The Scent of Murder (10 page)

I tapped my fingers on my belt. Maybe he'd stepped outside to have a smoke. I opened the door to take a look.

T
he rain was coming down harder now. I was thinking about was down I was how I should have brought along an umbrella, when I heard a muffled high-pitched noise. It seemed to be coming from down the block. I stepped out onto the sidewalk to see if it was Manuel. With him you never knew. Nothing was moving. Then across the street, past the cars, in the vacant lot, I thought I spotted a movement. I squinted, trying to get a better look. It was one person. No, two. It just looked like one because of the size difference. Were they hugging? No, they were fighting. As I watched, the smaller person broke free and started running towards the club. The bigger one went after him—or her. It could be either. As they ran towards the streetlight, I realized I knew who they were. It was Toon Town and one of the girls from the warehouse.

By now the two of them were in the middle of the street. Toon Town reached out and grabbed the girl. She started to yell, but he clamped his hand over her mouth and cut her off. She began kicking, but it didn't seem to bother him much. He half lifted her off the ground. It looked as if he were carrying her back to the vacant lot. I glanced around. No one else was out. God damn. I felt like kicking something myself. Here I finally find Toon Town. All I wanted to do was to talk to him and look what happens. I was going to have to do something about the girl. What was her name, anyway? Ellen? Melanie? Melonhead? Why wasn't she in Chicago? Hell, why wasn't she home, like she was supposed to be? If she were, none of this would be happening.

For a moment I thought about going back inside and having the bartender call 911, but it didn't look as if there were going to be time for that. By now the two of them were almost across the street. If I waited much longer, the girl would be back where she started.

“Put her down,” I yelled, as I ran down the path onto the sidewalk.

Toon Town and the girl froze for a heartbeat. Then the tableau came to life.

“Stay out of this,” Toon Town warned. His eyes shifted from side to side, as if he were looking at someone standing next to him.

I was about to tell him I wanted to, when Toon Town squealed and jerked his hand away from the girl's mouth.

“You bit me,” he cried. He sounded incredulous.

Then, before he'd fully recovered, the girl twisted around and kicked his knee. I could hear the thud as she connected. He groaned and lurched to the side. She yanked her arm away. Her hair was plastered to her head, drops of water were dripping down her face. She took a couple of steps back. Then she started to run down the street. After going about fifteen feet, she made a left and crossed into a vacant lot. A moment later, she was gone.

“Why'd did you have to do that?” Toon Town whined, as he limped towards me. “You should have stayed out of my business.” He was regarding me with an intensity I found unnerving. I reached in my pocket for my box cutter. “You cost me money. You gonna make it up to me?” he demanded.

“What kind of business are you doing?”

He stopped about twelve feet away from me. “What the fuck do you care?”

“I care because you have Amy.”

“So?” His pupils looked liked cat's eyes in the dark. I wondered what he was on.

“So I want to speak to her.”

“You and everyone else.”

“She's in trouble. She needs help.”

“She's doing just fine.”

“Where is she?”

Toon Town rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. He formed his right hand into a fist and began punching it into his left hand. Slap. Slap. Slap. “You think I can't take care of my own?” His voice began to rise. “You think I'm some kind of jerk-off that you can just say whatever you want to me?” A spray of spit flew out of his mouth. “You think you can come over here and ruin my business? Well I'm smarter than you are. I know more than you do. I know more than you'll ever know.” And he moved towards me.

“Stay where you are,” I warned.

He laughed and kept coming. “You can't dis me like that and just walk away.”

“Really.” I held the box cutter up and slid the blade out. I wasn't getting hurt if I didn't have to. Actually, all I wanted to do was to go inside and dry off. My sneakers were sodden, my hair was wet, and my fingers were going numb in the rain.

Toon Town snorted. “How you gonna hurt me with that thing?”

“Come and see.”

“I got something in my car that could rip you open.” He moved his head slightly to the left. I saw his lime-green Tracker. A man was sitting in it, but I didn't have time to identify him because a second later Toon Town was coming for me.

For somebody who'd been limping, he traveled pretty fast. I slashed at his arm. I could feel a pull as I drew the blade up. I'd connected.

Toon Town's “Jesus!” hung in the air. An imprecation? A prayer? He jumped back and clutched at his jacket sleeve. I turned and ran into the club. The doors closed behind me. Toon Town didn't follow. Which didn't surprise me. There were too many people in here. But something told me he was going to wait. I had a feeling I hadn't hurt him badly enough to send him to the hospital. I'd just hurt him enough to piss him off even more. Which gave me an idea. I began to cheer up. Things might work out after all.

