Dead Wood (3 page)

Five

“H
is name is Nevada Hornsby,” Clarence Barre said. He spoke slowly and softly. Enunciating carefully. Not out of respect, but because his emotions were running so strong it took every effort not to insert an expletive.

I had a million questions: did the police know? If not, why wasn’t he talking to them? How did he know Hornsby killed her?

As much as I wanted to ask, I decided to wait Mr. Barre out. He’d just lost his daughter. I thought he deserved a chance to explain himself.

“I told Jesse time and time again not to get involved with him,” he said. “She wouldn’t listen. In fact, she told me to back off. So I did. And look where it got us.”

He paused again.

Just when I was about to start the questions, he said, “The cops don’t think he did it. They say he has an alibi. Well, of course he does! Who the fuck couldn’t come up with an alibi? Only the stupidest of criminals can’t come up with a friggin’ alibi for God’s sake. So they’re believing his bullshit, but see, they don’t know him. I do.”

His voice had grown in intensity. And this was a man who had used his voice to great effect for many years. It didn’t fail him now.

“Okay,” I said.

He fixed his eyes on me, willing me to understand. I leaned in toward him, hoping to give him the nudge he needed to tell me just what the hell he was getting at.

“He’s an ex-con.”

“Okay,” I said. I got out a notepad and pen.

“Do you know what he was in for?” I asked.

“I’m sure it was something bad. Assault. I remember Jesse saying something about a fight. She claimed he hadn’t started it. Christ, he had her hook, line and sinker.”

“Do you have a reason to doubt his alibi?”

“I met him,” he said.

I wrote the word ‘NO’ down on my notepad and underlined it.

“I know all about men like that. They don’t value life. Prison teaches them to look at everything differently. Jesse didn’t realize that. She was overly sympathetic. That’s how I would put it. Wanting to prove that she respected people for who they are, not who they’ve been.”

He ran a hand through the thick white hair. It reminded me of Kenny Roger’s hair. I wrote down ‘Kenny Rogers’ on my notepad. Goofy, I know, but it was amazing sometimes the things that jogged the memory. Who knew, maybe a year from now I’d be looking at my notes on the Barre case, see the Kenny Rogers reference and have some brilliant flash of insight.

I looked at Clarence Barre. Goddamn, I found myself liking him. He had a great face, wide open and honest. I could sense the goodness in him. The pain of losing a loved one.

But I wasn’t going to take a case just because a father was having difficulty dealing with the loss of a child. He probably hated this Hornsby guy and made him into a convenient target for his anger and loss. If the police had checked out the alibi and crossed him off the list, he was probably innocent.

I wasn’t going to take the case. No way. To take Mr. Barre’s money would be another crime.

He must have seen the look on my face because he said, “I know how this must look. A guy just pointing a finger and saying ‘he did it.’”

That’s exactly how it looked to me.

“How long had your daughter and this Hornsby been seeing each other?” I said.

“Way too long.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“Years.”

“Had there been any sign of physical abuse? Any problems? Fights?”

“No, but Jesse and I hadn’t seen each other on a regular basis,” he said. And now I could hear even more, deeper pain in his voice. The loss of a loved one you’d fallen out with over petty differences. No getting them back now.

“But as far as you knew…”

“She didn’t say anything and no, I never saw any bruises or anything on her. But Jesse was very private. Believe me, if she’d wanted to hide something, it would stay hidden until she wanted you to find it.”

“Did the police say if they have any other suspects?”

“I don’t know. They aren’t saying.”

This was about as bogus as it got. Mr. Barre wanted me to make him feel better. He wanted me to make him feel like he was doing something for the daughter he’d grown apart from. Now, when it was too late, he was trying to make things right. I had no intention of taking his money.

I started to tell him that, but he cut me off.

“I just want you to keep an open mind about it and check it out. I’ll pay whatever your rates are and your expenses. If you honestly find out Hornsby had nothing to do with it, and can give me some kind of proof, we’ll shake hands and go our separate ways.”

He pushed back a little and folded his arms across his chest.

I write on my notepad: no. No way. Nuh-uh.

I said, “I’ll think about it.”

•  •  •

When I was younger, I used to be very impatient. My Dad tried to teach me how to make model airplanes but I would race through, gluing all the parts together without waiting for them to dry. I would crack open the new box after breakfast and be done before lunch. My plane would always end up shoddily built with a sloppy paint job and the little decals were always crooked. It might be a few weeks later, or sometimes even a few months later when my Dad would finish his. And naturally, it was the picture of perfection. It took quite awhile, and quite a few botched P-47s for me to realize the problem.

Now I sometimes had become the opposite, perhaps in reaction to what my impatient youth had taught me. I tended to wait, and think things over. Maybe even over think them a bit. It was probably because I had children of my own and if there’s one thing a parent needs, it’s patience.

So despite the fact that I had no intention of taking on the case, I decided to think it over. It seemed to me that Clarence Barre was dealing with the death of his daughter the only way he knew how. In his case, it happened to be blaming a man who was most likely innocent. Not something of which I really wanted to be a part. Even if it meant turning down a paycheck.

