Mixed Messages (A Malone Mystery) (9 page)

The old man slammed his fist down on the counter, jarring David from his thoughts
.
“Nother thing pisses me off,” he was telling the bartender,
“
is the damn foreigners
!
They come to this country, they oughta learn how to speak
friggin’
English
!
The old lady sent me to Kroger’s today
.
I’m in line waitin’ and there’s these two
Mexicans
, man and a woman, in fronta me
.
They’re arguin’ with the cashier ‘bout somethin’ but the cashier, I could tell, couldn’t understand half of what they was sayin’
.
Manager came over
.
Took forever
.
All I wanted to do was buy me a loaf of bread and some eggs
.
Got home, the old lady says, ‘What took you so long?’”

Out of the corner of his eye, David saw a young couple enter the bar
.
He turned to watch as the guy helped the
young woman
off with her coat
.
They walked over to a nearby table and sat down
.
Joe ambled over to them
to take
their order.

The old man had passed out and, head down on the bar, was snoring loudly
.
David alternated between taking swigs of his beer and watching the couple
.
As they talked and laughed, holding hands across the table, David couldn’t help but remember when he and Ann used to come to the bar when they were dating and first married
.
Ann, never much of a drinker, could make
one mixed drink
last all night, he remembered
.
She would take tiny sips while they talked and laughed for hours
.
Those were the good old days, he thought.

Now, Ann never drank and they never went out together
.
She stayed home with the kids and he went out by himself
.
Sometimes, he just needed to get away.
Not that he wanted to get away from Danielle and Davey
.
He loved them
.
When you got right down to it, he didn’t really want to get away from Ann either
.
Even though, admittedly, he hadn’t been very nice to her lately, he did love her
.
But he needed a break from the pressures of work and responsibility sometimes
.
Nothing wrong with that, he decided
.
Better to drink with people than to drink alone
.
He’d always believed that a man who drank alone
definitely had a
problem.

Joe was back behind the bar, wiping off the counter
.
He nudged David’s arm
.
“Would ya look at that,” he said, pointing to the television set hanging from the ceiling
.
He reached up
and turned the volume up
.
The local news was on with an update on the Westwood Strangler.

One of the bikers sauntered up to the bar
.
“Two Jack and Cokes, Joe,” he said
.
As the bartender filled the glasses, David watched the news report.

“Hey man, what do you think about that?” the biker asked, nodding toward the TV.

“I think there’s one sick son-of-a-bitch out there,” Joe answered.

“Yeah, man
.
How many does that make now
?
I can’t believe the cops haven’t got him yet
.
Too busy hassling us, I guess,” he said, grinning
.
He took the two drinks and headed back to his buddy in the other room.

“Hey, Joe, gimme a Jack and Coke,” David said,
lighting another cigarette.

“Davey,” Joe said, interrupting David’s thoughts, “now don’t go gettin’ wasted on me
.
I don’t want this place to lose its license
on my watch
.
The owners would kill me
.
For sure, I’d lose my job and, believe it or not,” he said, smirking, “I don’t do this for the fun of it. I got a family to support.
Bunch of bullshit, if you ask me, but with the laws now, we’re responsible if you leave here all sauced up and go out and hit somebody head on
.
How about you have a nice
, hot
cup of coffee instead?”

“Don’t worry about me, Joe
.
I gotta go home anyway,” David said
,
sliding off
of
the bar stool and
heading for the door
.
“I gotta warn Ann ‘bout lockin’ the doors
.
Gotta tell her to be careful.
Don’t want her to be the next one.”

David yanked the door open and, as he stepped outside
into the drizzling rain
, he collided with a tall,
bleached
blonde woman. She was wearing
all black
leather
:
a short, tight skirt, a waist
length jacket and knee
high boots.

“’Scuse me,”
he
mumbled
,
stepping away from her
.

“Hi there, Handsome,” the woman said
.
She reached out and
grabb
ed
hi
s
arm
, pulling him toward her
. “Where you goin’ so early?”

“I gotta go home.”

“Well now, who says you gotta go home
now
?” the woman asked, moving up close to him. “Why don’t we go inside and you can buy me a drink or, better yet, why don’t you come home with me and I’ll fix you a little drinkey there?
I don’t live too far away.
”

He
took a step toward his car. “
Can’t.
Married. Sorry.”