I blotted the rain off my hair with the inside of my jacket and headed for the bar. I wanted something to warm me up a little before I got started. I saw Manuel immediately. He was down towards the middle drinking a beer.

“Having fun?” I growled.

He hurriedly put the Corona down. “What do you mean?” he asked, all innocence.

“Where have you been?” I demanded. “I've been looking all over for you.”

“I was here.”

“Well I didn't see you.” I reached over and snagged his beer.

“Hey! What did you do that for?”

“Because you're not supposed to be drinking it.” I took a sip. “If you were here, how come I didn't see you?”

“I was talking with my friends over in the corner.”

I decided he probably had been. It was dark enough in here to miss someone if you weren't careful. “So where's the girl you were dancing with?”

“She left. She had to go home.” He changed the subject. “So how come you're all wet and everything?”

I finished off Manuel's beer and order a Scotch. Then I told Manuel what had happened. It was a short story and, by the time I was finished, my Black Label was in front of me. I lifted the glass and took a sip. I could feel it warming my throat, as I swallowed. God, it was good.

“Do me a favor,” I said, after I'd taken another sip. “See if Toon Town is still out there. Just look,” I cautioned.

“Sure.” Manuel left and came back a few minutes later. “He's standing right outside the door.”

“Is he hurt?”

“There's blood on his jacket. But he's not like writhing around on the floor.”

“That's too bad.” I moved my fingers back and forth to restore their circulation.

Manuel watched me for a moment without saying anything. “So what are we going to do now? Wait till he goes home?”

“Not exactly.” I gulped down the rest of my drink and explained. “We're going to go out through the back door, get into the cab, wait for Mr. Wallace ‘Toon Town' Gleason and his friend to leave, and then we're going to follow him. Hopefully, he'll lead us to Amy. Even if he doesn't, at least we'll know where they're staying.”

Manuel grinned. “This is why I like you, man. You don't act like no grownup I know.”

God, wasn't that the truth, I thought, as I threw a tip down on the bar.

Manuel tugged on my sleeve, “The back door is this way.” He gestured off to the right. We walked past the bar and around the dance floor. It was less crowded now, the music softer. Couples were swaying to the sounds of “Disco Queen.” The sight made me sad. I guess my mood must have shown on my face because Manuel asked me what was the matter.

“I was just thinking about how much time has gone by and how little I've done with it,” I told him.

He gave me a blank look—I could have been talking about Einstein's theory of relativity—and pointed to the exit sign. “This is it,” he said.

I asked him to check and see if anyone was there. Manuel opened the door and stuck his head out. “A guy's standing about twenty feet away,” he announced, when he was back inside.

“What does he look like?”

“I can't tell. He's got his baseball cap pulled all the way down and his collar pulled all the way up. You want me to go outside and take a look?”

“No. That's okay.” I was aiming for inconspicuous. Having Manuel popping in and out of the door like a jack-in-the-box wasn't going to do it. Given the weather, the odds were the guy was either Toon Town's friend or a drug dealer.

Manuel pulled his pants up. “So what do you want to do?”

I clicked my tongue against my teeth and thought. I'd seen a window when I'd gone to the ladies room. It was small, but I was positive I could squeeze through. I handed Manuel my car keys—an act that pained me deeply—and told him to go get it.

Manuel blinked. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. “But I don't have a license,” he protested weakly.

“That never bothered you before.” I pushed him out the door and headed over to the bathroom. Robin Light. Upholder of Law and Order.

I heard giggling when I stepped inside the ladies room. The sound seemed to be coming from the second stall. The door was closed. I glanced down. Two pairs of legs were entwined. A man's and a woman's. The woman had her nylons pulled down around her calves and her heels off, while the man had his pants around his ankles. His shoes were on. The door rattled. I heard a gasp and an “Oh baby.”

Well, at least they wouldn't be paying attention to what I was doing, I thought, as I went over to the window and lifted the sash. Why anyone would want to screw in a toilet stall was beyond me. It might be amusing to ask them, but I didn't have the time. I wiggled through the window. My left foot hit a can when I landed, and I almost fell down. I looked around quickly, half expecting someone to come running after me. But no one did. The street was empty. I huddled against the wall trying to keep dry, as I waited for Manuel to arrive. I was picking a sliver of wood from the sill out of my jeans when he came driving up.

