off-color cards, congratulating me for lechery despite my advanced years. It was a rowdy party by any standards. I don’t know how Peters managed to arrange it. He must have done it while Anne and I were having lunch.
I had a good time. It was getting late, though, and no one seemed to be in any hurry to leave. I was trying to think of a polite way to abandon ship, when there was a flurry of activity near the front door. My reason for going home early strode toward me, a dazzling smile on her lips. Anne’s very presence brightened the room, and it became an engagement party to remember.
Captain Powell came up to be introduced. “Now that I see the lady in question,” he grinned, “maybe love at first sight isn’t out of the question after all.”
Well-wishers came forward for introductions and congratulations. The guests milled around for some time before they gradually began to disappear. At last only the three of us remained—Anne, Peters, and me. Peters looked enormously pleased with himself.
“You sure put one over on me,” I said to him. “Thanks.”
Anne added her thanks to mine and gave him a peck on the cheek.
“You’re welcome,” Peters replied.
We left Pioneer Square on foot. Peters said he was going back to the department, while Anne, after producing her pair of Nikes from the ubiquitous Adidas bag, set a swift pace up First Avenue. I found myself hurrying to keep up, wanting to shield her from the human debris around us. “Couldn’t we take our constitutional in a better part of town?” I suggested. “First Avenue tends to get a little rough.”
“The bums don’t bother me,” she said, and they didn’t. Panhandlers pick out soft touches from blocks away. It’s as if they have a radar connection. None of them approached Anne as she marched through them. Something in her carriage, her bearing, moved them away from her. Like the crush of people in Snoqualmie Lodge, the groups of bums opened before and shut behind her while she moved forward unimpeded.
Driving in a car you’re not as aware of it, but from Pioneer Square to Seattle Center there’s a long, steep grade that tops out at Stewart Street. By the time we reached that point, I was about half winded. Anne set a stiff pace.
“I didn’t know I was so far out of shape,” I grunted.
Anne was clearly enjoying herself. “You’ll just have to get out and walk more,” she said.
We walked in silence for a block or two. “Is Ron coming to the wedding?” she asked suddenly.
“Ron? Oh, you mean Peters? I don’t know. I invited him.”
“I don’t think he likes me particularly.”
“What makes you say that?”
“During the party I caught him staring at me several times.”
“I think he’d like to believe you’re after my money, although seeing your car should have taken care of any suspicions on that score. I guess he thinks we’re rushing into something. Leaping without looking, that kind of thing.”
I caught her by the hand and pulled her back to me. “Why are you marrying me? Everybody knows cops make lousy husbands.”
She reached up and kissed me on the cheek. “But great lovers. I’m marrying you for your body.”
“Anne, you could have any body you wanted. Why me?”
Her eyes, which had been bright and teasing a moment before, softened. “Because you made me remember what it’s like to be a woman, Beau. I had forgotten.”
I pulled her to me, and we stood clasped in an embrace for a long moment at the corner of First and Virginia. Her answer may not have been good enough for Peters or Powell, but it was for me. At last we resumed walking, both of us quiet and lost in our own private thoughts.
We ran into Ida Newell, my neighbor, in the lobby. It was a moment I had been dreading. I was sure by now Ida had monitored Anne’s comings and goings on the closed-circuit channel. It was time to make an honest woman of her, I decided. “I’d like you to meet my fiancée, Ida. This is Anne Corley. Ida Newell.”
“Fiancée,” Ida sniffed. “I’m surprised. I haven’t met you before.”
“I’m from Arizona,” Anne said with an easy smile. “It’s been one of those long-distance affairs. I’m very happy to meet you.”
That seemed to satisfy Ida. At least she entered her own apartment without further comment. “That was masterful,” I murmured gratefully. “You saved my bacon on that one.”
Anne smiled. “It’ll cost you,” she said.
Safety deposit boxes have never been high on my list of priorities. What few trinkets I’ve kept over the years, I’ve stowed in various nooks and crannies around my house. I left Anne in the living room and rummaged in my bottom dresser drawer. I found the faded velvet box in its place in the left-hand corner. I felt a lump in my throat as I opened it.
My father was a sailor, a wartime enlistee who probably hadn’t learned one end of a ship from the other before he died. The ring he had given to my mother wasn’t much, but I’m sure it was the most he could offer his sixteen-year-old sweetheart. I could imagine him proudly making the purchase at some low-life pawnshop in Bremerton. My mother had kept the ring, treasured it. It came to me when she died, and I kept it too. It was my only link
with a father whose face I never saw.
I slipped the tiny box into my pocket and returned to Anne. She was sitting on the couch, her head resting on the back of it. “Tired?” I asked.
“A little,” she said.
I sat down next to her with my hand on her shoulder, rubbing a knot of stiffness from between her shoulder blades. I cleared my throat. “You know, we had a wonderful engagement party. It’s a shame we didn’t have a ring.”
“We don’t need a ring—” she began.
