Mr. Softee (18 page)

I wrote down both license plate numbers on a McDonald’s bag.

Baldy walked over to the driver’s side of the Mercedes. Lola lowered the window no more than three or four inches. Just low enough to cram a purple nylon bag into the bald thug’s waiting paws. As soon as he took the bag she raised the window. No words seem to be exchanged.

The moment he plac
ed the bag into the night-deposit drop, she put the Mercedes in gear and drove off. The Hummer waited as he climbed back in, then sped up to follow her home. They all turned down the side street to get to the alley, I continued straight so they wouldn’t spot me, then doubled back. The Geo brakes ground to a noisy stop as I pulled over to watch the alley. I sat there until about ten thirty that night, then left. I decided to drive over to Jill’s house rather than call, but when I arrived there was a car parked in front. I didn’t want to risk running into someone or putting Jill in an uncomfortable position so I left and drove over to Heidi’s.

I noticed the
rear kitchen light was on as I drove past. If she was out she always left the front entry light on, just to alert would-be burglars that the house was empty. I parked, walked down the alley and into her backyard. I could see her drinking a glass of wine, sitting at her kitchen counter and watching something that looked like American Idol or Biggest Loser on the flat screen, highbrow stuff. She appeared to be alone.

As I walked toward
the back steps a light automatically flashed on. I knocked softly on her back door.

“Who is it?” she called a moment or two later.

“It’s me, Dev, open up,” I said, then glanced around nervously. I was standing directly under the spotlight illuminating her entire yard.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“Heidi, damn it, open up, come on!”

I heard the lock snap
and she opened the door.

“Can I come in
? Christ, I’m getting eaten alive out here.”

She stood to one side so I could enter, then locked the door behind me.

“Just what the hell have you done? And where in the hell have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for a couple of days. Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?”

It was Heidi at her most dangerous
. Eyes tearing up and flashing at the same time, bottom lip quivering and she was standing next to the knife rack.

“I got all that cleared up, don’t worry,” I tried to sound casual.

“Cleared up? Don’t worry? Is that why you’re sneaking around to my back door? What the hell’s going on? The police have been here, twice.”

“Just a little misunderstanding, I…”

“Misunderstanding! Hey, I posted bail for you. You didn’t have any problem calling me that night, did you? I’m on the hook for about five grand here. Misunderstanding! You can’t just blow me off like that, Dev.”

“Okay, okay, could you stop screeching for a minute so I can get a word in edgewise and explain things,” I said, groveling for time
, trying to think.

“Explain things, oh please, do go on,” she said,
then cocked her hips and crossed her arms, not a good sign.

“Okay
look Mister Softee, I told you a little about him. Turns out things got a bit more complicated. Hey, you got any beer in the fridge?”

“Oh g
od, help yourself. Christ, I’ll need some more of that wine, too. So, Mister Softee, you were saying.”

I went on to t
ell her most of the facts; Jill’s fire, Jennifer McCauley’s crash, Bernie Sneen’s final train ride, Softee not paying my invoice, assaulting me, and finally his body stuffed and baking in the trunk of my car. I left out the part about Jill spending the night, Lola hitting on me, and the suntan oil.

“Detective Manning failed to
mention any of that,” she said. We were sitting on her living room couch by now. I was doing my best to make sure her wine glass was never empty.

“Manning, that guy
’s just out to nail me. I don’t know what his problem is,” I said.

“Well, it might have something to do with a bod
y and the fact that the victim filed charges against you just the day or two before. Charges, I might add, that I bailed you…”

“Yeah, I get that, but he’s just not looking at the fact
s here. For starters,” and then it dawned on me. “For starters, I think I was in police custody when I was supposed to have put Mister Softee in the trunk of my car. I think I may have been locked up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the best thing you might have done for me was continue on with your evening of debauchery while I spent the night locked up in police custody.”

“Oh brother,” she chuckled, but then took another sip and gave me that smile that suggested she was feeling no pain.

Chapter
Forty-Four

I felt so guilty
at seven the following morning when Heidi kissed me good-bye and tiptoed off to work that I snuggled down and slept for another hour and a half. The place was clean, rodent free, with a full refrigerator and Heidi with benefits. I showered, then sat at her kitchen counter drinking coffee and picking at a Hostess Twinkie, wondering what the hell I was going to do.

An
hour later I was still wondering the same thing while I sat parked at the end of Softee’s alley. I was waiting for Lola and her band of scary men to go somewhere so I could follow. And then what?

“Haskell Investigations,” I answered after
failing to read Jill’s name on my caller ID.

“Oh g
od, Dev, finally. Are you okay?”

“Me
? Yeah sure, how are things going?”

“
How are things going? Forget that. What happened? The police have been here a couple of times asking about you. I’m hearing awful reports. What’s going on?”

“Actually
, just a little misunderstanding,” I said trying to down play Softee’s murder. The garage door was going up, and Lola drove off down the alley, a moment later the Hummer pulled out and followed her.

I started the Geo, or at least tried to.

“Come on, damn it,” I said by way of encouragement.

“You okay
? And what’s that terrible noise?” Jill asked as the car suddenly gasped to life farting a gray cloud of exhaust into the air.

