enough to worry about… Okay.” John handed the phone to me, shaking his head.
“Some lady wanted her money back from the tour because one of the chimps threw some shit on her.” She said.
“Rolly again?”
“Who else? This self-righteous bitch and her creepy fucking family went through and she came out all incensed and started yelling at me. I told her it was part of nature, and that we couldn’t control what the chimps did with their own shit, but she kept on demanding her money back.”
“You give it to her?” I asked.
“Hell no.” She said. “I cursed her out, and told her I’d give her money back if she could find the sign in the shop that promised that the chimps wouldn’t throw shit at them. She left and said she’d be back with a cop to get her money. I knew we shoulda gone to Megapark! She said. The fat bitch.”
“You did the right thing. I probably would’ve just given her her money back.”
“I’m in no mood to oblige anybody right now.” She said. “Did you talk to our friend about that thing? You know what I’m talking about?”
“Yeah.” I said. “No luck.”
“This whole day has been a fucking nightmare, if I don’t score soon I’m gonna eat somebody’s face.”
“I love you too honey.” I said. “Bye bye now.”
That night I was on the main-gate again and John took the side gate. I was so bored I read a People magazine.
The next morning I had Jessie write out an envelope addressed to Detective Borgano. She put down a made up PO box in Stockholm Sweden for the return address. I wiped the paper and the envelope down with a cleanex, just in case they checked for fingerprints. I carried it by the edges to my car and drove to my old neighborhood. The mailbox I chose to mail it from was a block and a half away from Meredith Divos’s house. I figured the cops would assume she’d resent it for him, and they wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. If they found out it was me, they would use it to get me on the hook.
I was thinking about David’s mom, and how she’d sent me flowers after I saved her brother’s pinky, which gave me a good idea. I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts and got a half dozen assorted and two cups of coffee and headed back. I parked across the street from my old house, which my mom had sold years ago to a couple who’d painted it blue. I walked up to Meredith Divos’ front door, carrying the box of donuts and coffee in a cardboard carrying case.
My thought was that Freddie might be there, but she seemed to be alone. She was surprised to see me, but she invited me in anyway, apologizing about the state of her house. She was wearing a nightgown, but I didn’t think I had gotten her out of bed. We went to her kitchen, and I set the donuts and coffee on the table while she got a roll of paper towels from the counter. The coffee I’d brought was redundant because she had a pot going, but she politely took the lid off one of the cups I’d brought and began fix it with creamer and sugar. “This is very nice of you.” She said. “I hadn’t seen you in years, and here I see you twice in a matter of weeks. What brings you by?”
“I was in the neighborhood and I thought you might need a little pick-me-up.” I said. “You were always so nice to me, I just thought you must be going through a tough time now, between David being in trouble, and your little nephew passed away. I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do.”
“That’s very Christian of you.” She said. “I’ve been having some bad luck alright. Tell me, are you still living with that nice girl?”
“Jessie.” I said. “Yeah I am.”
“I always thought that if David had found the right girl his life would’ve been a lot different. A good woman could’ve straightened him out. A good hard-headed woman.”
“Yeah, maybe so.” I said, taking a sip of coffee. “Baby Rico’s funeral coming up soon?”
“Two days ago.” She said. “Didn’t you see the notice in the paper?”
“I don’t get the paper.” I said. “How’s your brother’s hand doing?”
“Better, I think. I haven’t spoken with him. I’m actually starting to worry. We usually talk every day, and now, during all this he just stops calling back… It’s awful.”
“Was he at the funeral?”
“Yes.” She said. “My sisters aren’t speaking to me. They blame David for Rico’s death. Maybe Freddie agrees with them. I guess they’re right, but I’m sure David didn’t mean for anything like that to happen. David couldn’t have known that Rico would pull out a stupid pellet gun and point it at those cops. How could he have known?”
“He couldn’t have.” I said. “The worst you can say about David is that he didn’t really think it through, that’s all.”
“They don’t want to hear that. They just want someone to blame. I say blame the police that did it.” She was sniffing back tears.
