Five O'Clock Twist

by Joanne Pence

  “Wait,” she said, facing Sean again. “Did Audrey ever say who she was afraid of? Or give you more information about this so-called stalker of hers?”

  “Rebecca,” Sutter said quietly, shaking his head. She knew he didn’t want her saying anything that might take some of the pressure off Hinkle. Switching to the possibility of a stalker could be interpreted as some kind of life line.

  Hinkle shook his head. “She didn’t really, but I know she was complaining about a guy involved in building permits. He’d give her a heads up on properties, but apparently he was telling her about places that weren’t legitimate. It sounded like he was coming up with properties for her just for, hell, I don’t know—either the money or to see her.”

  “A building inspector,” Rebecca said. “Darryl Kreshmer, by any chance?”

  “She never said his name. Just that she was going to have to break off contact with him.”

  o0o

  Richie opened his eyes. He was on the floor, his hands duct taped behind his back, and his ears ringing from the blow his head received.

  “Well, he wakes. One down, one to go.”

  He looked over his shoulder. Darryl Kreshmer sat on the bed, a revolver in his hand. “I wonder where she is.”

  Richie was filled with fury. This little nothing, well, big nothing, was the one who had killed Audrey. Smart, clever, lovely Audrey. Somehow, he would make Kreshmer pay. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Your girlfriend, the cop. She should be here by now. Where is she?”

  “How should I know? Maybe she’s not coming. Maybe she doesn’t care,” he muttered.

  “That’s not the way I hear it about the two of you,” Kreshmer said with a snort. “She’ll come.”

  Richie prayed Rebecca didn’t come walking in on this madman. “Are you kidding me? You must have better luck with women than I me,” he said. “I’ve been used and abused, let me tell you.”

  Kreshmer snorted. “A guy with your looks? I don’t think so. I’m the one who gets treated like dirt.”

  “Looks don’t matter,” Richie said. “Audrey dumped me, too, you know.”

  Kreshmer’s eyebrows lifted. “You went out with Audrey?”

  “Years back. Many years. We dated a while, but then she ended it. She was just that way. Always had been. Did you know her long?”

  Kreshmer shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about her.”

  Richie saw that Kreshmer was close-mouthed, and so he spoke as casually as he could, given the circumstance, hoping to get the man to talk. “That’s how I felt when she left me. Like my entire insides had been ripped out and thrown away. Did she care? Not at all. I think that’s what hurt the most.”

  Kreshmer swallowed hard.

  “It’s too bad you didn’t know what she was like,” Richie said sympathetically. “If you did, you might have been prepared for the rotten way she treated you.”

  “I said, I don’t want to talk about her.”

  “I know,” Richie murmured. “Still, she had no business not appreciating all you did for her.”

  “How would you know?” Kreshmer spat out the words.

  “I know that house on Francisco had no serious problems,” Richie said. “But whatever Audrey wanted, Audrey got, right? And I suppose one of her ‘buyers’ wanted a house in that area, but didn’t want to pay full price.”

  Kreshmer frowned.

  “It’s amazing how the rich get richer, isn’t it?” Richie said. “They always get the best deals. It’s the little guy, the middle income guys, who get screwed and end up paying full price for anything we try to do.”

  “It’s the way the world runs,” Kreshmer said. He marched over to Richie, his ham-like fist raised high. “Now, shut up!”

  o0o

  Rebecca and Sutter headed for Darryl Kreshmer’s home. It was in an alley in the North Beach area, a small bungalow squeezed between a couple of larger houses. They contacted Lt. Eastwood, and he was working on getting a search warrant.

  They parked in front of Kreshmer’s house. Sutter’s phone was in his hand when it chimed. “Let’s go. Eastwood just texted. We have the okay to enter.”

  They knocked and rang the bell, but there was no answer. The building was old and wooden, and the door looked the same. Rebecca and Sutter nodded at each other, and then struck the door at the same time with their shoulders. It sprang open.

  They went in, guns drawn, but the place was empty. It was small—a living room, kitchen, one bedroom and one bathroom. And filthy.