“Oh, sorry
, I was walking past a cement mixer and the guy just turned the thing on, I couldn’t hear you at all.”

“Sounded awful,” she said as the Geo
lurched down the alley in pursuit.

“Yeah, I can’t imagine putting up with that all day
. ‘Course you had those bells,” I added, wishing I could have pulled the words back the moment they crossed my lips.

“Yeah,” she said sadly, then silence.

“So, the police paid you a visit?” I accelerated through a yellow light, then backed off.

“Yeah, they were
asking about you. Well, and Mister Softee. I told them I didn’t know anything, which is pretty much the truth. But then I called you a couple of times and never heard anything back.”

“Yeah, I had the phone turned off
. You know working with the police trying to get this whole mess sorted out. I just listened to your messages last night, but I thought it might be too late to call,” I lied, not adding, plus I was climbing into Heidi’s orgy-sized bed.

“So
then, everything is cleared up?”

“Just about, a couple of loose ends but nothing serious,” I said
. Lola and the three goons had pulled over in front of a brick warehouse. She got out of her car once the goons were standing around her. The three of them providing some pretty tight security looking up, down, and across the street, then glancing five stories up toward the rooftop before they made their way to the door, a phalanx, Lola protected in the middle.

“… later tonight?”

“What? I’m sorry my phone cut out there, I missed what you said,” I recovered, still wondering what in the hell Lola and her thugs were up to.

“I asked, are you
interested in coming over for dinner tonight? Say about seven thirty?”

“This isn’
t going to prompt a call later on about you not being that type of girl, is it?” I joked.

“What?”

With that one word, if she was faking it, she was doing a damn good job. She clearly didn’t remember the final drunken phone message she’d left me. Bringing it up now would not do one thing to increase my chances. There were only three words to describe my question. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

“I’ll see you around seven
thirty, what can I bring?”

“Not a thing
. Let’s make it a very special celebration in honor of you getting things cleared up.”

“I like the sound of that,” I said.

“I mean it, I’ve got something really special planned, for both of us,” she said. I could feel my phone heating up as she spoke.

“See you tonight, seven
thirty,” I said.

“Counting on it,”
she sounded almost breathless.

Chapter Forty-Five

I waited down the
block for a few more hours.

A half hour
after Lola and the goons entered, a total of five other cars had arrived, all separately. I had no idea if they were related to whatever Lola was involved in. They were all driven by guys you wouldn’t give a second look to if you passed them on the street. None of them even remotely gave the appearance of the security theatrics Lola and her friends had displayed.

By now i
t was close to the end of the workday. The streets were getting busier with people adding to rush hour. Parked for the afternoon a block away in the wretched little Geo I’d dosed off half a dozen times. Every time I’d jerked awake, the cars were still in position.

Eventually
I came to and saw one of Lola’s goons, the dopey looking guy with the crew cut, standing out in front of the building. He looked a little nervous, seemed to fidget and talk to himself as he paced back and forth on the sidewalk. After five or six minutes he went back inside the building.

I caught
the unmistakable sound of gunfire. There’s only one thing that sounds like that. Not firecrackers or doors slamming or hammers pounding. I knew exactly what it was. There was a single shot, then after a couple of seconds it was followed by three or four more, then the loud, ripping burst of an automatic weapon.

Suddenly something flew through a glass window on the third floor
. I could see the guy’s legs moving back and forth like he was running as he hurtled through the air toward the ground. He landed on the sidewalk, bounced visibly as shards of glass rained and tinkled around him. Then lay very still. Almost immediately the goon who had been pacing back and forth flew out the door of the building, jumped in the Hummer and started it up.

More shots so
unded from inside the building. I made out some single shots, then a pause before I heard another rip from an automatic weapon. The front door flew open again, this time it was the two goons with Lola. Lola was running barefoot, holding her heels and a large grocery bag.

She ran to her car, screamed something to one of the goo
ns. He fired a round into the head of the body lying on the sidewalk then slammed the Hummer door closed and the two vehicles rocketed down the street and screeched around a corner.

I cranked the Geo
. Then cranked some more, again, and again, finally it sprang to life but there was no way I was going to be able to catch up with Lola. I raced up to where their cars had been parked. Cautiously got out, watching the shattered third-floor window as I made my way to the figure on the sidewalk. Dark blood pooled around the body and spread across the concrete. I felt for a pulse but didn’t find one. I reached in the guy’s rear pocket, pulled out his wallet to learn who he was.

Someone suddenly shouted from the shattered window.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?”

He waved a pistol then fired wide
. I heard the round slap into the side of the Geo. I pulled the Glock and fired. I wasn’t thinking, I just fired at the body mass in the window, two rounds, maybe three. The guy sort of grunted or coughed, then dropped from sight. I didn’t bother to wait around, just jumped back into the Geo and drove off. I clanked my way around the corner aware that there were a number of people out on the street watching me.

Chapter Forty-Six

I took a very
roundabout way back to Dog’s place. I used side streets and back county roads, making sure I wasn’t being followed. I was worried that not only had someone given my description to the police, they may have gotten the license number to the Geo as well.

It was dark by
the time I arrived. I examined the bullet hole in the passenger door, about all you could say was it had missed the window. I doubted Noleen would ever notice.