“You did good,” I told him, as he slid over to the passenger seat.

For an instant, Manuel's smile lit up his face, then it vanished, as he tried to look tough. I turned on the heater and pulled away from the curb. I slowed down when I got to the corner. No one was at the back door. I was wondering if Toon Town and his friend had left, when I spied the Tracker down the block. It had people in it. I guess they'd just gotten tired of waiting out in the storm.

I parked and turned off the engine. The rain rat-tat-tated on the roof of the cab.

“I hate this shit,” Manuel groused. “Why can't it ever be nice out?”

“Because this is Syracuse.”

“The first thing I'm gonna do when I get me some money is move down South.”

“You and everyone else. They should just close down the Northeast and let the forest take over.”

Manuel grunted and closed his eyes. I was thinking about how much I'd like to do that, when Toon Town got out of the Geo and went into the club. A minute or two later, he came storming out. I nudged Manuel.

“Look,” I told him, as Toon Town got in the car and slammed the door. I guess he'd figured out that I wasn't there.

“He's pissed,” Manuel said.

“No kidding.”

The car roared to life and took off. I let him get to the corner before I followed. If Toon Town had gotten on the highway, it would have been easy to tail him, but he didn't. He kept to the local streets, which meant I had to keep about half a block's distance between us. Everytime he turned, I kept thinking I was going to lose him.

Then around Coleridge, I did. I circled the block. Nothing. I turned left and went down Cleveland. Still nothing. I tried Easton.

“Look.” Manuel pointed at a driveway midway down the street. “There it is.”

“I think you're right.” I drove past the house. Yup. It was the Geo all right. We'd found the place.

Then the front door opened and Toon Town and Amy came out.

T
oon Town was holding Amy by the elbow. I watched him was by the I guide her towards the Tracker. If either had turned their heads, they would have seen me, but they didn't. They were in too much of a rush. I jumped out of the cab though, as it turned out, I could have saved myself the trouble. By the time I'd taken two steps, they were inside their car. I heard the engine roar. They were taking off. I sprinted back to the cab.

“Go, go, go,” Manuel yelled, as I slid in. “They're getting away.”

“I can see that,” I snapped. I wiped the rain out of my eyes and closed the cab door. Its thud punctuated the night.

By the time I'd completed my U-turn, Toon Town was down at the corner taking a right. I followed suit. But Easton was deserted when I got there. Toon Town and Amy must have taken one of the four streets that fed off of it. But which? That was the question.

“You think they spotted us?” Manuel asked, as I drove down Ansel Road.

I steered around a garbage can lying in the middle of the street. “Maybe.” I thought about how I would give anything for a cigarette. “I don't know.” When I got to the corner, I made a left onto Adams.

The swaying branches of the trees lining the streets were the only things moving. I cursed and went on to the next block. It was deserted too. The asphalt gleamed wetly under the streetlight's glow. A white cat sprinted out from under a parked car and ran across the road. Then I saw what looked like a set of taillights in the distance. Manuel sat up straighter. He'd seen them too.

“You think that's them?” he asked.

“Let's find out.” I put my foot down on the gas. The cab jerked—it doesn't like surprises—jumped forward and took off.

The car I was following turned left at the next corner and so did I. I was a little under half a block away from them when I realized I'd made a mistake. I was tailing a sedan.

I pounded the steering wheel and cursed.

Manuel half turned towards me. “They had to go somewhere.”

“I know.” I concentrated on the road in front of me. The houses on either side of the street were dark and silent, blind to our progress. The only sound was the swish-swash of the cab's windshield wipers. As I turned onto Coleridge, Manuel took his lighter out of his pocket and began flicking it on and off.

“Can you please stop that,” I snapped.

“Why?”

“Because it's annoying me.”

“Fine.” Manuel shifted around in his seat. The wind had picked up again. I could hear the power lines humming. “You know, from where I was sittin' it didn't look like Toon Town was draggin' Amy to the Tracker. It looked like she was goin' of her own free will.”

“True,” I admitted. Maybe it was time to drop the white knight act. Amy and Toon Town could be running off to Vegas for a vacation for all I knew. I reached over and clicked on the radio. A minister was preaching salvation. “I guess if you're up at this time of the night, you probably need it,” I said, as I changed the station.