  They quickly searched.

  “This may be it,” Rebecca cried as she pulled a woman’s handbag and jacket from the back of the bedroom closet. She put the jacket on the bed, and opened the handbag. Inside the wallet was a driver’s license. It belonged to Inga Westergaard.

  “These are Inga’s,” Rebecca said. Kreshmer had to have taken them from Kiki’s spa after killing Inga—that was the only way he could have gotten them. It was the proof they needed of his guilt. Rebecca could have shed tears of relief. “Finally, we’ve got him!”

  “And look at this,” Sutter said. He had opened Kreshmer’s nightstand and found a large number of photos of Audrey Poole. “It looks like we might have had a little obsession going on here. Many of these photos appear to have been taken from a distance—she’s with other people on the street, in a restaurant, some taken through a window, as if Kreshmer was always outside, looking in and photographing the woman unknown to her.”

  “We’ve got to find him,” Rebecca said.

  “I’ll start talking to neighbors and calling people shown in his computer,” Sutter said.

  Rebecca nodded. She had seen the text from Richie saying he was at the Jade Dragon, and she remembered the blackmail note Sean Hinkle had given her. She wondered how much Kreshmer might have known about all that.

  She tried to call Richie, but got no answer. She texted him: I’ll be right there. Kreshmer is the killer. We have proof.

  She usually got a quick response from him, but now, nothing.

  “I’m going to look for Richie,” she said. “He knows Kreshmer. He might have some idea where he is.”

  “So Richie knows Kreshmer?” Sutter said with a sneer. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  o0o

  Richie’s phone pinged. Kreshmer looked at it. “Oh, how sweet. She is coming. And she’s warning you about me. ‘Kreshmer is the killer,’ she said. ‘We have proof.’ Well, this puts a new spin on things, doesn’t it?”

  “Go, Kreshmer. Just get out of here and run.”

  “And miss the fun?” Kreshmer said. “She’s going to have to work a little harder to find you.”

  With that, he pulled Richie to his feet.

  o0o

  When Rebecca walked into the restaurant, the hostess immediately told her Richie was downstairs in “their” room—their love nest being the clear implication. Rebecca bristled, but said nothing as she headed to the back of the restaurant and down the stairs.

  The room, however, was empty.

  She went out to the alley, and saw his Porsche. Where could he be?

  She remembered the blackmail note Hinkle had showed her. It gave that very location as the drop for the money at midnight. Richie wouldn’t, would he? She knew he would never be serious about blackmailing Hinkle, but he could have done it as a means to draw him out.

  She called Shay who told her last he heard, Richie was going to wait to see her. And Shay knew nothing, or “claimed” to know nothing, about any midnight meeting behind the Jade Dragon.

  Next, she phoned the assistant manager at Big Caesar’s, Tommy Ginnetti, and asked if he had any idea where Richie might be. He told her the same thing—Richie had gone to the Jade Dragon to meet her.

  She went upstairs and found Benny Wong in his office. She told him Richie wasn’t in the room.

  “I can’t imagine Richie leaving his car, unless he walked over to see Milton Jang,” Benny said.

  “Jang?” Rebecca as
ked.

  “Head of the Five Families Association. They were working together, and Jang used his runners to help Richie today.”

  Runners … Hinkle told her the blackmail note was hand delivered. Her pulse began to pound. “Do you have a number for Jang?”

  “Sure, but it would be best if you go to see him. He prefers to see who he is dealing with. He’s just a block away. Ross Alley.” He gave Rebecca the address.

  o0o

  Kreshmer marched Richie into the tunnel holding his revolver at his back and a flashlight in his other hand so they could see where they were going.

  They went a long way before Kreshmer reached a spot where the tunnel forked, the main opening heading straight, and a smaller opening going off to the right.

  Richie was told to turn right, and next thing he knew, Kreshmer knocked him to the ground. He fell hard, not being able to use his hands and arms to protect himself. Next thing he knew, a rope was being tightened around his ankles. Richie tried kicking, but all he got for his trouble was a hard smack in a knee with the butt of the gun. For a moment he feared the kneecap might have been broken, but eventually the sharp pain subsided.