“I’m so sorry.” I said. I put a hand on her shoulder. “I came over to cheer you up, and I made it worse didn’t I?”
“No, no, you’re fine.” She said. “I’ve been so blue since this started. I wish they would catch him so at least I would know he was safe. “
“I’m sure things’ll turn around soon.” I said, standing up. “I’ve gotta get going Miss Divos, I don’t want to take up any more of your time. Thank you so much for inviting me in, just give me a call if you need anything alright? I’ll write my number down.” There was a post-it note pad and pen on the counter, and I wrote my name and number. She stood up and gave me a hug. I left her house feeling like a shit.
FOURTEEN
I told Jessie that our best hope of getting David off was Freddie Divos, and he’d disappeared. She was impressed that I’d gone over to David’s mom’s house to look for him. “You know,” she said, “the man owns a hotel. That would be the obvious place to look for him. He’s probably holed up in one of the rooms.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I said.
“We should go over there and check it out. We might get lucky and spot him.”
“Let’s go.” I said.
“Now?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“Sarah said she’d call me back today.” She said. “There’s a guy driving up from Akron, one of her brother’s friends, and he supposedly has a bunch of good weed with him. He grows it himself.”
“We’re trying to help our friend beat a double murder charge, and you’re worried about getting some weed?”
“Don’t be so dramatic.” She said. “You go, I’ll stay here and wait for Sarah. He’s probably not there anyway.”
“You just said you thought he was there.”
“If you’re gonna go, be sure to be back in time to get me to work.”
I drove to the Shoreston Motor Lodge and decided that I didn’t want to stay and do surveillance. There were only twelve rooms, and you could tell that they were all empty except for one. There were two cars in the lot, and the office looked closed. I parked and walked up the stairs to the room that looked occupied. It had the curtains closed and the lights on. I knocked.
There was a shuffling sound from inside the room and I heard someone heavy coming toward the door. A chubby hand pulled the curtain in the window aside a little and a large man in a white undershirt looked out at me. He looked like he was in his late thirties and his brown hair was thin and messy, like he’d just gotten out of bed. “Whaddya want?” He said.
“Freddie in there?” I asked.
The guy squinted at me. “No.” He said. “Who’re you?”
“I’m a friend of his sister.” I said. “She hasn’t seen him for a while and she’s worried about him. I told her I’d come by and see if I could find him.”
The guy coughed. “What’s your name?” He asked.
“Uh, -Phil.” I said.
“Okay, Uh Phil, if I see him I’ll tell him you were looking for him.”
“Tell him his sister is looking for him.” I said.
“Yeah, okay, got it.” He said, giving me a fake smile and the thumbs-up sign before letting the curtain fall back in
place. I walked to my car wondering who the guy was. I was turning the key in the ignition when I heard a tap on the passenger window that startled me. It was Detective Reyes. She opened the door and sat down next to me.
“Hi.” I said.
“Drive.” She answered. I pulled out of the parking lot onto the road, headed toward town. “What the hell was that?”
“What was what?” I asked.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for Freddie Divos.” I said.
“And why is that, Mr. Perkins?”
“Because his sister’s worried about him.” I said. I was glad to have that reason handy and not have to think up something on the spot, although it seemed a bit thin now that I was giving it to Reyes. “I went to see her this morning, and she told me he was missing, so I thought I’d see if I could find him. On top of everything that’s happened to her, her brother stopped calling her back. She’s really depressed. I feel bad for her.”
Reyes thought for a moment. “My partner thinks we should be focusing our investigation on you.” She said. “Maybe he’s right. I had you down as a bumbling security guard with a case of morbid curiosity, but maybe your interest is more than curiosity after all. Maybe it’s self-interest.”
“I’m a security agent,” I said, “not a guard, and I have no idea what you’re talking about. Meredith Divos lost her nephew and had her son accused of two murders, and now her brother has gone missing. I’ve known her since I was ten, I just thought I could help.”
“You’re a real boy scout.” She said.