Manuel yawned, by way of an answer. We drove around for another twenty minutes. Then I went over to the warehouse to see if Toon Town had ended up there. He hadn't. There were no cars in the parking lot. It was time to go home.

Manuel was sound asleep when I pulled into my driveway. He was groggy when I woke him, and I had to steady him as he went into the house. He made it as far as the living room before he collapsed on the sofa. I let him stay there because I was too tired to make him go up the stairs. He really had to patch things up with his family. I'd talk about it with him tomorrow, I decided, as I went to bed.

When my alarm went off at seven thirty, I pushed the cat off my chest, pulled the cord out of the wall, and put the pillow over my head. I would have stayed that way if Zsa Zsa hadn't started barking and licking my fingers at twenty after nine. I was tired, every muscle in my body ached. I felt as if I were ninety-eight years old, and the day hadn't even begun yet. Standing under the shower, I decided I couldn't do this anymore. I had to start getting more sleep. I used to be able to run on four hours a night. Now I needed at least six.

I got out and pulled on some clothes. Then I went downstairs, gulped down half a cup of day-old coffee, grabbed a handful of Oreo cookies, and ran out the door. I made it to the store with three minutes to spare. The only good things about the morning so far, I reflected, were that the sky wasn't grey and it wasn't raining. In Syracuse, a little blue goes a long way.

I had the key in the lock, when George pulled up to the curb in his Taurus. I watched him get out of his car. He looked as tired as I felt. He held up a Dunkin' Donuts box and a white paper bag. “Coffee and doughnuts.”

“Sounds good.” I opened up the store and George, Zsa Zsa, and I went inside. Pickles came running out to greet us, while Mr. Bones ran excitedly from side to side in his cage. I said hello to all the animals, opened the register, took the coffee George was offering, and sipped it. Compared to what I'd just drank back at the house, it was ambrosial. “So when'd you get back?”

“Just now. I left the Bronx at six.”

“Did you get everything straightened out?”

“For the moment.” George frowned. “Jesus, though, it's like patching up a sieve.”

“Then why do you keep going down there?”

“Because they call me.”

“Can't they call anyone else?”

“I don't think anyone else in my family wants to be bothered anymore. I guess they got tired of the phone ringing in the middle of the night.”

“And you aren't? Don't you have a paper that's due soon?”

George rubbed his lower lip with his thumb. “I don't know why I just can't seem to say no. I tell myself I will, but the next time they call, back down I go. And the worst part of it is whenever I'm there, I feel like I want to kill them.” He looked so sad that I went over and gave him a hug. His lips curved up in a tiny smile. “Let's talk about your mess instead. It'll make me feel better.”

I laughed and told him about Amy. He ate a doughnut, while I gave him a rundown of what had happened while he'd been away.

“It seems like you're getting to meet the whole Richmond family,” he remarked when I was through.

“Yeah. Aren't I lucky?” I broke off a piece of a peanut-covered chocolate doughnut and popped it in my mouth. “I wonder if Dennis was as bad as the rest of them?”

“Oh yeah. He was a real jerk.”

I did a double take. “You knew him? You never told me that.”

“I didn't know-
know
him. The guy used the same gym I did.” George picked up a glazed doughnut and took a bite.

“What was he like?”

“He was one of those guys who wouldn't do anything all week and then would come in and try to bench two hundred and fifty pounds.” George finished the rest of the doughnut and wiped his hands off with a paper towel. “Dave, the guy that owns the place.” I nodded. “Tried to tell him he was going to get himself in trouble, but he blew him off. His attitude was—I got money, so kiss my ass.”

“He sounds charming.”

“He was a real sweetie.” George ran a finger under the collar of his crewneck sweater. “Damn thing itches,” he grumped.

“Wool does. You should wear a shirt under it, the next time.”

He grunted. “So what do you think the story with Amy is? You think she killed her father?”

“No.”

“How do you know?”

“I don't. It's just a feeling I have. But I think she knows something, and I think she's terrified.” She'd certainly acted that way in the parking lot the other night when the car had driven by.

“Of what?”

“I haven't a clue.”

George puffed his cheeks out and sucked them back in. “Then why doesn't she go to the police?”

I thought back to our conversation. “Maybe she doesn't think they'll believe anything she says.”

“And why's that?”

“Because she's a druggie. Because she's been in Cedar View.”

“Maybe she's right.” George drained the last of his coffee. “According to you, she was one of the last people to see her father alive. I know if I were investigating this case, she'd be on the top of my list.”