I also had to admit that I liked the earnest honesty of Clarence Barre. Maybe it was the way he looked me in the eye, or the obvious pain that hung on his weathered face.

Or maybe it was that damn Kenny Rogers hair.

Six

A
fter Mr. Barre left my office, I logged onto the Internet and searched for newspaper accounts of Jesse Barre’s murder. I found nothing in the local paper, but that didn’t surprise me. The Grosse Pointe newspaper was legendary for not publicizing any stories of crime. Why? Because on the scale of priorities, Grosse Pointe residents placed property values on the same level as breathing. Perhaps even a nudge higher. A weekly report of all the petty crimes that occurred mostly on the direct border with Detroit, more frequently that most would like to admit, might make people think twice about plopping down a half-million dollars on that picturesque Tudor with three fireplaces and an annual tax that could make a grown man choke on his bacon-wrapped filet mignon.

Anyway, I found what I was looking for on the Detroit Free Press website. The articles there gave me the basic facts: the murder took place at Jessica Barre’s studio on Kercheval, just a few blocks from the border with Detroit. It was an abandoned shoe repair shop that she’d converted to a guitar-making studio. The murder took place at approximately 11
P.M.
Forced entry. Blunt force trauma. DOA. The article said it appeared to be a robbery but didn’t elaborate. The murder weapon – a heavy hammer that belonged to the victim, was left next to her body.

It was all very straightforward to me. Although Grosse Pointe was by and large a very safe community, when you spent that much time right on the border with Detroit, sometimes bad things could happen. On the Alter border, it was pretty common for bicycles and children’s toys to be snatched from the yard. Patio furniture was even known to sometimes get up in the middle of the night and walk across the border into Detroit never to be heard from again. Same goes for grills and portable basketball hoops.

The other street that bordered Detroit, Mack Avenue, was legendary for carjackings, purse snatchings and even the occasional bank robbery.

Hey, your neighbor is one of the most dangerous cities in the country, you have to expect it. Grosse Pointe residents had become over the years naturally inured to the bullshit, although on the few occasions something really bad happened it often gave pause to consider a move to the northern suburbs where McMansions and golf courses rule the land.

I skimmed the Free Press article once again. It all seemed pretty clear cut to me. Someone had probably seen the guitars, a woman working alone, late at night. They broke in, killed her and grabbed what they could. Leaving the murder weapon and wiping it free of prints indicated a certain sophistication, I had to admit, but for the most part, it was probably what it seemed: a robbery that had gotten rough. Innocent people in robberies were killed all the time. Fast food workers killed execution style in the walk-in freezer. Why? Because some cold, sadistic psycho didn’t want any witnesses left alive. Or maybe a punk with a gun wanted to feel the ultimate power. Who knew?

There was only one thing that seemed to stick in the back of my brain as I re-read the article. It seemed odd to me that a thief, even taking into account the fact that not all thieves are terribly clever, would choose to knock over a guitar studio. It’s not a cash business. It wasn’t sexually motivated, at least there was no mention of an assault in the papers. And guitars would not be a terribly hot item on the market. From what I’d read and from the impression Clarence Barre had given me, the guitars Jesse Barre made were unique. I wasn’t exactly an expert on robbery and the fencing of stolen goods, but it seemed like trying to sell a Jesse Barre guitar locally would likely present problems. It also held that most guitar stores would not only recognize one of Jesse’s guitars, but would also have heard of the murder. My guess was that the cops had already called all the guitar stores and told them to be on the lookout for the kind of guitars she made. They would urge the shops to get a description and if possible, a license plate, of anyone trying to sell a Jesse Barre guitar. Pretty standard procedure.

I took a deep breath and thought some more. What if Clarence was right? What if this Hornsby had killed Jesse Barre and made it look like a robbery? That too was a trick as old as the hills. I suspected the cops had looked into it, Clarence said Hornsby had an alibi, but alibis can be manufactured. Good ones take a lot of time and effort and planning. Would this Hornsby, the ex-con, be able to do it?

I saved the article to my computer’s desktop and pushed away from the desk, propping my feet on the low bookcase next to the wastebasket. I put my hands behind my head and thought about Clarence Barre. I knew that I liked him. And my wife has told me time and time again that I put a filter on my brain when it comes to people I like. That I see too much of the positive in people, sometimes even create it when it’s not there. Maybe so. There was the off chance that I was looking for something that would justify my case for taking on Clarence Barre as a client.

But objectivity is a bastard. The fact was, I knew that the criminal mind is not a bastion of logic. Throw some booze and drugs into the mix and you’ve got a human being reduced to his or her most base instincts. A desperate person walks by a studio that may or may not be some kind of cash business, it’s night, a woman is working alone on loud woodworking machines; the perfect opportunity for a smash and grab. Maybe the woman tries to defend herself or her products, and things get out of hand. It happens.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I thought Clarence Barre was most likely off-base and wrapped up in the emotions of a grieving father and that I had somehow fallen victim to his genuine earnestness.