“Actually I never got into that stuff. I had a friend who made it all the way to eagle scout, but it always seemed sort of-”
“Turn around and take me back. Trying to talk to you is obviously a waste of time.” I turned the car around and began driving back the way I’d come. “Your friend David -who you haven’t been in contact with- is in serious danger, and I don’t mean from the police. If he isn’t already dead he will be soon. Should he happen to contact you, tell him his best and most likely only hope is to turn himself in, although if he killed or kidnapped his uncle there’s nothing we can do for him.”
“Now you think he killed his uncle?”
“Sure, why not?” She said. “What do you think happened to him?”
“I have no clue.” I said.
She told me to stop a block up from the motor lodge. “Do you have any information regarding this case that you’d like to tell me? Any theories? You’re obviously an interested party.”
“I’d say Junior Pierson is behind the whole thing.” I said. “Amanda wrote an article about the adoption place in Port Sound, did you know that? Junior Pierson runs it. Amanda was going to continue investigating. That’s probably why she was killed.”
Reyes laughed. “I read it.” She said. “You’re not the only one who knows how to work Google. You think Junior killed her to save himself a little bad publicity huh? And then killed his wife and shot himself too? Just for the hell of it?” She opened the door.
“David wouldn’t kill anyone for a camera, or a car. He could’ve easily stolen that stuff without having to kill anybody.”
She got out and turned around, leaning down to look at me. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve come to be wary of people who butt their way into murder investigations. They’re never what they appear to be.” She shrugged. “You appear to be an honest guy.” She shut the door and I watched her walk toward the bank parking lot across the street.
Jessie hadn’t heard from Sarah, and was sullen as I drove her to work. “I shoulda called off sick today.” She said. “What if she’s trying to call right now?”
“Jesus, you’re like a junky.” I said. “Relax, I’m sure some more weed will show up eventually.”
“You really think Reyes suspects something?” She asked.
“Yeah.” I said. “She doesn’t like me and she didn’t believe I was looking for Freddie for his sister’s sake.”
“You’re a terrible liar. You really suck.” She picked at the edge of her sleeve, thinking. “What if he fled the country? David seems to think he’s the only one who can get him off, maybe Junior paid him to relocate to Barbados or somewhere.”
“I don’t know, maybe.” I said. “Junior hasn’t shown his face in Lakeview since the shooting, but they’re planning a big reception for him tonight. If Freddie doesn’t show up for it, then he’s hiding or he ran away. Everyone is gonna be at this thing. They’re making Junior out to be the poor victim, and the Resident’s Council wants him to know that the whole town is behind him. They keep calling him a hero.”
“Why?” She asked. “Even if you believe his story, all he did was watch his wife get shot, get shot himself, and then not quite die.”
“To some people that makes him a hero I guess.” I said. “Reginald Pickley is the guy planning the reception, and he told John he wanted it to be like that scene at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, you know, when the whole town gave money to Jimmy Stewart. He’s trying to stage manage a version of that, but without the money. I think he even wants it to look spontaneous.”
“Oh brother. I never liked that movie.”
“Really? I think it’s pretty good.” I said. “I like it when Jimmy Stewart socks the cop.”
“What?”
“You know, when he’s in the alternate reality, and the angry mob is after him and the cop comes and he just socks him in the face and takes off running. That part’s cool.”
“Oh, socks the cop.”
“What’d you think I said?”
“I thought you said you liked the part where Jimmy Stewart sucks the cock.”
“Seriously Jess, you might have mental problems.” I said. “What’s our next move?”
“We just wait and see if Sarah calls.” She answered.
“I’m talking about David.”
“Oh, I guess we have to find out what happened to Freddie.” She said. “The police are looking for him too, but if they think David killed him they’re way off base.”
“So we figure out where Freddie is and tell the cops?”
“Yeah, that sounds right.” She said.
“Any bright ideas where to look for him?”
“We could start with his trailer.” She said. “You could get in there and have a look around. You might learn something.”