“If I were betting, I'd pick the mother.”

George laughed. “You're biased.”

“No, I'm not. Well, maybe a little,” I conceded. “What did Murphy see in her anyway?”

George shrugged. “She asked him. That was enough.”

It was true. Saying no had never been one of Murphy's strong suits. “Actually, the whole family is peculiar. There's something off about all of them.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Observation. What I really need is some information.” I gave George a speculative look.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“I was just thinking about your cousin.”

“What about him?”

“I was wondering if he knew anything about the Richmond family.”

George snorted. “Why the hell should he?”

“Well, they are in the same field.”

“That's really stretching it. He's a nobody, a nobody who's about to lose his license. The only thing he knows about the Richmond family is their name in the catalog they send him.”

“Maybe he's heard something.”

“Like what?”

“I don't know. I know you don't want to, but could you call him up and ask?”

George scowled.

“For Amy's sake. And Murphy's.”

“That's a low blow.”

I didn't say anything. I just watched George fiddle with his sweater cuff.

“I don't see how finding out about the Richmond family is going to help you locate Amy,” he protested after a minute.

“Just call it a hunch.”

George sighed. “All right.”

“Thanks.”

“But it's a waste of time. He won't know anything.”

“Thanks anyway.” I went over and gave George a kiss.

He kissed me back. Hard. Then he started nibbling on my ear. “Let's go in the back.”

“Someone could walk in.”

“Let them wait.” He slipped his hand between my legs.

“You're right. What do I need customers for, anyway?”

“You don't, when you got me.”

I could feel my resolve start to weaken, when the phone rang. George sighed. I reached over and got it. Another joy of owning a business. You can never do what you want when you want.

“It's Frank Richmond,” I mouthed. George moved his ear closer to the receiver.

“Can we talk?” Richmond asked. His voice was faint, and there was static on the line. He sounded as if he were using a cell phone.

“We are.”

He gave a weak laugh. “No. I meant face-to-face.”

“Let me guess. It's about Amy.”

“More or less.” There was a longish pause on the other end of the line.

“Are you still there?” I asked.

“Sorry. Yes.” I heard honking. “Nine thirty tonight?” Richmond asked. “The Garden.”

“How about Pete's on Westcott,” I suggested, instead. The Garden annoyed me. It was full of rich, thirty-year-olds trying to act hip.

“Fine.”

“See you then.” By now the static was so bad I could barely make out his words.

George took the receiver out of my hand and replaced it, while I put the closed sign on the front door. As we went into the back room, I decided I shouldn't have been so quick to condemn the couple in the bathroom last night. What George and I were about to do wasn't really much better, after all. I guess a quickie is a quickie is a quickie, no matter where you do it.

George left about half an hour later. I spent the rest of the morning thinking about how Amy had ended up the way she had and wondering what Melanie and Toon Town had been fighting about.

Around twelve thirty I called Locked Up Tight and asked for Wallace Gleason. I figured we had a lot to discuss. Don Marcos got on the line instead.

“Is there a problem?” he asked anxiously.

“No. I just have a question for Mr. Gleason.”

“I'm sorry, but Wally doesn't work for us anymore.”

“I see.”

There was a pause. Then Marcos said, “Can I ask what this is about?” His tone was tight.

“It's about a credit card application,” I ad-libbed. “I'm calling from Marine Midland.”

“Good.” He sighed in relief.

“May I ask why he left and how long he worked for you?”

“Actually, I fired him.”

“Would you mind telling me why?”

“With pleasure. He was taking merchandise out of the store, missing work, doing wildcat work, and using our name. That kind of thing. In my line of work I can't afford to employ unreliable people. I had to let him go.”

“In your position, I would have, too,” I assured him. “Can you tell me anything else?” It always amazed me that people are willing to talk so freely on the phone. Even a guy like Marcos.

“Not really. He started off good and then just slid downhill. I tried talking to him a couple of times to find out what was going on, but he didn't have much to say.”

I thanked Marcos and called Toon Town's mother's house. The answering machine picked up. I left a message and hung up. Around seven, I hopped in my cab and ran over to see if anyone was in the house Manuel and I had spotted Toon Town and Amy coming out of. No one was. Somehow I didn't consider that an encouraging sign. Tim was hooking up an elaborate tunnel maze for Mr. Bones from PVC pipe when I got back.