  Now, he sat up and leaned back against a wall. It was freezing down here in the tunnel, not to mention damp. There was water on the ground, and he had no idea if the water was from past rains that hadn’t yet dried, or was from leaky sewage. The tunnel smelled bad enough it could have been the latter.

  Richie could only think that if Rebecca did figure out where he was, if she heard him talking, she wouldn’t walk into the trap Kreshmer had set.

  “I didn’t know you were a tunnel rat,” he said.

  “Shut the hell up,” Kreshmer ordered.

  “Why? We’ve got a lot of time and you know it. How do you know about these tunnels? Not many people do.”

  “Did you forget who I work for?” Kreshmer said. “I used to crawl under houses, through sewage systems, water mains, everything under ground, when I first started working for the City and County, before I worked my way up so I can order others to get covered with slime. I know more about the tunnels under Chinatown than probably anyone else alive today.”

  “Amazing.” Richie did his best to go along with whatever Kreshmer said, to keep him calm and talking. But at the same time, he wondered why Kreshmer didn’t just pop him—he’d already killed two women, and had tried to kill three. But as he thought about it, he realized Kreshmer must kill from raw emotion. It became Richie’s purpose to keep the rage to a bare minimum. If he could.

  o0o

  Rebecca was stunned by the beautiful furnishings of Milton Jang’s office. She realized as she waited, that he not only worked there, but he also lived in the building. She paced nervously as she watched the minutes tick by. Eventually, the door opened, and a small, older man entered the room.

  “Inspector Mayfield,” he said as he introduced himself. “I have heard much about you.”

  She didn’t know how to respond to that—was it good or bad? She also didn’t know if he was head of one of the “good” tongs, or the “bad” triads. Richie had told her a little about this world, but actually being here was so different from anything she’d ever dealt with, she found herself all but speechless.

  “I’m here because I’m worried about Richie Amalfi,” she said finally. “No one knows where he is, but his car is behind the Jade Dragon, and he was there before he disappeared. It might be that nothing is wrong, but he isn’t answering my calls or texts. I was told you might be able to help.”

  Jang pursed his lips. “I’ve been waiting for his call as well. This isn’t good.”

  “Why were you waiting?”

  “He had an idea to send two similar messages. One went to Darryl Kreshmer, one to Sean Hinkle. We were going to wait and see who showed up. We expected one or the other would—to negotiate.”

  “I just came from Hinkle. He’s not coming. But the building inspector might be.”

  “Kreshmer is a building inspector?” Jang asked.

  “That’s right.”

  “I see.” He clasped his hands behind his back as he seemed to ponder all this. “The older buildings in the heart of Chinatown are very different from most in the city. Many are attached, almost all have alleyways in the back, and a good number of them lead to tunnels underground. A building inspector should know all that. And might know the tunnels as well.”

  Rebecca didn’t want to think about the tunnels, but feared she had to. “The room I was given at the Jade Dragon is right next to an opening to a tunnel. If Kreshmer went after Richie, he could have used that to get to him, although the door did have a lock.”

  “And a building inspector can get through a locked door,” Jang said.

  “I’ve got to get down there,” Rebecca said as she backed towards the door. “Thank you so much, Mr. Jang.”

  “Wait! You aren’t going alone.”

  She stopped and faced him. “I’ll be fine. I’ll call for backup.”

  “And end up dead? The tunnels are narrow and have many areas where they split off. A man with a gun can lie in wait in one of those splits, and once you show up in a narrow section, you would have nowhere to run, no shelter to hide from the bullets.”

  That gave her pause, not only for her sake, but also for Richie’s. “What do you suggest?”

  “I have several associates who know the tunnels well. Let me call them. They’re Richie’s best chance. And yours.”

  “But the time…”

  “They’ll be ready in ten minutes,” Jang said. “I promise.”

  o0o

  “What are you planning?” Richie asked.