“Oh, c’mon now. Let’s not let a little thing like that stand in our way. I could show you a real good time, Sweetie. Bet I could teach you a few things your little wifey doesn’t know,” she said,
moving closer to him,
rubbing her hips up against him and grinding back and forth. She reached out to touch his face, stroking his cheek. “You’re real good lookin’.”

“No. Can’t. Sorry,”
he
said, backing away from her. “Gotta go home.”

As he
stumbled
to his car,
he
heard the blonde mutter, “
W
ell
,
w
in some, lose some.”

Chapter
1
1

Wednesday,
October 29th

ANN WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING
and realized immediately that David hadn’t come home all night. She could tell that his side of the bed hadn’t been slept in. David was a rough sleeper
;
h
e always tossed and turned in his sleep. If he’d been to bed, his sheets and pillowcase would have been in total disarray as they always were in the morning. Today, his side of the bed was as neat as a pin. And there were none of the telltale signs that he’d come in late
:
no clothes lying around and no car keys and wallet on the top of his dresser.

She got out of bed, went into the kitchen and, as if on automatic pilot, made breakfast for Danielle and Davey. Somehow, she managed to get them off to school on time. After they left, she walked from room to room in a daze. Where was David? What if something had happened to him? What if he’d been in an accident? He’d never stayed out all night before. What if he were hurt … or worse?

She
tried to figure out what to do. Should she call the police? And say
what?
“
My husband didn’t come home last night.
”
The police probably got calls like that all the time from hysterical women whose husbands were just out
messing
around.
She would feel like a fool if she called and they didn’t take her seriously or, worse yet, if they suggested that her husband might be with another woman.
Is that what’s going on here? she wondered. Is
he
having an affair?
Ultimately
, she decided there was nothing she could do but wait to hear from him.

Still, she felt like she needed to talk to someone. But who?
She considered going upstairs to see Olivia but decided against it.
Although t
hey had
gotten to know each other and
become
friends
over the past several months
,
she’d
never discussed anything
a
s
personal
as her
marital problems
with
her landlady
and
she
didn’t feel comfortable doing that
now
.
I don’t
have any close
female
friends
, she
realized
.
I lost touch with the few friends I had in school once I met
and married
David
.

Then she remembered Bernie,
the
elderly man who had lived across the hall from
them
in their old apartment building. He was a retired Cincinnati police officer who had become a close friend and confidante to Ann. She smiled, picturing him sitting in his tattered La-z-boy recliner, watching the news on TV with his police scanner constantly humming in the background. We used to talk for hours,
she
recalled
. I could tell
Bernie
anything and he never judged me. He
was always watching out for us
too
.

“Ann,” he would say, “
you have to be careful. Don’t ever let Dani or Davey out of your sight.
This neighborhood isn’t what it used to be; it’s not safe anymore.”

Bernie had certainly been right. Their old
apartment in lower Westwood
was not a good place to raise children. There were street gangs lurking about, even in broad daylight and, almost on a daily basis, she heard about a drug bust, mugging or
robbery
close by. She vividly remembered hearing the late night wail of sirens as police responded to her neighbors’ nine-one-one calls. She hadn’t felt safe there; one night she could’ve sworn that the loud boom she heard was a gunshot.

Actually, Ann thought, I guess we were lucky considering what could’ve happened there. The worst thing that had happened to them was having the radio stolen out of their car one night. She would never forget how angry David had been. That was what finally convinced him it was time for them to move.

In January, Ann had seen the ad Olivia placed in the
Western Hills Press
and they’d moved
to the first floor apartment in the old Victorian
.
She
was so glad they’d moved there.
Now, Danielle and Davey no longer had to share a bedroom and, instead of a small balcony, they had a big backyard to play in
.
Olivia had given
her
permission to
fix up the apartment however she chose and to
plant flowers or do whatever she wanted to in the yard
.
She
felt like they belonged there
; it was home
.

But I miss Bernie,
she
thought.
I’ve been so concerned with my own problems that I’ve neglected
him
all this time,
she
realized, feeling guilty. It’s been
ten
months since we moved here and I promised I’d stay in touch. I never even called to give him our new address. He’s such a sweet man and he’s all alone except for a couple of old friends from the force. I’ll call him and invite him to Thanksgiving dinner, she decided
, smiling
. I don’t want him to be alone for the holidays
and it’ll be good to talk to him again
.

As she reached toward the phone
to call him
, it rang
, startling her
.
She picked up the receiver and heard David’s voice.
She
felt instant relief, which quickly turned to anger. “Where are you? Where have you been?” she demanded.