My first impression of Clarence Barre was that he was a good man. Had probably been a good father. And he was a man who loved and cherished his daughter above all else, including logic. He was a good man, but he was probably wrong.

It seemed like there was really one right decision here.

But you know, I’ve made so many fucking mistakes in my lifetime that one more wouldn’t hurt.

I would take the case.

Seven

London

T
he Spook was disappointed.

The investment banker’s apartment was extremely luxurious. Marble floors. Turkish rugs. Original artwork worthy, in some cases, of museums.

All of which didn’t surprise the Spook. After all, the banker had been skimming profits, stealing from the bank’s partners for years. From the dossier that had been given to him, the Spook learned the investment banker had pilfered nearly twenty million dollars. The man’s partners, some of whom had ties to various illegal activities themselves, were not happy. Undue attention in their business could prove to be lethal.

None of that disappointed or even interested the Spook. What upset him was the quality of the guitars. Surrounded by trappings of extreme wealth, the guitars were a joke. A run-of-the-mill Yamaha acoustic, a new Fender and that was about it. Even worse, the guitars were dusty and out of tune. The strings hadn’t been changed in ages. A disgrace.

The Spook was a guitar player. Although he loved his work, loved to get paid to kill people, he lived for music. The piercing wail of a bent third string, the soul shaking shudder of a bluesy vibrato, it moved him in ways nothing else could. He looked at the guitars and shook his head.

This man deserved to die.

The Spook checked his watch. The banker’s name was Gordon Springs and the Spook knew from countless hours of surveillance that he was due home in ten minutes. A routine that the man never failed to repeat, day after day, month after month. The human need for structure made the Spook’s job all that much easier.

He went to the nearest guitar, the Yamaha acoustic and picked it up from its holder. Finding a pick and a slide – one couldn’t very well perform intricate fingerwork wearing surgeon’s gloves – he tuned the guitar to an open G and played a few notes. It didn’t sound that great. The strings were very old and there was a rattle near the bridge. To the Spook, it was how a social worker must feel to hold a neglected baby.

He made some adjustments, then played the opening to “You Got The Silver” from Let It Bleed. One of his idol’s masterpieces of subtlety. No one could make a guitar do things the way Keith Richards could. Keith was more than just the famous guitarist of the infamous Rolling Stones, he was the Spook’s god. The Spook felt that what he was to the profession of assassins, Keith was to the profession of rock and roll.

He finished off the song and set the guitar back in its stand. The guitar pissed off the Spook. To be here, in London, Keith Richards’ home stomping grounds, and to see an apartment filled with expensive shit but mistreated guitars…well, it went against everything he believed in.

He checked his watch. Any minute now.

He went back to the guitar and turned the third string’s tuning key until the string itself began to sag and hang away from the body of the guitar. The Spook continued unwinding until he could pull the string through the tuning key’s hole, and then he popped the plastic peg that held the string in place at the center of the guitar’s body. When it was free, he took two kitchen towels, placed them in the palm of his hand, then wound an end of the string around each hand.

Moments later, he heard the key in the lock and he disappeared into the darkness of the apartment. He heard the door swing open, a pause, and then the door clicked shut. He heard Mr. Springs sigh. Relief at living another day without falling off the tightrope that is the criminal life. The Spook knew Mr. Springs had a mistress, a drinking problem and a severe lack of self-control, but he didn’t care. Mr. Springs wasn’t a person, he was simply an assignment.

The Spook listened as footsteps echoed on the hardwood floor. Then the footsteps stopped. The Spook knew exactly what the banker was doing.

He emerged from the shadows.

The banker stood in the kitchen, his back to the living room. The Spook had rented a flat directly across the street with a perfect view of Mr. Springs’ apartment. Because of this, the Spook knew that Mr. Springs’ answering machine was on the kitchen counter and that every evening the first thing Mr. Springs did when he got home was put his briefcase on the kitchen’s island, then turn his full attention to the answering machine.

The Spook stood behind the British investment banker for just a moment, then reached up and looped the guitar string, cross-handed, over the man’s head. Springs heaved back but the Spook easily pivoted and brought him down, then kneeled on the man’s back. He worked the thin metal cord back and forth like saw until it had thoroughly cut through the soft flesh of the banker’s neck. The Spook heard a scream reduced to soft gurgles and Springs thrashed for several seconds before his nerves received their final instructions.

And then Springs was dead.

His contract with the bank’s partners fulfilled, the Spook stood, wiped the blood off the string with one of the kitchen towels, then went back to the guitar. He threaded the string back through the tuning key, tapped the peg back in place and wound the string tight, tuning by ear.

The Spook picked up the glass slide and confidently eased into the opening licks of “Moonlight Mile.”

He only had time for one or two songs.

The guitar sucked, sure. But his hero had played on worse.

This one definitely went out for Keith.