  Kreshmer chuckled. “That’s a ballsy question.”

  Richie said nothing.

  “If you must know, I’m going to kill you, and the cop you’re in love with.” Kreshmer chuckled to himself at that.

  “I’m sorry this happened to you,” Richie said softly, making his voice as soothing as he could. “I can tell you’re no killer. It’s Audrey’s fault. She was a bitch.”

  “She wasn’t!” Kreshmer insisted, aiming his flashlight at Richie’s eyes, forcing him to turn his head away. “She could be nice. But she listened to the wrong people.”

  “Men, right?” Richie said.

  “Men she worked with. They made her think she was going to get rich with these investors, but all that will change. The laws are being changed, and soon. I’ve been hearing about it. I tried to warn her.”

  “If only she’d have listened,” Richie lamented.

  “Foolish! So foolish!”

  “You found good places for her to sell. You didn’t need all those other investors. She would have done well enough with you alone.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Just like the two buildings you found for her on Union Street,” Richie said. “Two old, run-down buildings, side-by-side. One so much in need of work it was empty, an eyesore; and the one next to it, with an elderly Chinese couple upstairs, and a crummy spa on the main floor. The city would be much better off without those buildings, and Audrey would have made it happen—with your help.”

  “You know a lot, don’t you?” Kreshmer sneered.

  “I know a good deal when I see one. And that was a good deal, except for the spa’s owner. She stood in the way, didn’t she?”

  Kreshmer didn’t respond, but his jaw seemed to tighten.

  “Without her, you would have been able to give Audrey everything she wanted, wouldn’t you?”

  “Audrey should have appreciated it.”

  “But, what I don’t get was Inga. How did she stand in the way of anything?” Richie asked. “She was just a kid.”

  “She was no kid. She was a stupid, foul-mouthed adult!” Kreshmer’s face reddened. “All I wanted to do was convince the owner to sell. I called and made an after-hours appointment for Audrey—she had bragged she was such a good customer they’d take her any time she wanted. I thought the owner would be there, but she wasn’t. I tried t
o explain what I wanted to Inga, and to get her to tell me where Kiki lived. But instead of listening, she laughed at me. She said Kiki would never sell, and even if she did, it wouldn’t get Audrey to care about me or to love me. She said even I should know that Audrey was just using me, and would dump me first chance she got. That little bitch wouldn’t shut up. I warned her, time and again. Finally, I shoved that damned mud down her nasty throat. After that, I had no choice but to go after Kiki. I was searching for her address, and came across not only that, but her keys as well.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Richie said softly. “Talking to you like that, who did she think she was? And I’m sure she was lying about Audrey.”

  “No. She wasn’t. That’s why Audrey is dead, too. She told me it was over between us, that I was causing her too much trouble putting the screws on people like Benedetta Rossi. You ruined everything with your meddling!”

  “Me? What are you talking about?”

  “She said you went to her and complained about Benedetta’s house. That she was sick of the complaints, sick of me always lurking around her. She said she was leaving the country. Leaving me! She tried to walk out on me so I killed her. And now, you and your woman are getting too close to me. I don’t know how you did it. I was so careful. But, it doesn’t matter anymore. Soon, you’ll both be dead.”

  “You already tried to kill Rebecca once. But that didn’t work out so well, did it?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The beach.”

  “What beach?”

  Richie shut his mouth, momentarily surprised by Kreshmer’s reaction. “It’s nothing. Nothing, at all. No more deaths are needed. You can get away. Run. You’ve got time.”

  “You’re wrong. Three more deaths are needed. Your nosy cop girlfriend, you, and then me.” He looked up at the black mildew-covered ceiling, down at the wet ground, and then shook his head. “I can’t go on after this.”

  “Listen to me--”

  “It’s over.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  After ten minutes exactly, a woman entered the Five Families reception room. She kept her eyes lowered, her figure meek and subservient as she walked towards Milton Jang. She was dressed all in black, slacks, boots, a long-sleeved top, and a black scarf covering her hair.