I pulled up to the PFPFP and stopped in front of the front door. “I’m already in for aiding a fugitive, what’s a little breaking and entering?”
“That’s the spirit.” She said. “You don’t think this Freddie guy was a smoker do you?”
“Oh, I’m also looking for any spare weed the guy might’ve been holding?”
“Just a thought.”
FIFTEEN
The key to the trailer was under the mat, but I knocked, just to be sure that Freddie wasn’t home. There was no answer so I went in and flipped on the light, feeling no need to be particularly sneaky. You could see the entire space as soon as you entered. Nothing had changed much from when I’d been there looking for the severed pinky. It was a dingy, lifeless hole. Next to the kitchen was an area that could roughly be called the living room, and beyond that was the ‘bedroom’. There was a faint smell of mold, which was competing with a lingering cigar smell. I felt a little sick to my stomach.
I went to the telephone in the living room and picked it up. His caller ID showed calls from his sister as far back as the telephone could remember. I hit the redial button, and looked at the number that came up on the screen without hitting the ‘OK’ button that would dial the number. I wrote it in the margin of a newspaper sports section that was nearby and then ripped it off and put it in my pocket. A noise at the window stopped my snooping, and I went over to check it out but I didn’t see anything. I started feeling nervous about being there, but I continued.
Next to the phone was a stack of mail, some of which was open, but useless. I looked at a credit card bill to see where he’d
used it, but all the charges listed were a month old. As I went into the bedroom area I had to remind myself that I was doing this for the right reasons. Looking through someone’s stuff can make you feel like a creep.
There was a small nightstand by the bed with two drawers. I opened the top drawer and found a small, old-fashioned revolver, sitting on top of a stack of Barely Legal magazines.
I picked up the gun and looked at it, trying to figure out if it was loaded or not when I realized all at once that someone was behind me. getting startled while you’re holding a gun is like being startled twice, because you flinch, and then you flinch again, afraid that the first flinch might’ve accidentally fired the weapon. “I hear you’re on a missing persons case.” John Marchin said.
“Huh?”
“You’re here looking for Freddie right? I mean I assume you’re not here to rob the place.”
“Oh, no.” I said. “Of course not. I went and saw Freddie’s sister, Meredith, and she said she hadn’t heard from him in days, so I thought I’d see if something happened to him. He coulda choked to death in here all alone.”
“No corpses around that I can see.”
“No. Boy you scared me coming in like that.” I said. “And here I am, holding a gun.”
He smiled. “It looks good on you.” He said. I started to put the gun back in the drawer. “You should wipe it off first. You don’t want to leave your fingerprints all over someone else’s gun.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I said. I took a couple of tissues from a box beside the bed and wiped the gun down. “What did you mean when you said you’d heard I was on a missing persons case?”
“Borgano told me his partner ran into you at Freddie’s motor lodge. If they knew you were here right now they’d be pretty irritated. I tried to stick up for you, but they just don’t like you son, that’s all there is to it.”
“You talked to them?”
“Yeah.” He said. “You’re not the only one trying to find Freddie. Detective Borgano’s been watching this place non-stop for the past two days. That’s why I’ve been working the side gate, to let him in and out without any of the other security personnel knowing about it. When he’s not here, I’m watching it, and I’m supposed to call him if anything happens. You’re lucky you didn’t pull this stunt two hours from now. Borgano would love to get you into his interrogation room.”
“I guess it was pretty stupid to just come in here like that.”
“Yeah.” John said. “And if you’re gonna do it, do it right and get yourself some gloves.”
“Should I wipe down the phone?”
“They already checked the place for prints.” He said.
“Did they find anything?”
“No.” He said. “But I found something. I found a pimply faced kid with a camcorder sneaking around the place.”
“Manny.”
“Yeah Manny.” He said. “I told him to knock it off. I guess you’ve been on this for a while now, you wanna tell me why?”
“I talked to David on the phone.” I said. “He called me. He said the whole thing was a frame job. He said Junior and his uncle set him up, and I